MARIÂNGELA BERQUÓ enfoca a Geopolítica: Alliance of Evil against Palestine

It is not a secret that US President Donald Trump is obsessed with either voiding or emulating the legacy of his predecessor, Barack Obama. Trump now seeks to defeat Obama's political heir, Joe Biden, in the upcoming presidential election and wants to stack up enough peace-making deals to earn the elusive Nobel Peace Prize, just as Obama did in 2009.

As his poll numbers began to sink last summer, foreign policy "victories" became that much more necessary to distract from political troubles at home and boost his rating. Thus, Trump instructed his advisers to scout out deal-making opportunities around the world before the 2020 presidential election.

Gratifying Israel has been at the centre of the president's fixation on collecting foreign deals as trophies, announcing them on Twitter and summoning the concerned parties for a photo opportunity at the Oval Office, so American voters can watch him first-hand demonstrate his skills in "the art of the deal".

In recent weeks, the US president has been quite busy with this pursuit. On August 13, he had a three-way phone call with Emirati and Israeli leaders to seal a deal on normalisation of relations. Less than two weeks later, hoping to have a larger Arab-Israeli normalisation deal, he dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on a tour of Sudan, Bahrain and Oman.

Then Trump invited the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo on September 4 for an economic normalisation deal that might end up further complicating the situation in the Balkans while having them both awkwardly embrace Israel with no clear policy rationale. His administration is also pushing a fragile Lebanon to sign a border demarcation agreement with Israel in the next few weeks.

The White House also pulled some strings so Bahrain can become the second Gulf country to normalise with Israel. On September 15, Emirati and Bahraini leaders are joining Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington to celebrate these agreements in a reality-show-like event.

This diplomatic offensive before the US elections is a good illustration of Trump's tendency to mix policymaking with campaigning and run a propaganda machine with a personality cult approach regardless of what negative consequences this might have at home or abroad. And such consequences are quite likely.

The normalisation of relations between the UAE and Bahrain on one side and Israel on another is the peak of a cumulative process that had been largely kept behind closed doors for years.

When Trump took power in 2017, he adopted a strategy to build on the continuing behind-the-scenes rapprochement between some Gulf countries and Israel. He wanted to strike a "peace deal" between the Israelis and the Palestinians in order to enable a formal Arab-Israeli coalition against Iran.

After overwhelming the Israelis with free gifts, like recognising Jerusalem as their capital and punishing the Palestinians for rejecting it, phase one of this strategy started faltering. Meanwhile, Netanyahu was holding one election after the other to escape US pressure to concede something for the Palestinians.

The Trump administration was thus forced to abandon trying to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and skip to phase two of officially declaring an Arab-Israeli alliance, as the November US elections were fast approaching. Under the pretext of preventing Israeli annexation of additional West Bank territories, the Emiratis announced they were normalising relations with Israel. Then a month later, Bahrain followed suit.

The major ramification of this process is not strategic but rather in breaking the ideological, moral, and cultural taboo of public Arab engagement with Israel, which is expected to become a contentious issue in the regional Arab discourse. The Arab League, whose only job for decades was to condemn Israeli activities, did not criticise the steps taken towards Arab-Israeli normalisation.

The fact is, there is a new generation of rulers in some Gulf countries who do not have the same affinity for the Palestinian cause as their elders did and have other priorities at home and abroad. These normalisation deals are also a reminder that the balance of power in the Arab world has shifted from traditional powers hostile to Israel, such as Syria and Iraq, to smaller powers on the periphery.

Bahrain and UAE's population account for less than two million (not counting foreign workers) out of 422 million Arabs. The nature of the political systems in both countries allows the ruling elites to conclude such normalisation deals, by force if needed, with US support and now with reinforced Israeli direct consent.

Given its symbolic role in Islam and the potential political pressure at home, Saudi Arabia is not ready yet to undertake normalisation but given how much the Saudi leadership owes Trump for its diplomatic survival after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, it helped with getting Bahrain to do it instead.

This top-down approach to normalisation is a quick-fix or an attempt for a quick win and it is unlikely to change the Arab public mindset towards Israel. Neither Bahraini nor Emirati soldiers fought with Israel on the battlefield, hence their normalisation does not have a significant impact on the dynamics of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The normalisation deals, however, are meant to prop up Arab authoritarianism and restore the pre-Arab Spring role of the US as a protector of Arab regimes appeasing Israel. They are symbolic agreements that will only deepen regional divisions instead of mitigating them. The UAE might try to bring other Arab regimes to this axis to expand the coalition against Iran and by extension Turkey. This can potentially increase regional tensions from the Levant to North Africa.

