Mahatma Gandhi is believed to have once said, if an act of violence is taking place before your eyes but you don’t do anything to stop it though you have the means to do so, then you are as guilty of committing violence as the perpetrator. The Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking 220 persons of Israeli and other nationalities, including women and children, as hostage was a heinous terrorist attack.
The Israeli government’s and people’s shock and anger is understandable. One can’t find fault with their urge to obliterate Hamas nor with their description of Hamas militants as animals.
In retaliation, Israel has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians (41% children and 21% women) and reduced most of Gaza to the rubble. Israeli attack has displaced over 1.8 million Palestinians, most of whom have been facing an extreme shortage of water, food, shelter, healthcare, fuel and internet for two months. Farcically, IDF asks them to evacuate and move to Southern Gaza where there isn’t any space left. According to Doctors without Borders, the situation in Gaza has gone far beyond any humanitarian crisis.
The UNRWA calls the situation a humanitarian catastrophe. UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell, calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, has stressed that “no place is safe in the Gaza strip.” In the words of UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, “It has become a graveyard for thousands of children.”
It’s a living hell for everyone else. Many children are missing and believed buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings. UNSG Antonio Guterres has said that “Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children” and stressed that “the nightmare in Gaza is more than humanitarian crisis. It’s a crisis of humanity.” Moved by the human tragedy, he used his discretionary powers under Article 99 of the UN Charter, which hasn’t been used for the last 50 years and called for a special session of the UNSC asking for an immediate ceasefire.
In spite of the support of 13 members, the Resolution wasn’t passed as the US vetoed against it. It’s clear from the rising death toll, one day’s delay in ceasefire means 500 more innocent lives lost. Aren’t those who oppose the ceasefire responsible for the loss of innocent lives?
According to Gandhi, they are. If Hamas fighters behaved like wild beasts, are IDF soldiers any better? Haven’t the images of hundreds of Palestinians detained in Gaza forced to undress up to underwear and carried away in open trucks like cattle shocked the world? Is the pain and anguish of Palestinian mothers on the loss of their children less than the pain and anguish of Israeli mothers?
Their utter helplessness is summed up by a Palestinian mother who told UNICEF representatives that she prays to Allah to stop Israeli air attacks or give her quick death with her baby in her arms. It’s a known fact that the Jewish people have experienced incalculable sufferings at the hands of Hitler who sent three million of them to the gas chambers.
But what role did the Palestinians have in that Holocaust? On the contrary, they have suffered enormously since the creation of an Israeli state in Palestine in 1947.One would imagine that having suffered themselves, Israelis would understand and empathise with the sufferings of the Palestinians. But they don’t. Why? Why doesn’t their heart bleed when a Palestinian child is killed? Why doesn’t the grief on both sides unite them?
If they could feel the pain of each other, they could strive to put an end to it. But could they put an end it without addressing the root cause? Militarily, Israel is far superior to any Arab country or all of them put together. They are a de-facto nuclear power. In the last 75 years, they have defeated the Arab countries several times and occupied their territory. But have their military superiority and occupation of Arab territory and persistent expansion of their settlements on Palestinian land provided them with peace and security?
The late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who as Defence Minister had tried to crush the Palestinians and even ordered the bombing of the PLO HQ in Tunis to kill Yasser Arafat, eventually realised that there was no military solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and joined hands with his erstwhile arch enemy. Arafat, to seek “peace of the brave” agreed to the Oslo Accord (September 1993).
But he paid the price; he was gunned down by an Israeli, not by a Palestinian, as Anwar Sadat was assassinated (October 1981) by an Egyptian for going to Jerusalem (November 1977) to make peace with Israel. Notwithstanding the tragic end of these peace seekers, it still remains the only option.
Israel must go back to Rabin and implement the Oslo Accord. It must freeze the settlements; it can’t go on grabbing more and more Palestinian territory which has already shrunken to 21% of what it was initially promised. Israel can ensure peace and security by returning Arab territories occupied in the Six-Day War in 1967 as per UN Resolution 242 and let there be a sovereign and independent Palestinian state beside its own.
The Hamas too must realise that killing of Israelis in terrorist attacks and taking hostages cannot hasten the establishment of a Palestinian state. Arafat was right in giving up an armed struggle to give peace a chance. They should follow suit. Violence doesn’t further their cause.
Peace and security for Israel and the Palestinians is possible if Uncle Sam acts as an honest broker in spite of the powerful Jewish lobby in the United States. The future of Israel and the Palestinians is in peaceful coexistence as cooperative and interdependent neighbours sans bloodshed.
Surendra Kumar is a retired Indian ambassador.