Exeter (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – As the Israeli attacks against Gaza have continued to rage, now spilling into Lebanon, a year of unspeakable violence has raised persistent questions about the efficacy of international law and global governance. Israel’s ongoing military actions in Palestine and the devastating toll on civilian lives. In the face […]
Exeter (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – As the Israeli attacks against Gaza have continued to rage, now spilling into Lebanon, a year of unspeakable violence has raised persistent questions about the efficacy of international law and global governance. Israel’s ongoing military actions in Palestine and the devastating toll on civilian lives. In the face of these flagrant violations of international law, from the Geneva Conventions to humanitarian rules meant to safeguard civilians, the world watches in a state of paralysis. The impotence of the United Nations (UN) and other international bodies calls into question whether global institutions are equipped to prevent such tragedies or hold aggressors accountable. The answer is clear: international law and organizations have failed.
A Year of Violence: A Tragedy for Palestine
For over a year, the Israeli occupation authorities have pursued increasingly aggressive military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. Thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed, with entire neighborhoods razed, hospitals bombed, and essential infrastructure destroyed. The blockade of Gaza has deepened, leaving millions without access to necessities such as adequate water, food, and medical care. This is not just warfare; it is the systematic destruction of a people -— genocide, according to many scholars and human rights organizations.
What is perhaps most disheartening is the international community’s response — or lack thereof. Despite widespread documentation of war crimes, including targeting civilians, collective punishment, and disproportionate use of force, there has been no meaningful intervention. Israel’s actions flagrantly violate international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the deliberate targeting of civilians and calls for the protection of those in occupied territories. Yet, condemnation from global institutions has been largely symbolic, devoid of enforcement or consequences.
Lebanon: The Conflict Expands
Now, as Israel extends its military campaign into Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah, the crisis has escalated into a regional conflict. The Lebanese civilian population, already struggling under economic collapse and political instability, now faces the terrifying prospect of attacks. As with Gaza and the West Bank, civilians are caught in the crossfire, and international law once again appears impotent in the face of aggression.
The expansion of conflict raises broader geopolitical concerns. The Middle East has long been a powder keg, and Israel’s unchecked military actions risk pulling the region into greater chaos. Yet, despite these dire consequences, the international community remains largely passive, offering only calls for restraint and diplomacy, which ring hollow in the absence of real accountability.
The Collapse of International Law
This ongoing crisis exposes the deep flaws within the international legal system. Israel’s continued breaches of international humanitarian law, from illegal settlements to disproportionate military force, challenge the very foundation of the post-World War II order. International law is designed to prevent such atrocities, yet when its mechanisms fail to hold powerful actors accountable, it becomes a dead letter.
The role of international organizations, particularly the United Nations, is central to this failure. The UN, founded to prevent the horrors of war and promote human rights, has become a symbol of ineffectiveness. UN resolutions condemning Israeli actions have been met with vetoes by powerful member states, most notably the United States, rendering the institution powerless. Year after year, the Security Council has been paralyzed, and while the UN General Assembly passes resolutions condemning the violence, these carry no legal weight.
The UN Secretary-General’s recent statements, calling for ceasefires and peace negotiations, are admirable but fall far short of addressing the root problem: the lack of enforcement. If international law cannot be enforced against powerful states, particularly when geopolitical interests are involved, it loses credibility in the eyes of the world. On the one hand, Israel has declared the UN Secretary-General as “persona non grata.” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz claimed that Guterres, whom he described as anti-Israel, ‘supports terrorists, rapists, and murderers.’
In a written statement released by the Foreign Ministry, it was reported that Guterres was declared ‘persona non grata’ for not explicitly condemning the Iranian missile attack on Israel. ‘No one who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s vile attack on Israel deserves to set foot on Israeli soil,’ Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, claiming that Guterres, whom he described as anti-Israel, ‘supports terrorists, rapists, and murderers.’ Katz also argued that Guterres stands with Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran, which he described as ‘the mother of global terrorism,’ and said that Guterres will go down in UN history as a ‘black stain.’ As we can see, Israel demands not only substantial support from individual states but also knee-jerk support from international organizations.
