Palestine and Israel, a geopolitical crossroads
As we watch in horror the Israeli attacks of mass destruction against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, it is up to us, from our own positions, to speak out against this compulsive yet repetitive killing. This landscape, this geography, is difficult to explain simply by taking a snapshot of the present. It is also necessary to ask what particular relationship exists between this relatively small portion of territory, which lacks large deposits or abundant raw materials, and its location at a geostrategic and geopolitical heartland.
Some possible answers can be found by observing the sacredness of that small passageway, formerly the Syrian-Palestinian strip, a Mediterranean coast, a geographical gateway to that part of Asia, a maritime contact point within that inland sea, but perhaps not as significant as the Suez Canal. So, what reasons explain the daily presence of this topic in newspapers, documentaries, religious education (intertwined with secularism), films, and all kinds of artistic and non-artistic expressions?
Now, to understand the Palestinian cause, the site of all struggles, it is necessary to analyze several elements. The first is the reconfiguration of the Middle East over the last three decades, at least, since the invasion of Iraq by the United States and a conglomerate of countries, beginning in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union. This is a radical change in the region in which, of course, Israel collaborated throughout. From this point, without going much further back, since during the 20th and part of the 19th centuries, the region functioned as an arena where global and regional powers vied for hegemony. The most recent and evident examples are the destruction and massacres in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Yemen.
The second point concerns Israel's relations with Arab states, whose populations embraced the Palestinian cause as their own. This includes the US-mediated peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1978-1979 and the 1994 treaty with Jordan. It is significant that Israel has had a systematic plan to engage with Arab countries, especially considering that Egypt, after agreeing to a US-mediated pact with Israel in 1979, was expelled from the Arab League. More recently, Israel has openly entered into so-called "normalization" agreements with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sudan, and Morocco, and we could also include the case of Saudi Arabia, albeit more covertly.
From a geopolitical perspective, this offers several clues. The UAE is one of the most dynamic countries in the region, and we shouldn't underestimate its international significance, as well as the presence of the world's largest sporting (and political) event, the FIFA World Cup, which will be held in Qatar in 2022. This moment will likely be used to try to mask Israel's ongoing oppression of the Palestinian population. Furthermore, it represents a step towards Iran's opposite coast in the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf, an area through which a significant portion of the world's oil production passes via the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, a country opposed to US prerogatives since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has just signed a 25-year trade agreement with China.
The third point is that Israel strives, and has always strived, to present itself as part of Europe, both through its participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union, as well as in the various disciplines where it participates as just another European country—a stance that contradicts its geographical location. However, this also reveals its worldview, since from its most explicit declaration of establishing a state in this particular region—referring to the idea outlined in Theodor Herzl's "The Jewish State" ("Der Judeenstaat") of 1896—its role as Europe's spearhead in Asia—or perhaps, West in East?—is not denied, but rather emphasized by its various administrations. While the situation is not entirely comparable, it is somewhat similar to the United States, its unconditional ally, which may vary in name and supposed ideological orientation, but maintains, in this case, certain fundamental prerogatives regarding the Palestinian population, whom it seeks to expel or annihilate depending on their geographical location.
The State of Israel, in its imperialist role accompanying the United States, has at least three policies toward Palestine. First, a Master Plan of Judaization, of de-Arabization, to create a Jewish majority for the sake of political majority and based on structural racism, similar in some respects to that so widely discussed during the American “Black Lives Matter” movement. This is most explicit in the case of Jerusalem. We can differentiate between the approach used in Jerusalem, declared the sole, indivisible, and eternal capital in 1980 unilaterally and with the intention of undermining (forty years ago) the possibility of Palestinians achieving self-determination and self-government. A central issue is the settlement. Maale Adunim The goal is to dissect the West Bank in two, or what's left of it.
The plan for the territory is being fulfilled here exponentially. A city that would have been a “corpus separatum” for the unjust recommendation of partition of Declaration 181 of 1947 of the newly formed UN, given its sacred status for the three monotheistic religions that consider with a particular mysticism sites such as the Temple Mount for Muslims –more than 1600 billion believers–, the Western Wall for Jews –15 million– and the Holy Sepulchre for Christians –around 2400 billion–.
Second, in the West Bank, where territorial annexation is also being pursued, an attempt to legitimize it in 2020. The gradual expulsion follows the mass deportations of 1948 and 1967. The settlement communities (21st-century colonialism), the instrument of Israeli territorial conquest, have grown at twice the rate of other areas of Israel. This is complemented by the strategy for the so-called "Judea and Samaria" (names from the Torah) West Bank: a network of roads, checkpoints, settlers armed and ideologically prepared to commit all kinds of atrocities against their Palestinian neighbors, and a daily presence of the Israeli army at every level—in other words, an occupier against a people prevented from exercising their sovereignty.
