No justice, more turmoil in Occupied Palestine

By Brian E. Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Nov 4, 2015 - 1:40:39 PM

Israeli soldiers treat Palestinian demonstrators wounded during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli military forces, near Ramallah, West Bank, Oct. 7. Photo: AP/Wide World Photos

Violence and protests have been intensifying in the occupied territories of Palestine in what some are calling a new “intifada,” or uprising, against the state of Israel.

In weeks of turmoil in the streets, dozens of Palestinians were injured and killed by Israeli Defense Forces attempting to quell the uprisings observers say are born out of Arab frustration at continued abuses from Israeli occupation.

Analysts and observers say injustice is the cause of the tumult.

“We’re looking at anger and desperation,” said Bill Fletcher Jr., racial justice, labor and international human rights activist. “We’re looking at a situation that periodically bubbles up because the basic injustice has not been addressed.”

Mr. Fletcher said the conflict is fluid and unpredictable in what form resistance takes. “But, it almost in every case is the result of some sort of Israeli provocation,” he said.

Some Middle East experts note the current escalation is a combination of problems including controversy over access to the Al- Aqsa Mosque and Temple on the Mount compound in Jerusalem which have a shared claim of religious significance to Muslims, Christians and Jews.

The religious site has been a focus of Israeli antagonism that ignites passions in what Palestinians see as increased Jewish encroachment on the mosque and temple location.

But, however significant, “dealing with the immediate conflict over access to Al-Aqsa is not the answer,” said Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.

“There are plenty of the immediate sparks for the current violence,” Ms. Bennis told The Final Call in a telephone interview. “Focusing on those sparks, misses the raging forest fire which is decades of military occupation and apartheid.”

The conflict is not new; it is decades old, since the League of Nations—now the United Nations— mandated a “homeland” for Zionist Jews in 1948 on British-controlled land that belonged to Palestinians. At its root the fighting is between a dispossessed people and occupiers, financed and armed by an even larger power called the United States. It’s a proverbial “David versus Goliath” where the oppressed are resisting with stones against an oppressor using tanks and modern weaponry.

Israeli soldiers treat Palestinian demonstrators wounded during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli military forces, near Ramallah, West Bank, Oct.7. Photo: AP/Wide World Photos

“It seems likely that Israelis and Palestinians are in for a prolonged period of violence,” said Steven Cook, the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and African Studies at the Center for Foreign Relations.

In a CFR blog “From the Potomac to the Euphrates,” Mr. Cook wrote the current situation “should finally bury the fantasy of the two-state solution” and shatter an “equally unreal one-state solution” leaving the Palestinian-Israeli question in a quagmire with an unclear future.

“The only answer is going to be ending occupation and apartheid and creating a set of policies—particularly from our government— the U.S. government, to say no more support for occupation and apartheid, instead we’re going to support policies based on international law, human rights and equality for all,” Ms. Bennis stated.

“Until that happens whether it is in one state, two states, six states or any other states—it’s crazy to talk about how do we stop the violence,” said Ms. Bennis. “Everything else might work for a moment, but not for long,” she added.

The bloodshed and killings of Palestinians by Israeli security forces comes with the familiar narrative of “Israel has the right to defend itself” as the pretext for what critics call heavy handed street justice in Ramallah, Hebron, Al-Birah and Bethlehem.

Reports say a recent wave of stabbings allegedly targeting Jewish settlers and soldiers by Palestinians were attributed to “lone wolf” actors not affiliated with organizations. However in remarks prior to an Oct. 22 meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Berlin, Germany, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the Palestinian leadership and particularly Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, for stirring violence against Jews.

“There is no question that wave of attacks is driven directly by incitement … from Hamas … the Islamist movement in Israel, and incitement, I am sorry to say, from President Abbas,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

Others say Mr. Netanyahu’s accusation is political rhetoric and flawed because Palestinian Authority influence has waned and “lost its legitimacy” for many Palestinians over its failure to win justice and achieve independent statehood.

The Palestinian Authority became an instrument to contain the zeal of the Palestinian people for justice, they argue. “The demands for complete liberation were stunted; that’s essentially what the authority’s role became,” explained Mr. Fletcher. Under the authority “the Palestinian Diaspora was cut off and so we found ourselves in a situation … with an authority that was operating much more like a neocolonial administration,” he added.

As for the Israeli regime there is a descent into “madness on the part of the Israeli political establishment … finding itself increasingly isolated” on the world stage, said Mr. Fletcher.

International pressure is mounting for an end to volatile rhetoric on both sides and for Mr. Netanyahu to implement de-escalation measures that would reduce the violence. But Mr. Netanyahu has consistently advocated a hard line policy for the occupied territories and answers to a constituency bent on the same.

In an Oct. 22 press briefing State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said, “Both Secretary Kerry and Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed on the need to stop incitement, reduce tensions, and restore calm.” But on the diplomatic front its questionable whether the U. S. has the political will to push its own position. The U.S. is an ally and strong financial and military benefactor of Israel, allocating over $3 billion in aid annually according to the Congressional Research Service report issued in June of this year. In the best of times and the worst of times for U.S.-Israeli relations, America has always used its veto power on the UN Security Council to stifle resolutions unfavorable to Israel.

Reuters reported after the fourhour sit down with Mr. Netanyahu, Sec. Kerry said he was hopeful but cautious. “I would characterize that conversation as one that gave me a cautious measure of optimism that there may be ... a way to defuse the situation and begin to find a way forward,” Mr. Kerry told reporters.

There have been anti-Israel protests domestically and in capitols abroad in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Regardless of what the leaders do, activists and Palestinian advocates continue using social media and the streets to push for justice and an end to occupation and aggression.

“If you steal someone’s house you don’t have the right to defend yourself or exist on their property. Only those repelling invasion have that right and they are the natives of the land, the Palestinians,” wrote Palestine Right of Return activist Abbas Hamideh on FaceBook.

The Final Call