Palestine's struggle for self-rule
by Humayun Kabir | Published: 00:00, Mar 31,2024
THE world is consumed, pained, and angered by Israel's uninterrupted bombing and killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with an open genocidal intent that has entered its sixth month as a reaction to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. There is no sign that it is likely to end soon. On the face of it, it seems the result was a tactical success by Hamas that produced considerable Israeli civilian and military casualties and 200 plus hostages but clearly left Hamas without any clear political or strategic gains. There was an explanation about the timing of the Hamas attack, but only a conjecture, so to speak. Just about the time, under the U.S. auspices, Israel and Saudi Arabia were about to announce a peace treaty between them that Hamas thought it had to interrupt for a bigger politically strategic interest. The fact that that objective was achieved is on record. How plausible this explanation is, however, is anyone's guess. With this background in mind, I am providing, as a background to the crisis in Gaza, a chronological history of Palestine's struggle for self-rule and the advent of Israel as a homeland for the Jews, which eventually led to the creation of the State of Israel.
Scholars believe the name 'Palestine' is derived from the name of the people — the Philistines — who occupied part of the region in the 12th century. Throughout history, the land of Palestine has been a melting pot of civilisations, religions, and cultures. From ancient biblical times to the more recent British mandate era, this region has been under numerous conquerors, migrations, and religious movements, all leaving their indelible mark on the land and its people. In this regard, I would like to refer my readers, who are interested in learning about the ancient history of the land, to Nur Masalha's magnum opus, 'Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History' (Zed Books LTD,2018) for comprehensive knowledge on Palestine.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict goes back nearly a century, when Britain, during World War I, pledged to establish a 'national home' for the displaced and scattered Jewish people in the State of Palestine under the Balfour Declaration. Before that, British troops took control of the territory from the Ottoman empire at the end of October 1917. This declaration was a letter from British foreign secretary Arthus Balfour to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a Jewish leader, in which he expressed the British government's support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This declaration resulted in a significant upheaval in the lives of Palestinians. The Nazi holocaust, which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe, proved anew to the Europeans the urgency of the establishment of a Jewish state, which would aim to solve the problem of Jewish homelessness by opening the gates to all Jews, thus accommodating the Jewish people to equality of nations. The Zionist aim of establishing a 'Jewish state' in Palestine became a reality. History concluded that this pledge was one of the main reasons for the ethnic cleansing, known as 'Naqba', of Palestine in 1948. It was seen as a thinly veiled form of colonialism and occupation. And to everyone's surprise, the power was given to the Jews, who, at the time, constituted only 9 per cent of the population. Thereafter, using immigration process, the British enhanced the Jewish population from 9 per cent to 27 per cent between 1922 and 1935. Though the Balfour Declaration included the caveat that 'nothing shall be done that may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine', the British mandate was set up in a way to equip Jews with the tools to establish self-rule, at the expense of the Palestinian Arabs.
In the debate over the unique imposition of a foreign government-led declaration, consensus was built around the following aspects that explained the reasons behind the controversial policy:
1) Control over Palestine was a strategic imperial interest to keep Egypt and the Suez Canal within Britain's sphere of influence.
2) Britain ensured that the Zionist policy would rally support among Jews in the USA and Russia.
3) Intense Zionist lobbying between the Zionist community in Britain and the British government, and
4) Jews were being persecuted in Europe, and the British government was sympathetic to their suffering.
In November 1919, when the press and media reopened in the Arab region, Herbert Samuel, a Jewish Cabinet Minister, said in a speech in London: Our country is Arab, Palestine is Arab, and Palestine must remain Arab.' However, what followed thereafter was a story full of repressions and revolts. The Arabs revolted in 1936 that lasted until 1939, during which they boycotted Jewish products and withheld tax payments to protest British colonialism and ever-growing Jewish immigration. The British resorted to punitive home demolitions, which the Israelis have perpetuated until now. Britain brought in 30,000 troops in Palestine, bombed villages by air, demolishing homes, and resorted to the summary killing of people. The second phase of the revolt began in 1937, led by the Palestinian peasants. The British and the Jews collaborated and formed armed groups named Special Night Squads. By secretly importing arms and setting up weapons factories, a huge paramilitary force was created and deployed. This eventually became the Israeli Army. By 1939, 5,000 Palestinians were killed, nearly 20,000 injured, and 5600 imprisoned.
