Does Israel Have the Right to Exist?

Firoz Mahboob Kamal

Who should go: Israel or Hamas?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel is fighting to destroy Hamas. The US Secretary of State Mr. Antony Blinken, France President Emanuel Macron and many other western leaders argue that Hamas must go. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says that we are fighting human animals and doing that accordingly. This is the level of dehumanisation of the Palestinians; with such a mindset, they can’t find any guilt or moral inhibition in running genocide in Gaza. They consider killing them as killing cattles in a slaughterhouse; therefore no remorse for the killed Palestinian children, men and women. Gaza is now literally a slaughter house.The Zionist are practising the same genocidal intention since its creation in 1948. The intoxicated leaders of the US, the UK, the EU with their toxic ideologies like white supremacism, racism, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, imperialism find no crime in Israeli genocide. Rather, they feel it a duty to support economically, militarily and politically the genocidal project of Israel.    

Very recently, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly recited a verse from a religious script that prescribes genocide of men and women of the opposing group of people. Another Israeli leader also told publicly that there lives no innocent man in Gaza. All these statements came to the press. On 6 November, the New York Times published a report by its Jerusalem correspondent Mr. Patrick Kingsley that a far-right government minister of Jewish heritage, Amichay Eliyahu, said on 1 November that Gazan land should be given to former Israeli soldiers who fought in Gaza or to former Israeli settlers who lived in the enclave before Israel withdrew from it in 2005. On 5 November, the same minister said that Israel should consider dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza. Such a statement from a minister reveals how high the genocidal intention is in the psyche of the Israeli policy makers. How the Palestinians can make peace with the people with such genocidal intent.

Those who want to eliminate Hamas make their argument on the premise that Hamas is a terrorist organisation.To them, history starts only on 7 October. They failed to feel the pain of the occupied and persecuted people. For decades after decades, Israel has been violating international law. It has created an apartheid start from day one of its creation. The ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinians is the state policy. The people in Gaza are put in cages for decades. Israel only wants the full submission and not any protest from the Palestinians. It is the crime of Hamas that it shows the rare audacity to break the wall of the cages. Invasion into Israel by Hamas is indeed such an attempt. Hamas has killed 1405 Isralis; and has taken about 250 Israeli civil and military personnel as hostages. Hamas has successfully shattered the myth of Israel’s invincibility. As a result, Hamas is the number one enemy of Israel and its allies. So, they argue that Hamas must go.

But what about Israel? Does it qualify for its existence? Israel is created by terrorism, sustains by terrorism and expands by terrorism. In its formative year in 1948, the Israeli terrorists terrorised 700,000 indigenous Palestinians to leave their ancestral homes. About 500 Palestinian villages were razed to the ground only to grab their land. It is called nakba -the catastrophe in Palestine’s history. And the evicted people are not allowed to return home. Now they are engineering another nakba. Israel has dropped 11,000 bombs to kill and terrorise the people of Gaza only to eliminate them from their homes. Israel asked  them to take shelter in the Sinai desert in Egypt. The Israeli government is putting pressure on the Egyptian government to accept these evicted people. It is indeed a step towards a greater Israel project. 

Since the colonial implantation of Israel in Palestine, it has continuously metastasized beyond its border. In 1948, it had 56 percent of Palestine. Currently it occupies 78 percent. Now it plans to capture 100 percent. This is why the Israeli government does not accept the two-sate formula -as was agreed in Oslo agreement. The continuous eviction of Palestinians from homes by carpet bombing is the Israeli strategy. On 6 November, the Health Ministry of Gaza reported that by relentless bombing the Israeli Army has killed 10,020 people. Of them 4,104 are children; 192 are health workers. It is also reported that 2,660 people are missing. Most likely, these missing persons are buried in rubles. The killing mission of the Israeli Army is not limited to Gaza. Since 7 October, 159 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank.

