As the world has inclined towards establishing war against terror, it has brought communities and races on the verge of ethnic cleansing. What is more shocking is the denial. The denial of acknowledgment. Israel has continued its systematic encroachment of Palestinian land.
The Palestinians are indeed exposed to apartheid. In recent weeks, Masafer Yatta communities have been hit by wave after wave of demolitions according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). On 4 May 2022, Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ) rejected multiple petitions by residents in eight scattered villages of Masafer Yatta.
In 1980, the Israeli army designated the 3,000-hectare area as ‘firing zone 918’ which was a restricted military zone to be used for training exercises. In November 1999, the army expelled all Masafer Yatta residents, yet an interim injunction issued by the HCJ in March 2000 allowed them back pending a final decision, and under the condition that they do not restore their homes. Since then, residents have been denied permission even to install solar panels or water cisterns.
On 16 June, the Israeli army started carrying out military training in the area.
As a result, homes and animal shelters are now being demolished, forcing residents out of their ancestral land.
During these years, the Arab world remain ignorant of the oppression on Palestinians . Publicly, Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has maintained the stance that no deal with Israel will ever be made until a two-state solution is found. But privately, he has been pushing Arab allies to normalise their diplomatic and military relations with the occupation state. UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan have already signed Abraham Accord in 2020 which was exclusively focussed on establishing diplomatic relations with israel and enhancing peace.
This includes historic meetings between the US and Arab leaders. During the 1978 Camp David Accords, Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat started negotiations by demanding that Israeli settlements on occupied land should return to 1967 levels, but he abandoned this position under pressure from the Jimmy Carter administration.
As with the 1967 war, Israel increased its occupation of historic Palestine to 85 per cent of the Palestinian territories. This was a direct consequence of UN Resolution 181 in 1947 which rubber stamped settler colonialism by handing over control of 55 per cent of historic Palestine to Israel for a “Jewish state”, even though Jews owned just six per cent of the land at the time.
It set in motion the 1948 Nakba which ethnically cleansed a majority of the Palestinian Arabs from their land. Although the Arab countries were failed in protecting lives of Palestinians, the United Nations have played the most prominent role in establishing settler colonialism and legitimizing occupation.
Similarly, the 1994 Israel- Jordan peace treaty arguably highlights the negligence of Arab countries. The Jordan’s king Hussein wanted to improve relations with US which in turn wanted him to make peace with israel.
As long as the Arab world is dealing with Israel, the palestinian issue will never be a cause of concern. Peace will remain a delusion unless the Arab world backs its stance with concrete actions. The world’s affinities for peace will remain useless without establishing justice. Unfortunately, the world has failed the Palestine.
