SSP Diaries | The great betrayal

WHERE DOES one begin to tell the story of Israel and Palestine, a set of people whose destiny in modern-day history was decided literally by the ‘stroke of a pen’, a decision made by those whom at the time thought nothing of future consequences, nor the fact that their ill-thought plan would come back to haunt them.

For decades the British controlled the area known in the 1920s as Israel, in fact it was called British Palestine then, given to them by the Ottoman Empire after WWI. They also had control over the entire region known as Palestine. When the British left Palestine in 1948, without a proper plan in place for its future, the United Nations (UN) divided Israel and the state of Palestine, with a view to establishing separate states, but the plan never materialised.

Before any agreement could be properly effected, Israel declared independence and the US, and many other governments quickly recognised them as a new state. This move triggered the beginning of many conflicts, starting with the Arab-Israeli War that same year.

THE FIRST BETRAYAL

The decisions made by the British and UN seemed never to have considered the rights, wishes, traditions, ideological perspectives of the people, but rather were borne out of what appeared to be a political solution to a problem that the Western world had created and could no longer control. This was the first betrayal and the beginning of many more to come. The moral of the story then is simply, beware of who you take into your house lest they deprive you of your land. This is exactly what happened.

Today, there is no refuting the fact that Israel has controlled the lives of the Palestinians under the guise of the latter being a threat to their existence. Palestinians have largely been confined to what became known as Gaza or the Gaza Strip and were subjected to constant Israeli scrutiny and security presence. Israel continued the suppression the British started.

Under such conditions, there was bound to be retaliations on the part of the Palestinians. This took multiple forms, over decades, and eventually the armed resistance emerged, called Hamas. Hamas’ attack on Israeli soil in October 2024 not only created shockwaves throughout Israel, but also signaled a capacity that they were never envisaged to have. The world since then has condemned the actions of Hamas in this regard and supported Israeli action as a measure to ensure its right to defend itself. No one in their right mind expected that the Israeli measures would have taken on the magnitude that they have, especially their relentless thirst for blood that continues to be exhibited even today.

PREMEDITATED, INTENTIONAL EXTERMINATION

Israeli retaliation has gone beyond global acceptability. The right to the defence of their country has been reduced to utter ridiculousness and taken on new meaning. The Palestinians in Gaza have been subjected to premeditated, intentional extermination. How else can one describe the continuous and systematic slaughtering of a people by an armed force?

The cities of Gaza and their critical infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals, housing, structures of higher education and governance, utilities, etc., have been deliberately reduced to rubble. International aid has been systematically denied to all inhabitants to the extent that people are starving to death. If this isn’t a clear indication of the planned systematic extermination of a people, then what is?

The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, the US is its greatest ally and together with the other nations that continue to support Israel in its deplorable actions, are complicit in the atrocities that occur daily. It is clear that because of the trade and political relationships enjoyed, the widespread slaughtering of the population continues to be supported.

It should also be clear to those that are in the margins that they need to stand and be counted, the Israeli offensive has gone too far and must be stopped. If we do not support actions such as that of the South African government in bringing the Israelis before the International Court, then it means that international law bears no weight, is of no consequence. The UN already has been made impotent, and in the context of the behaviours being displayed by developed nations who should know better, there is no objective body to resolve global issues.

ISRAELI OR HAMAS ATROCITIES

Effective global condemnation is lacking. As a world we no longer can resolve issues without the threat or use of violence. Where the world has issued condemnations of Israeli or Hamas atrocities, it has amounted to nothing more than empty words, void of any real effect or positive actions, with no capability or capacity to change the situation. This is the position we have reached, one where there is nothing in place that can deter states from acts of aggression.

It cannot be that the world is to continue in the vein that anything created for its good can be simply vetoed by a member state because of that states economic/military/political power. In this reality there is betrayal of both the Israeli and Palestinians.

There is need to revisit our global social structures and their mandates, inclusive of ensuring equality at the table regardless of size, economic, social, political or military power. Here there must be binding agreements made that deter aggression against nations and have as its ultimate objective the achievement, maintenance and sustenance of peace and harmony on earth.

As it is now, this has become the most urgent thing to be accomplished in the world as we know it. If we fail in this one, then we would have failed ourselves and condemned mankind to extinction. It is indeed a mystery that the ‘bedrock’ of Christianity, the place that gave belief to the world can be so far removed from its teachings and governing principles. As long as the Christian world continues to allow this conflict to continue, it betrays its very foundation.

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