Israel, Palestine And The Future Of Peace Process
By
Mushtaq ul Haq Ahmad Sikandar, New Age Islam
24 July
2023
From
Camp David to Cast Lead: Essays on Israel, Palestine and the future of Peace
Process
Edited
by Daanish Faruqi
Lexington
Books, Maryland
Pp:
173.ISBN: 978-0-7391-4456-5
-------
The issue
of Palestine has been on the priority list of United Nations as an unsolved and
perpetual dispute since the unjust creation of Israel on 14th May, 1948, the
day which is still commemorated as Nakba by the Palestinians. Many wars have
been imposed on Palestinians and the neighbouring countries by Israel since
then, which have consumed thousands of souls, maimed hundreds and destroyed
property worth billions. Israel illegally justifies these wars as war for its
survival among the hostile Arab Nations. The unconditional and unrelenting
support which Israel has been getting from the Super Powers during and after
the Cold War has encouraged it to commit more aggression with impunity. Despite
the hue and cry by Human Rights activists, United Nations General Assembly
resolutions and the bizarre condemnation pouring every other day, Israel isn’t
pressurized even by an iota to bring a bit of relaxation in its atrocities
against Palestinians.
The present
book under review is a compilation of different essays on Israel-Palestine
conflict, why Peace is still a casualty, and reconciliation efforts are
bringing no respite in violence especially during the last one decade, as the
name of the book suggests, the failed negotiations of Camp David(2000) to the
Operation Cast Lead(2008-09) edited by a young scholar Daanish Faruqi who in
his powerful introduction to the
collection describes that “The idea of a bi-national State shared by Israelis
and Palestinians, previously considered sacrilegious in public discourse, is
now garnering renewed interest”. Further describing the purpose of the book he
writes that, “It’s purpose is to address the limitations of conventional
discourse towards this conflict which the rapidly shifting political dynamics
of the past decade have made unabashedly apparent”. This purpose runs through
the blood and veins of the book as each essay is a testimony of the same.
The volume
has been divided into four sections and the first section Beginnings consists
of three chapters. Henry Pachter, in his essay, “Who are the Palestinians?”
touches the cord with the history of Palestinians, their agony since creation
of Israel and how they become refugees in their own land but infers a unique
solution, “The solution for Jerusalem will have to be imposed by great powers;
it cannot be negotiated between the parties concerned. As long as they pretend
to negotiate about it, they merely indicate that they do not mean to make
peace”. (P-17), but whether the imposed solution would be respected by both
Israel and Palestine remains a million dollar question and who can guarantee
that the imposed solution even if respected wouldn’t initiate a new spate of
violence??
“Deconstructing
Israeli Democracy: On the cultural pre requisites of Political Modernity” is
the title of Michael J Thompson’s paper which deliberates that a liberal
democracy as pronounced by John Locke is completely absent in the Israeli
politick rather a Jewish hegemony via ethnocentrism which is Pre modern concept
and Thompson proves that the presupposition of Uncle Sam and various other
countries that Israel is the only country in the Arab World which is a
democracy and hence a model to be inspired from and emulated is a brazen sham
as, “the very idea of a State defined by religious and ethnic identity becomes
anti liberal and therefore anti-democratic since it privileges a conception of
politics which survives on the basis of exclusion”(P-22), whereas democracy
thrives and survives on pluralism, inclusiveness and mass participation.
Menachem
Klein discusses the “Security-Settlement Complex” in the third chapter and
unveils the settlement and expansion of Israel in the West Bank, though Gaza is
ignored. Klein very well describes how Palestinian land is confiscated and no
compensation is paid for the same, and how the nexus of
military-settlement-bureaucracy complex tries every tactic to squeeze and
suffocate the Palestinian inhabitants of West bank in all aspects. In many
cases the military even supports the unauthorized construction and expansion of
illegal settlements.
Part second
of the book 2000 to 2006: Sharon, the Intifada, and the Roadmap contain four
essays which deal with various aspects of Israel-Palestine conflict during
these years. Avi Shlaim in his essay, “Ariel Sharon’s War against the
Palestinians”, traces the various roles of Ariel Sharon from military to
politics and how Sharon was following the Jabotinsky’s way while dealing with
Palestinians & Jabotinsky is the father of Jewish right. Sharon was of the
firm belief that Palestinians could never be Peace partners; hence it was
necessary to decimate and annihilate them wherever you found them, and hence
with all the military might at his disposal he expanded the Jewish settlements
breaching the Oslo accords. Sharon was a realist, hence power was the deciding
factor for his politics and negotiation too, “The Arabs-first the Egyptians,
then the Palestinians, then the Jordanians-learnt the hard way that Israel
could not be defeated on the battlefield and were compelled to negotiate with
it from a position of palpable weakness”(P-44). He tried every tactic to defeat
Palestinians and make them negotiate on his own terms. Sharon was the father of
the Iron Wall Zionist strategy too and hence the ‘security barrier’ the wall
was erected along the West bank.
“The
Building of a Wall” is the title of the next essay by Moshe Zuckermann, he
takes the reader into the dynamics of the wall debate and will it serve the
purpose of curbing the ‘terrorism’ according to Israel, but he concludes that
this policy of “shattering terror”, “is nothing other than a perfidious
ideology as long as the actual causes of terror, and the now decade-old Israeli
occupation and systematic oppression of the Palestinian people, are not
abolished”(P-56).
