With the end of another decade of the Palestinian struggle to end the Israeli occupation, the idea of ​​a peaceful and just solution to the Palestinians seems more distant than ever before. The past ten years were marked by a loss for the Palestinians, and this was literally demonstrated in The loss of more land, homes, lives and support, and dispelling hope at the local and international levels in holding Israel accountable for its continuous crimes and bringing them to justice or holding them accountable by any standard, in addition to losing their hope for a two-state solution despite the Palestinian leadership clinging to it as a possible solution.
The past decade coincides with the seventieth anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, the establishment of violence, killing and Western-backed destruction in the State of Israel, as well as the 50th anniversary of Israel´s military occupation of the West Bank and the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan, and ten years of suffocating siege on Gaza. With every Palestinian memory commemorated, the situation appears more deteriorating than the previous one.
Palestinian refugees are still suffering in the camps in the occupied land and in the diaspora, while Israel continues its fierce military occupation of the rest of the Palestinian territories, while settlements have intensified and the pace of talk about "annexation of settlements" and other occupied lands has escalated, while in Gaza, more than two million Palestinians enter 2020 is the year that the United Nations said Gaza "is no longer viable."
The past decade - the era of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and American President (coincidental president) Donald Trump in the United States - preached since its inception a golden era for the Israeli right and the American right with Israeli settlement and its unprecedented expansion, and Israel set records for home demolitions in occupied Jerusalem .
But what about the next decade? Things look like a puck. The two-state solution, which was used as an anesthetic for the Palestinians, and a cover for the Palestinian leadership that negotiated, negotiated, and pyramid negotiating, and had been in place since the Oslo accords, has become a solution (the two-state solution) that many consider "dead". So, what does "future peace negotiations" look like if there is any ray of hope for "negotiation", especially given Trump´s potential presidency for two consecutive terms? And if Netanyahu succeeds in obtaining another term as prime minister, which seems more likely after his victory in the Likud elections on December 26, 2019, will the annexation of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank turn from mere election promises into reality? What about young Palestinians? What will their motto be? Will we hear their voices, and the voices of their anger in the end, as a rebellion against all those who oppress them and abort their ambitions and opportunities: The Israeli occupation authorities, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas? Will we see a shift to put something Palestinian under the tent of "resisting the Israeli occupation?"
The answer to all of these questions remains unseen, but modest speculation suggests that things will definitely get worse before they get better.
As we assess the future, it is imperative, when evaluating a review of the past:
The Beginning of Obama´s Era: A Glimmer of Hope ?!
The beginning of Barack Obama´s presidency in 2009 marked a shift in American attitudes toward Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East, who suffered through the years of his predecessor George Bush´s war and destruction. In his historic speech in Cairo on June 4, 2009 entitled "A New Beginning", Obama promised to mend ties With the Muslim world, he chose to highlight the achievement of peace between the Palestinians and Israel as an important and prioritized effort over his priorities.
While he criticized the Palestinian resistance movements and reaffirmed the "unbreakable" ties with Israel, his call for the establishment of a "Palestinian state and an end to settlement expansion" was welcomed by Palestinian leaders (in all their forms), and he was greeted with cautious optimism by the Palestinians under the yoke of occupation, It was a somewhat welcome departure after decades of negative US policy and attitudes toward the Palestinians, which - at the time - appeared to be hopeful.
The Israeli occupation army robs "Gaza Freedom Flotilla one day" May 31, 2010
The international community was shaken after a raid by the Israeli occupation army on the "Freedom Flotilla in Gaza", which is a group of six civilian ships - three passenger ships and three cargo ships, heading to the Gaza Strip to break the siege, where the Israeli forces stormed the ships from helicopters and speed boats in the center Night, and ended up killing 10 innocent activists, most of them Turks, after which ships were forced to enter the port of Ashdod, where Israel detained more than 600 other activists, all of whom were eventually deported.
Although the Israeli raid sparked widespread condemnation from the international community, and Turkish-Israeli relations were strained, and a United Nations report found that the killing of many activists was "consistent with extrajudicial, arbitrary and summary execution", Israel escaped as usual.
Israel ends its alleged freeze of settlements for a year in September 2010
On September 26, 2010, the Israeli occupation authorities announced, in a decision that paved the way for a decade of unprecedented settlement expansion in the occupied territory, that "the settlement freeze stopped." The move came amid peace talks launched by the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton but collapsed a few months later, knowing that ending the alleged "freeze" or giving the green light to thousands of settlement units immediately did not push the Palestinians out of negotiations, nor did the Obama administration To protest, especially as it was the godmother of the negotiations.