According to international law and the UN charter, Israel is an occupying power. Fighting an occupation is not terrorism; it is the patriotic right cum duty of every man and woman under the occupation. Since Hamas fighters are executing the legitimate right, they can’t be labelled as terrorists. Every indigenous Hamas fighter possesses the birth right to stay in their birthplace. The occupying invaders like Israelis have no right to deprive them of that birth right. One noted Jewish peace activist Mr. Miko Peled rightly said on Al-Jazeera’s “the Bottom Line ” TV show that Israel should go. Israel has proven itself as the textbook case of state terrorism, hence disqualifying it for its own existence. With the presence of Israel in the Middle East, no peace is possible. Israel has proven its inherent incompatibility with the original people of Palestine. It can only metastasize the problem globally. The apartheid state that the zionists have produced in the name of Israel is not unsustainable in the civilised world. Hence it must go.      

Defensive war against children and women!

Israel claims that its war is defensive. A defensive war is always fought against an offence of an aggressive state. But where is that state? Where is that offence? There is no fighter jet, no tank and no artillery gun on the Israeli border. Gaza is not a state. It has no army; it has no cantonment. The whole population of Gaza are civilians; more than 70 percent of them are refugees. They have no ability to do an offence against Israel that possesses the most powerful Army in the Middle East. What Hamas did on 7 October is a one-off event. It was an outburst of a jailed population. Now, Israel is running its war against the children, women, doctors, journalists, the UN staff and other civilians. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) is relentlessly dropping bombs on homes, hospitals, ambulances, mosques and churches. By any standard, it is not a defensive war. It is a brutal war of genocidal revenge. Israel is now committing the worst forms of war crimes. By such crimes Israel is declaring its own death sentence. So peace lies only in the demise of Israel.

War has its internationally accepted rules. It is unlawful to bomb homes, hospitals, ambulances, mosques and churches. It is unlawful to kill children, women, doctors, nurses and civilians. As per the international law, some wars are rightful and some wars are criminal and genocidal. A war becomes a genocidal war if non-combatant persons of a particular race, language, religion and region are indiscremently targeted with an intention of elimination. The Israeli Army is exactly committing the same. Israel claims that its Army is eliminating only Hamas and argues that Hamas is hiding behind the civilians. Such a claim looks strange and baseless. Although the Israeli Army has killed more than 10,000 people, it couldn’t find and kill Hamas. They couldn’t find any Hamas men hiding behind the children, women and hospitals. The Hamas fighters are found only to fight against the Israeli Army and have destroyed many Israeli tanks and soldiers.

The western countries’ partnership in war crimes

Israel has dropped 26, 000 tons of bombs on Gaza -more than the explosives dropped in Nagasaki or Hiroshima. No other city on the earth got so much bombing like Gaza.  It is significant to note that none of the western countries -including USA, uttered a single sentence to condemn the Israeli war crimes. They never asked for a ceasefire. The USA has vetoed the ceasefire proposal in the UN Security Council. The UK abstained. Thus, they give green signal to Israel to continue its war crimes. Instead, the USA has sent two aircraft carriers to the Israeli coast. The USA is flexing its military muscles to bully the neighbouring countries. By such a support for a genocidal war, the USA and its partners are indeed the active partners in the Israeli war crimes.  

These US-led western countries are pursuing only four issues. Firstly, the condemnation of the killings of 1405 Israelis by Hamas -without mentioning the killings of more than 10,000 Palestinians by Israel. The US President Joe Biden describes such horrendous deaths only as the price of raising war. He didn’t condemn such a genocide.Secondly, the immediate release of about 250 Israeli hostages -without mentioning the release of 4,500 Palestinians from Israeli prisons. Thirdly, the total elimination of Hamas -without a thought on the killings of thousands of civilians in such efforts. Fourthly, stopping the spread of anti-Israeli retaliation from the neighbouring countries. But the unprecedented huge rallies in favour of the Palestinians all over the world show that the USA and its allies are on the wrong side of the divide.

