Many millennia ago, Mosses led the suffering, enslaved Jews out of Egypt into the ‘promised land’. While he passed away on the journey, his successor, Joshua completed the task by crossing them over river Jordan to reach the promised land, Israel. By BCE 1000, the Jew kingdom flourished with the rule of King David and his son Solomon, and it was the best of times for ancient Israel.
In the next three millennia, Israel was attacked by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians, Islamist and others. Between sixteen century and the early twentieth century CE, Israel was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Thus the ‘promised land’ had been overcome by the non-Jews. Many Jews by then had moved over to Europe to become a strong business community there.
After the First World War, the the ‘promised land’ which by then had less Jews and more Palestinians, came under the British control. During 1920s, the then British Foreign Secretary, AJ Balfour, created a letter of intent (the Balfour Declaration), later endorsed by League of Nations (predecessor to the current UN), supporting the establishment (again) of Israel, the ‘promised land’ of Jews by dividing it between the Palestinians and the Jews.
It took another three decades for the Israel State to come into being. By 1947, the United Nation, setting aside the rejection of the move by Arabs, approved the partition of the land between Palestinians and the Jews. By May 1948, Israel was officially declared as an independent state with Ben Gurion, the head of the Jewish agency, as the first Prime Minister.
Into the modern day ‘promised land’ of Israel, hordes of Jews from all over the world, particularly the Europe (including those who had suffered from the hands of Nazis and the Axis) moved into. Using alliances, money power, muscle power and later military power, Israel thwarted the moves by Palestinians, Arabs and the hostile neighbours, to establish and grow (and expand) its Statehood.
Who suffered the worst in the development was the Palestinians, of course. They got shrunk into two separate pieces of land, The Gaza strip and West Bank, completely surrounded by Israel. The efforts of Yassir Arafat and later by Abbas to resurrect them and fight against their arch enemy, Israel, are legion. However, the military might of Israel exponentially multiplied and so has its cruelty against the Palestinians. It is indeed horrendous to see how the Palestinians are living there now.
By May 2021, there began heavy escalation of tension between the two nations. It started with the order of Israeli Supreme Court to evict some
Palestinian families from East Jerusalem and the resulting mob violence between Jews and Palestinians led to rocket attack by Hamas against Israel and Israel undertaking big airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. So far 200 Palestinians, 10 Israelis (and one Keralite) have died. While action is still on, mediators are trying to negotiate and settle the issue.
In the wake of Israel gaining diplomatic traction with the Arab world, at the same time building up its military power in a super style, the sufferings of the Palestinians are expected to become worse. Fighting Israel, in no way, will help their cause. External assistance have diminished considerably for their cause too.
Notwithstanding the suffering, It is time the Palestinian understood the reality and act accordingly. Any amount of military aggression from them will only increase their hardship. Discussions, talks & negotiations are the way forward.
