Raji Bello
I’m usually reluctant to debate on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict because my pragmatic and dispassionate approach is not very popular. Most people would rather debate the conflict emotionally as if they were a party to it themselves. Also, unlike a lot of people, I don’t view the conflict from a moral standpoint (which is the predominant approach) but from the angle of every nation being saddled with the imperative of navigating a world full of competing interests.
But I’ll venture to drop an opinion here because of the sheer scale of the latest eruption, which I hope will be the last. A final solution to the conflict would require both sides to reflect on their role in sustaining the conflict for so long, with a view to altering their course. In my view, the two sides have made major mistakes which, together, are making a final settlement elusive. I’ll outline them briefly as follows:
Palestinians
Since 1948, the Arab side has adopted the approach of fighting Israeli interests instead of advancing those of the Palestinians. The focus of the Arab side was not on creating a Palestinian state but on thwarting the creation of the State of Israel. Because of this approach, the golden chance of declaring a Palestinian state at the same time as an Israeli state, based on the 1947 UN Partition Plan for Palestine, was missed. Instead of declaring a Palestinian state, the Arab side went to war with the new State of Israel in order to abort its founding. The war ended in Israel’s favour and it managed to gain a little more territory than it was awarded under the Partition Plan.
Even after this initial failure to abort Israel’s statehood, the Arab countries still maintained it as their aim. Jordan and Egypt simply annexed the Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza, and deferred their aim to a future date. Another war broke out in 1967 which also ended in Israel’s favour. As a result, it seized East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza from Jordan and Egypt, and occupied them. It also seized the Golan Heights from Syria. The occupation of Gaza supposedly ended in 2005 but that of East Jerusalem and the West Bank has continued to the present. Even after the PLO had accepted a two-state formula following the Oslo Accords, a few attempts to achieve a final settlement have failed owing to disagreements on the details. But after each failed attempt at a permanent settlement, the situation of the Palestinian people only got worse.
If the Arab side had prioritised having a state and had declared one in 1948, we would today be having an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as capital. The mistake made was that the wrong interests were pursued; in any future attempt at a settlement, the Palestinian side needs to prioritise having a state (beside Israel) above everything else. And because the prevailing global power configuration is not in its favour, it must be ready to make significant concessions in order to achieve it.
Many Arabs and Muslims harbour a deep resentment and pain over the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine because they look at it in isolation. But a cursory look at human history would show that it was only the latest episode when the religious or ethnic character of a territory was changed, often by force. Istanbul (Constantinople) was once the capital of a powerful Christian empire and its largest cathedral, the Hagia Sophia, still stands but has been converted into a mosque. Also, Egypt and Lebanon were once Christian-majority countries, the ancient Jewish population of Medina (Saudi Arabia) no longer exists, and Afghanistan used to be a Buddhist nation.
Israel
In 1948, the Jewish population of Palestine achieved its primary aim, which is the creation of the State of Israel as provided by the UN Partition Plan. Afterwards, the focus was solely on nurturing the new state, which was gradually being achieved. However, after the 1967 war, Israel committed its own major mistake which is the occupation of the Palestinian territories that it seized from Jordan and Egypt, as well as the Syrian territory of Golan Heights. Occupation might have been an attractive concept from the point of view of security but is not consistent with the long term interests of Israel.
Following the 1973 Arab/Israeli war, the right-wing Likud party was formed which soon ended the dominance of the left-wing Labour Party in Israeli politics. The initial mistake of occupation was then solidified by right-wing extremists after Likud’s election victory in 1977, with the introduction of Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories – a major blunder that has remained injurious to Israel’s long term interests ever since. All of the country’s security challenges leading up to the massive attack of October 7 by Hamas, were caused by this capitulation to the vision of a Greater Israel espoused by right-wing extremists.
Historical trends have shown that the more that Israel dominated and oppressed the Palestinians, the less secure it became. A future permanent settlement of the conflict is dependent on Israel finding the courage to walk back this vision. Israelis will only be safe when Palestinians are free and living in their own country.
