It is estimated that from October 7, 2023 until May, 2024, close to 36,000 Palestinians and 1500 Israelis have lost their lives in the Hamas-Israel war. Thousands more Gazans have perished from malnutrition or disease or have disappeared under mountains of sand and rubble.
A highly dangerous and intractable factor in the historical relationship between the people of Israel and the Palestinian people, especially the Muslim Arabs population is that both claim to have divinely inspired Scriptures that promise them sovereignty over the same piece of real estate, “from the River to the Sea”, exclusively and in perpetuity. This has created an intractble situation that will only change if and when both the Jews and Moslems of Palestine are prepared to put these divine guarantees into a rational historical perspective and to seek a lasting solution based on international law.
It was not only God who made these pledges, the British did exactly the same in the 1917 Balfour Declaration which promised an independent Jewish state despite the same undertaking made earlier to the Palestinian Arabs to grant them their own state after WWI in exchange for joining the pan-Arab revolt against the Ottoman Turks. Both commitments, divine and British, guaranteed perversely that there would be practically little or no chance of lasting peace.
While the sacred texts of both Jews and Muslims justify wars of attrition and violent conquest of territory, “from the River to the Sea”, including ethnic cleansing and genocide, these notions are traditionally balanced by the ethos of moral equivalence or proportionality:
Exodus 21: 23-25: “But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise…” and Leviticus 24: 20: “… The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury…”
The Surat Al-Ma’idah in the Quran teaches exactly same principle and application of ‘the law of the balance.’
Even the most conservative versions of the Just War Theory highlight the centrally important principle of proportional response. Israel’s response to Hamas’s murderous attacks on civilians in the Negev on October 7 has been totally out of proportion or moral equivalence. Other foundationally important principle of the Just War Theory have also been violated including the ban on collective punishment of civilians and the indiscriminate use of weapons of mass destruction.
For decades, the Jewish lobby and the State of Israel have claimed the moral high ground for themselves as the world authority on genocide and the Holocaust. In view of its behaviour in Gaza since October 7 and its decades long record of land grabbing, destruction of Arab property and illegal settlements in the West Bank, Israel has used up its moral capital.
The repeated refusal/unwillingness to name and condemn the Armenian genocide by Turkey/Ottoman Empire raises serious questions about Israel’s commitment to international human rights concerns. A recent attempt at deflection was Israel’s broadside against Turkiye for the role of the Ottomans in the Armenian genocide.
Shimon Peres has been quoted as saying, “We reject attempts to create a similarity between the Holocaust and the Armenian allegations. Nothing similar to the Holocaust occurred. It is a tragedy what the Armenians went through, but not a genocide.
Armenians have argued for years that if the international community had condemned and named Turkey’s programme of eliminating the Armenian people as ‘genocide’ then maybe the Nazi genocide of the Jews might not have happened.
Another element in the modern Jewish identity propaganda strategy has been to claim copyright on who is a “semitic” and what is “anti-semitic. In fact, Arabs, Jews, ancient Akkadians, Assyrians, Phoenicians etc are all equally Semites.
Basem Abdo, an advisor to outgoing Federal Labor MP Maria Vamvakino, adds a valuable piece of constructive advice in a deeply polarised debate on the Hamas-Israel war:
“We need to see the advancement of justice for Palestine and the Palestinian people, and their right to self-determination. Advancing peace can only come about through the application of justice and international law.” – (The Age, June,9, 2024).
The State of Israel would greatly advance Palestinians’ claims for Justice and the rule of international law by adopting a secular One State policy. The Law of Return should be amended to include the vast Palestinian diaspora who have been alienated from their homeland for decades and to exclude large intakes of Zionist ‘Settlers’ from Russia and Brooklyn, NYC.
David Timbs is an occasional contributor to Pearls and Irritations.
Contributions to Pearls and Irritations
Your contribution will fund quality independent comment and analysis in Pearls and Irritations
Contribute
