Conflicts
Israel and Palestine: Who is the real barbarian?
“Have you ever been to a big forest without trees and animals?
Have you ever seen black rain coming through the blue skies?”
These are the first two verses of Tolga Dirican’s song called “This Is Our World.” (click on the YouTube video link below to preview the song.) They may seem a bit simplistic but during these times where the world is plagued by uncertainties such as climate change and conflicts, one looks at the simplest explanation for inspiration to gain perspective, even, perhaps, clarity. This song does it for me.
Mother of all conflicts
Two sets of deaths—on March 6, Israeli armed forces conducted an incursion that killed 126 Palestinians, then, on March 8, a Palestinian man blew himself up killing 8 Israeli youths. Whose deaths are you lamenting? Who is more barbaric? How about both?
Thousands of years of human existence and in the age of technological advancements, no one can seem figure out a way out of the Israel-Palestine conflict. We have figured out such complex science issues such as the law of relativity and interactions in subatomic world, and yet Israelis and Palestinians can’t figure out something as basic as how to be neighborly with each other. Amid the shadow of a never-ending peace process, the two sides always manage to revert to the barbaric act of trying to obliterate each other, as though the act of coexisting is unprecedented. Israelis and Palestinians are killing each other. It is unfortunate but there really is no other apt description to the very sad state of these two neighbors’ affairs. It is as if both suffer from an inordinate desire to kill the other. It is a conflict that represents the worse case scenario, a manifestation of the ultimate conflict and the failure of humanity. It is an amalgamation of all sorts of disputes—it is about land, about water, about religion, about power, yadaa, yadaa, yadaa.
Where does the world stand?
Indifference is a terrible thing. So, even though US President George W. Bush condemning the attack on Israel youths may have been interest based, his comments are rightfully taken into account. According to reports, President Bush told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the United States stands with Israel in the face of a gunman's attack on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.
"I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack in Jerusalem that targeted innocent students at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva," Bush said in a statement released at the White House after he spoke with Olmert on the phone. "This barbaric and vicious attack on innocent civilians deserves the condemnation of every nation."
But, just as important as Bush’s statement is the United Nations’ stance. The United Nations Human Rights Council on March 6 labeled Israel’s response to recent rocket attacks from Gaza a war crime and “collective punishment against the civilian population” in a resolution that also called for an end to such military actions and to the “firing of crude rockets by Palestinian combatants.”
According to the UN, the resolution, submitted by Pakistan, received 33 votes in favor and one against (Canada), with 13 abstentions. The vote followed a general debate on the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories, which was preceded by statements from High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, as well as representatives of Israel, Palestine and Syria.
“I am deeply alarmed about the death of civilians,” Ms. Arbour said, repeating her condemnation of rocket attacks by Palestinians as well as what she called Israel’s disproportionate use of force.
The UN official urged all parties to conduct law-based, independent, transparent and accessible investigations into the killings of civilians, to make the findings public and to hold any perpetrators accountable. “All human rights are equal for all human beings and no party can claim that, in defending its own population, it is allowed to disavow the rights of others,” Ms. Arbour stressed. “On the contrary, all parties have obligations not only towards the rights of their own people, but for the rights of all.”
Independent of who you may side with or whose deaths you are more mortified by, the deaths have only served to fuel even more animosity between Israelis and Palestinians. The Israel government following the deaths of the eight youths, however, needs to be commended for exercising restraint and for rightfully taking a “deep breath.” Something an Israel official has said that they’ve learned from the late Ariel Sharon.
According to reports, Ala Abu Dhaim, the 25-year-old Palestinian who blew himself up killing eight Israeli youths, may have not been associated with any terror groups. As much as how the world may want to pin the Palestinian suicide bomber to a terror organization, he may have been acting out of sheer desperation for the current state of affairs between the two countries. The family of the 25-year-old Palestinian man, who was from east Jerusalem, said he had been distraught over this week's carnage in the Gaza Strip.
No peace, no tourism
Tourism cannot exist without peace, as so vividly demonstrated by Kenya recently. Tourism is suffering in both Israel and Palestine. Bethlehem, for instance, is the birthplace of Jesus Christ and yet it is so often ignored because of security issues and because it isn’t accessible. One then cannot feel but dismayed how numerous historical, archeological and various other tourist sites in Israel and Palestine remain unexplored and not afforded the same treatment as every tourist attraction in the world.
No matter which death you lament more, or even if you lament neither, the situation in the Middle East has become a staple in the news. There is despair from every possible angle. From the viewpoint of tourism, there can never be business as usual because under the Israel-Palestine circumstances, “usual” means a whole lot different from how the rest of the world would define it. Usual, to these unfortunate tourism partners, means bombings and deaths.
The war that never ends
Now, as the recent deaths are lamented and soon fade as distant memories, fresh new contentions are arising—Israel is being scrutinized for planning to build housing units in a West Bank settlement. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said Israel’s decision conflicts with "Israel's obligation under the road map" for Middle East peace.
The fighting never ends, does it?
Comments
You forgot to mention some facts. In 1947, Jews(mostly immigrants from Europe) who accounted for 25% of Palestine's population proposed that they owned 55% of Palestine's territory.Of course, the Palestinians(Muslims and Christians) refused. The Jews responded by attacking and completly destroying more than 400 Arab villages, killing thousands of people and displacing more than 700000 people(that's about 60 % of the Palestinian population). After stealing all that land, and becoming an independant state, neighboring Arabs quickly organised some militia groups to help the Palestinians. All seven Arab armies had about 30000 poorly equiped, poorly trained fighters who have never fought a war. The number of Arab fighters rose to 50000 by 1949. The Jews on the other had 30000 well equiped(by the British),well trained and experienced soldiers(From world war 2). After the war started, their number rose to 120000 soldiers. Of course, the Jews won the war, took control of 70 % of Palestine and about 800000 people were forced to live in refugee camps(including my father and everybody he knew).
