Palestine: A Successful Erasure?

The illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine plays a very pivotal role in shaping the arena of the world’s politics. It has been more than five decades since the forced Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, slaughtering hundreds of innocent people every other day. Since then, several attempts have been made to resolve the conflict, but to no avail.

Over the years, Israel and its aide USA have crossed several thresholds defying the fundamental rights of the Palestinians. But, the bigger picture is how is the world responding to the same? It has been long since people have been assuming that the occupation is “temporary” that the ‘peace talks’ will stop the Israelis from persecuting the Palestinians, which has only augmented over the past few years. And in addition, they fail to realize that the Palestinians have no control over their lives in the West Bank and Gaza. For the past 54 years, Palestinians have had a limited degree of self-rule in their own country; they have been denied basic human rights, civil rights, land access, and freedom to move, build, and confer residency rights. Whereas the Israeli authorities continue to hold primary (forced) control over borders, territories, the mere movement of people and goods, security, and the registry of the entire populace and continue their perpetual abuse and torture towards the Palestinians without being held answerable.

According to a report by the UN Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israeli authorities toppled 568 Palestinian homes and other buildings in the West Bank including, East Jerusalem by October 2020, displacing 759 people. Most buildings were demolished merely for lacking Israeli building permits, which are practically impossible to obtain. This is just one of the reports among the hundred others. Talking about the lives they have claimed, the Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinians, bringing to 36 the number of Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank so far in 2021, including six children. These were just the fatalities of the West Bank. The genocide orchestrated by the Israeli’s in May 2021 in Gaza, during the Holy Month of Ramadan, claimed the lives of 256 Palestinians, including 66 children and 40 women, according to OHCHR; and almost 2,000 others were injured, according to the local Ministry of Health.

One of the most detestable crimes according to the International Criminal Law is the crime against humanity. There have been major revolts and rebellions written in history for the same. People upended against Persecution, Apartheid, and Oppression, standing in concert, irrespective of their religious or cultural differences. One can see the waves of anger on Instagram, Twitter, and many other social media platforms supporting the same cause. But how does one define the incoherent and vague response of the public when similar patterns are repeated in Palestine? Why are the voices and cries of the orphans of Palestine left unheard? There are several trends organized on social media platforms to support the Palestinian cause, but they eventually die down. In addition to this, there have been several events where the Instagram pages or YouTube Channels which are outrageous against the Zionist regime are repeatedly taken down. One such channel was “The Islamic Pulse”, which was very popular on YouTube but there were always instances where its views were compromised, which often questioned the authenticity of the channel. Some videos of the channel were also repeatedly deleted and ultimately, the account was permanently suspended.

These patterns are commonly trailed in Authoritarian regimes where the people have little or no control over their lives. This further infers how the minds of youths are socially engineered against the good cause by shrouding or manipulating the truth. Now, at this point of time, the Israeli genocide is treated as a trend wherein the number of people supporting the Palestinian cause increases with the number of people slaughtered by the Israeli’s. Eventually, when the news becomes history, people forget that innocent lives are still being butchered.

The plight of the Palestinians cannot be settled if we keep overlooking it, neither can it be solved if we choose to recognize Israel and cooperate with it. The situation of Palestine and the tyranny and injustices that accompany it has catapulted Palestinian statehood to prominence on the international agenda yet the echo of the graveness of the situation has not been discerned still. A solution has to be brought forward before the ethnic cleansing brings in a major demographic transformation and before the Zionist dream becomes a reality. There is no solace to be taken in this: the Palestinians have been suffering and continue to suffer.

Sidra Fatima is a student pursuing English Literature from Jamia Millia Islamia.

Edited by: Reda Aamna