The Failure of Political Will
The problem, however, extends beyond institutional failures. At its core, the crisis reflects a lack of political will among world leaders to prioritize human rights and justice over strategic alliances and national interests. Israel’s position as a close ally of the United States and other Western powers shields it from meaningful consequences. This political reality undermines international law, creating a world where rules apply only to the weak, while the powerful operate with impunity. As public trust in international organizations erodes, so does the belief in the effectiveness of international law. This erosion has long-term consequences, not only for the Palestinian people but for global stability. If the world allows the precedent of unchecked violence and lawlessness to continue, other conflicts may follow, and other authoritarian regimes may exploit the international system’s weaknesses. Where Do We Go from Here?
The current situation demands more than empty rhetoric and non-binding resolutions. If international law is to remain a force for justice, it must be enforced consistently, without regard to political alliances. This requires a fundamental overhaul of global institutions like the UN, which must become more democratic and less beholden to the vetoes of powerful nations. International courts, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), must be empowered to investigate and prosecute war crimes without political interference. The world cannot afford to stand idly by while a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds in Palestine and now threatens to engulf Lebanon. Global leaders must rise above their national interests and act in the name of justice, not only for the sake of the Palestinian people but for the integrity of international law itself. The time for decisive action is now, and the world must not let another year of violence and impunity pass.
Erosion of Public Trust
International law, particularly humanitarian law, is designed to protect human rights, prevent atrocities, and promote peace and justice on a global scale. Organizations like the United Nations (UN), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and various international treaties are supposed to provide mechanisms for accountability. However, when these institutions are unable—or unwilling—to enforce their rules, public trust in them erodes.
That Israel can attack Palestinians, routinely violating international law without consequence, sends a message to the global public that these laws are impotent. The inability to hold powerful states accountable creates the perception that international law is applied selectively, undermining its legitimacy. People lose faith in these institutions when they see that global powers can act with impunity, leading to cynicism about the entire international order. This erosion of trust can be deeply damaging. Citizens around the world may start to believe that international organizations are incapable of protecting human rights or negotiating an end to wars. The loss of confidence in these bodies weakens their authority, making it harder for them to mediate future conflicts, provide humanitarian aid, or broker peace agreements.
A Global Crisis for Humanity
When international law fails, it is not just the immediate victims of conflict who suffer. The breakdown of these systems can lead to a broader global crisis for humanity. The unchecked violation of human rights and international humanitarian law contributes to a cycle of violence, displacement, and instability that affects millions. Refugee crises, for example, often stem from conflicts where international law is disregarded, forcing entire populations to flee their homes in search of safety. Moreover, when international organizations are unable to intervene effectively, it emboldens other states or actors to disregard international norms, setting a dangerous precedent. This can lead to a proliferation of conflicts and human rights abuses, as countries see that there are no real consequences for violating international law. The result is a global jungle where might makes right, and the rules meant to protect the vulnerable are ignored.
In the long term, this instability can contribute to global crises, such as the rise of extremism, the collapse of states, and increased poverty and suffering. When people no longer believe that international law can protect them, they may turn to other, often more violent, forms of resistance or support authoritarian regimes that promise stability over justice. This creates a vicious cycle where international organizations lose their ability to intervene meaningfully, further eroding trust and exacerbating global instability.
Beyond the undeniable failure of institutions, courts, and international law, this situation sends a stark message to the world: if what is happening in Gaza and Lebanon were to happen to us, there would be no mechanism or institution to protect us. Perhaps this is the intended outcome — to make us feel utter despair, to break our spirit, and to compel us to bow to power. But it is precisely for this reason that we will continue to resist, to fight, and to defend human rights with as much resolve as the people of Gaza.
