Israel was founded in 1948 by a vote at the United Nations. This page shows the original territory awarded to Israel in 1948. [1]
Since then Israel has been taking more territory – by violence. They explain this alternatively by reference to fundamentalist beliefs from Judaism – about “their” [2] lands and by secular claims that they need to murder Palestinians for their “security”.
The project of “Greater Israel” continues. This is a programme to take at least Gaza and the West Bank, part of Syria, and maybe part of Lebonon. The methods: genocide, (according to multiple NGOs and a UN Committee), and ethnic cleansing.
Shooting unarmed children is their trademark. According to the UN 143 between October 2023 and July 2024. [3] It is very hard to get up to date figures. Few really care. Which is why Israel continues.
The modus operandi of “wars” is land-clearance and demolition of civlian homes. To create more lebensraum for themselves. As was in Gaza and is now in Lebonon.
Leaving aside the war crimes in Gaza, every day sees new reports of armed settlers terrorising Palestinian civilians off their land in the West Bank. Amnesty points out that this is a state level policy. [4] As if that needed pointing out.
And what does the leadership of the UK do? Ban a handful of individuals from using their credit cards and visiting London.
The “conflict” in the Middle East can be said to be complicated. But, on the other hand, were Israel to pull back to the lands awarded them in 1948 and stop trying to expand, and accept that next door to them will be a Palestinian state, that would be legal. If this is in fact not possible it calls into question not the legitimcy of Israel’s endless ethnic cleansing of their neighbours – clearly illegal, but whether the question of the founding of the state of Israel should not be revisited by the UN General Asseembly.
To put my cards on the table. The rational solution to the question of Palestine is that there should be a Palestinian state, with its borders agreed wtih Egypt and Jordan. In this state should be special dispensations guranteed by the UN for Jewish people to live, to access their sacred sites and to form part of an overall consociationalist government system – out of respect for their tragic experience in WW2, and their peculiar heritage. Clearly, to get from where we are now to this point, requires that the “uniquely Jewish state” (the apparently acceptable form of wording for an apartheid state), will need to be disarmed. That is going to be interesting, and is one reason why I advocate that the UK should have an independent nuclear deterrent. (The easier question of disarming Hamas can be handled by the current Palestinian government).
Notes
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Palestine-Israel_Historic_Borders_Over_Time.png The source is WikiMedia. I think it is more or less accurate and coincides with what I know from other sources.
- https://www.gov.il/en/pages/spoke-pm210925
- https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/child-casualties-west-bank-skyrocket-past-nine-months
- https://www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/erasing-anything-palestinian-israels-ethnic-cleansing-campaign-in-the-west-bank-demands-global-action-new-report/
