In October 2023, Hamas surprised with attacks on Israel resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Israeli civilians. Hamas deliberately slew civilians and this was not collateral damage in furtherance of a legitimate military attack. Few military targets were assailed. Hamas also took over a hundred Israeli civilians hostage.
Much of the world has denounced Hamas’ actions. Willfully targeting civilians in a war is a war crime. There is no doubt that Hamas has committed large-scale war crimes. Purposefully killing a civilian when this is not incidental to a military attack is murder. I call to mind the words of W H Auden – those to whom evil is done do evil in return.
Civilians are killed in all wars. All militaries must strive to minimize civilian deaths but these cannot be entirely averted. Israel takes some action to reduce civilian fatalities such as the knock on the room. Israel manages to be somewhat discriminating because it has state-of-the-art military technology. As it has weapons that can destroy things with pinpoint accuracy it has less excuse for slaying civilians than other militaries. Palestinian fighters do not have such advanced weapons systems. Their cruder weapons are two generations behind those of the Zionists and therefore Palestinian combatants often kill civilians by accident rather than design. Palestine and Israel are very densely populated so it is very hard to avoid killing civilians in a war.
Palestine is a nation by almost any definition. It has been recognized by dozens of countries for decades. Quite a few nation-states do not recognize Israel.
It is true that Palestine is not a member of the United Nations. Its membership is thwarted by the USA at the behest of Israel. That hardly reduces Palestine’s legitimacy. Many newly independent countries are not at first recognized by others. The United States was not recognized by anyone when it issued its Declaration of Independence. Even many Americans did not recognize it and a third of them regarded themselves as British at the time and fought for King George against independence.
The time is long overdue when Palestine takes her rightful place in the comity of nations. Let her flag be unfurled to the four winds. We should have seen Palestine honoured with her flag being flown from the United Nations building.
What is Palestine? She is a nation. She is not a province. Zionists often say that Palestinians’ homeland is Jordan. If the Palestinians wish to be Jordanian and Jordan wants to accept them so be it. Yes, most Jordanians are dual Palestinian citizens. Just as many Israelis are dual citizens of other lands. The Palestinians are only in Jordan because Israel forced them to flee for their lives. Zionists claim that Jordan is the real Palestine because more Palestinians live there than in Palestine. Why do so many Palestinians dwell in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan? Because Israel drove them there. More Jews live in the USA than in the State of Israel. So is the USA the Jewish homeland then? Zionist arguments are notorious for their illogicality and hypocrisy.
The Arab-Israeli Conflict has been going on for a century: long before the official re-foundation of Israel. Even when the United Kingdom ruled Palestine there were clashes between Arabs and Jews. The Palestinians do not want to be Israeli and the Israelis do not wish to absorb the Palestinians. Netanyahu wants to deprive Arab-Israelis of their rights.
Christians would do well to remember that for most of history, Jewry fared worse in Christendom than in Islamic lands. So often Christian or post-Christian people wrongly suggest that Islam is inherently judaeophobic. For a thousand years, almost every massacre of Jews was perpetrated by Christians. Note well that in the Christian World, Jews were murdered for explicitly Christian religious reasons and not racial reasons. Jews who converted to the Christian faith were invariably spared until the Nazis came along. Some Christians viewed the Jews as the murderers of Jesus Christ. Vile anti-Jewish myths such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were cooked up by Christians and not by Muslims.
In Dar al Islam the Jews were regarded as people of the book and were accorded greater rights than polytheists such as Hindus. It is true that there is much nauseating anti-Jewish bigotry in the Muslim world just as there is a lot of anti-Muslim prejudice among Jews. But Israel still allows equality to its Muslim minority. Jews have been driven out of most of the Muslim world.
It is true that many Arab countries have a horrific human rights record. None of that makes Israeli crimes easy on Palestinians. It is also true that Israel treats its own people well. But again that is by no means excusatory of Israeli crimes against Palestine.
Even as an outspoken philosemite, I acknowledge that Israel has ill-treated the people of Palestine for many decades. The Palestinian people are oppressed as any fair-minded person will admit. According to the UN Charter people who are under oppression are legally and morally entitled to resist by force of arms. The right to revolt is enshrined in international law. It is found even in the Magna Carta of 1215 signed by King John of England. Israel follows English Law due to its brief period of Britannic superintendence.