Previous top-down Arab normalisation attempts with Israel have failed miserably and ended in either conflict, as was the case in Lebanon, or cold peace in the Jordanian case.

In the context of the normalisation process, there is a clear convergence of interest between Trump and those attending the White House ceremony today, as both sides wish for Biden to be defeated on November 3. Some Gulf countries and Israel are concerned that if Democrats return to power, they will most likely restore Iran's nuclear deal and US engagement with Tehran. Hence, they are preempting this move by forging a new reality on the ground.

Netanyahu and some Gulf rulers are also returning the favour to Trump who helped them either in their own political struggles at home and abroad. Getting closer to Trump and Israel can also potentially shield UAE from any pressure to reconcile with Qatar. Having Israel as an ally will give Abu Dhabi more leverage in Washington even if Biden ends up winning.

This US-sponsored normalisation also shows the contradiction in the Trump administration's Middle East strategy which vacillates between endorsing Turkish policies in Syria and Libya and strengthening an Arab-Israeli alliance that is against Ankara as much as it is against Tehran. This selective approach is provoking tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean and now the Gulf region instead of maintaining stability and encouraging reforms.

At the same time, normalisation will most likely not make US strategy more effective in deterring Tehran and might even reinforce the Iranian regime's narrative in Arab politics.

In the end, the actual impact of the Arab-Israeli normalisation will largely depend on Trump winning the election and the evolution of Israeli politics. However, it is important to note here that Netanyahu will always choose to satisfy the right-wing coalition that kept him in power over appeasing his new Gulf allies which do not hold the keys of war and peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict anyway.

So, when the camera lights are out or when Trump leaves office, those who have taken steps towards normalisation might realise that they have given up a bargaining card as a free gift without having any concessions in return and that regional deals by major powers have been made at their expense once again.

Meanwhile, Trump might need to normalise his relationship with reality, as well. At the end of his first term, the incumbent US president is acting as a de facto Israeli foreign minister. A narcissistic wannabe deal maker cannot rush historical change for self-serving interests without triggering conflicts that might outlast his longing to stay in power.

On the other hand, on September 2, the Israeli government approved a proposal that allows the military to indefinitely withhold the bodies of Palestinians who have been killed by the Israeli army. The proposal was made by the country’s Defense Minister, Binymain (Benny) Gantz.

Gantz is the main political rival of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He also serves the role of the ‘alternate Prime Minister.’ If Netanyahu does not renege on the coalition government agreement he signed with Gantz’s Blue and White Party last April, Gantz will take the helm of Israel’s leadership, starting November 2021.

Since his official induction to the tumultuous world of Israeli politics, Gantz, supposedly a ‘centrist’, has adopted hawkish stances against Palestinians, especially those in Gaza. This way, he hopes to widen his appeal to Israeli voters, the majority of whom have migrated en-masse to the Right.

But Gantz’s latest ‘achievement’, that of denying dead Palestinians a proper burial, is not entirely a novel idea. In fact, in Israel, bargaining with corpses has been the modus operandi for decades.

According to the Defense Minister’s logic, the withholding of bodies will serve as a ‘deterrent against terror attacks.’ However, judging by the fact that the practice has been in use for many years, there is no proof that Palestinians were ever discouraged from resisting Israel’s military occupation due to such strategies.

The new policy, according to Israeli officials, is different from the previous practices. While in the past, Israel has only kept the bodies of alleged ‘Palestinian attackers’ who belonged to ‘terror groups’, the latest decision by the Israeli government would extend the rule to apply to all Palestinians, even those who have no political affiliations.

Aside from Gantz’s attempt at shoring up his hawkish credentials, the military man-turned politician wants to improve his chances in the on and off, indirect negotiations between Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza. Israel believes that there are four soldiers who are currently being held in Gaza, including the bodies of two soldiers who were killed during the devastating Israeli war on the besieged Strip in July 2014. Hamas has maintained that two of the four soldiers – Hadar Goldin and Shaul Aaron – are, in fact, still alive and in custody.

For years, low-level talks between Hamas and Israel have aimed at securing a deal that would see an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners freed in exchange for the detained Israelis. By withholding yet more Palestinian bodies, Tel Aviv hopes to strengthen its position in future talks.

The reality, however, is quite different. The Israeli army has not been returning the bodies of Palestinians who are accused of attacking Israeli soldiers for months, which includes all Palestinians, regardless of their purported political affiliations.

Undoubtedly, withholding corpses as a political strategy is illegal under international law. Article 130 of the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly states that persons who are killed during armed conflicts should be “honorably buried … according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged.”