About the Author
Hilal Cibik is a PhD student in constitutional law at the University of Exeter. She holds a master's degree in International Law and Global Justice program from the University of Sheffield and wrote her dissertation on the expansion of judicial review in the UK. Her study area is constitution, constitutionalism, the judiciary, populism and human rights. She tweets at @_hilalcibik
Al Jazeera English: “One year of Israel’s war on Gaza – what you need to know” Excerpt from Transcript: Let’s talk about one year of war in Gaza. For Palestinians, it has been 12 months of unprecedented loss and suffering. Living here in Gaza feels like being trapped in a never-ending cycle of trauma. Everything […]
One Year of Israel’s War on Gaza: What wasn’t on US TV “News”
Let’s talk about one year of war in Gaza. For Palestinians, it has been 12 months of unprecedented loss and suffering. Living here in Gaza feels like being trapped in a never-ending cycle of trauma.
Everything you hear or see about Gaza is just the tip of the iceberg. No photo or video can convey the smell of death, the sound of 24/7 drones, or the uncertainty of whether you or your family will make it through another day. This uncertainty hangs over every moment of each day. The number of journalists killed, medical workers killed, schools destroyed, and the percentage of amputated children make this the worst war in modern history.
A lot has happened since October 7th, 2023, so I am going to run you through some of the main updates on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, what’s going on with the Israeli captives, what’s going on with Hamas, and where things are at with the ceasefire.
Let’s start with the human cost in Gaza. Remember, we are talking about a tiny strip of land densely packed with more than 2 million people who cannot leave, where Israel has dropped thousands of bombs. More than 40,000 people have been killed according to Gaza’s health ministry. It recently published a list naming more than 30,000 of the dead. The list is 649 pages long. The first 13 pages are all babies under one. It is not until page 215 that you see the name of an adult. This year has been a relentless cycle of loss: loss of loved ones, loss of homes, and loss of livelihoods.
Right now, the UN’s highest court is deciding whether Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide—an accusation Israel rejects. Gaza has been devastated by Israel’s bombing. By May 2024, more than half of all of Gaza’s buildings had been damaged or destroyed according to the UN. Thousands of residential buildings, roads, farmlands, mosques, churches, hospitals, universities, and schools have been destroyed. The landscape is totally decimated and destroyed. Nearly everyone in Gaza, 90% of the population, has been forced to leave their home. Many people have had to pack up and move over and over again, living in bombed-out buildings, tents, and out in the streets.
The Israeli military has issued dozens of evacuation orders telling civilians to go to so-called safe zones while it says it goes after Hamas fighters. But even those zones are coming under fire. Humanitarian agencies say nowhere in Gaza is safe. Daylight gives you a sense of the power that came from the air. Israel says it targeted various Hamas field commanders, but what that means is that Israel targeted a camp for the internally displaced. Their tarp or tents have no protection against Israel’s military might. Israel deemed this a safe zone, but it was not. In September, at least 19 people were killed. Time and time again, we have seen Israel justifying massacres in order to pursue the alleged killing of militants. But by this token, Israel is given license to kill everyone in Gaza by simply claiming it was to kill a Hamas member. This is indecent and beyond unlawful.
So what is happening with aid delivery? Remember, at the start of the war Israel imposed a complete siege on Gaza. Israel has been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war, including by the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food. In a report to the UN General Assembly, he said Israel made its intentions to starve everyone in Gaza explicit. Then Israel used starvation to induce forcible transfer, harm, and death against people in the north, pushing people into the south only to starve, bombard, and kill people in newly created refugee camps in the south. Around half a million people are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. In other words, they are facing famine. In August, an average of just 69 aid trucks entered Gaza per day, which is a record low. Aid groups say Israel is blocking 83% of the required food aid from reaching Gaza.
