After the War
Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians didn’t choose to die in the war in Gaza so that others might live in a free Palestine, they died because the Israeli government and military commanders decided to kill them – partly in revenge for October 7, and partly in the misguided belief that it would solve the long-standing ‘Palestinian problem’. After six months of war, Israel’s forces have inflicted death or injury on at least 100,000 civilians, inflicted prolonged displacement and now starvation on a further two million, have failed to destroy Hamas, and have made Israel a pariah state. Even by Netanyahu’s own standards this is a catalogue of failure, a disaster for Israel as well as Palestine.
The suffering and loss endured by the people of Gaza, and increasingly in the West Bank, means it is now of paramount importance that the end of the war signals the end of the occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, and heralds the universal recognition of a fully independent Palestinian state. The Palestinians feel they’ve been abandoned to their fate by western governments, so when the fighting stops our leaders will have one last chance to step up and champion international law and justice for all the oppressed people in Palestine.
Netanyahu is still talking tough for his home audience, but in the face of mounting criticism from his allies he might be planning a glide-path back to international norms of behaviour, hoping to leave observers at the end of hostilities starting to believe the patently ridiculous claim that the IDF is “the most moral army in the history of warfare”. If that’s his plan, he’s banking on short memories. Many of the worst atrocities, like the current starvation policy, or the systematic destruction of hospitals, have been deliberately targeted at civilians, and will never be forgotten.
The outcome of this war must be that Israel has no power of veto over Recognition of the State if Palestine. A side-effect of the brutality of the onslaught, apparently unforeseen by Israel’s leaders, is that it has lost Israel the moral authority it may once have had.
People across the world have marched and demonstrated in huge numbers to protest about the war and their own governments’ ineffective responses to it, and American students are now being dragged away from protests by police, echoing civil disobedience towards the end of the Vietnam War. In the UK, civil servants fear prosecution for war crimes if they obey instructions from ministers. Ministers themselves refuse to tell Parliament what legal advice they have received about arms sales to Israel, but politicians in this country and across the western world can’t for ever keep ignoring the will of the people.
Briefing from Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)
On Tuesday we attended a briefing for parliamentarians by MAP. Important as post war planning is, it shouldn’t divert attention from what is happening right now. Both speakers had just come back from Gaza, and gave first-hand accounts of the miserable living conditions for the nearly two million people in make-shift tents in and around Rafah, the shortages of food and water and fire-wood, the clearly deliberate destruction of hospital facilities, the shortage of medicines and medical equipment, the continued bombing and shelling, the trigger-happy Israeli soldiers who make venturing outside terrifying in some areas, and the mental exhaustion and growing despair of the people.
They witnessed the continued (despite repeated Israeli denials) obstruction of supply lorries at the entry points – not only the reduced number allowed through, but absurdities like wooden crutches and tent poles having to be unloaded (because they might be “repurposed” as weapons) and even a consignment of nappies refused entry. MAP CEO Melanie Ward told us that in Gaza she was sometimes asked to make sure the world knows what is going on. She didn’t want to tell them the truth; the problem isn’t that the world doesn’t know, it’s that it doesn’t care enough to stop it happening. We must continue to make sure our politicians get the message; we do care, we must stop the senseless carnage, and we must fight for a free Palestine after the war is over.