The illegally occupied people are legally and morally entitled to resist as was adumbrated hereinbefore. As all peaceful means have failed to elicit even a modicum of justice from the occupiers it is no surprise that Palestinians have fought. They have had the sword thrust into their hands. Israel is in material breach of countless international laws, as Israel disregards rulings of the International Court of Justice, as the grossly inequitable UN Security Council is dominated by Israel’s minion the USA, as Palestinians have suffered the most insupportable indignities and atrocities for 75 years, as peaceful resistance is utterly inefficacious and inexpedient against a mighty and sadistic foe so it must befall that Palestine has recourse to the use of force when all other means of achieving justice have failed. The Palestinian nation is engaged in a struggle for upliftment and self-assertion.
150 Israelis are hostages in Palestine. I would like to see them released unharmed. 4 500 Palestinians are prisoners in Israel. Are they hostages? It is unlikely that they shall be killed there. But they have not been found guilty of a crime in a fair trial. Some of them are children. As they were taken captive in combat presumably they are Prisoners of War (POW) as they fought on behalf of a legally recognized nation-state and ought to be accorded all the privileges granted to POWs and not held in dishonouring and degrading circumstances.
The IDF shall pummel Gaza. Israel’s tacit deal with Gaza for a few years was – that if you behaved you would have a half decent standard of living. But if you fight for your rights you shall suffer hell. Israel has cut off water, electricity, gas and food. Over two million Palestinian civilians will soon die of thirst or by drinking unpotable water.
Tel Aviv may say to Hamas: release all the hostages unconditionally or your entire civilian population shall die of thirst. Who will blink first? International pressure will mount on both sides. Israel has often killed 100 Palestinian civilians for every 1 Israeli civilian who has been killed. 1,000 Israeli civilians have been killed – so Tel Aviv says. Tel Aviv’s bloodlust may not be sated until 1,000,000 Palestinians have been killed.
The Israeli hostages in Gaza are presumably secreted in dungeons beneath buildings. Israel is already levelling civilian buildings in Gaza. Demolishing buildings in Gaza will bury Israeli civilians alive. But Tel Aviv might want it that way. If hostages are alive then Israel will have to negotiate and release Palestinians.
Tel Aviv might take many Palestinians prisoner even if they know they are not Hamas combatants. This will in effect be Israeli taking hostages to try to secure the release of Israelis in Palestinian hands. But put yourself in their shoes. Would you not do so to save your daughter?
Netanyahu has dominated Israeli politics for 29 years. He has been Prime Minister on and off and served as PM for about 14 years in total. He bills himself as Mr. Security. He will try to rehabilitate his reputation by washing it in the blood of Palestinian children. He has tried this trick before. When he was exposed as having an extramarital affair he killed lots of Palestinian civilians to distract attention from his adultery.
Even half of the Israeli populace reviles Netanyahu as a human rights abuser who is trying to establish a dictator. He has allied himself with frank racists. There is much outright anti-Arab hatred in Israelis. Some in Israel have openly demanded genocide for decades. Their dream may be coming true.
People denounce some Palestinians for wanting to destroy Israel. Palestine has already been largely destroyed.
The silence of Western governments is deafening when it comes to the slaughter of Palestinian civilians. It makes a mockery of the moral high tone struck by unctuous Occidental statesmen when they scold tyrants and mass murderers other than Israel.
The US Navy has deployed off the coast of Israel to assist the Israelis. The United Kingdom has also dispatched the Royal Navy to the Eastern Mediterranean for the same purpose. Where is the help for the beleaguered Palestinians?
Western governments scramble to evacuate their citizens from Israel. But they are not getting their people out of Gaza. Is it because they are Muslims or because they are Arabs? The attacks on Israel are over. The annihilation of Gaza is only just beginning.
Zionism laments the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Who caused the conflict in the first instance? It was not the Arabs. Palestine has been aggressed for centuries. All the Palestinians want is fundamental human rights.
Tel Aviv may see Hamas’ assaults as a golden opportunity. It is an excuse to depopulate Gaza. Israel has told the Gazans to go to Egypt. But Egypt has closed the border. Why should Egypt solve Israel’s problem? But in the spirit of Arab sorority and Islamic compassion surely Egypt shall be great-hearted and take in 2 million Palestinians. Egypt is already overcrowded and has 100 million people. The rest of Araby and Dar al Islam as well as the whole of humanity has a duty to be merciful to Palestinian sojourners.
Palestine has been under illegal military occupation for decades. Many thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed by the Israel Defence Force (IDF). IDF has sometimes done so on purpose: this is murder. No country is ever expected to endure such degradation without asserting itself and reclaiming its rights.
Every nation has an army. Palestine is no exception. Palestinian fighters do not always wear uniforms. Neither do the Israeli combatants.
