With Official Washington huffily rejecting peaceful protests against Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians — such as boycotts and recognition of a Palestinian state — the situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories has turned back to violence and death, as John V. Whitbeck explains.
By John V. Whitbeck
Since the current upsurge of violence in Israel and occupied Palestine began, numerous foreign leaders, as well as the UN Security Council, have cited the urgent need to restore “calm.” It is not calm, a euphemism for Palestinian submission, that is urgently needed but, rather, genuine and credible hope for freedom and some measure of justice.
The Israeli government will not provide hope, and the Palestinian Authority cannot provide it.
A section of the barrier – erected by Israeli officials to prevent the passage of Palestinians – with graffiti using President John F. Kennedy’s famous quote when facing the Berlin Wall, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” (Photo credit: Marc Venezia)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged during his reelection campaign that there would never be an independent Palestinian state on his watch, while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after promising that he would drop a “bombshell” in his speech to the UN General Assembly last month, dropped a damp squib instead.
Those whose entire lives have been characterized by a “peace process” intended to maintain the status quo, a metastasizing settlement program that devours their land and a full range of daily humiliations have ample cause for despair.
While numerous obstacles to Israeli-Palestinian “peace” can be cited, the most fundamental obstacle to ending the occupation, now in its 49th year, is simple human nature. People rarely support a significant change in their lives unless they believe that the change will produce a significant improvement in the quality of their lives.
How can Jewish Israelis be brought to perceive ending the occupation as likely to improve the quality of their lives?
In recent years, Jewish Israelis have, understandably and rationally, viewed the status quo as the best of all possible worlds. They have been enjoying peace,…