No End in Sight

"Where should we go after the last frontiers? Where should the birds fly after the last sky?" Mahmoud Darwish, The Earth is Closing on Us

Scores of diplomats walked out of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Hall last September 27, 2024, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the body in protest of the continued Israeli offensives in Gaza and its recent attacks in Lebanon that risk an escalation of conflict in a fragile region. 

Almost one year after the October 7 Hamas attack and the subsequent Israeli war against the militants in Gaza, the Palestinian death toll reached more than 40,000 – around 11,000 of whom were children and 6,000 were women– their deaths now reduced to mere statistics. Recently, Israel launched attacks in Beirut, Lebanon's capital, killing Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Tensions between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel were already high in the past but it escalated after the October 7 attack. In the recent streaks of Israeli strikes, Lebanon's Health Ministry reported that over 1,000 Lebanese have been killed in the recent week's attack in the country, nearly a quarter of them were women and children. 

An irate Netanyahu defended his government's response to the October 7 Hamas attack at the UNGA. Truly, the killing of the Israeli civilians during the said attack is abominable but the disproportionate response of Netanyahu's extreme-right government is even more appalling. More so, Mr. Netanyahu needs to be reminded that history did not start last October 7; it is rooted in the decades of occupation, the nakbas, and the systemic, persistent, and calculated repression, oppression, and dehumanization. Lest he forget that in 2007, Israel put Gaza under a blockade, crippling the strip's economy and stifling the freedom of 1.8 million Palestinians. For 17 years, Gaza was virtually cut off from the rest of the world characterized by the Human Rights Watch as the "largest open-air prison" with 80 percent of the population relying on aid and living below the poverty line, 64 percent suffering from food insecurity due to the draconian Israeli-imposed restrictions, 47 percent are unemployed; and Israel even limiting the Palestinian access of their own coast. Lest he forget that three weeks before October 7, Netanyahu himself presented a map of the Middle East without Palestine before the UNGA.

Deep into the war, Israel dropped more than 75,000 tons of bombs in a 25-mile long and 7-mile-wide narrow strip of land, surpassing the amount of bombs dropped during the Second World War. The extent of destruction has turned Gaza into a heap of rubble and ruins and sorrow. In the genocide case of South Africa against Israel, the former highlighted the genocidal narrative of the latter's officials. Two days after the Hamas attack, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel is fighting "human animals." Further, Deputy Knesset speaker Nissim Vaturi wrote on X that the Israelis have only one goal: "erasing the Gaza strip from the face of the earth." Revital Gottlieb, a member of the Knesset was quoted saying, "Bring down buildings! Bomb without distinction! Stop with this impotence. You have ability. There is worldwide legitimacy! Flatten Gaza. Without mercy! This time, there is no room for mercy!" 

Notably, the International Court of Justice acting on a request from the General Assembly to clarify the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has issued an advisory opinion that the Israeli occupation is against international law and further stated that it should stop its settlement activities in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and its illegal occupation of the Gaza strip. Although not legally binding, the ICJ's issuance is a significant development as it was the first time that the World Court delivered a position on the status of Palestine. 

On the other hand, United States President Joe Biden, in his final speech before the UNGA, reiterated his call for a ceasefire in Gaza and the end of conflicts. But the track record of his government contradicts his rhetoric. One hand called for a ceasefire and the end of hostilities while the other supplied Israel with bombs that flattened one of the most densely populated places on Earth. On the one hand, the US preaches human rights but on the other, it condones and abets human wrongs. Yes, all people are born with equal rights and dignity but as George Orwell observed, some people are more equal than others. 

With no end in sight, the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated. Most recently, Iran fired at least 180 missiles into Israel and Netanyahu vowed retaliation. These events signal a backsliding from a purported rules-based multilateral international order into one determined by a unilateral calculus of power, contravening the very raison d'etre of the United Nations. 

Coming from a place that is not a stranger to conflict, if there is a lesson from the centuries-long Mindanao problem, it is that war and military action alone cannot make nor keep peace. Israel's collective punishment, bombs, and offensives will achieve nothing but secure recruitment of militant groups in the future risking it to spiral into vicious cycles of hatred and violence. In turn, Netanyahu's government unwittingly becomes the biggest recruiter of militants – fight fire with fire and we usually end up in ashes. So long as Israel continues to subject the Palestinians to inhumane conditions, there will be resistance. As long as there is occupation, there will be a liberation movement. Israel's war end-game should be a turn towards addressing the root causes of the conflict.

The words of the late Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights and non-violence figure, resound amid this empathy fatigue and powerlessness that ordinary people feel on the Palestinian plight: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Beyond the international pressure and the growing isolation of Israel from the international community, we can only hope that the voice of reason, peace, and non-violence will finally prevail. Because when we ask, "Where should the birds fly after the last sky," often the answer is: they learn how to fight.