Anything but a War
“Potential for an all-out war” is what the United Nations calls the ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel. For a lot of reasons, that phrase is fundamentally wrong. Before I go on to tell you why I strongly emphasize this problem, not a regional one, but a contemporary global issue, it only makes sense that I draw a rough sketch of the past to later build onto the real-time narrative.
Every beautiful thing succumbs to abuse in this world. A particular region was a victim to the same. It was always summertime there, with guests flocking in for decade long vacations. It was scorching and merciless. The people had to surrender to catering these guests, who arrived one after another. The final one decided to rip their home apart, for yet another visitor, someone very similar to the final’s interests.
Would you like watching a guest, taking control of your home and finally giving away pieces of it for someone else to exploit? Palestine did not.
In 1947, when Britain decided to leave Palestine as an independent entity, it could not without wreaking havoc upon it, the same time and way it did with India. With vague suggestions from an international peace-keeping organization and a lack of closure in the break-up of Palestine and Britain, was born the unnecessary brawl with the new neighbor, Israel.
Amidst all of this, the key treasure — Jerusalem got declared an international territory with special status. This soon resulted in Israel fancying that region and the deliberate need for Palestine to protect it. Like you would have guessed by now, this triggered a series of wars. If you could find a year with no bickering from these two, you’ve successfully discovered a parallel universe.
Leaving behind satire for a moment, Israel occupied numerous important territories from the unofficial state of Palestine, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Eventually, the Palestine Liberation Organization emerged and, by the early 2000s, was under the governance of Hamas ( a Sunni Islamist Militant Group) and Fatah ( a PLO political group) by winning the Palestinian Legislative elections.
Ever since Palestine had a recognizable representation, the significance of establishing an official Palestine state with East Jerusalem as its capital has been an incentive to push back against the invasion of Israel.
Israel continued waging wars to swindle Palestinian property based on its widely abused 1950 Absentees’ Property Law while receiving support from the U.S.A, the U.K and other such settler-colonies, vibing with this country on fundamental levels.
The recent 2021 catastrophes are also a result of this half a century-old conflict, not entirely based on religious backgrounds tied to Jerusalem, but more in consequence of ethnical, racial and historical quirks.
Finally, drawing margins for my sketch work above, we’ve arrived at the indispensable part of this article.
The whole world watches this chaotic, harsh conflict as a catalyst for a potential war that could have the 195 countries, or at least the annexe-1 countries picking which territory they could test their nuclear toys with. Spoiler alert, the world is watching the façade drawn by countries with privilege and not the real show.
Firstly, this is not a war. Two of the many reasons are the unmatched defense systems and the motivational differences in this conflict. For Palestine, this conflict is a struggle to retain their land and well for Israel; it is just everyday oppression to give its people free ( or illegal ) Palestinian property.
The problem has caused the displacement of Palestinians, not amounting to thousands but 5.6 million refugees. It’s resulted in innocent civilian deaths that would one day be scored off as collateral damage. ‘How to get away with murder’ is a harmless Netflix show, but governments should strictly stop emulating that title.
The unrecognized oppression, the unfair displacements, and the impending ethnic cleansing, which might at any future date catapult into being a strategic genocide, is alarming enough for the world to finally look past smoke screens of religious wars that affiliate to international political interests.
It is intended obliviousness and imprudence to ignore a tragedy that could potentially result in subsequent global catastrophes, especially with history repeating itself in profiles of oppression and political convenience.
