Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Unheard Voices from Inside Israel!

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Unheard Voices from Inside Israel!

The thoughts of new Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin may be somewhat different from the majority of his countrymen but of course, he is not the only one in his country. In present day Israel and from 1948, when the Jewish state of Israel was established, there have been numerous people who thought differently from the typical leaders and public of Israel.

On the occasion of the Jewish New Year, Rivlin made a video in which he sat next to an eleven-year-old Palestinian Israeli boy who had been bullied, to show solidarity with and support for the bullied boy. A couple of weeks ago, Rivlin visited the Arab town of Kafr Qasim to apologize for the massacre, in 1956, of forty-eight Palestinian workers and children by Israeli border guards. His statement on the occasion sparked great anger all across Israel when he said, ‘I hereby swear, in my name and that of all our descendants that we will never act against the principal of equal rights and we will never try and force someone from our land.’

Right from the beginning of the establishment of Israel, anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian sentiments had prime role in the lives of every citizen of Israel for a number of reasons. The first and foremost was to provide them with a reason to live with and to satisfy the acts of their government. This reason becomes increasingly important for the settlers who come from different countries of the world and are provided with newly-built houses built on lands being snatched from Palestinians by force and they see this happening in front of their eyes. Secondly, this reason has also been the prime source of empathy and support for Israel by the rest of the world. Israel is shown as a country got trapped under the Arab states that are looking for any small opportunity to wipe away the mere existence of Israel and this propaganda or strategy has kept the steady inflow of billions of dollars of foreign aid for the existence of Israel. Next, there has not been a year when there was not present conflict between Israel and its neighboring Palestinians. Now that most part of the Palestinian land has been occupied by Israel and they have been squeezed to live in densely populated areas inside Palestine and they are on the absolute mercy of Israelis for their commerce, movement and every small need, it is not surprising if they see that military resistance remains the only way to end this Israeli occupation. They have got disappointed from all the international powers and their peaceful efforts as they have been driven out of their lands and killed and tortured when they try to resist this. This has resulted in a situation when both the states feel themselves in the state of permanent war and the fuel for this war is provided by the hatred.

On the other hand, right from the day of inception of Israel, there has been numerous leaders who have been talking of showing respect to humanity and giving the rights of Palestinians being humans. This is especially the case with more than a million Arabs who are living inside Israel and have tried their best to be loyal to this country. But it is also a fact that they are living in an environment of constant hatred, humiliation and rage and anger. This fact became evident during the last Palestine-Israel conflict when they were sacked from their jobs and a number of government members talked of driving them out of Israel by force. In the same way, many are of the view that the present strategy of hatred and destruction would never let Israel to be sustainable and would never let this state to be accepted by its neighbors, no matter how strong it grows.According to some political experts in Israel, such acts were harming the mere existence of Israel. Israel was established for providing a home for the scattered Jews around Europe and US where they were the victims of anti-Semitic hatred but now they are doing exactly the same thing against Palestinians. With this viewpoint, every Palestinian is considered to be an enemy of Israel while hundreds and thousands of Israeli Arabs are also taken to be suspicious. Almost all the neighboring countries of Israel are considered its enemy while ISIS and Iran are also considered to be potential threats for the state of Israel. With this mindset, Israel has almost no friends in the region and it has turned everyone into its enemy.

This public mindset became clear when many demonstrated in Israel against the inactiveness of the Prime Minister Netanyahu to carry out decisive attacks against Palestinians during the attack of Israel in 2014, calling him to be ‘non-decisive’ and ‘hesitant.’ They were demanding an absolute military operation against Palestinians so that no Palestinian should be left behind and this was regarded the most feasible solution for the problems of the region. However, there were also present some unheard voices demanding rights for Palestinians as human beings. While sitting inside Israel, it was not easy to get the true picture when only the rocket attacks, tunnels and support for IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) were shown but the increasing casualties of Palestinians, mostly including of children and women, and majority of non-militant citizens, shown on international media was making it difficult for those who always supported Israel. At that time, there were numerous voices resounding as why the existence of a state should be supported by US and its Western allies when its existence is snatching the lives of thousands of Palestinians on the occupied territory.

The supporters of a less-extremist Israel blame the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party for using this hate-promotion to safeguard their rule in the country. Every passing year has witnessed the increasing trend of extremism in the lines of Israelis, not only in their politicians but also in the general public. It is due to the increasing dependence of everyone to safeguard their own aims and objectives. Be it the political parties or religious rabbis, all play the same card for different uses.

But the situation is painful for those who are actually able to see this manipulation of public anger for different heinous and hidden purposes. It is the reason why, they continually talk in favor of peace in the region that is mostly in the hands of Israeli government to control, equal rights for the Arab citizens of Israel, and the least human rights for the Palestinians living on their occupied and sieged lands. They believe that life of a Jewish state will be decided not by its military power or political or military tactics and cleverness but by the fact as how much they believe and practice justice, peace and other noble qualities. History has witnessed that without these qualities, many strong nations gradually grew weak and disappeared from the surface of the earth and laws of nature are not going to change for any specific nation or time.

(Muhammad Rasool Shah works as Academic Coordinator at Barakat Int’l School, Kabul. He can be reached at muhammadrasoolshah@gmail.com)

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