Israel has impunity for its violations

May 15th 2017 marked the 69th anniversary of Al-Nakba, in English referred to as the catastrophe, where an estimated 750,000 Palestinians expelled and some even massacred, and where an estimated 500 or so Palestinian cities, towns and villages were destroyed by Zionist militias, in order that they might establish an ethnic majority in what is now the Jewish state of Israel.
By The Newsroom
Published 30th May 2017, 12:53 BST
Updated 4th Jun 2017, 22:04 BST

The events of 1947-1949 are viewed as a catastrophe for the Palestinian people. They lost their basic rights, were either internally displaced or made into refugees, and have to this day been unwillingly under the dominion and ongoing systematic oppression and violence of Israel.

Prior to 1948 we also had the British mandate for Palestine and the now infamous 1917 Balfour declaration, seen by many Palestinians as the handing over and colonisation of their homeland by another people largely hailing from Europe at the time. This is why the description of settler-colonialism is used by Palestinians to describe their reality. No matter what was happening with the rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish oppression in Europe, the Palestinian population did not deserve to be dispossessed of their country or have it carved up in a deeply unjust partition plan.

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Palestinians, whether they’re in exile or still living within historic Palestine, continue to face a litany of human rights violations, crimes against humanity and breaches of international law. Israel has also maintained a military occupation over the territories it occupied during the 1967 six day war. This is where Palestinians are maintained as stateless prisoners locked into an oppressive system of control, institutionalised discrimination, humiliation and denial of basic rights.

Commemorating Al-Nakba is crucial, not only because the Nakba is ongoing and is a daily reality for Palestinians, but also because recognising this as both a historical atrocity committed against the Palestinian people and as an ongoing reality today is the key to a just peace.

We often hear talk in Northern Ireland of the need to deal with the past and for me this is what that means in the context of Israel-Palestine: a struggle for accountability, a struggle for return of refugees, an end to the ongoing occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine and eventually achieving justice and peace for all parties to the conflict, particularly victims on all sides who have suffered unimaginably.

Israel is the occupying power, an oppressor that continues to make excuses, fighting propaganda battles throughout the world to safeguard its image and prevent accountability actions being taken. Ultimately, peace will only be possible in Israel-Palestine when the occupier as a state and Israelis as a people acknowledge the Nakba and take responsibility for the ongoing violent conflict that continues to unfold to this day.

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We have to also remember that Israel continues to enjoy full impunity for its ongoing violations of human rights and international law and that typically the response to raising Palestinian rights is to rewrite history, divert from the subject at hand or talk up the rights of Israelis whilst ignoring the rights of Palestinians.

Diversion is now a tactical norm used by Israel and it is incumbent upon us all to press ahead with the facts, truth and an agenda for equal rights, social justice and conflict transformation.

It’s for all the reasons above and many more that we should all stand with the Palestinian people and commemorate 69 years of Nakba.

Gary Spedding, Belfast

Related topics:PalestiniansIsraelEurope