After a quick hiatus of seven days in late November, Israel has resumed its punishing marketing campaign of indiscriminate bombing in Gaza. This time, nearly all of the strikes are hitting the South of the besieged Strip, the place about 1.8 million Palestinians are at present trapped, lots of whom have been compelled to maneuver from the North following Israeli evacuation orders.
As if from the depths of an Orwellian dystopia, Israel’s battle cupboard, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has created a map dividing Gaza into 620 separate plots, supposedly for use by Palestinian civilians to keep away from getting caught in “lively battle zones”.
Netanyahu has additionally designated, with full disregard for worldwide legislation, a plot of land smaller than London’s Heathrow Airport as a “humanitarian space” and recommended Gaza’s whole inhabitants of two.3 million ought to ultimately go there.
What does this inform us about Netanyahu’s plans for the day after the battle?
The Egyptian authorities have publicly acknowledged their concern that the purpose of Netanyahu’s battle is to not “eradicate Hamas” however to make Gaza uninhabitable in order that the Palestinians dwelling there are compelled to desert their houses and depart for good – a second Nakba within the making.
Nevertheless, I consider Netanyahu’s precise plan for post-war Gaza is totally different however equally sinister – he’s gearing as much as repeat a historic crime his nation dedicated towards the Palestinian individuals, however that crime isn’t essentially the Nakba.
After severing the hyperlink between Gaza and the West Financial institution, over time Israel steadily divided the West Financial institution into smaller, disconnected plots. This made it a lot simpler for Israel to proceed stealing Palestinian territory with impunity. (Actually, since October 7, with the worldwide neighborhood’s consideration firmly fixated on Gaza, Israel has sped up the growth of its unlawful settlement venture within the West Financial institution, and started to brazenly arm fanatic settlers.)
If Netanyahu has his method, what has occurred to the West Financial institution may even occur to Gaza. Initially, the Strip shall be break up into three or extra smaller entities with Israeli managed “buffer zones” in between. Then the settlers will are available in and begin claiming increasingly territory, leaving Palestinians divided and caught in tiny, walled-in enclaves with no hope for the longer term.
After all, as he strikes to mutilate Gaza in the identical method Israel mutilated the West Financial institution over the previous few many years, Netanyahu seems to be ignoring a vital issue: the Palestinian will to outlive and resist. This time, they are going to be preventing an existential struggle, on the rubble of their destroyed houses and the graves of their killed kin, with nothing left to lose. They won’t settle for their destiny quietly.
An unprecedented humanitarian disaster is within the making. Israel’s collective punishment of the besieged inhabitants of Gaza has already killed greater than 18,200 individuals, together with at the very least 7,700 kids. Israel’s obvious plans to carve Gaza into items will solely carry on extra struggling, and violence.
What ought to the worldwide neighborhood do to place a cease to this catastrophe?
One can solely hope that the world won’t stay a passive spectator to this unprecedented, illegal and egregious assault on an oppressed inhabitants for for much longer and can ultimately be galvanised into motion to cease this horrendous onslaught.
The USA and its Western companions, who’re permitting and aiding Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza whereas disingenuously calling for a two-state answer, can’t be trusted to resolve this disaster and make sure the security and dignity of the Palestinian individuals. Regardless of overwhelming assist for the humanitarian ceasefire proposal on the UN Safety Council – following the unprecedented invoking of Article 99 by Antonio Guterres – the US vetoed it. A couple of days later, the US discovered itself additional remoted, voting, together with simply 9 different nations, towards the same UN Normal Meeting decision.
Accepting to give attention to the mere provision of essentially the most pressing humanitarian reduction, resembling meals, water and medical assist, to Gaza whereas permitting Israel to proceed with its devastating assault on the enclave will obtain little aside from giving Netanyahu’s plans for Palestine one other worldwide seal of approval.
Moreover, if Israel doesn’t cease the bombs and the tanks, and agrees to carry the siege quickly, no quantity of humanitarian assist might save the Palestinians in Gaza. As Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s company for Palestinian refugees, has lately warned, if it’s not stopped quickly, Israel’s battle on Gaza, mixed with its relentless siege, will unleash a humanitarian “tsunami” of catastrophic proportions, with not solely bombs and bullets but in addition a wide range of communicable ailments killing ravenous and fatigued civilians of their hundreds.
Fairly than entrusting the destiny of Palestinians to Israel – and its Western benefactors – as has been the case since Oslo, the worldwide neighborhood, led by the worldwide majority, ought to take issues into its personal arms and engineer a simply answer involving necessary regional and world gamers.
The one method to supply a sustainable answer to this deep-rooted battle is to acknowledge that it doesn’t contain two actors on equal footing, however is quite between an occupying pressure (Israel) and an occupied inhabitants (the Palestinian individuals, each in Gaza and the West Financial institution). Any answer constructed and supported by the worldwide neighborhood must also handle the grievances of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees whose households have been in limbo since their forcible eviction from their homeland through the Nakba.
A piecemeal and superficial strategy, both ignoring the true nature of and the first grievances underpinning this battle, or trying to handle only one sub-section of it (for instance, offering a street map for Gaza alone), could be akin to responding to a raging forest hearth by extinguishing the flames on the tree closest to us and calling it a day.
Any post-war preparations ought to pave the way in which for the creation of an impartial, sovereign Palestinian state. This implies the proposed association ought to permit Palestinians to reside in peace and safety with dignity, have alternatives to review and journey freely, and luxuriate in the identical rights as the remainder of the worldwide neighborhood.
The expertise from Kosovo’s transition below the steering of the UN within the aftermath of the 1998-99 Kosovo battle might present a tried and examined template. The Kosovo Liberation Military (KLA), which led Kosovar resistance towards Serbia, regardless of being categorised as a terrorist organisation by the US and others till 1998, was allowed after the tip of the battle to play a number one function within the political course of that in the end led to the creation of impartial Kosovo.
Identical to the KLA, Hamas is an armed resistance motion whose army ambitions exist solely so far as the occupation exists and can stop the day Palestinians obtain their rights and might reside with dignity and freedom.
Lastly, if the rules-based world order has any hopes of surviving within the aftermath of Israel’s Western-sanctioned genocide in Gaza, the perpetrators of this crime towards humanity can’t be allowed to stroll away scot-free. The price of reconstruction have to be borne by Israel. It will be an injustice for these nations who’ve financed the reconstruction of Gaza following previous wars to should foot the invoice as soon as once more. Moreover, if the worldwide neighborhood is severe about reaching sustainable peace in Palestine, and at last placing an finish to many years of bloodshed, it ought to cease Israel from increasing its unlawful settlement enterprise into Gaza, and begin taking significant steps to make sure the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state – now.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.