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Why the “holy land” is no more
Palestinians stand on the rubble of a levelled building as smoke and fire rise from the destruction following an Israeli strike in Gaza City on October 26, 2023, amid battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
They call it the Holy Land. At least they used to. That was always an arguable description. Why would the Lord, who supposedly loves all of his children equally, elevate one people over the rest, and endow them with being his “chosen” people.
Even as a young Catholic penitent growing up in my native Kenya, I doubted the veracity of this story. Because if I believed it, I would’ve implicitly – if not explicitly – accepted that I was the child of a lesser God.
So I rejected the idea in toto. What we have witnessed over the past month in Israel and Palestine has convinced me the story was a bunch of baloney. Today, no place on the planet is unholier than Israel and Palestine.
The current descent to the depths of inhumanity in Israel and Palestine started on October 7 when Hamas, the militant Palestinian Islamic group, unleashed heinous terror inside Israel. The attacks were indiscriminate – they targeted security forces and civilians alike.
In one particularly gruesome episode, Hamas fighters descended on young revellers at a festival and butchered hundreds and took many hostage.
When the carnage was over, an estimated 1,400 Israelis and a number of foreigners lay dead. The world expressed outrage and solidarity with Israel over the attacks.
Everyone expected that Israel would retaliate – but against Hamas – without targeting innocent Palestinian civilians. What unfolded has left most dismayed, if not in utter despair and disgust.
No one on Earth is a stranger to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. No one. Even more than Vladimir Putin’s demonic war against Ukraine, the Israeli-Palestinian one evokes the bitterest of emotions in supporters of either side.
Often, it’s even difficult to hold a rational conversation without being labelled either an anti-Semite, a supporter of terrorism, or a hater of Palestinians. It’s the one issue on which there’s a tyranny of thought and the intellect.
You express a view at your own peril. Even human rights advocates and those who believe in free speech – including racist speech against Black people – suspend it when it comes to this emotive issue. Even universities are asked to limit or erase academic freedom on the matter.
But facts are stubborn things. In 1948, both Jews and Palestinians were supposed to each get their own state. Jews did but Palestinians didn’t.
Over time, Israel came to occupy the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and eat into the territory that would be a future Palestinian state through Jewish settlements and annexation of Palestine. Gaza itself came to be known as an open-air prison where more than 2 million Palestinians live under Israeli control.
Over the past 17 years in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dominated Israeli politics, the fate of Palestinians especially in Gaza, has become more dire and desperate.
Gaza could only have been described as hell on Earth in that period. This has radicalised most Palestinians.
In his 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid former US President Jimmy Carter, who brokered the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, argued that the construction of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land was the primary obstacle to a comprehensive peace.
He was criticised for his use of the term “Apartheid” to describe actions of the Israeli state. But Mr. Carter rejected the criticism. Be that as it may, one cannot be an ostrich. What happened on October 7 cannot be understood without appreciating the denial of Palestinians their own sovereign state. This doesn’t excuse the war crimes committed by Hamas, but those attacks occurred in the context of a bitter history.
That said, the Israel military response towards Gaza has gone beyond all known bounds of human civilisation. Israel has unleashed the most devastating air campaign ever conducted on a country in modern times. It has targeted hospitals, mosques, and civilian housing most brutally.
In the process, many innocent Palestinians – children and women – have been killed. Not only that, but Israel has cut off water, power, and humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip.
The enclave has been returned to the Stone Age. Israel has forced civilians to evacuate from northern Gaza in an order that can only be described as ethnic cleansing. There’s no doubt Hamas committed war crimes in Israel on October 7. In my view, Israel has committed even more serious war crimes in Gaza.
The “Holy Land” is no more. An eye for an eye leaves both protagonists blind. The attacks between Hamas and Israel will only harden people on both sides and radicalise Palestinians even more.
Unless the carnage on both sides results in a two-state solution – Israel and Palestine – this won’t be the last catastrophic war we’ve seen. The US holds leverage in the Middle East. It must use that power to force a two-state solution.
- Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. @makaumutua.
