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| Rishi Sunak and Benyamin Netanyahu (Image: Al-Monitor) |
I've been gravely concerned about the political narrative in reaction to the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas. Those across the globe who follow the news, online or offline, will have found it nearly impossible to escape hearing or watching the horrors that have taken place in Israel and Gaza in recent days. For the latter, innocent Palestinians have faced threats, intimidation and suffocation - both figuratively and literally - something they're far too familiar with. For the former, the attacks the country endured last Saturday (7th October) was something they'd never seen of that scale for a very, very long time.
There has been a lot to digest in this short period of time, and many of us have struggled to get the full, true picture of what happened then and what's happening now. The basic facts are bleak enough. Hamas, listed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government in 2001 (proscribed fully in 2021), launched a full blown attack across Israel. It caught civilians completely by surprise and tragically, hundreds were killed and, as I write this, many are still held hostage. The country's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, you can imagine, was absolutely livid and since plotted revenge. He did so immediately by targeting Palestine, where Hamas governed since 2006 (the last time a parliamentary election was held there). 2.2 million people have been without food, water and electricity for a number of days, and bombs have landed in the small geographic area too.
Unfortunately, these events are just the latest of the horrors this part of the Middle East has witnessed. For so long, these borders have endured deadly tensions, and the threats and violence have never shown signs of stopping. If you read the history between the two nations, you'll find that it goes even further back than 1948, when Israel officially became an independent Jewish-state. For decades before that, Palestine was an Arab-led country but overtime, political decisions from afar - including by a certain Winston Churchill (then Secretary of State for the Colonies) in the early 1920s - led to the decline a country's identity, with it reduced from almost 10,000 square miles over 100 years ago to 2,320 square miles today, and done with Palestinians having little say on the matter.
It's been long-established over centuries that Islamic and Jewish political leaders rarely saw eye-to-eye, so for one to be taken over immediately by another, with the decisions held by those who followed neither faith, wasn't going to go down well with people affected on the ground, particularly with the absence of smooth transitions. On top of that, the religious shift was made at one of the most highly sensitive periods in modern history. For it to happen just 75 years ago is still raw for practically every family there - for most in Israel, their scars remain deep from the horrors of the Second World War, and for most in Palestine, their homes were taken away from them in place of people who have a completely different belief system. You'd like to think that the dust has settled and both can heal together, but the scars are not only more visible, but they've become deeper due to political stubbornness and incompetence - in Israel, Palestine and leaders in the Middle East, Europe and the United States who, you can argue, have invested too much into the intensity.
Sadly, opportunities for negotiating peace, compromise and seeking options to develop a viable two-state solution are becoming increasingly unlikely by the day, largely due to the narrative I was gravely concerned about earlier. The response from political leaders away from the borders have been very one sided and lack total disregard to the sensitivities and historic context. The sentence that has been on all leader's mouths are that "Israel has a right to defend itself/herself," which, 99.9% of the time, is completely fine. Yet, in Netanyahu's case, defending one's self is to make the lives of innocent Palestinians - who most don't want Hamas to speak for them - absolute hell. In fact, the man they apparently want (Marwan Barghouti) has been stuck in an Israeli prison since 2002. His party, Fatah, unhelpfully has reportedly said that Palestinians should join Hamas in the fight against Israel.
People in Palestine have longed been disappointed to being pushed to one side with little support from governments who left them to their own devices. And we see it so often domestically, I cannot help but see similarities to what's happened in this part of the Middle East. Palestine had felt ignored and been treated like third class citizens. In pure desperation, a group is presented to them, grooming them with promises of former glories and to believing that their 'opponents' need punishing, rather than pushing for more peaceful solutions. In some cases, Palestine is like an innocent, disenfranchised teenager whose desired support has primarily come from the wrong crowd - i.e., Hamas, funded, no less, by Muslim-led states that have a big agenda against Israel.
In many respects, the UK should take responsibility for what's happening there. From Churchill's hands off approach over 100 years ago, to Clement Attlee who, from the United Nation partition vote in 1947, did very little to ease tensions that was brewing at that point. Since, successive Prime Ministers - and US Presidents, and European-based leaders - have, you can argue, dedicated more time in ensuring Israelis settled into their new surroundings than to support those who they've replaced, where it should have been an equal effort. You can't throw aid money to an angered and deprived nation and expect them to smile, nod and enjoy their pocket money. And as a consequence, escalated from the recent attacks, Britain in particular has seen another rise in anti-Semitism. It's been awful to read recent reports closer to home with Jewish schools forcing to close and businesses vandalised.
Leaders are completely within their right to show unconditional support towards Israel. But they do so with the knowledge that Netanyahu is capable of being as dangerous, and for these leaders, that's seemingly fine. The UK Foreign Office, seven long days after Hamas's attack, put out an official statement to say that Israel's leadership must react within international law and support must be shown to innocent people in Palestine, sentiments echoed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. If only opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Attorney General, Emily Thornberry had shared similar sentiments. The US's response was also extremely disappointing too. But with the unconditional support and military aid, Netanyahu feels he can do whatever he wants and can get away with it, and that will only anger Palestine even more.
Of course, this is the same Netanyahu who has had to face seven legislative elections in ten years due to political tensions within Israel. It's also the same Netanyahu who has faced huge criticism from his citizens over his highly controversial justice system reforms which basically gives him more power than ever before. Hamas has just handed him even greater powers on a plate. People in Israel deserves so much better, and they know it, as polls suggest his popularity has faded considerably in recent days.
The focus should be all about ending the conflict. The solution doesn't need to be complicated - a ceasefire is the level one agreement. Then it's about the UN leading the way (for a change), by giving Palestine the respect it truly craves, so the 2.2 million people there can live and thrive peacefully and sustainably, and making sure Hamas leaders have their fundings ceased, are caught, tried and lose all powers (terrorist organisations leading nations can never work, as we've seen in Afghanistan). And Netanyahu must accept it. He can't sit back and think that his strategy is going to work because his dangerous incompetence isn't fit for purpose, unless he wants the war to continue, in which case, he should also be held deeply accountable. Regardless, it's time for swift action, or we'll just expect this conflict to get worst and more widespread.
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There are so many fake posts on social media that has, in part, driven the political narrative to be as shocking as we see it today. Thankfully, there are accounts which do a terrific job to uncover the truth - I suggest you all follow BBC Verify's Shayan Sardarizadeh.
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