Everyday microaggressions become less noticeable to the media, or rather, they choose not to show them, as the documentary "Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land" explains. Furthermore, they contribute to this by not showing this facet of the Israeli apartheid regime and instead choosing to extol its supposed success in combating Covid-19, for example. In short, Israel aims to colonize and seize these lands and their resources, exerting exhaustive control through its occupying military forces. The result is a series of disconnected or fragmented populations, reminiscent of South Africa.
Third, there is the current situation. Israel, the only nuclear-armed state in the region and possessor of the most sophisticated weaponry, launched a campaign of mass killings in the Gaza Strip in 2021, following its actions in 2008-2009, 2012, and 2014. This small territory is blockaded by land, sea, and air—an open-air prison. It has had no Israeli settlers since 2005, a fact that may help explain why it is the chosen target of their bombings. This is further compounded by the wealth of its waters. Called asymmetric warfare, this involves the bombing of entire populations and their infrastructure, which attempt to resist with rocket fire. The power of these rockets is diametrically opposed to that of the Israeli army, one of the best-trained in the world. The intention is to annihilate the Gaza Strip and its two million inhabitants.
An open-air prison
Following what happened in the Nakba Following the 1948 catastrophe and the ethnic cleansing, a pattern of simultaneous denial of Palestinian identity and the return to their lands was woven. Palestinians are mostly refugees, living under different states, including Israel. In their various territories, they face economic stifling, restricted access to water and their land; or they find themselves in an intermediate, not entirely defined, situation: living in Israel, but at a level of subjugation marked by their linguistic difference, rather than cultural differences, since even Israel has assimilated various Arab and Palestinian aspects such as music and food.
Looking back over the last three decades, specifically in Palestine and Israel, the 1993 Oslo Accords sought, among other objectives, to prevent future intifadas—which did occur—and to establish the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) as a complementary police force, specifically for the more militant or revolutionary Palestinian population. This meant providing the PNA with weapons of deterrence, although they were only to be used against their own citizens. How does this differ from any other state's monopoly on the use of force? The key difference is that the Israelis seek to conquer more land and control the territory, but the system fails to consider a Palestinian population (of a similar size to the Israeli population) if we adhere to the complete map of Mandatory Palestine (1922-1948). In other words, Israel continues with its annexation plans and since 1967, the Palestinian population has increasingly been swallowed up in a tangle of Israeli settlements, but without having the rights that citizenship would provide.
The dispute, unequal in most respects, unfolds on a wide range of levels, including geographical, historical, linguistic, archaeological, and artistic, as well as the media, which has always been a key factor in the balance. However, Israel's technological and military might is guaranteed by the greatest historical power in this regard, the US Army, which openly promises it a "qualitative military advantage" in the region. The US Army, the largest killing and destruction machine ever created, is, needless to say, directed in the most brutal ways. This is overshadowed by the growing support for the Palestinian cause worldwide. This support comes not from world leaders, but from the people (not only those in West Asia) who are increasingly aware of the injustices and death that plague the daily lives of Palestinians, degrading their access to land and water for food.
Regarding forms of Palestinian resistance, let's take an example. BDS, Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, regardless of its outcome, is one of the forms of resistance and subterfuge against the declarations of the International Alliance for Palestinian Remembrance. Holocaust IHRA (in its English acronym)These points are evident in the letter signed by numerous intellectuals from diverse backgrounds, rejecting the conflation of antisemitism (which we prefer to call Judeophobia) as a form of racism with anti-Zionism, which is an anti-colonial, and we would add, anti-imperialist practice. This compels us to make several observations, but one issue stands out as key, and it is expressed in Enzo Traverso's book. The End of Jewish Modernity: A Conservative Turnwhose main thesis is that Jewish intellectuals have mutated from Trotsky or Theodor Herzl and their role on the margins of world power, towards a central role in the world decision-making apparatus with the opposite example, illustrated in the figure of Henry Kissinger.
To summarize who is behind each side, one need only look at a map of the countries that recognize (support) Israel, which recognize both, and which support Palestinian self-determination—that is, a colonizer or a colonized. As a political example for our region, Macri and Bolsonaro, along with Biden, are the ones who wield the right to defend themselves against aggression. We have a country that imprisons a population in the open air, bombing some, confining others behind walls, and seeking to stifle any decision-making, fostering political divisions and leaving its territories disconnected. At the same time, the struggle is waged in the media, where they seek to distort the narrative for international public opinion through the epithet "terrorists" (who uses this label and why?). This leaves us with the question: Who is the terrorist?
Martin Martinelli (Argentina). He holds a PhD in Social Sciences, is a Professor of History at the National University of Luján, and co-coordinator of the Special Group Al Zeytun Magazine / CLACSO “Palestine and Latin America”.