On top of all that, disease is spreading because there is not enough clean water. The lack of clean water has led to 1.7 million cases of infectious diseases that can trigger massive and deadly epidemics, making water scarcity and contamination a silent bomb, far less visible than those that destroy buildings but no less lethal. The risk of disease is coupled with a desperate lack of medical care. Doctors Without Borders says Gaza’s healthcare system is being methodically dismantled through Israeli attacks, the blocking of aid, and the lack of protection for medical staff. Before the war, Gaza had 36 hospitals. Now just 17 are partially functioning according to the UN. It feels like people are waiting for death. Death seems to be the only certainty in this situation. That is a horrific reality for people on the ground here.
Now for Israelis, one of the biggest concerns since Hamas’s attack in October last year when more than a thousand people were killed has been the fate of the captives. 251 Israelis and foreigners were taken by Hamas and other groups into Gaza. 117 have gotten out alive through a prisoner swap, Israeli Army operations, or because Hamas released them. The bodies of 37 captives have been recovered and returned to Israel. Some of them were killed by Israeli forces, according to various reports. In August, Israeli soldiers located the bodies of six captives in a Hamas tunnel. Israel accused Hamas of killing them. Hamas said it held Israel responsible because it had refused to sign a ceasefire deal. 97 captives remain unaccounted for.
There have been protests in Israel led by some of the captives’ families, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire that would save their loved ones. The incident in August when six captives were found dead triggered the biggest protest so far. The life of more than 100 Israelis—men, women, young girls—their lives are not the first priority of the Israeli government. This makes you think, where are they taking us? Where are they taking the Israeli people, Jews and Arabs? Despite the big street protests, Netanyahu looks pretty secure politically. A poll in May showed that 39% of Israelis thought the government’s military response against Hamas in Gaza had been about right, and 34% thought it had not gone far enough.
What about Hamas? Israel has always said the aim of its war is to eliminate the group. Twelve months on, that has not happened. Israel has said that it killed a senior Hamas commander, Muhammad Dief, in July, although Hamas says he is still alive. Then, Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Iran. Most people think Israel was behind it. Hamas’s military leader, Yahya Sinwar, has replaced Haniyeh. Sinwar is thought to be in Gaza. When it comes to Hamas’ fighting capability, we do not have exact numbers on things like ammunition or the number of fighters they’ve lost. Before the war, Israeli officials estimated that Hamas had around 30,000 fighters. Recently, the Israeli Army said it had killed 17,000 fighters but gave no details about how it arrived at that number. Hamas itself has not released any figures but says it still has the capacity to keep up the fight.
We do not really know the details of what condition Hamas is in. They have been very good at hiding their abilities or the damage done to them. But clearly, Hamas has been damaged. You cannot sustain a year of the most intense aerial bombing in modern history and come out totally intact. But they are still fighting and carrying out operations in Gaza.
Where do things stand with the ceasefire deal? Remember, Israel and Hamas are not speaking directly to each other. The U.S., along with mediators from Qatar and Egypt, are driving the negotiations. In late May, U.S. President Joe Biden presented a three-stage ceasefire plan. It involved Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza and all the captives eventually being released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The final stage was ending the war and reconstructing Gaza. At the time, Hamas said they would agree if Israel did, but Netanyahu said he would not sign up to a deal that included a permanent end to the war. Since then, there have been more negotiations, and another obstacle has emerged. This is the Philadelphia Corridor. Netanyahu started insisting that Israeli troops should remain in a strip of land along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, known as the Philadelphia Corridor, which Hamas is against. All this makes the prospect of a ceasefire anytime soon look increasingly slim. In early September, the U.S. Secretary of State said a deal was 90% there, but a recent report in the Wall Street Journal quotes U.S. officials saying they no longer believe a deal is likely before the end of Joe Biden’s presidency in January.
Now the backdrop is even more fraught with what is going on in Lebanon and the escalation in the fight between Israel and Hezbollah which is an ally of Hamas. Israel’s bombing campaign and ground offensive in Lebanon have displaced one million Lebanese people, about a fifth of the population. More than 2,000 people have been killed, including hundreds of women and children, and several Hezbollah commanders.