2011: Endeavors to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations:
On September 16, 2011, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that the Palestinian Authority would submit an official application for full membership of the United Nations to the state of Palestine, after a year of stalled peace talks and continued expansion of settlements, but the Obama administration threatened the Palestinians that it would use the veto Against the request - a move the United States ultimately avoided by a small margin, after the Palestinians failed to get the nine votes required from the admission committee they needed to win approval.
Palestine wins a seat at UNESCO:
On October 31, 2011, after the failed attempt to become a United Nations member, the Palestinians celebrated their victory in a seat at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The move was celebrated by Palestinian activists, who were demanding membership in the agency in the hope that granting the UNESCO World Heritage Site historic places would protect certain areas from Israeli settlement expansion and land confiscation.
The move was met with strong opposition from Israel and the United States, as the latter suspended its funding for the United Nations agency immediately after the decision was issued, according to the US law of 1990 prohibiting the allocation of funds to any United Nations agency that deals with the Palestine Liberation Organization as a member state of the United Nations.
2012 Israeli occupation authorities secretly allocate West Bank lands to expand settlements:
On March 30, 2012, as a result of a request for "freedom of information" from an anti-settler activist, it was revealed that the Israeli occupation authorities (the so-called Civil Administration) secretly allocated parts of West Bank land - about 10% of the entire land - to expand settlements in the future (Ha´aretz reported At the time, the maps named several settlements that did not exist until their publication).
The Israeli war of aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip, 14-21 November 2012, destroys Gaza:
After days of cross-border tensions, the Israeli occupation forces assassinated Ahmed al-Jabari, the commander of the armed wing of Hamas, in an air strike. During the following week, the Israeli occupation forces said they bombed 1,500 targets throughout the Gaza Strip. The Israeli occupation army killed 174 Palestinians, most of them civilians, while hundreds were wounded, while six Israelis were killed (Israel said that they included four civilians), while more than 200 were wounded, most of them soldiers.
In the aftermath of this aggression, (the second since Obama came as President of the United States), Israel has been accused of several war crimes. In an air strike on an apartment building, 10 members of the Aquarius family were killed. The human rights organization B´Tselem said at the time, "In many cases, B´Tselem found that Palestinians who had not taken part in hostilities were killed and wounded without receiving any advance warning that might have enabled them to take refuge."
Resolution of the United Nations General Assembly to raise the level of Palestine to a non-member observer state on November 29, 2012:
After the failed attempt in the previous year (2011) to become a full-fledged state, the Palestinians won after the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of Resolution 67/19 to raise the level of Palestine to a "non-member state." It is a largely symbolic role, but it allowed Palestine to participate in General Assembly discussions, paving the way for Palestine to become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
After one day of "upgrading the status of Palestine" at the United Nations, the Israeli occupation authorities responded by agreeing to the zoning plans and initial settlement construction in the E1 area in the occupied West Bank. The punitive measure was widely condemned by the international community, including the US administration, which saw it as a major setback to the two-state solution.
2013: John Kerry launches nine months of US-sponsored peace talks:
Three years after negotiations stalled, US Secretary of State John Kerry launched on July 29, 2013 his famous endeavor to sponsor Palestinian-American negotiations for nine months to bring Palestinian and Israeli leaders face to face to conduct direct peace negotiations, under the auspices of Minister Kerry´s direct envoy, former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk.
The talks started with "concessions agreed upon by the two parties where the Palestinians agreed to stop seeking international recognition as a state, by submitting membership applications to various organizations and agencies, in exchange for Israel to release 104 Palestinian prisoners who had been imprisoned before the 1993 Oslo accords, and it was assumed that They are released during 1999.
From the first moment, the talks were characterized by weakness and lack of seriousness, especially the Israeli procrastination, and the attempt to renegotiate to a point some 20 years ago (the Oslo Accords of 1993). After less than eight of the nine-month deadline, negotiations collapsed, due to Israel’s refusal to honor its prisoner pledges, and it was said at the time that US officials blamed the Israeli side for its continued settlement expansion throughout the negotiations, but Washington did nothing.
According to an Israeli Peace Now report, during the eight months of talks, Israel set a new record for settlement expansion, with approximately 14,000 newly approved settler homes.
2014:
Israel reneged on its pledges to release 26 Palestinian prisoners on March 28, 2014, ending negotiations between them and the Palestinians, while the Obama administration and Secretary of State Kerry were silent about what Israel was doing.
