The Israel-Palestine Crisis

May 18, 2021 Bruce

Hi Boomers, we are at this moment again. And unfortunately, it is not peace!

Many of you have been engaged in the cause for Palestinian justice, and human rights more broadly, for eons and know the issues well. However, you may find the attached article useful and worth sharing. There is also a link to a recent report from Human Rights Watch that looks at the ongoing conflict from a wider perspective.

The International Crisis Group, which is an independent organisation working to prevent conflict, has published a really good Q&A on the current escalation in violence, and what makes it different and potentially more disastrous for all sides of the conflict.

My posting to East Jerusalem was bookended by the previous heightened conflicts in 2012 and 2014. In Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Israel. I met extraordinary smart and caring Jewish and Arab people who believed that the other was basically the spawn of the devil and would say the most horrific things about each other. One of my enduring memories from that time was witnessing and hearing how hate is an essential ingredient in war. Dehumanising the ‘enemy’ because of their race, religion, gender, sexuality and so on, makes the business of killing, raping and maiming so much easier. It really is harder to kill someone you love, like or respect.

One of the features of this current crisis is the violence between Israeli Jews and minority Israeli Arabs that has erupted in several Israeli towns. The International Crisis Groups warns:

Israel should denounce violence and incendiary hate speech, no matter the source, and mete out impartial justice to all. Israeli officials have a particular responsibility to combat ethnic hatred emanating from the Jewish far right and to make sure Palestinian citizens are protected from both police and civilian violence in the same way that Jewish citizens are. Palestinians leaders in Israel have a parallel obligation within their own communities. Many around the globe, and especially in the U.S. and Europe, have been surprised by the images of Jewish mob violence, but the sentiments they embody did not spring up overnight. They have long been cultivated and endorsed at the highest levels of the state. Tamping down ethnic incitement is a matter of self-preservation for the Jewish majority, because the alternative, a steady escalation of civil strife, is already on the horizon.

International Crisis Group

Human Rights Watch in a recent report, A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution, argues that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians: “amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” And while many will bristle at this notion of Israel being labelled an apartheid State, it is hard to see how this will not become Israel’s fate given the path it is on.

Of course, this latest round of violence will be used by some to voice their anti-Semitism and promote their hatred while others will go into overdrive trying to make the links between terrorism and Palestinian rights. And yes, we are also at this moment again.