Why Can't Israel Justify Gaza War to Int'l Community?

Israel's military chief declared that the fight against Hamas will last for months this week, citing several occurrences outside the Gaza Strip as evidence of the conflict's potential to spread.

Chief of Staff Herzi Halev's prediction came in a televised statement to the media on Tuesday from the Gaza border.

Israeli actions in Gaza escalated around Christmas, especially in a central region— south of the seasonal waterway that divides the Gaza Strip. According to media, the Israeli army ordered the civilian population to evacuate the area, but many claimed there was nowhere safe for them to go.

Palestinian Question: UN's Standpoint and Israel's Disagreement

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' statement that the October 7 attacks by Hamas "did not happen in a vacuum" has sparked a fierce dispute between Israel and the UN.

Israel reacted sharply to the remark made on October 24 by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. In his speech to the UN Security Council, the UN president stated that although he strongly condemned the October 7 offensive carried out by Hamas, he wanted to remind everyone of the context.

“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation," Guterres remarked.

Israeli authorities swiftly condemned the statement and called for Guterres' resignation. Following suit, the Israeli media said that the UN leader "has demonstrated a stunning degree of moral bankruptcy," among other things.

Disregarding Root Causes: Erasing Historical Context to Justify Actions

The dehistoricization of Palestine's fight facilitates the pursuit of policies by Israel and Western governments that they previously avoided for moral, practical, or strategic reasons.

Israel is pursuing tactics of massacre in the Gaza Strip under the guise of the October 7 strike. Moreover, it serves as a cover for the US to attempt to reclaim its influence in the Middle East. In the name of a renewed "war on terror," several European nations are also using it as a pretext to restrict and abuse democratic liberties.

However, it is impossible to overlook the various historical factors that influence the current situation in Israel and Palestine. The broader historical background dates back to the middle of the 1800s, when the West's evangelical Christianity transformed the notion of the "return of the Jews" into a religious millennial imperative and promoted the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine as a prelude to the end of the world, the resurrection of the dead, and the coming of the Messiah.

The Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza have endured 50 years of collective punishment at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces, who have also imprisoned hundreds of thousands of them and subjected them to ongoing harassment from Israeli security personnel and settlers.

The historical background of Gaza's 16-year siege, where children make up over half of the population, is devastating. The UN issued a warning in 2018 that by 2020, the Gaza Strip would be unfit for human habitation.

Global Solidarity: International Backing for Palestinian Cause

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered around the world to chant “Free Palestine” as the death toll continues to climb in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have filled the streets of European and North American cities with thousands, tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands in Berlin, Washington, Stockholm, Paris, Toronto, Oslo, Chicago, Rome, Los Angeles, and other cities since October 7.

Amid police warnings that anyone displaying sympathy for the armed group Hamas could face arrest, protests took place in England in London and Manchester, among other cities, as well as in Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland. Over a thousand police officers watched protestors closely as they marched through the center of the British capital.

Pro-Palestine protests were also held in the Irish capital, Dublin, in Turin, northwest Italy, and Geneva, Switzerland.

Israel-Hamas war

Western Media Fails to Show Human Rights Abuses in Gaza: Expert

4 November 2023, 15:03