No nation would ever accept losing two-thirds of its land. Why should Palestine? The UN gave two-thirds of Palestine to the Jews who constituted a mere third of the population. Israel bases its claim to this land on the UN Security Council Resolution yet breaches others. The UN stated that Jerusalem (Al Quds Al Arabi) is the joint capital of Palestine and Israel. Yet Israel has seized the entire city and refuses to share it.
The poor Palestinians were left with but a third of their homeland. Since then Israel has established hundreds of illegal settlements in the West Bank. Palestine is in effect left with not 33% of its land but more like 20%.
Palestine was ruled by the Brits from 1918-48. This was pursuant to a League of Nations Mandate to leave the country to independence. There is no doubt that Britain was the lawful authority in the country and sometimes attempted to do justice to Arabs and Jews but was partial to the Jews. There was a very rich and powerful Jewish community in the UK. There was no such Arab community in the UK back then. Anglo-Jewry certainly does not control the United Kingdom nor has it ever tried to nor is it a monolith. However, they do have significant sway in the UK.
Despite the legality of the British Administration, Palestine was beset by Zionist terrorism in the 1940s. There was no need for this especially as the UK announced in 1939 that it would pull out within 10 years. When Zionists battled the British Army in the 1940s the Zionist terrorists did not wear uniforms either. Netanyahu must therefore accept that the Zionist fighters who founded Israel were terrorists by his own standards.
They say do not judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes. A European Jew in 1945 would say that a third of all Jews had been murdered in 3 years. Jews had to have a safe haven. Jews would never be secure unless they had their own nation-state and were armed to the teeth. If they had to boot out the indigenous people then so be it. The Jews had to be ruthless and fight for their survival. There were 24 other Arab countries and 40 other Muslim countries for the Palestinians to find a home in. The Jews wanted just 20,000 square kilometres.
All this is very unfair to the Palestinians. They paid the price for a crime they did not commit. As the late Edward Said wrote – we are the victims of the victims.
Palestine offered citizenship to Jews who were resident in Palestine prior to 1948. Presumably, this extends to their descendants. Israel does not offer citizenship or even residence to those Palestinians who were driven from their homes in 1948 or even 1967. This means individuals and not their descendants who were forced out at gunpoint. It is true that Jews were obliged to leave several Arab countries from 1948 and that is reprehensible too.
Israel is founded on religious discrimination and Palestine is not. The descendants of the first Christians are Palestinians. I wish that fact were known by Christian fundamentalists in the USA who tend to be viciously anti-Palestinian that one should be mistreated on account of religion, ethnicity or citizenship. That ought to go without saying. Anti-Jewish prejudice is vile, anti-Muslim prejudice is vile, anti-Arab prejudice is vile and so forth.
There is so much odium and ire that a one-state solution is surely unworkable.
Both Israelis and Palestinians who were dispossessed in the 20th century should be paid compensation and offered a right of return.
As for a two-state solution: this requires Israel to first recognise Palestine as a sovereign state, and the United States and other nations must do likewise. Palestine had to have a viable homeland with sufficient territory and security. Israel exists. Like it or not that is the political fact. Five generations of Jews have been born in the State of Israel. They have no other home. They cannot, must not and should not be expelled. Where would you deport them to? An Israeli baby born today might have great-grandparents who arrived from different lands: Romania, Germany, France, the USA, Egypt, India, South Africa and Venezuela. Where would she go?
Israel may not get away with these countless heinous offences against morality and international law forever. In the USA most Democrats are now pro-Palestine. But the party leaders are older whites and are resolutely Zionist. Young Americans are not as white as the older generation. Young Americans are browner than ever. There are more Latinos, African Americans and Asians than before. There are fewer Christians than before and more and more Muslims.
One day there will be a Democratic President in the United States who recognises Palestine as the nation-state it is. One day the pendulum shall swing in Palestine’s favour.
The Republican Party is violently anti-Palestinian. But they may soon lose control of the House of Representatives.
In France, Ireland and other European countries most people favour Palestinian freedom. The governments do not entirely reflect this.
In the UK, the Labour Party has a large pro-Palestinian caucus called Labour Friends of Palestine. Labour is tipped to win the election next year. The Labour leadership is still Israel-inclined.
Over the next few decades, powerful countries will lean ever more towards Palestine. But will it be too late? Perhaps there shall be no Palestine and no Palestinians left.
Nelson Mandela once said: that there comes a time when people must choose: submit or fight.
While Palestine is unfree, Israel shall never be at peace.
Marmaduke O’Connor is a white British Christian