The Muslim leaders look like beggars

The heads of the Muslim countries are exposing their powerlessness. They look like helpless beggars. They beg for a ceasefire from the Israeli war criminals. While the friends of Israel like the USA and the UK are busy with quick transhipment of most modern weapons to Israel, the Muslim country can’t even give foods, drinks and medicine to destitute Muslims in Gaza, let alone arms. The rulers of Egypt, Jordan, Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and many others are very cautious not to annoy Israel and their master USA by giving aid to Gaza. In the Muslim countries, only the people are found on the streets to show their solidarity with the Palestines. But the rulers look mute.

The Egyptian tyrant General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has never been a friend of the Palestinians. He is known for his long war against the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. He led a coup against Muslim Brotherhood’s Dr. Mohammad Morsi -the first elected President of Egypt. Since Hamas is an off-shoot of Muslim Brotherhood, al-Sisi has no sympathy for Hamas. Instead, he stands for the security of Israel, not for the people of Gaza. For such a pro-Israeli role, Egypt is paid $1.3 billion of military aid by the USA. While many countries have already withdrawn their ambassadors from Israel in protest of its war, Egypt still keeps its ambassador in Israel.

In fact al-Sisi made history in his cruelty against the people of Gaza. Before the war, every day, 500 trucks used to enter Gaza from Egypt with the necessary goods. But in the last one month, only 500 trucks have been allowed to enter. It is reported that on 5 November only 25 trucks are allowed to enter. On 6 November, only 40 trucks were allowed. It is shocking. It is awful that not a single truck with fuel was allowed to enter. It is very alarming.The hospitals in Gaza are in dire need of fuel. These hospitals do not have electricity; get the electricity only from generators run by diesel. So, the patients who are in intensive care units and need dialysis will die. Thus the Egyptian government has become complicit in crime against the people of Gaza.

Israel and his allies like the USA, the EU and the UK do not want any resistant movement in the occupied land of Palestine. Instead, they want full submission to the Israeli occupiers. Any resistant movement is a crime in their eyes. The same is true with the tyrant rulers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirate (UAE) Jordan, Bahrain, Morocco, and many others. Ideologically these rulers are more close to the Israeli leaders than with the Palestinians. This is why they were in a mood to build relations with Israel. UAE and Bahrain signed the Abrahamic Accord with Israel. Like Israel, these tyrant rulers of the Muslim world, too, want to eliminate the Islamic organisations like Hamas. So, they are not keen to send floods, drinks, medicines and other life-saving stuff. Therefore, what the people of Gaza are getting through the Rafah border post are only a few drops in the ocean.

Every Muslim has an obligation

Not only the rulers, every Muslim has an obligation. Every man or woman will be accountable for his or her role on the day of judgement. Therefore staying mute and inactive in a war is not an acceptable option. Since most of the Muslim rulers are not elected by the people, they do not represent them. Every Muslim should use his or her ability to support the cause of Palestinians. It is a religious obligation on every Muslim.

The division of the Muslims ummah is the real cause of the current failure and helplessness of the ummah. Unless the Muslims get united, there is no solution. They will only continue to suffer. This is why Allah Subhana Wa Ta’ala made unity obligatory on every Muslim and made division forbidden (haram). But the Muslims have taken the exact opposite route. So, they celebrate the division in the name of language, race, tribe and geopolitics. If they have true belief in Allah Subhana Wa Ta’ala, they must start the war to dismantle the divisive walls that are erected in the name of tribal or national states. This is the highest ibadah. Such an act is a holy jihad.

Unless Muslims eliminate this current division, there is no hope for peace, freedom and honour. Division always brings punishment from Allah  Subhana Wa Ta’ala   -it is a Qur’anic promise. Muslims are already in the midst of that. It is a pity that the enemies are united, but Muslims stand divided. Living with such a divisive state and having done nothing against it, one can’t please Allah  Subhana Wa Ta’ala  . That can only lead to endless punishment in the hereafter. 07/11/2023