“As South Africans we can relate to what is happening to Palestinians. Our people waged a brave and courageous struggle to achieve their freedom and were subjected to untold suffering just like the Palestinians are going through. The nightmare of apartheid was only brought to an end by the relentless struggle of our people and the courage and foresight of leaders who put aside their differences and sought peace rather than revenge.” – Opening remarks by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Cairo Summit for Peace (October 21, 2023)
On the morning of October 7th, Hamas launched a series of surprise attacks on Israel. These attacks killed an estimated 1 400 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, and wounded 5 400. During these attacks, Hamas also took around 222 Israelis captive. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel has never encountered such a large-scale and calculated attack from Palestinians.
In response to these attacks, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign on Gaza. In the first six days following the October 7th attacks, according to the Israeli Air Force, they dropped about 6 000 bombs on Gaza – with that number increasing rapidly with each passing day.
By October 26th, 7 028 Palestinians, including 2 913 children, were killed by Israeli bombardment. The Gaza Health Ministry released a list of their names, including details such as their age and ID numbers. In previous conflicts, the numbers reported by the Gaza Health Ministry have largely been consistent with those of the United Nations humanitarian office, which also conducts its own research. For instance, in 2008, the Gaza Health Ministry reported 1 440 Palestinians killed, while the UN reported 1 385.
When coming to terms with the October 7th attacks, condemnation and context matter. The killing of innocent civilians must be condemned, regardless of who is doing it. Even in the face of years of oppression of the Palestinian people, we must lean into our sense of shared humanity and recognize the pain that many Israeli families are experiencing during this time. One cannot become desensitized to the killing of unarmed civilians, even in the context of occupation.
In terms of context, here the past is prologue. This was echoed by António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General in his remarks to the Security Council on the 24th of October 2023, “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.” He went on to add that, “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation… They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished.” According to Amnesty International and other human rights organisations, Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians. In short, Israel enforces a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians which includes “unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians” which are “all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law”.
However, while we condone and contextualise (from the comfort of our homes), the situation in Gaza is catastrophic and worsening by the hour. There are urgent actions that must be taken to end the bloodshed, which should also be accompanied by other important actions to achieve lasting peace.
Urgent actions
1. Immediate ceasefire
As a teenager, I remember learning about Bosnia and the failure of the international community to put an end to the bloodshed. For context, in July 1995, with the backdrop of ongoing war, Bosnian Serb troops and paramilitaries descended on the town of Srebrenica, where they murdered around 8 000 men and boys over 12 years old. Many were shot in the act of trying to escape. This occurred despite Srebrenica being declared a safe area by the United Nations (UN) Security Council and protected by a contingent of UN peacekeepers. Srebrenica fell without a single shot fired by the UN. While perplexed at the time about the failure of the international community to intervene, I now find myself witnessing an atrocity in real time.
Fast forward to the bombardment of Gaza, where there are calls for a humanitarian pause instead of a ceasefire. A humanitarian pause offers only temporary respite from the bombings and aims to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid including water, food and medicine (and hopefully fuel) in larger quantities than previously allowed. Furthermore, a humanitarian pause is intended to give citizens time to move out of harm's way. However, there is no safe place in Gaza, as harm is everywhere, as evidenced by Israel's orders for people living in Gaza to relocate to other areas, only to be targeted there as well.
We urgently need a ceasefire, which will mean a complete cessation of hostilities. This is essential to prevent an ongoing humanitarian disaster. We cannot allow thousands more, including many children, to lose their lives. We cannot allow a situation to continue in which more than two million people living in Gaza have limited access to essential supplies.
2. Release of Israeli and Palestinian hostages
There should be a release of hostages captured by Hamas during the October 7th attacks that is accompanied by the release of Palestinian prisoners. While much has been said around the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, less is spoken about the de facto Palestinian hostages in Israeli jails – which refers to those Palestinians being held without charge in Israeli jails, including Palestinian children.
Since 1967, according to a United Nations’s (UN) Special Rapporteur, Israel has detained approximately one million Palestinians, including tens of thousands of children. As of July 2023, there were an estimated 5 000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, with around 1 100 of them being detained without charge or trial. Of utmost concern is that about 160 ‘prisoners’ in Israeli jails are children, many of whom are accused of throwing stones or committing ‘crimes’ such as writing anti-occupation graffiti.
Actions for a lasting solution
1. We need to solve for a just future, but a two-state solution is dead?
Along with an immediate ceasefire and release of hostages, we need a path to peace but what does a just future look like? The two-state solution refers to the notion of having two separate and independent states – a Palestinian state alongside an Israeli state, which leaders from different parts of the world continue to reiterate their support for as the path to peace. While most agree that the borders of a two-state solution should be the same ones that existed before the 1967 Six-day War, there has been illegal Israeli settlement expansion for many years onto Palestinian land. In short, there are now more than 700 000 Israeli settlers living within the borders of what is meant to constitute a Palestinian state – which is why the term ‘settler’ is often used in relation to these Israelis. Most countries, including bodies like the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN), have long considered Israeli settlements illegal under international law. For instance, the UN Security Council reaffirmed that Israel’s establishment of settlements on Palestinian land (where the more than 700 000 Israelis just mentioned live) constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and considers it a major obstacle to the realisation of a two-state solution because in essence, what is supposed to constitute a Palestinian state has been eroded over the years.