I need to bring you some breaking news. The Israeli Army has officially announced that it has killed the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah. This is probably the most significant point that could represent a very high likelihood of a major escalation. Unfortunately, this means we are in a likely scenario of an even worse level of warfare and escalation than we have seen over the last almost 12 months since October 7th.
One year into the Gaza war, the outlook is really bleak. Unless something big changes, it is hard to see where the answers will come from. People need to know that Gaza is more than just a war zone. It is home to over 2 million people trying to survive amid unbearable conditions. We are resilient, but we are not superheroes, and we need the world’s help to end this suffering.
One of the big features of this war has been the role of international law. We have explained how it works and why some people feel the whole system is failing the people of Gaza and elsewhere.
About the Author
Al Jazeera English is an international 24-hour English-language news and current affairs TV channel owned and operated by Al Jazeera Media Network, headquartered in Doha, Qatar.
By Ali Sarhadi, Georgia Institute of Technology | – (The Conversation) – Hurricane Milton went from barely hurricane strength to a dangerous Category 5 storm in less than 24 hours as it headed across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida. As its wind speed increased, Milton became one of the most rapidly intensifying storms on […]
As its wind speed increased, Milton became one of the most rapidly intensifying storms on record. And with180 mph sustained windson Oct. 7, 2024, and very low pressure, it also became one of the strongest storms of the year.
Less than two weeks afterHurricane Helene’s devastating impact, this kind of storm was the last thing Florida wanted to see. Hurricane Milton was expected to make landfall as a major hurricane late on Oct. 9 or early Oct. 10 and had alreadyprompted widespread evacuations.
Hurricane Milton’s projected storm track, as of midday Oct. 7, 2024, shows how quickly it grew from formation into a major hurricane (M). Storm tracks are projections, and Milton’s path could shift as it moves across the Gulf of Mexico. The cone is a probable path and does not reflect the storm’s size. National Hurricane Center
So, what exactly is rapid intensification, and what does global climate change have to do with it? Weresearch hurricane behaviorandteach meteorology. Here’s what you need to know.
What is rapid intensification?
Rapid intensification is defined by the National Weather Service as an increase in a tropical cyclone’s maximum sustained wind speed ofat least 30 knots – about 35 mphwithin a 24-hour period. That increase can be enough to escalate a storm from Category 1 to Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Milton’s wind speed wentfrom 80 mphto175 mphfrom 1 p.m. Sunday to 1 p.m. Monday, and its pressure dropped from 988 millibars to 911.
The National Hurricane Center had been warning that Milton was likely to become a major hurricane, but this kind of rapid intensification can catch people off guard, especially when it occurs close to landfall.
Hurricane Michael didbillions of dollars in damagein 2018 when it rapidly intensified into a Category 5 storm just before hitting near Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle. In 2023,Hurricane Otis’maximum wind speed increased by 100 mph in less than 24 hours before it hit Acapulco, Mexico.Hurricane Ianalso rapidly intensified in 2022 before hitting just south of where Milton is projected to cross Florida.
What causes hurricanes to rapidly intensify?
Rapid intensification is difficult to forecast, but there are a few driving forces.
Ocean heat:Warm sea surface temperatures, particularly when they extend into deeper layers of warm water, provide the energy necessary for hurricanes to intensify. The deeper the warm water, the more energy a storm can draw upon, enhancing its strength.
Sea surface temperatures have been warm in the Gulf of Mexico, where Hurricane Milton was crossing just northwest of the tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Oct. 7, 2024. A temperature of 30 degrees Celsius is equivalent to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. NOAA
Low wind shear: Strong vertical wind shear – a rapid change in wind speed or direction with height – candisrupt a storm’s organization, while low wind shear allows hurricanes to grow more rapidly. In Milton’s case, the atmospheric conditions were particularly conducive to rapid intensification.