“West Bank
Settlements Obstruct Peace: Israel’s Empire State Building” is the title of
Marwan Bishara’s essay who believes that the greatest barrier to Peace in the
Middle East are the ever expanding Israeli settlements and “the settlement
drive and its ideology have become a cornerstone of modern Israeli national
identity”(P-59). The settlements have various ramifications on different
aspects of life and even the power of settlers is growing in the electoral
politics too and the settlers like Uncle Sam believe in ethnic cleansing and
targeting innocents under the veil of War on terror, plus the discriminatory
laws prevalent between the settlers and Palestinians make Peace an illusion and
distant dream.
Mustapha
Barghouti’s essay “A Place for our Dream” takes the settlement debate further
and writes that, “through its settlement activities, Israel has sought to
transform the West bank into ethnically Israeli territory, in which Palestinian
villages and towns are nothing more than isolated outposts”(P-65) and he also
deliberates on several steps to be undertaken for the restoration of Peace in
Palestine.
Part third
of the book, 2006 to 2008: Hamas Election Sweep, Gaza Incursions, and the
Annapolis Peace Conference contains three essays, starting with Elna
Sondergaard’s long essay “Trails in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” which
lucidly but academically discusses the helplessness of judiciary and the fate
of litigations. In case of settlements courts can’t decide or provide judicial
protection and usually have to take the official position, thus courts fail to
take an independent stance or come to rescue of the wronged ones who are facing
the Israeli State’s wrath.
“Blitzkrieg
in Gaza’, is the title of Lawrence Davidson’s essay according to whom there
have been more than three hundred Israeli incursions into Gaza, West bank and
Lebanon since 1967, and this essay has been written in the backdrop of
Operation Summer Rains of 2006 which was imposed on Gaza by Israel to recover
an abducted soldier and the purpose of the war was to dismantle and dislodge
the elected Hamas government. Despite opting for the Peaceful means of resistance,
the biased media always stereotypes and reports the suicide bombings by
Palestinians only but sidelines the peaceful methods and makes them die in
oblivion.
Stephen
Eric Bronner, tries to describe “Who are the Palestinians Today?” in his essay
and goes back into history when during the Cold War the atrocities and breach
of treaties by Israel were overlooked by U.S.A because it was supposed to check
the spread of communism in the Arab world, but now when the elected Hamas
government is in place, Israel is also being condemned for its violations of
treaties and human rights. The various conferences like Annapolis are discussed
too which had no outcome, plus the attempts of unity between Hamas and Fateh
are discussed too, alongwith the stance of Israel to talk to Hamas only when it
recognizes Israel, but till date no such reconciliation attempts have been
opted for.
The fourth
and the last part Gaza in 2009-2010: Operation Cast Lead and the Future of the
Peace Process contains two essays, “Unjust and Illegal: The Israeli attack on
Gaza” is the first essay by Stephen R Shalom, which deals with the Operation
Cast Lead when Israel attacked Gaza on the pretext of firing rockets into
Israel. Shalom is of the opinion that no self defense theory of Israel is justified
as Palestinians are struggling by just means to end occupation. The settlements
in occupied territories are illegal, and it is always Israel which breaches
every truce and in the pretext of Operation Cast Lead Israel did the same,
though Hamas was ready to extend the truce again. There are no means by which
Israel can justify the Operation Cast Lead and the atrocities committed against
Palestinians were just unheard of, like using Palestinian civilians as human
shields, mingling Israeli Defense Forces(IDF) with Israeli civilians, targeting
hospitals and ambulances on the charge of harboring militants and acting as
their safe havens. In the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead no IDF soldier was
prosecuted for the massacres, intentional killings and atrocities perpetuated
on Gazans and to add insult to injury collective punishment in the form of
economic blockade was imposed on the people of Gaza.
Sara Roy’s
essay “Gaza’s Diminishing Landscape” speaks about the agony and devastation
which people of Gaza underwent as a result of the Operation cast lead and
various other Israeli incursions before, how their lives are ruined by the war
and now by the economic blockade which has resulted in a crises of every type
in Gaza. Roy is of the opinion that whether settlements are expanding or the
Israel is militarily occupying Gaza water, transport, food items, trade, taxes,
tourism everything is controlled by Israel, and Roy also tries to highlight the
dichotomy between West Bank and Gaza, but is all praises for the spirit of
Gazan’s who have started to rebuild their lives once again.
The book is
an essential read for everyone interested in the last decade of
Israel-Palestine conflict and not even a general reader can afford to miss the
book, which contains opinions, analysis and solutions of varied hues. The book
lives to its promise which its Editor Daanish Faruqi makes in the Introduction
to the volume, “Whether the two state solution is the most desirable outcome is
beside the point; instead, the goal of this volume is to challenge the
underlying assumptions of prevailing peace paradigms by exposing their
limitations in the aftermath of the past ten years”. The book is successful in
addressing the challenges and we must congratulate the young editor for
compiling this volume which is an important addition to the Israel-Palestine
conflict.
-----
M.H.A. Sikander is Writer-Activist based in
Srinagar, Kashmir.
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/israel-palestine-peace-process/d/130284
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic
Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism