As we sink our teeth more into the new year, so too has more conflict around the world arisen. Over the past 11 days, there has been non stop conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territory of Gaza, with roughly 232 killed in Palestine, including 65 children, and 12 Israelis killed. What caused this to happen? And what can people do to stop the killing of Palestinian people?
In terms of countries, Israel is a relatively new state. After the second world war, millions of Jewish people across Europe were in massive disarray after the antisemitic regimes of the Holocaust. The United Nations decided to coalign with a European Zionist movement, beginning in the late 19th century. Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people deserve a Jewish religious state located in the holy area of Canaan, which is located in the Middle East. Zionism is obviously a result of Judaism, however you can be Jewish and not a Zionist. During this time of the movement, the land was already populated by a sizable Arab population, and the state was known as Palestine. Palestine was previously under the control of the Ottoman Empire, and also had religious significance in Islamic faith. Mass immigration by Jewish people was already occurring, as well as a large displacement of Palestinians to other Middle Eastern countries. In 1947, the United Nations helped to establish a 2 state Palestine solution, where Jerusalem would be an international city. However, this plan soon fell through, and the Jewish People’s Council officially established Israel as a state in 1948. The United States and Soviet Union recognized the state soon after. Since then, Israel has expanded into more and more Palestinian area, leaving Palestine with the territories of Gaza and the West Bank. The equipment that Israelis use for attacks against Palestinians have been funded by Western countries such as the United States for decades. Western nations want to remain an ally with Israel in order to have some western influence and surveillance on the Middle Eastern world. Essentially, while the creation of Israel in theory had good intentions, it evolved into a genocide lasting decades against the native Muslims residing there.
Flash forward to today. In the Muslim faith, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar is known as Ramadan, and is known as the holiest month of Muslims all year. Ramadan this year lasted from April 12th to May 12th. May 12th represents Eid Mubarak, which is a day to celebrate the month of fasting with a large feast. With the Palestinian population being Muslim, they were very much invested in the festivities of this month. However, tensions had been rising previously. For the past few months, Israel has attempted to evict mass amounts of Palestinian families from their homes near Jerusalem in order to make room for commercial projects. With the families resisting, and also celebrating the holy day of Eid, Israeli police stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and fired stun grenades and rubber bullets at the attendees, who at the time were praying in ceremonies. This erupted into a series of clashes with the police, culminating in Palestinian militant groups firing rockets into Israel, which were destroyed by Israel’s defense systems. Palestine doesn’t have anything near to what Israel has for defense, which resulted in the deaths and destruction of the Gaza territory. Several cities in Israel have experienced riots between Arab and Jewish citizens.
In a hopeful change, a ceasefire has been created in between Israel and the Palestinian militant group known as Hamas. However, this won’t solve everything forever. All of the fighting occurred due to the continued exploitation and attacks on the Palestinian people. Earlier in 2021, Israel helped develop measures to where it was incredibly difficult for Arab citizens to receive their COVID vaccine, with many drawing similarities to Apartheid in South Africa. From evictions, to unjust law, to an imbalanced death toll and amount of destruction, there must be some decision that could solve these attacks.
While a two state solution has been proposed, many are critical of the idea due to the state of the region today, and how it did not work. While I personally do not want to push an agenda on readers, I absolutely recommend researching into the mistreatment of Palestinians by Israelis, and how just forcing all the Palestinian out, or killing them all, would not solve anything. We are too far into a developed world where we can see genocide occur and not do anything about it. I recommend you also research ways on how to support those suffering in the aftermath currently, and how you help change the waves for a brighter and more peaceful history.