The war between Israel and Hamas is dominating the headlines. Not a day goes by without the pictures detailing the horrendous bombing raids on Gaza appearing in our newsfeed; not a day goes by without a news statement by the Israeli government justifying their act.
It all started on the 7th of October when Hamas soldiers managed to cross the border into Israel and committed some of the most horrific act of violence against mostly unarmed civilians. There are stories abound of women being raped, sometimes In front of their kids, arbitrary people being abducted, and men, women and children killed in cold blood. There was apparently one particularly gruesome story where a Hamas soldier tried to behead his captive but couldn’t find anything sharp enough to cut his neck off, but he nevertheless persisted and eventually savaged the head off. This is the definition of horror. One can’t begin to imagine the pain the parents of the captive must have felt.
In response to the brutal attacks, Israel decided to launch the biggest counter attacks since the 1967 six-day Arab-Israeli war. It Started with a bombing campaign that seems very indiscriminate. Many civilian structures were flattened. Most Palestinians are running out of food and water. There are reports of whole families being wiped out because of the bombing campaigns. The people of Palestine are trapped in a living nightmare.
Nobody wins when there is war. There can never be a justification to kill someone daughter or son. No least a political validation. The citizens always hurt the most. They are just used as pawns by megalomanic politicians. Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister who portrays himself as a strongman, had a laps in judgement of Hamas. It turned out that the border was poorly defended, and that even though they knew that Hamas was using child labourer to dig the tunnels, did nothing about it.
The Hamas leaders don’t even stay in Palestine, but apparently live a lavish life in Qatar and Turkey. Yet they use a combination of threats of violence and bribes to cement their power in the Gaza strip. Even though Iran supports Hamas, they don’t care about the Palestine people, otherwise they would have sent money to build schools and universities. Instead, they send money to buck rockets. The other Arab states have not offered to take in any of the Palestine refugees. Why?
And yet it seems to be that the general world population is expected to take a side. There have been many demonstrations worldwide, often for the plight of the Palestine but also against the rise of antisemitism. There has been no demonstration for peace.
How are we supposed to take side in a conflict that goes back to biblical times? Clearly, it is a very complicated scenario. There are too many issues to address them all. There does not seem to be any reasonable of justifiable outcome in sight. Yet, it is time to stop killing innocent civilians. It is time to imagine how the region could look like in 20 years’ time, and then come up with a plan on how to get there. Both parties must stick to that plan.
Healing will take time, but it is possible. It has been done before, just look at Norther Ireland or South Africa. One needs to start with respecting each other as human beings. Then stop shouting but rather listen. Listen to what the general population wants. Listen to what they need. But that can’t be done with the current leadership in Israel, and it can’t be done with the current leadership of Hamas and Palestine. They need to step down.