Things got more tense after the kidnapping of three settlers near the "Gush Etzion" settlement in the Hebron area in the occupied West Bank. The kidnapping sparked a two-week pursuit and abuse of Palestinians throughout the occupied territory (which has become the largest operation of the Israeli occupation authorities in the occupied West Bank since the second intifada). The Occupation Forces killed five Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, and raided more than 1,000 Palestinian homes, offices and schools, and arrested hundreds of Palestinians collectively.
Kidnapping and killing of Muhammad Abu Khudair:
On July 2, 2014, after Israel finished chasing it in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinians shook to the core when they awoke to news that a group of Israeli settlers had kidnapped a 16-year-old Palestinian boy from occupied Jerusalem. A few hours later, his charred body was found dumped near a forest in Jerusalem. Preliminary autopsy results showed that the boy, Muhammad Abu Khudair, was burned while he was still alive.
The killing of Abu Khudair encouraged settlers to carry out a number of kidnappings of Palestinians, and fierce attacks by the occupation forces throughout the West Bank. The Palestinians organized numerous protests throughout the occupied territories, which were suppressed by the Israeli forces. It is well known that, after a few days of killing, a videotape emerged showing secret Israeli officers violently beating Muhammad Abu Khudhair´s cousin, American citizen Tariq Khudair, 15, while he was handcuffed. The images of swollen Khudair´s face in black and blue have been published by international and American media, and have drawn widespread condemnation from the international community.
The third war of Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip during the Obama era:
After weeks of Palestinian-Israeli tension in the wake of the killing of the three teenage settlers, the killing of the boy Abu Khudair, and the exchange of rocket bursts between Gaza and the occupation authorities, Israel launched its third war on Palestinians trapped in Gaza in less than 6 years on July 8, 2014, "Operation Protective Edge", which The most bloody, criminal and destructive Israeli war on Gaza has become. The war, on land, air, and sea, against the Palestinians continued for 50 days, allegedly targeting the sites of the armed Hamas movement.
According to United Nations documents, the operation claimed the lives of 2,251 Palestinians, including at least 1,462 civilians, 551 of whom were children, including children playing soccer on the Gaza beach. More than 11,000 Gazans were injured, a quarter of them children. An estimated 1,500 children became orphans, and 142 Palestinian families with three or more individuals were killed in the same incident, a total of 742 dead from the entire family.
In addition, 18,000 housing units were totally or partially destroyed, leaving more than 100,000 Gazans homeless. According to a report issued by B´Tselem in 2019, four and a half years after the war, 20% of homes are still unusable and about 2,300 families - about 13,000 people - are still homeless, but the Obama administration´s response to all of this was that Israel has the right to defend itself.
The assassination of the Dawabsheh family: 2015
Violent settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territories are not strange, but what a group of masked terrorist settlers did by attacking and burning the home of the Dawabsheh family in Duma village on July 31, 2015 with incendiary bombs. The Palestinians under occupation felt terrified and targeted. The fire killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh and his parents. Ahmad Dawabshe, four years old, was the only survivor, with severe burns in more than 80% of his body.
The media and the Israeli government attempted to portray the attack as an act of a few "wolves" and "Jewish extremists", proving the Palestinians that it was not a one-time incident, but rather represented the true face of the settler movement in the West Bank.
The Third Intifada September 13, 2015 - 2016:
On the eve of the Jewish year in 2015, dozens of Israelis entered the Al-Aqsa compound and the Noble Sanctuary in East Jerusalem under the protection of the armed Israeli occupation authorities. The presence of Israeli worshipers sparked protests among Palestinians at the site, which were violently suppressed by the Israeli forces. Video footage of the Israeli forces launching sound and tear gas canisters at Al-Aqsa Mosque sparked several protests throughout the city. That same night, an Israeli man was killed after being attacked by a group of Palestinian stone throwers and he lost control of his car. During the days that followed, clashes continued in Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem, and the West Bank, while political commentators around the world, (as well as Palestinian and Israeli leaders), began to describe the protests as a "third intifada."
A few days later, on September 22, the occupation authorities shot an 18-year-old Palestinian girl, Hadeel Hashmon, and was killed while passing through a checkpoint in Hebron, allegedly carrying a knife. Later it turned out that it did not pose an imminent threat to the lives of soldiers, who could have been arrested by non-violent means. According to some, her killing was a turning point for the Palestinians and the beginning of stabbing attempts against the occupation soldiers.