The Israeli Supreme Court, however, which quite often rules contrary to international law, resolved on September 9, 2019 – exactly one year before the Israeli cabinet’s decision – that the army has the right to continue with the practice of withholding the bodies of dead Palestinians.

While Israel is not the first country to use the dead as a bargaining chip, the practice in Israel has lasted as long as the conflict itself, and has been utilized in myriad ways with the intention of humiliating, collectively punishing and bargaining with Palestinians.

During Brasil’s and Argentina’s ‘Dirty Wars’ (1964-1984/1976-1983), tens of thousands of Argentinians ‘disappeared’. Students, intellectuals, trade unionists and thousands of other dissidents were killed by the country’s regime in an unprecedented genocide. The bodies of most of these victims were never recovered. However, the practice largely ceased following the collapse of the military junta in 1983.

Similar ordeals have been inflicted by other countries in many parts of the world. In Israel however, the practice is not linked to a specific military regime or a particular leader. The ‘desaparecidos’ of Palestine span several generations.

To this day, Israel maintains what is known as the ‘cemeteries of numbers’. Salwa Hammad, a coordinator for the Palestinian National Campaign to Retrieve Martyrs, estimates that there are six such cemeteries in Israel, although Israeli authorities refuse to divulge more details regarding the nature of these cemeteries, or exactly how many Palestinian bodies are buried there.

The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center estimates that 255 Palestinian bodies are buried in these cemeteries, 52 of them being ‘detained’ there by Israeli authorities since 2016.

In the ‘cemeteries of numbers’, Palestinians are known, not by name, but by a number, one that only Israel can cross-reference to the actual individual who is buried there. In 2011, the body of Hafez Abu Zant was released after being held in one of these cemeteries for 35 years, Bernama news agency reported.

According to Hammad, “If the remains are in a ‘cemetery of numbers’, we get it back in a black bag – some bones, some soil and maybe their clothes.”

Following the Israeli cabinet’s approval of his proposal, Gantz bragged about his ability to apply “an extensive policy of deterrence since entering office”. The truth is that Gantz is merely posturing and taking credit for a protracted Israeli policy that has been applied by all previous governments, regardless of their political orientations.

If Gantz is truly convinced that holding dead Palestinian bodies – while maintaining the Israeli military occupation – will bring about whatever skewed definition of peace and security he has in mind, he is sadly mistaken.

Such policies have proven a complete failure. While Palestinian families are absolutely devastated by this hideous practice, the detention of corpses has never quelled a rebellion, neither in Argentina, Brasil nor in Palestine.

PALESTINA

In late August, the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, found a foothold in the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated territories in the World.

Since then, infections have spiked significantly, with nearly 1,000 new positive cases reported in the last two weeks alone.

Now, Gaza faces a health catastrophe that will be difficult to contain and mitigate without swift and significant aid.

The detection of community transmission in the Strip marked a grim turn in what had been a relatively successful prevention strategy. From the onset of the pandemic through much of August, fewer than 100 cases had been reported - all among travellers returning from Israel and Egypt and all of whom were systematically quarantined.

Gaza is particularly vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19. Its weak healthcare system barely serves the daily needs of the area's nearly 2 million people and is not equipped to handle a pandemic that has overwhelmed even the most advanced healthcare systems in the world.

That system has been debilitated by years of blockades, violence, and a dearth of funding. It suffers from ubiquitous shortages of drugs, equipment, supplies, and personnel.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that Gaza's hospitals can handle only 350 COVID-19 patients. But with more than 1,200 cases already, the virus will likely sicken thousands of people. And with fewer than 100 ICU beds and even fewer ventilators, COVID-19 could push Gaza's healthcare system over the brink.

To make matters worse, the pandemic comes against the backdrop of renewed violence and access restrictions. In August, during a three-week escalation between Israel and Hamas, Israel tightened the blockade, banning the entry of construction materials and fuel to Gaza, which has forced the enclave's only power plant to shut down. By early September, the Strip regained calm after a successful - yet likely temporary - Qatari-led de-escalation agreement. Still, the Qatari mediation does not lessen the effects of Gaza's blockade, nor will it prevent a future outburst of violence.

All this is taking place in communities reeling under the weight of a decade-long humanitarian crisis - triggered by 13 years of blockades with varying degrees of restriction and periodic war.

There is a real risk that Gaza cannot withstand the economic shockwaves of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 80 percent of people in Gaza depend on humanitarian aid to survive, and the long-term socioeconomic repercussions of a months-long lockdown could be devastating. Thousands of Gazans have already completely or partially lost their income, which has exacerbated a high unemployment rate estimated at more than 50 percent prior to the Coronavirus.