Moisture: Higher sea surface temperatures and lower salinity increase the amount of moisture available to storms, fueling rapid intensification. Warmer waters provide the heat needed for moisture to evaporate, while lower salinity helps trap that heat near the surface. This allows more sustained heat and moisture to transfer to the storm,driving faster and stronger intensification.
Thunderstorm activity: Internal dynamics, such as bursts of intense thunderstorms within a cyclone’s rotation, canreorganize a cyclone’s circulationand lead to rapid increases in strength, even when the other conditions aren’t ideal.
How does global warming influence hurricane strength?
If it seems as though you’ve been hearing about rapid intensification a lot more in recent years, that’s in part because it’s happening more often.
The annual number of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean that achieved rapid intensification each year between 1980-2023 shows an upward trend. Climate Central, CC BY-ND
A 2023 study investigating connections between rapid intensification and climate change found an increase in the number of tropical cyclones experiencing rapid intensification over the past four decades. That includes a significant rise in the number of hurricanes that rapidly intensify multiple times during their development. Another analysis comparing trends from 1982 to 2017 with climate model simulations found that natural variability alone could not explain these increases in rapidly intensifying storms, indicating a likely role of human-induced climate change.
How future climate change will affect hurricanes is an active area of research. As global temperatures and oceans continue to warm, however, the frequency of major hurricanes is projected to increase. The extreme hurricanes of recent years, including Beryl in June 2024 and Helene, are already raising alarms about the intensifying impact of warming on tropical cyclone behavior.
The Conversation is an independent, not-for-profit media outlet that works with academic experts in their fields to publish short, clear essays on hot topics.
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Last October 7, the al-Qassam Brigades of the Hamas Party-Militia, joined by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and some other small groups of militants, attacked Israel from Gaza. They took on Israeli troops and briefly occupied an Israeli military base, displaying the skills of a trained army and not just those of a ragtag guerrilla group. Had the al-Qassam Brigades stopped there, international law experts might be debating whether the operation was lawful, given the right of occupied people to defend themselves.
But, possibly influenced by the ISIL (ISIS, Daesh) doctrine of tawahhush or acting like wild beasts (in direct contradiction with the medieval Islamic law of war), Hamas operatives used hang gliders to attack a rave being held near some peacenik kubbutzes in that region. They machine-gunned down hundreds of innocent civilians and chased them to hiding places, murdering them. The musical event was the “Supernova Sukkot Gathering,” held outside during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret near Kibbutz Re’im. The kibbutzes in that region were known to be peaceniks and favorable to peace with the Palestinians. Some, almost miraculously, still are. They are Menschen.
The militants also invaded kibbutzes and wrought a slaughter. Over 600 innocent, noncombatant Israelis were killed that day, in one of the worst war crimes committed by a non-state actor since the demise of ISIL in 2018. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, which did not get the cooperation of the Israeli government, found that it was plausible that some victims were sexually assaulted. Hamas also kidnapped hundreds of people. Some of them were killed by Israeli troops, who had standing orders not to allow military personnel to be kidnapped even if it was necessary to kill them to prevent it. This “Hannibal directive” was, according to Haaretz, extended to Israeli civilians on October 7, so some of the civilian death toll was from the Israeli side. But it was likely a minor contributor to that death toll, given Hamas carnage at the rave.
The Hamas militants injured 14,970 people and displaced 150,000 Israelis from their homes for months on end.
Nothing can excuse or justify the act of terror committed by the al-Qassam Brigades and others that day. They should all have been tried the way war criminals were at the Nuremberg Trials.
However, many observers have pointed out that it is misleading for our historical understanding of this epochal event and its even more horrific aftermath to begin history on October 7. Europeans and Americans see Israel through the lens of 20th century European nationalism, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust, such that Israel comes as a response to this European genocide. But that is a narrative of Zionist nationalists and those persuaded by them.