In 1947, the United Nations proposed (Resolution 181) the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab States, with Jerusalem as an internationally administered city. The Jewish community accepted the plan, but the Arabs rejected it, leading to the outbreak of civil war. The rejection was due to an allocation of 46 per cent of the land to Palestinians and 54 per cent to the Jews, who were a minority. The event triggered the first Arab-Israeli War, involving neighbouring Arab countries, that resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs. The war and the Palestinian Nakba of 1948 led to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland and the creation of the State of Israel in May 1948. Overnight, one million Palestinian refugees became exiles in neighbouring Arab countries; over 500 towns and villages were depopulated and destroyed; remaining Palestinians came under Israeli military rule; and worst of all, the Absentee Property Act in 1950, under which land belonging to Palestinian refugees became Israel State property. Next, Israel passed the Law of Return, giving every Jew the right to settle in Israel or Palestine. The West Bank and Gaza Strip went under Jordanian and Egyptian rule.
The six-day war between Israel and its Arab neighbours that followed (June 5–10, 1967) was not about one particular concern or dispute. Small military strikes by Palestinian guerrillas to repel a possible military strike by Israel flared up a full-scale war involving Egypt and Syria, in which Jordan joined as well. Israel's decisive victory included the capture of the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Old City of Jerusalem, and Golan Heights; the status of these territories subsequently became a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict. On June 7, the United Nations Security Council called for a cease-fire, which was immediately accepted by Israel, followed by Jordan and Egypt. After Syria lost Golan Heights to Israel on June 9, Syria too accepted the cease-fire call. The six-day war marked the start of a new phase in the conflict since it created hundreds of thousands of refugees and brought one million Palestinians into the occupied territories under Israeli rule. Months after that war, in November, the United Nations passed Resolution 242, which called for Israel's withdrawal from the territories it had captured in the war in exchange for lasting peace. That resolution became the basis for diplomatic efforts, led by the U.S., between Israel and its neighbours, including the Camp David Accords with Egypt and the push for a two-state solution with Palestine.
Throughout this period, the Palestinians had been dispersed among several countries and were lacking an organised central leadership to confront the Israelis as a unified resistance entity. In 1964, at an Arab Summit meeting in Cairo, the PLO was created as a political force to combat Israeli power. In 1968, under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, the PLO formed its military wing, the Palestine Liberation Army, but it had limited influence on PLO policy and activities. The six-day war seriously discredited the Arab neighbours in terms of advancing the Palestinian cause for self-determination. The PLO drew international attention to its cause with high-profile military attacks and hijackings. The PLO was a generally secular organisation modelled on other left-wing guerrilla movements of the time, although most of its followers and supporters were Muslim. There were, however, Islamist groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, who avoided armed conflicts and were dedicated to working for a more religious society. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Israel began to publicly suppress the rise of the Islamist movement in Gaza. But it also saw the groups undermining the PLO support base, allowing it to operate freely and build its support base. For example, Israel approved the creation of the Islamic University of Gaza, which became the source of support for Hamas, which by then became a political entity in Gaza.
Israel, meanwhile, was treating the Palestinians under its control as largely quiescent, even as it went on expanding illegal Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank and expropriating Arab lands. Palestinians were used as a source of cheap manual labour inside Israel. That situation was, however, shattered in 1987 as young Palestinians rose up, causing the famous Intifada. The intifada was considered a success, helping to solidify their identity independently of neighbouring Arab states and forcing Israel into negotiations. And above all, it forced Yasser Arafat to compromise and accept a two-state solution.
As the intifada wound down in 1993, the Oslo peace process started with secret talks between Israel and the PLO. The Oslo Accord established the Palestinian National Authority, granting limited self-governance over patches of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Some prominent Palestinians regarded the accord as a form of surrender, while Israelis opposed giving up illegal and forced settlements or territory. Two Israeli leaders who opposed Oslo as a form of surrender were Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu. Both blamed prime minister Robin for accepting the Oslo terms, and soon thereafter, Rabin was assassinated in an open public event. Rabin's widow blamed these two men for her husband's killing by an ultranationalist Israeli in 1995.