Security Council Resolution 2334:
In one of its latest decisions, the outgoing US President Barack Obama´s administration decided not to use the veto for the first time on a case condemning the Israeli occupation, as the Security Council adopted by an overwhelming majority, on December 23, 2016, a resolution submitted by Senegal, Malaysia, and Venezuela, And New Zealand condemns settlement activity and demands that it be stopped in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. For the first time in 36 years, 14 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution, while the United States of America alone abstained from voting. The decision stated:
The Security Council, recalling its relevant resolutions, including resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 446 (1979), 452 (1979), 465 (1980), 476 (1980), 478 (1980), 1397 (2002), 1515 (2003) and 1850 (2008), guided by the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, and reaffirming, inter alia, the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force.
Reaffirming the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of August 12, 1949, to the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, recalling the advisory opinion issued on July 9, 2004 by international justice Court.
Reaffirming that all Israeli settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law and constitute a major obstacle to achieving peace on the basis of a two-state solution, and expressing deep concern that the continuation of Israeli settlement activities is endangering The feasibility of a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. ”The newly elected president, Donald Trump, tried to pressure not to present the draft resolution, but it failed.
2017
The year began with Donald Trump receiving the White House and the US Presidency. Trump, who has surrounded himself with a group of sympathizers of the settlement movement, such as his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, his ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and one of his attorneys, Jason Greenblatt, stated that he was working on a "deal of the century" to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and that his brother-in-law Kushner was the only person who could This conflict was resolved, and Prime Minister Netanyahu received in the White House in February 2017, and then in the month of May, Palestinian President Abbas, and delegations chased back and forth to and from Washington, under the illusion that Trump is thinking differently from his predecessors and that he may be able to impose a solution on Israel.
Trump declares Jerusalem the capital of Israel:
Perhaps the moment that is considered the "major turning point" in the last half of the decade was represented by President Donald Trump´s announcement that the United States will recognize occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on December 6, 2017.
The decision sparked widespread protests that led to the arrest of hundreds of Palestinians and the injury of many others.
Years later, "Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine" is still a slogan that appears in almost every political protest throughout the region, and while Israel welcomed the American decision, the whole world condemned the decision and ended the Palestinian-American negotiation.
2018 Return Marches:
From March 30, 2018 to the present day, the Palestinians are demonstrating in large numbers in the besieged Gaza Strip in protest against the siege, occupation and injustice within the marches of return.
When Ahmed Abu Artema thought of the idea of ​​the "Great March of Return" in his besieged house in the Gaza Strip, he did not realize that he was launching one of the largest Palestinian popular movements in decades. What was originally supposed to last a few Friday days beginning on Earth Day in 2018, has continued weekly since then, with the citizens of Gaza going to the border strip to demand the right of return of refugees to their land, and an end to the 12-year blockade.
The marches were suppressed with criminal violence by the Israeli occupation forces, which killed hundreds of participants in the peaceful marches and injured thousands, causing hundreds of permanent disabilities.
According to United Nations documents, as of March 30, 2019, Israel had killed 195 Palestinians, including 41 children, and wounded nearly 29,000 people (including more than 7,000 wounded by live ammunition) during the marches.
The nation-state law strengthens the Palestinian situation as second-class citizens in Israel:
The law was officially passed by the Israeli Knesset on July 19, 2018. The racial law states that "Israel is the state of the Jewish people." Among other things, the law was enacted that “Hebrew” is the only national language, and marginalized the ranking of the Arabic language into a “special status.” The right-wing government of Israel has praised the move, which it praised as recently affirming the "Jewish character" of Israel. The law prohibited the classification of Palestinians from Israeli citizenship as second-class citizens.
During his presidency, the Trump administration launched a series of political decisions aimed at harming the Palestinian people and forcing them to kneel down. In 2018 alone, Trump halted US support to UNRWA, halted the work of the United States Agency for International Development in the West Bank and Gaza, USAID, and moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, throwing decades of American policy into the trash basket, cutting and cutting Financial support from the Palestinian Authority, and ceasing support to Palestinian hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem. Trump´s decisions not only caused serious damage to diplomatic relations between the United States and the Palestinian leadership, but also endangered the lives of millions of Palestinians who depend on international and American aid to provide some of their basic needs.
Trump closes the PLO office:
On September 10, 2018, after 24 years working in Washington, the US administration instructed to close the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization Mission in the US capital. The State Department told the PLO that the efforts of the Palestinian leadership to punish Israel in the International Criminal Court violated an obscure US law. Hours after the decision, US Secretary of State Mike Bombo announced that the United States will suspend $ 165 million in funding for the Palestinian Authority.