In reality, there are currently no two independent states. Rather, the status quo is an Israeli state with rights and dignity for Israelis and an occupation without end for Palestinians, which robs them of their rights and dignity.
If a one-state solution is to be pursued, it must be about Palestinians and Jewish Israelis living side by side in peace within the boundaries of the same country. While this may sound fanciful and impossible to realise, as South Africans we must remember that many thought this unachievable in a South African context pre-1994. It is important to note here that a one-state approach in which all the land falls to the control of Israel while all Palestinians are expelled into neighbouring countries (which right-wing forces are pushing for) is not the kind of one-state solution that is acceptable, i.e.,one-state in which there are no Palestinians.
According to the Jewish Virtual Library, since the establishment of Israel in 1948, 3.3 million people have immigrated to the country – with 45% of them arriving since 1990. In this context, an Israeli-based associate professor describes Israel as an 'immigrant settler society.' The current reality is that, when combining the populations of Israel and Palestine, Israelis and Palestinians makeup roughly equal population sizes – this is when excluding the millions of Palestinian refugees living outside these areas who are currently not allowed to exercise their right to return.
A one-state solution would mean that Israel would no longer be an exclusively Jewish homeland. Instead, Israelis and Palestinians would live side by side within the borders of the same country and it would be a place in which all citizens enjoy equal rights. This aligns with our shared humanity and is something we should strive to achieve.
2. End USA military aid to Israel
A major stumbling block to peace and the achievement of a just future, is the issue of military aid that the United States of America (USA) gives Israel. This assistance, which comes without conditions, fuels Israeli impunity and disincentivises meaningful dialogue.
For context, Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of foreign assistance from the USA since World War II, with the vast majority of this being in the form of military assistance. Under the current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the USA and Israel, the USA pledged to provide $38-billion in military assistance to Israel between 2019 and 2028; that’s $3.8-billion per annum.
The military aid that the USA gives Israel is without conditions, unlike the aid it gives to other countries. This support entrenches Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian land and directly supports the ill-treatment of Palestinians. Even in the face of current escalations, the White House confirmed that it is not putting “any conditions” on the additional military support that it is providing Israel.
To reiterate, there is no military solution to this issue, with the story of South Africa demonstrating the need for a political solution. Continuing to provide unconditional aid and further unconditional military assistance to Israel exacerbates the conflict rather than de-escalating it. It also directly undermines international law as it turns a blind eye to the human rights violations being committed.
Urgent de-escalation
We need to urgently de-escalate the current situation and call for an immediate ceasefire. This should be accompanied by the release of hostages which will facilitate dialogue and the ending of bloodshed. What we need for lasting peace to be achieved is a return to the negotiation table where the notion of a two-state solution is not assumed but rather the cause of a just future is championed. This may lend itself instead to a one-state solution in which everyone lives side by side in peace within the borders of the same country. Moreover, there must be an end to USA military aid to Israel for any just future to even be possible.
The Israeli government has misled their people into believing that achieving greater peace and security is possible through Palestinian control, suppression and keeping them under military occupation. As highlighted by Queen Rania of Jordan, even if Israel were to kill every member of Hamas, they would merely be planting the seeds for greater resistance to the occupation in the future. As further reiterated by an ex-Israeli soldier, the only way to defeat violent resistance is to create an alternative future in which Palestinians can enjoy the same rights that Israelis cherish because right now, “We are just killing them and keeping them under a debilitating siege” – and this will not create a safer future.
Anyone giving blind support to Israel is doing no service to Israelis. The siege on Gaza and the continued occupation of Palestine is making Israelis less safe and the 7th of October events should highlight this.
Sources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/8/why-are-so-many-palestinian-prisoners-in-israeli-jails
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-u-s-foreign-aid-to-israel
https://www.state.gov/u-s-security-cooperation-with-israel/
https://www.bbc.com/news/57170576
https://time.com/6073637/u-s-military-aid-israel-must-be-conditional/
https://news.sky.com/story/israel-hamas-war-what-is-the-two-state-solution-12985473
https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/article-748435
https://news.sky.com/story/israel-hamas-war-what-is-the-two-state-solution-12985473
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/9/whats-the-israel-palestine-conflict-about-a-simple-guide
https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/11/1104792
https://www.timesofisrael.com/jews-now-a-minority-in-israel-and-the-territories-demographer-says/
https://www.thedriftmag.com/a-desperate-situation-getting-more-desperate/
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2224361/middle-east
https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/89215
https://press.un.org/en/2016/sc12657.doc.htm
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/latest-population-statistics-for-israel
https://hmh.org/library/research/genocide-in-bosnia-guide/
https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/bosnia-herzegovina/1992-1995
https://www.hmd.org.uk/learn-about-the-holocaust-and-genocides/bosnia/
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/israel-law-of-return-asylum-labor-migration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fPtN4hVlFA
https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sit...