Soon thereafter, the second Intifada took place after the failed attempt by US president Bill Clinton at Camp David when he tried to broker a final deal there in 2000. The uprising witnessed widespread suicide bombings by Hamas guerrillas and Israeli retaliations. When the uprising ended in 2005, more than 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis were killed.
A notable aspect of the post-2005 situation was prime minister Sharon's decision to 'disengage' from the Palestinians beginning that year with the closing of Israeli settlements in Gaza and parts of the northern West Bank. It is still unknown how much further Sharon would have gone with this policy, as he had suffered a stroke and went into a coma thereafter.
What became the status of Gaza after that? Israel claimed it was no longer occupied. The United Nations disagreed with the Israeli position because of Israel's continued control of airspace, territorial waters, and access to the territory militarily. Israel also blocked the enclave since Hamas came to power in 2006, in an election defeating the Fatah Party. Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Assembly elections in part because of a backlash against the corruption and political stagnation of the ruling Fatah party. Israel began arresting Hamas members of the parliament and imposed sanctions against Gaza. Also, the US and the EU, among others, did not acknowledge Hamas' electoral victory, as the party was considered a terrorist organisation by the western governments. Between 2006 and 2011, a series of failed talks and deadly confrontations between Hamas and Fatah eventually culminated in an agreement to reconcile. In 2014, Fatah and Hamas entered a unity government.
After a wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in 2015, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas announced that Palestinians would no longer be bound by the territorial divisions created by the Oslo Accords. From 2018 onwards, more fighting erupted between Israeli forces and Hamas military forces. Fatah, meanwhile, became more dependent on US support, both financially and militarily, to confront Hamas. Through 2021, Hamas and Israel had several rounds of confrontations, with Israel resorting to aerial bombardment of civilian areas. Eventually, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, with both claiming victory.
The most far-right and religious government in Israel's history, led by Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party and comprising two ultra-Orthodox parties and three far-right parties, was inaugurated in late December 2022. This government prioritised the expansion and development of more Israeli settlements, by force, in Palestinian areas in the occupied West Bank. On October 7, 2023, the Hamas surprise attack took the Israeli people and government by total surprise. Israel declared a full-scale attack on Gaza, first by aerial bombardment followed by a ground invasion, aiming to eliminate Hamas, as an entity. So far, as the fighting continues, Hamas has claimed a death toll of 32,000+ civilians, including 14,00 children. The US, UK, European Union, and others actively provided lethal ammunition to Israel, amounting to billions of US dollars.
The displacement of millions of Palestinians presents a dilemma for Egypt and Jordan, which have absorbed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the past decades and are now resisting accepting more during the current war. They fear, based on past experiences, that Gazans, many of whom were already displaced from elsewhere in Israel, will not be allowed to return once they leave. Egypt also fears that Hamas fighters could enter Egypt and trigger a new war in the Sinai area by launching attacks on Israel and destabilising the authoritarian regime of autocrat president El-Sisi by supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. Over 1.7 million Gazans, displaced from their homes, have nowhere to go and face starvation and deceases, leading to death.
As of now, hectic efforts are underway at the United Nations Security Council to get a ceasefire resolution adopted to help stop the unilateral killings of Palestinian civilians.
With a full-blown war going on between Israel and Hamas, it is hard to imagine a new dawn of peace. The body count in Gaza is rising daily. It is a cycle of violence that threatens to paralyse the moral and political imaginations of both parties alike, deepening the impression that accommodation will remain forever out of reach. Ehud Barak, the former prime minister of Israel, said in an interview with Time: The right way is to look to the two-state solution, not because of justice to the Palestinians, which is not the highest priority on my priorities, but because we have a compelling imperative to disengage from the Palestinians to protect our own security, our own future, our own destiny.'
One last point on the ongoing war: there is no doubt the Americans will stand with Israel longer, but certainly not for infinity. What options will Israel look for when that becomes a reality? And what about Netanyahu's future? He knows and understands history very well, and he knows that nobody survives a major war. He remembers what happened to Golda Meyer, Menachem Begin and later Ehud Olmert, all of whom were removed from the government after a war.
Humayun Kabir (
kabirruhi@gmail.com) is a former United Nations official in New York.
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