Israel’s policies deny Gaza’s Palestinians normal lives

Gaza continues to headline regional print and broadcast news. For people following the news, it is nearly impossible to evade the catastrophe that has overtaken Gaza. The strip's 2.3 million Palestinians are starving due to Israel's blockade of food, water and fuel which began on March 2nd. Although limited aid deliveries resumed at the end of May, the majority of families continue to struggle to obtain enough food to avoid starvation.

This has increased pressure on Israel to agree to end the blockade and ceasefire in the war which it resumed on March 18th, after a three-month truce. However, Israel and the US have pulled out of indirect negotiations with Hamas brokered by Qatar, arguing that Hamas has refused to do a deal. This is not true: Hamas has simply not agreed to the deal Israel and the US have tabled at a time they appear to have believed starvation in Gaza would compel Hamas to agree to Israeli-US terms.

Hamas has accepted a 60-day ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. As it distrusts the US and Israel, Hamas is asking for more Palestinian prisoners than proposed. Hamas also demands the reopening of Gaza's Egyptian border with Israel and the redeployment of the Israeli army away from civilian centres within Gaza. Hamas calls for the exclusion of the US-Israel Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since 1,000 Palestinians have been killed during distributions of aid since late May. Hamas calls for a return to previous UN aid mechanisms. At the end of the ceasefire Hamas seeks a total withdrawal from Gaza of Israeli forces, an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza with its population in situ.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wants to maintain Israeli control over 40 per cent of Gaza, retain the GHF, and return to war after the ceasefire. He could, however, be ready for compromise after today (Monday) when the Israeli parliament goes into recession until October as his fragile minority government would not be threatened with a no-confidence motion. Two Ultra-Orthodox religious parties withdrew from the coalition last week over proposed legislation cancelling military draft exemptions for Ultra-Orthodox Jews, however, the Sephardi (Eastern) Ultra-Orthodox party, Shas, said it would vote with Netanyahu on other legislation, offering him a tenuous lifeline while the coalition holds only 50 seats in the Knesset.

Exemptions for the Ultra-Orthodox were granted at the time of Israel's founding 77 years ago when that community was small but have created resentment among other Israelis who have been required to serve as Ultra-Orthodox numbers have grown. Resentment has increased since Netanyahu mounted his war on Gaza on October 7th, 2023, which he seeks to prosecute until it "eliminates" Hamas, an objective few Israelis believe he will attain.

As long as the war goes on, Netanyahu believes he will not face criticism for his handling of Hamas and the failure, under his watch, of the Israeli army to predict and pre-empt the 2023 attack on southern Israel by Hamas which killed 1,200 and abducted 250. Netanyahu did not crack down hard on Hamas once it took control in Gaza in 2007 and allowed funds to flow into its coffers for two reasons. He sought to use Hamas as a counterweight to Fatah and divide Gaza, from the West Bank, where the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority administers Palestinian enclaves.

For Netanyahu and many Israelis October 7th justifies anything Israel might do to the Palestinians living under its occupation, particularly those in Gaza. However, without justifying Hamas' attack, it must be put into the context of Israel's treatment of Palestinians during the longest colonial occupation in modern history. Israel's emergence by war in 1948 was accompanied by ethnic cleansing of Palestinians living along the Mediterranean coast and in the wider Gaza governorate. They were driven into the narrow territory which became the "Gaza Strip." Refugees now are 70 per cent of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza. Some 1.37 million who live in UN refugee camps.

Israel has invaded Gaza many times. Israel briefly occupied the strip in 1956-1957 and held Gaza from 1967-2005. After it withdrew its soldiers and settlers in August 2005, Israel retained control by air, land, and sea. Since Hamas seized power in Gaza Israel has waged war on Gaza in 2008-2009, 2012, 2014, 2021, and 2023 until now. During each bout of warfare, Gazans were killed, their homes damaged and destroyed, the strip's infrastructure was bombed and efforts to rebuild were underfunded and incomplete.

Israel imposed restrictions on entry into and exit from Gaza during the early 1990s and intensified restrictions after Hamas took over. After Hamas ruled Gaza, Israel initially refused permits to work in Israel to Gazans but after several years issued permits for 17,000, a fraction of the 120,000 employed in Israel before Hamas took over.

Israel's policies have denied Gaza's Palestinians normal lives. They have always lived under Israeli control. Gaza's economy is small, GDP low, and unemployment has long been high. It now stands at nearly 80 per cent, with more than three-quarters of youth without education, training, and employment. They have no past, present and future under Israeli rule. This is why Hamas, and other militant groups have been able to recruit from a large pool of bitter and resentful youths, mainly male, who are ready risk their lives to attack Israel and Israelis.

The only way to halt this decades long process of deprivation is to found and fund a Palestinian state in Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, 22 per cent of the territory of Palestine. While this is rejected by Netanyahu and his right-wing allies, the two-state solution has been recognised by the international community as the means to end the conflict over possession of Palestine. However, Israeli governments and their US allies have thwarted any and all attempts to create a weak, demilitarised Palestinian rump state.

Netanyahu and his political partners fully intend to drive Palestinians from Gaza and annex the West Bank as Israel has already annexed East Jerusalem and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Palestinians can be expected to both stage revolts (Intifadas) and lash out in violent attacks. It took the Irish 800 years of resistance and revolt to secure an end to English colonisation and domination but the price was partition between south and north.