Who’s war, is it? Hamas, Palestinians or the Israeli Forces
Would you like to live in a place where sirens disturb your sweet dream sleep? Where you have to run when you are half-asleep, banging your head to the walls and pillars. In search for a magical place known as a ‘shelter’ to save your life from flying rockets, not the fire cracker ones but something real, weighing more than 35–50 kilograms. Your answer will be, “absolutely not.”
But, more than 10 million people call this place their home.
Yes, I talk of Israel and Palestine. It’s really difficult for me to call one piece of the land, a country and the other, just a refugee settlement. Although, the settlement had rockets and a matchstick to show fireworks to Israel and the world.
The United Nations (UN) have not recognised Palestine — a state. Although, it was granted the status of ‘non-member observer state’ in the year 2012 by the UN. It means Palestine has the privilege to attend United Nations General Meetings, but on the contrary it does not have the right to vote. Let’s say, there is a meeting where there are discussions about the resolution that needs to be passed to declare Palestine as an independent state but, Palestine itself is not allowed to vote.
The world leaders fear that Israel and Palestine may once again wage a war against each other after they saw the rising tensions between Hamas, a Gaza based Islamic militant group, and the Israeli forces. In the previous week, on Jerusalem Day march, videos of skirmishes between the protesters and the Israeli Police, were all over the social media sites. Due to the assault, 300 Palestinians were injured. According to media reports, the protests are results of several Arab families being prepared to get evicted from the Sheikh Jarrah, a predominately Palestinians neighbourhood in the East Jerusalem, by the Israeli High Court.
According to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), 1500 rockets had been fired from Gaza into the Israeli cities since the situation had worsened at the start of this week. Additional to these numbers, there are hundreds of rockets more that the IDF forgot to mention. Air strikes have been used by the Israeli Forces in fashionable ways that continues to bring multi-story buildings in Gaza to dust. The horrified episode of May 12, 2021 showcased by the Israeli jets flattened Al-Sharouk tower in Gaza.
The death toll in Gaza and West Bank have exceeded 120 deaths including 30 children and yet, there is no stance for peace talks among the leaders of both the regions. Peace is just an illusion on the blood-borne lands of Israel and Palestine. It all started with the formation of Israel in the year 1948. The United Nations had drafted a plan to divide the piece of land into two separate countries- Israel and Palestine, which the Arab leaders had rejected for some legitimate reasons. One of them being territorial limits. Since then, the war chains between Hamas and Israel have continued to bring grief to thousands of people. One of them was ‘Operation Cast Lead’ (2008), where the Israeli forces had showered White Phosphorous on the people of Palestine. White Phosphorous burns fiercely and can ignite cloths.
The real discussion here is that what purpose does bombing from both the sides serve for the people of Palestine. With countless sufferings and wars, the situation of Israel and Palestine still stands unresolved. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, is on the verge of losing his power in the state. He, on one hand is settling his unresolved political scores and on the other, he is using his imperial power to push Palestinians into dire situations. Two very contrary subjects, politics and imperialism, determines the fate of millions of people.