Palestine: Agony and trauma over 40 years

Imtiaz Bakeer Markar (Co-Chairman, Sri Lanka-Palestine Friendship Society) in discussion with Prasad Gunewardene

The Israelis are hungry for security. The Palestine battles to survive a nation. For over forty years following the 1967 June battle. Yet the people of Palestine suffer.... Loss of lives of men, women and children.... destruction... displacement. When will this trauma end for those people? No one knows. The battle continues. Solidarity movements seek to end this four decade old strife through non-violent peaceful means. Summits and Summits have failed to yield results.

The issue is back to square one. Yasser Arafat, who battled this problem for years, is no more to witness these tragic developments that unfold day by day in the Gaza Strip.

Sri Lanka has always stood up to the rights of Palestine and its territory as nation for years and continues to uphold that position. We have shown our solidarity towards Palestinians who continue to be under occupied pressure by Israelis’ for over four decades.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa as then Chairman of the Sri Lanka-Palestine Friendship Society rendered a yeoman service for the rights of the people of Palestine. Sri Lanka continues to recognise the rights of Palestinians.

The Friendship Society is a bond that displays understanding and humanity between the peoples of Sri Lanka and Palestine. A road was named in Palestine in recognition of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s concern and solidarity towards the Palestinian cause.

Lanka’s stand

The Sri Lankan Parliament has continued to deplore the policy of Israel on the Palestine issue. The Co- Chairman of the Sri Lanka- Palestine Friendship Society,Imtiaz Bakeer Markar as a Minister of the previous Government in 2001 making a special statement in the House on the Palestine issue said-”

The unavoidable conclusion is that Israel, in its dealings with the Palestine people seek to displace rather than to replace injustice and oppression. Israel’s insensitive and short sighted reliance on the great power its alliance with the United States enables it to maintain can neither legitimize nor normalize its existence.

It only confirms the judgment that Israel ‘is a small country, armed to teeth strong in national spirit, but sorrowfully lacking in foresight’, as well as the national rights of the Palestinian, require not substitutes for Palestine freedom, but alternatives to Israeli occupation”.

Conflict

The Palestine cause was not born only as a result of the war in 1967. Israeli pressure on Palestine had been there for centuries and decades. The conflict goes back as far as 1895.

The United Nations General Assembly came into the scene in 1949 to adopt Resolution 194 in the following manner-”Israel must allow Palestine refugees expelled or forcibly fled from their homes and villages during the establishment of the State of Israel to return to their places of origin and to receive compensation.

The UN suggests that there are almost five million Palestine refugees gathered in the Palestine territory of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon”-

The question that remains to be answered after 59 years is whether the UN General Assembly has genuinely ensured whether the resolution adopted was implemented.

In 1967, the UN Security Council (Resolution 243) demanded the Israelis’ to withdraw from Arab land it occupied in June 1967. Has anything practical taken place so far? The answer is still a negative.

Israel then violated the 1993 Oslo agreement with regard to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In 2000 Washington spearheaded the “Camp David” peace talks. But it failed to bring about peace after Israel refused to recognise the Palestinian peoples right to return and to relinquish East Jerusalem which came under Israeli occupation from 1967.

Six-Day War

The Israeli-Arab war of six days in June 1967 completely changed the scenario of Middle East. Who continues to pay the price for that war? Isn’t it the Israelis’ and the Palestinians?

The defeat of the three Arab armies sowed the seeds of hatred and a conflict continues for over four decades. Israel expanded its territory to see no threat to its survival.

However, the conflict has brought hatred and death to many in both Israel and Palestine. The conflict has engulfed human life and mind. And they seek and early end to this conflict. It however seems a distant dream as the two entities have failed to come together to work out a durable solution.

Increasing violence on the border has made mistrust run deep. The massive Israeli expansion in settlement is the major cause, analysts say. That’s cause of the Islamic militant Hamas movement in the Palestine territory to raise doubt about a settlement to the conflict. Holding onto occupation is also a costly exercise for Israel.

Today, Israel is being considered and looked upon as a bully who exercises his military power to suppress the innocent.

When will the harassment of Palestinian people by Israeli military men who play the role of policemen stop is also another vital question.

This conduct has inflicted animosity in the minds of Palestinians.

Israelis’ realise their ultimate desire of the conflict too would be a distant dream to have permanent demarcation of borders. It had remained elusive for decades and the conflict has dragged for over four decades.

Achievement

Palestine has suffered much as the international aid embargo imposed after the rise of Hamas to power brought the people down to the ground.

Palestinians could be proud of one achievement. That is the four decade old war has given then due recognition and identity by the war and occupation though scattered as a people.

The uprising of eight years including suicide missions gave way for the Israelis’ to erect a massive wall to separate the two peoples at the West Bank.

It affected the Palestinians from leading their day to day normal life. Now, over half the West Bank looks out of bounds for Palestinians. Earlier, Israel capitalised by the war at the end of the second decade of the conflict by employing nearly 40 per cent of Palestinians at cheap labour.

Palestinians worked as construction workers, stewards in hotels and as gardeners for better pay than at home. It was the period where many Palestinians learned to speak Hebrew.

However, Palestinians battling to survive as a nation have resented pressure from Israel occupation in their territory. Peace deals worked out in the last decade of the past century failed as Arafat demanded the return of Palestinian refuges to the villages in Israel.

Settlements

Contrary to that demand, Israel kept constructing settlements on Palestinian territory while peace was being discussed. Israel has vouched never to return to the original borders that were before the 1967 June war.

But many Israelis today want to return to a settlement on the 1967 border terms. In Palestine, the crisis worsened with Fatah and Hamas turning guns on each other in a power struggle. Many now want to see a better life abroad.

The world has witnessed a series of peace deals on this crisis. The Unites States and others have unsuccessfully attempted to intervene many times. Time seems to be running out with Palestinian people further destined to suffer.

The Israeli occupation cannot be defeated by mere words. Illegal occupation, domination and oppression ought to be dismantled by the people in a similar way it was established.

It needs strategic planning, understanding, discipline and non-violent methods backed by international support. International presence to monitor civilian action through non-violent means will ensure protection to the helpless community.

Israel occupation looks to isolate Palestinians, to cut them off from the rest of the world. The world must stand up to say that they hear the cries and see the woes of the innocent Palestinians.

Freedom

That’s what the people of Palestine want the world to say and do. Palestine must resist nonviolently on pressure by Israel to tell the world that peace could only be achieved through non-violence.

The demand for freedom by Palestinians is just. Resistance to Israeli occupation in their territory is fair. The world must open its eyes to see the reality on the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.

Q: Mr. Bakeer Markar, does Israel as a nation have a right to the territory of Palestine?

A: All what I got to say is that Israel’s position is a 20th century artificial creation. All Jews are not bad people. You find many understanding Jews too in the territory of Israel.

Q: Will there be an end to Israeli occupation ?

A: Well, the world bodies must recognise the rights of Palestinians. Just passing resolutions to please gatherings would not do.

Such resolutions ought to be implemented to the letter if the world wants to ensure peace in that region.

Q: How would you describe the role of the Sri Lanka-Palestine Friendship Society towards the Palestinian cause ?

A: We have always stood for the just cause of Palestine. President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the former Chairman of the Society rendered a yeoman service on behalf of the people of Palestine. Even today he is closely watching their interests. We are for the solidarity of the Palestinian people.