Israeli hubris

Few had anticipated the ripples that would be created by the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia in early 2014. A little over five years later, India has moved to annex the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir and now, Israel is talking about annexing large swathes of Palestine. The pronouncements come from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has long harboured a dream to “apply Israeli sovereignty” over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu has revived his long-held dream in a bid to whip up support for next week’s elections. However, unlike in Kashmir, where the Modi-led government had suspended the government in the disputed territory for months before finally annexing the region resulting in little on-ground political opposition, Palestinians appear far more determined not to give up another inch of their land to Israel.

With this conflict having garnered much world attention, Palestinian leaders have stated that any such move by Tel Aviv will effectively nullify interim peace deals from the 1990s which had helped end the last great intifada. Three major wars in the region over the issue in the past century, not to mention the centuries-old conflict over the region, means that the world is acutely aware of the gravity of the situation. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has already stated that the plan will constitute a “serious violation of international law”. But that throws no caution to the wind for Israel which knows that it enjoys the full, unflinching support of the US and other European powers to undertake gross violations of international law from launching wars with Lebanon to attacks on unarmed civilians in Gaza or even venturing into Syria. The real question is: will the fractured Muslim world ever wake up to back Palestinians’ cause or will it maintain its silence as it did with India’s annexation of Kashmir? 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2019.

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