EDITORIAL: Israeli occupied Palestinian territories remain tinder dry ready to catch fire. In the worst violence since 2017, at least 140 Palestinians, including 39 children, have been killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip since Monday. Some 1,000 have been wounded. Israeli forces have also killed at least 15 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Yesterday, the day that marked the 73 years since the Nakba, a central component of the fracturing, dispossession and displacement of Palestinian society, or the sixth day since Israel unleashed a new wave of violence against Palestinians, Israeli airstrikes pounded the Gaza Strip, killing 10 members of an extended family and demolishing a building housing international media outlets, including AP and Al-Jazeera. Thousands of Palestinian families are taking shelter in the UN-run schools in northern Gaza to escape Israeli artillery fire. Last Saturday, Israeli police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to stop Palestinians from entering the Al-Aqsa mosque, wounding some 121 Palestinians. The previous night more than 200 Palestinians were injured as police stormed the mosque. Tensions had already been mounting for a month over threatened eviction of several Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem for the construction of yet another illegal Jewish settlement. The justification trotted out by the Zionist state for this land grab has been that the Palestinians bought it from Jews in the early 1900s, and hence they could take it back. Even if the claim is valid, the Palestinians should also have the right to get back their ancestral homes and agricultural lands their families owned all over the erstwhile Palestine. When it comes to Palestinians rights, justice happens to be an alien concept in the Middle East’s “only democracy.”
The violence in Al-Aqsa compound and the threat of evictions have further exacerbated Palestinian people’s rising rage. Hamas, which controls Gaza, of course, is no match for Israeli fire power. Its retaliatory action, as its spokesman put it, was meant to send the message that the crimes and aggression in occupied Jerusalem will not go unanswered. At the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is occupation, and its focal point East Jerusalem that the Palestinians want as the capital of their elusive future state. The latest acts of aggression have been condemned by several Muslim countries, including Pakistan. In Doha, Qatar, thousands of protesters yesterday gathered in solidarity with Palestinians. Four Arab states – the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – which normalized their relations with the Zionist state during the last year also felt compelled to voice support for the Palestinians. In its response, the European Union issued a statement expressing “serious concern” over eviction of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and other areas of East Jerusalem, reminding Israel that “such actions are illegal under international humanitarian law and only serve to fuel tensions on the ground.” Unsurprisingly, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was more circumspect as he expressed concern to his Israeli counterpart, but sufficed to “encourage the Israeli government to pursue appropriate measures to ensure calm during Monday’s Jerusalem Day commemorations” — when ultra-nationalist Jewish extremists celebrate the 1967 capture of East Jerusalem, deliberately provoking Palestinian anger. Fearing further escalation in violence the European Union agreed, on Tunisia’s request, to hold an informal meeting on the situation on Monday. But it is not expected to help resolve the situation. Nor can the Zionist state have peace as long as occupation and relentless land grabs persist. That can only give a fresh cause to violent extremists to fight for.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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