It was perfectly plausible that surviving European Jews should have been reintegrated into German, Italian, French and Polish society after WW II, and given reparations and aid to recover their previous economic position. Dumping the European Jews in the midst of a Middle Eastern maelstrom only guaranteed more wars and more tragedies. It suited Zionist nationalists, probably a small minority of the Jews who fled for their lives as refugees to British mandatory Palestine. And it suited the racist generation of Germans, French, Italians and others, ridding them of their Jewish populations. It suited the global great powers– Britain, France, the US and the Soviet Union, in planting a Western agent in the midst of a Middle East they wished to dominate.
From a Middle Eastern point of view, the project of Israel looks a great deal like French colonial Algeria or Apartheid South Africa, a project of European settler colonialists. This perspective is flawed and inadequate to a more complex case. But it is their perspective.
So let me just review the Gaza and Middle Eastern background to October 7.
1. In 1947-48, the Haganah and other militias of the Jewish community settled in British colonial Palestine against the wishes of the indigenous population declared war both on the British authorities and on the Palestinians, seeking to establish a state. The British White Paper of 1939 instead had envisaged a Palestinian state by 1949, just as the British mandate over Iraq had eventuated in an Iraqi state and the French mandate over Syria had eventuated in a Syrian state. Leaders of the Zionist movement were determined to thwart the 1949 White Paper, and had announced boldly that they would do so as early as . . . 1939. The Zionists waged a war of ethnic cleansing against Palestinian villages, driving 250,000 Palestinians into Gaza, which had had a population of 80,000 prosperous farmers, orchard owners, and artisans. (Some 750,000 Palestinians were chased from their homes over-all).
Once the Palestinian refugees were cooped up in Gaza, the new Israelis declared that they could never return to their homes in cities such as Beersheba and Najd, which became Israeli cities (Najd was left in ruins but nearby Sderot was built on its lands). The Palestinians lost everything. They had no money. Their home equity was gone. They lost title to their farms. Jewish families moved into their houses, used their utensils, stole their livestock, and farmed their land, harvesting the crops the Palestinians had lovingly planted. The Palestinian refugees received no reparations for this immense loss of property, worth billions of dollars today.
2. The Israelis also stole the lands of the people of Gaza stretching toward Negev — their orange orchards and date palms. The Israeli conquests created Gaza as a “Strip,” detached from its economic hinterland and cut off from its markets in Akka, Tyre, and Bethlehem. Brides in Bethlehem used to use brightly colored cloth loomed in Gaza for their wedding gowns. Now Gaza became an economic basket case.
3. Egypt jointly administered the Gaza Strip with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, putting the population on welfare since its economy no longer worked because it had been surrounded by Israel and it was burdened with hundreds of thousands of penniless refugees. The Palestinians of Gaza became stateless in 1948. They have had no state for 76 years. No other population on earth has been stateless for 76 years. They had no indigenous government, no control over their own resources.
4. Ben Gurion and some other Israeli leaders were ambitious to expand Israeli territory at the expense of neighbors, eyeing southern Lebanon, Egypt’s Sinai, and the Palestinian occupied territories. The British and the US had planted and were backing an aggressive rogue state in the heart of the Middle East. Israel came after the Palestinians of Gaza in 1956 and briefly tried to occupy them, but President Ike Eisenhower, furious at Tel Aviv for launching a war of aggression on Egypt on the eve of the U.S. presidential election, which could have cost Eisenhower the White House, made them get right back out. The Israelis had not bothered to read Eisenhower into the plot they got up with Britain and France.
5. The Israeli military plotted all through the 1960s to find a way to occupy the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights. In 1967, under the pretext of some flights of rhetoric on the part of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Israeli high command overruled General Yitzhak Rabin and launched a wide-ranging war on Egypt, taking out its air force and occupying the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, Gaza and the Palestinian West Bank. The Palestinians had played no role in the 1967 War, but they were its main victims. Now the Palestinians of the West Bank became stateless and occupied by a foreign power with which they had no common identity.