2019 - Israeli elections:
This year began with a heated attempt to re-elect Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of Israel with unprecedented support by the Trump administration including recognition of the occupied Syrian Golan as Israeli territory. Although he (Netanyahu) was facing imminent accusations of corruption, the first round of elections ended on April 9, with a tie between Netanyahu and his opponent, former IDF chief Benny Gantz, and Israel was sent to a second unprecedented election during the year on September 17, 2019, and the campaign was marked by an escalation Very anti-Arab sentiments, with rights groups and activists accusing Netanyahu and his right-wing supporters of using racist incitement to win the elections.
Despite the efforts made by Netanyahu and Trump´s support for him, Netanyahu, Gantz, or any other Israeli leader was unable to form a governing coalition for the second time after the September elections, while Israelis await a third election in less than a year, supposed to be held in March 2020. .
"Deal of the Century" appears in Bahrain:
The organizers of the “Peace and Deal of the Century” file have invented the idea of ​​holding an “economic workshop” as part of the first of the long-awaited “Deal of the Century” held in Bahrain on June 25 and 26, 2019 in the Bahraini capital, Manama, with the participation of many Arab countries that reluctantly participated, at levels of Without the ministerial, and a complete boycott of the Palestinians despite the Trump administration´s attempts to bring any Palestinian to the "Manama Workshop".
As expected, the "Bahrain Workshop" has vanished from the horizon, as if it were not. Where it became clear that its goal is only normalization between Arab countries and Israel.
Israel angered the United States after it banned female members of Congress from visiting the occupied West Bank:
On August 15, 2019, Netanyahu announced that Palestinian origin, Rachida Tlaib, a member of Congress of Somali origin, Ilhan Omar, would not be allowed to enter the occupied West Bank via the Israeli border (as an official delegation) because of their support for the boycott movement, and at the request of Trump. For a while, this move has backfired on Netanyahu, sparking criticism from American politicians (from the Democratic Party), senior presidential candidates for the Democratic Party, Palestinian leaders and activists, and celebrities like John Legend, Barbara Streisand, Cynthia Nixon, and even Zionist organizations such as AIPAC, They expressed their opposition to the decision - especially the role Trump played in influencing a foreign government and ally to prevent US lawmakers from entering their country.
Netanyahu vows to annex the Jordan Valley:
On September 10, 2019, one week before the second round of the Israeli elections, and to enhance his electoral fortunes, Netanyahu announced that if he is re-elected, he will include all Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea from the occupied West Bank. He pledged to "extend sovereignty" over all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and to effectively annex areas of land where more than 190 settlements were built in contravention of international law.
Netanyahu said the century deal would create a "historic opportunity" to annex the West Bank.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declares that the settlements are "illegal":
In a clear departure from long decades of American foreign policy, standards and international laws, Secretary of State Pompeo announced on November 18, 2019 that the United States changed its position on "Israeli settlements" and that the Trump administration had abandoned the idea that "settlements are illegal" or conflict with International law, while the settlement forces immediately announced new settlement plans in the heart of the occupied city of Hebron.
According to Peace Now, the average number of housing units for settlements approved in the three years after President Trump´s election increased to 6989 housing units, nearly double the average in the previous three years (3,635 housing units).
Trump takes an executive order that considers Israel´s criticism anti-Semitic:
The US President made an executive decision on December 11, 2019 regarding anti-Semitism that considered students who criticize Israel in universities and support the BDS movement as anti-Semites. The decision permits the freezing of funds from the federal government for educational institutions that fail to confront "anti-Jews among their students in light of fears of the spread of anti-Semitism in the country," including criticizing Israeli occupation policies. The law relies on a definition of anti-Semitism that includes criticism of Israeli decisions, raising concerns that the Trump administration will use it to criminalize the BDS movement.
The International Criminal Court wants to open an investigation into "war crimes" in the West Bank and Gaza
On December 20, 2019, the Prosecutor´s representative at the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, announced that she wanted to open a comprehensive investigation into possible "war crimes" committed in the Palestinian territories. And Bensouda said that "war crimes were committed or committed" in the occupied West Bank, Israel and East Jerusalem, and in the Gaza Strip, and asked the International Court for a ruling regarding the lands under its jurisdiction.
The International Criminal Court is studying a case brought by the Palestinians since 2015 regarding "war crimes" they accuse Israel of committing. While Bensouda did not specify the nature of the potential crimes, it is known that in her initial investigations she focused on issues such as Israel building new settlements and its military operations in Gaza.
But Washington, as usual, protested strongly, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on the same day that the United States was "firmly" opposed to opening the International Criminal Court to a full investigation into allegations of war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories.
Thus, a contract has ended and another will start, and the lesson is for whoever is considered ..