In 2000, after many years of oppression, Yasser Arafat and the Israeli prime minister agreed to negociate on a peace deal in camp David. The Palestinians wanted full control of the West bank(including eastern Jerusalem) and Gaza.Some of the terms of the agreement where these:
The Palestinians would only control 73% of the west bank(Which also means they have to ask Israel for water)
The Palestinians would not be allowed to have a military
Israel would have full control of Jerusalem
Palestinians where refused to have their right of return.
Arafat refused, and Israel made it look as if he didn't want peace no matter what.
Soon after, the Intifadah(the uprising) began. According to Israel, about 4800 people(a thousand of them children) where killed by Israel but only God knows the real number of Palestinians killed by Israel.
About 1000 Israelis were killed. Israel has illegaly imprisoned more than ten thousand Palestinians.
Israel has hundreds of illegal settlements inside the westbank. While Israeli settlers fill up their pools, Palestinians are begging for water just a few hundred meters away. Israel has turned dozens(possibly hundreds) of Palestinian schools into prisons and military posts.
Mmmm,I wonder why Arabs hate Israel so much?
GET THIS INTO YOUR HEADS: NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!
And by the way, there were many Jews who lived in most Arab(even under Saddam) countries including Iraq(even under Saddam) and they where treated normally. A lot of them immigrated to Israel though because it was better for them. There are millions of Chistians living in Syria,Egypt,Lebanon,Iraq(not anymore),Qatar,UAE,etc.Ask an Arab Christian about it.
I find it surprising, Mr Alcantara, you're neglecting to mention a few basic facts other than what an earlier feedback talked about.
First, it was Israel's neighbors that declared war on Israel to begin with. Israel did not declare war on its neighbors. Israel only wants a responsible neighbor to make piece with. So far, the Palestinians have NOT demonstrated their willingness to be responsible neighbors. They do little to discourage attacks, make suicide bombers heros, and generally glorify death in the interest of spreading Islamic law worldwide. Israel's attacks are retaliatory, not instigative.
Second, let's talk about civilian casualties on the Palestinian side. It's a fundamental principle in international law that if you're attacking another country, it is entirely acceptable for the attacked country to
retaliate. That's simply a matter of self-defense. If the instigator crowds military areas from where the attacks are fired with civilians -- in other words using civilians as 'shields' -- and there are civilian casualties as a result, that is the responsibility of the instigator, not the retaliator. It's been a practice of the Arab/Palestinian instigators since the beginning to use civilian shields, and allow deaths resulting from this practice, in the interest of eliciting sympathy from a world community by and large indifferent, if not outright hostile, to the State of Israel.
Viewed in this perspective, it's difficult to give full credence to your own comments, which is a shame. Someone in your position should surely understand these things which so compromise tourism promotional efforts to this area of the world.
In other words, Palestinians attack, deliberately attacking innocent civilians, and Israel so sustains casualties.
When Israel makes retaliatory strikes, civilians being used as shields are being killed, NOT because Israel is targeting innocent civilians. You are missing this basic and CRITICAL distinction totally.
The non-Islamic world should wake up to what's going on and realize the importance of the State of Israel as a first line of defense. Surely, if the Arab/Islamic world succeeds in destroying Israel, it will NOT stop there. The rest of western civilization -- which the Islamic world has vowed to destroy as well -- will be at immediate peril from the same onslaught. Let's harbor no illusions otherwise.
It is infinitely said that Islam will prevail. This has been said among many countries and many religions of every sort. One day, when the Muslims come to their right path, we will win, but as of now, the extremists are making it very hard! this is a never ending cycle. some family member always dies and vengeance is a motive. one day.... let us hope that the bloodshed stops so we can live in peace! In God we pray....
I was completely shocked to read your article by Nelson Alcantara, Which is laced by untruths and half truths and in the end damages tourism to Israel, hurting both Israelis and Palestinians. You can not talk about a problem without telling both sides. The terrorist that entered the religious seminary did not blow himself up he went from one to the other and shot them once in the torso and the second shot into the head. They hid from him in closets and under tables and he murdered them one at a time in cold blood. The Basis of the war between the arabs and the rest of the world is that Islam will prevail. No other religion is permitted. who ever does not convewrt to Islam is doomed to death. Why Israel? They believe that the cursed Jews have no right to exist let alone hold a country between the Arab states.
What one focuses attention on expands.
Many years of external attention and reporting and intervention
have not solved the problem.
Perhaps it is time to shift from mass voyeurism
at political pornography to personal accountability -
for each of us to acknowledge and embrace
the darkness within ourselves which sometimes
shows itself in how we see and experience the world.
Now is a good time to begin to give the situation no focus,
no attention, no opinion, no judgement,
no support, no weapons, no money.
Give attention in the form of visualizing peace and harmony,
using Ho'oponopono to clean ourselves
"I'm sorry", "I love you", "Please forgive me", "Thank you",
and radiating love into that area and beyond, into the world.
The violence will end, without effort or force,
when its teachings have been learned.
k♥rt
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