6. Through the rest of the 20th century, the Israelis de-developed the Gaza economy and planted 9,000 Israeli squatters on the best land in Gaza, crowding the Palestinian refugees into even a narrower part of the Strip, from which they took resources. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unilaterally removed those squatters in 2005, in a bid to permanently split Gaza from the West Bank and prevent the emergence of the Palestinian state promised by Bill Clinton in the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords.
7. In 2006, the Bush administration insisted on Palestinian elections. The fundamentalist party-militia Hamas barely won in Gaza, where many people voted for the secular nationalist Palestine Liberation Organization. It won over-all, getting more support in the West Bank than expected. This outcome was unacceptable to Israel, which arrested the Palestinian MPs and crippled the new government. In 2007, the US and Israel cooperated with the PLO in staging a coup against Hamas, which succeeded in the West Bank but failed in Gaza. Because the elected Hamas government remained in place in Gaza, Israel slapped a severe economic boycott on the Strip, limiting the calories allowed in to what would keep people alive but barely. It was called putting them on a diet. I swear it is the creepiest colonial policy I know about in the 21st century. Children were not allowed to have chocolate. No fat should be on anyone’s body.
8. In 2008-2009, 20012, 2014 and 2021 Israel launched bombing raids on densely populated Gaza, killing women and children. The Israelis, outdoing themselves in creepiness, referred to this periodic bombardment of residences and civilian infrastructure “mowing the lawn.” Thousands of Palestinians were killed or wounded in these bombardment campaigns. The Israeli bombardment came in response to Hamas firing small home-made rockets toward Israel, which sometimes did property damage or killed an innocent Israeli. It is a war crime to fire unguided munitions toward a civilian settlement. However, all but a handful of Hamas rockets landed uselessly in the desert and the “mowing the lawn” Israeli campaigns were vastly disproportionate as a response.
9. In 2018-2019, Palestinians in Gaza staged weekly protests at the barbed wire fence the Israelis had built around the world’s largest open air concentration camp. Dubbed “the Great March of Return,” the demonstrations aimed to call attention to the refugees’ proximity to their indigenous lands, which in some cases are walking distance from Gaza. The Israeli military mounted professional snipers and shot dead 214 Palestinians, including 46 children. The snipers used live fire to injure 8,000 demonstrators, often deliberately blowing out their knees and leaving them crippled the rest of their lives. The demonstrators almost never got to the barbed wire fence, and one Israeli soldier died in the events. Most of those shot were out in the open on Gaza soil, and some were wearing clothing indicating they were medics or journalists. Many were children who came out for the carnival-like atmosphere. That Israeli snipers could shoot 8,000 mostly noncombatant Palestinians with impunity signaled to Benjamin Netanyahu that he could get away with anything.
10. In 2020, the US peeled the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco away from the Arab League consensus on no new treaties with Israel until there is a Palestinian state. Israeli tech start-ups did big business with Dubai. It was being demonstrated that the path to Israel’s acceptance in the region depended not on its treatment of the Palestinians but on its high tech economy and start-ups. The Palestinians could be sidelined and left in their squalid refugee settlements forever.
Late in 2022, the most extreme right wing government in Israel’s history came to power, which began openly speaking of ethnically cleansing the Palestinians.
In April 2023 the Israelis on several occasions attacked Palestinian worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine in the world for 2 billion Muslims. This was during the holy month of Ramadan. It would be like a military occupation force storming the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome on Easter. Israeli extremists began openly speaking of tearing down the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and replacing them with a Jewish temple, though archeologists maintain that al-Aqsa is not on the site of the second temple. For religious fundamentalists in Gaza (a minority), this threat to al-Aqsa seemed dire.
Israeli squatters, emboldened by their fascist government, began staging numerous and repeated attacks on indigenous Palestinian hamlets in the West Bank, shooting them up and setting fires to residences, cars and crops.
Hamas militants of the al-Qassam Brigades, some apparently influenced by the tactics of the ISIL terrorist group, begin plotting an apocalyptic action that in their view might put the Palestine issue back on the Great Power map and forestall its permanent marginalization.
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