Question: "Has the conflict between Israel
and the Palestinians become a purely religious one? Does the rise of Hamas mean
that a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become
impossible?"
It is difficult for me to consider
the Israeli-Palestinian issue as one based on Religion for several
reasons. The first reason is that the
issue is based on land, and has been emblazoned by the Israeli occupation of
the Palestinian people, the brutal Israeli oppression of the Palestinian
civilian sectors, and the ethnic cleansing and illegal settlement building
(considered illegal by a majority of states on the international stage) on
confiscated Palestinian lands (over demolished Palestinian homes). What started as a land conflict between the
newly established (after WWII) state of Israel and the displaced Palestinian
population (and refugees) has, with the assistance of decades of western and
U.S. monetary, political and military support to Israel (secured by Zionist and
Christian Zionist lobbyist organizations on Congressional decision making), has
transformed the situation into one of a brutal aggressor/oppressor state (internationally
recognized) and an oppressed population (internationally ignored and media vilified
as sponsors of terror). The
Israeli-Palestinian issue is not a conflict; it is the longest military occupation
in the modern era.
The second reason that the issue
is not a religious conflict is that Judaism is a religion based on ethnicity, meaning
one needs to be ethnically Jewish or a fool to claim Judaism because the entire
concept of the so-called religion is based on an exclusive ethnic
bloodline. In addition to this socio-religious
phenomenon of ethnicity guised in religion, it must be noted that there are both
Christian and Muslim Palestinians. A Palestinian
is a Palestinian, not an automatic member of an ethnic religious group.
If the problem between the state
of Israel and the Palestinian people has become impossible to repair peacefully,
I do not view the rise of Hamas as the reason that a peaceful resolution is
unachievable. Hamas is a “political and
social organization” (Klein, 2007, p. 444) that views the “voice of the masses,
in its view, is the expression of God’s will (Klein, 2007, p. 444). Sounds like Islamic democracy, does it not? Klein spends quite a bit of time comparing the
Islamic Charter of 1988 and the 2006 Hamas-sponsored political platform of Change
and Reform, but in my opinion this is a reflection of change over nearly two
decades. Keep in mind that in the United
States during the year 1855, slavery was still an economic system of
exploitation. In 1872, it was not. In the United States in 1860, racial
segregation was law. In 1978, society
had changed (somewhat).
If a peaceful solution to the
problem is no longer possible, the main reason is due to the fact that the U.S.
(along with western allies and private sector organizations) has provided
Israel with over 3 billion dollars a year in foreign aid for over five decades
now, and Israel has utilized this monetary and military aid in their military
occupation and oppression, ethnic cleansing and brutalization (and humiliation)
of the Palestinian people. Each time the
Palestinian leadership attempts to utilize the proper international channels, the
world turns a deaf ear to their request for justice or recognized statehood. The U.S. vetoes every UN resolution condemning
Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian people (while continuing to
criticize Iran for human rights violations while funding the human-rights violating
Israel).
Again, I do not view the
Israeli-Palestinian issue as a conflict, no more than I ever viewed the U.S. occupations
of Iraq and Afghanistan as “wars” after the existing regimes were overthrown
during the initial invasions. The Issue
is an injustice to humanity and quite frankly displays the hypocrisy of
civilized states in the west.
Klein, Menachem. 2007.
Hamas in Power. The Middle East
Journal 61 no.3 (Summer 2007): 442-459
No comments:
Post a Comment