A chronic shortage of humanitarian funding for Gaza, exacerbated by major recent cuts in US funding, has made the delivery of even the most basic services a challenge. The Trump administration's 2018 decision to end US funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was and remains deeply problematic.

Now, more than ever, this policy needs to be reversed. The virus knows no borders, and this is no time to politicise aid. Quite the contrary, in the face of the worst pandemic the world has experienced in more than a century, global efforts should come together to mitigate these risks worldwide.

Amid lockdowns and a blockade, Gazans now face a "quarantine within a quarantine". It took only a few cases for the virus to spread quickly inside the Strip. At the very least, the terms of the blockade need to be revised to help the population cope with the pandemic and the area's long-term humanitarian crisis.

Israel should commit to ensuring that the blockade is not used as a form of collective punishment against the Palestinians living in Gaza. At the minimum, Israel should allow construction material or goods aimed at humanitarian aid, development projects, or the health sector to enter the territory. It also should refrain from banning fuel - a basic and critical commodity.

International donors - including the US - must increase their support to help Gaza through the worst of the outbreak. They should immediately provide medical equipment including ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE), and testing kits.

In March, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a global ceasefire to focus on ''the true [COVID-19] fight of our lives''. This call is true in Gaza today more than ever. Parties to the conflict must put down their guns and set politics aside in order to help prevent greater hardship on a population that has already suffered tremendously.

“For my family, and for the people of Gaza, August has been horrific. Israel bombed the Strip on an almost daily basis, making us feel like we were stuck at the epicentre of a never-ending earthquake. The explosions, at times barely a kilometre from our home, were so loud, my two-year-old niece could not sleep at night. Every time she heard a loud bang she quickly gathered her toys around her, as if to protect them from Israel's bombs.

Last month was indeed horrific, but it was not extraordinary in any way. Israel's soldiers, warplanes, drones and gunships have been harassing, intimidating, and killing the people of Gaza regularly, and with impunity, for decades. Israel's attacks are part of the daily routine in Gaza. To be able to survive, and to lead something that resembles a normal life, us Gazans have no choice but to accept as normal the violence being inflicted on us.

Growing up in Gaza, I always felt a sense of emergency. My family was always prepared for the worst, because the worst could knock on our door at any time, as it did during the attacks on Gaza in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014. As a child, I knew that living in fear every single day was not normal. In my heart, I rejected the normalisation of everyday horrors, because I did not want to lose touch with my humanity. Yet I eventually had to come to terms with the situation I was born into and my surroundings.

Now, my niece and thousands of other children living under Israeli siege in Gaza, are growing up with the same fears and the same sense of constant emergency. As they try to sleep through the sounds of bombs, and protect their toys from the horrors that are just outside the door, they are being forced to accept as normal a violent reality that no child should ever even witness.

In recent years, there has barely been a day in which Israel did not bomb, shoot into, or physically invade what is not only one of the most densely populated areas on the planet, but also a place which has been besieged for more than 13 years, with major shortages of the basics required for normal human life.

Israel's colonial infrastructure controls the sky above us and the land and sea around us, and is even capable of penetrating into our most intimate spaces to show us its power. In Gaza, wherever you look, you see tools of oppression, occupation and urban warfare - border fences, separation walls, armoured trucks, warplanes and checkpoints shape the landscape we live in. Even when you are at home, the whirring sound of military drones remind you that you are imprisoned, and you can be attacked at any moment.

I believe Israel makes a conscious effort to constantly remind Gaza Palestinians of its presence. By making its occupation so visible, and the power it has over us so obvious, it is sending us a message: We will never allow you to be normal people, and live normal lives.

To Israel, Gaza is not a place where two million men, women, and children call home, but an "enemy entity" - an alien space whose inhabitants do not deserve to be treated with human decency. Israel's propaganda machine, with help from its allies around the world, works tirelessly to dehumanise the people of Gaza, brand them as senseless, violent "extremists", and create the perception that Israel's occupation is "humane" and "civilised".

Of course, the reality is very different. And despite Israel's efforts to terrorise us into silence, we, the people of Gaza, are not willing to allow our occupier to tell our story. We turn our fears, vulnerabilities and frustrations into resistance and reach out to the world in every way that we can to expose our tragic reality, demand our rights and shame our oppressors.

Like many Gazans living on the Strip and across the world, I have spent a lifetime fighting Israel's colonial policies. I have been on the forefront of the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom, first in my refugee camp in Gaza, and later Germany. For my efforts, I have been threatened, persecuted, intimidated and even shot at. But I never gave up, because I know resistance is the only way to ensure that there is a decolonised future worth living for me, my family and my beloved Gaza.

But, sadly, the world seems not to be interested in hearing us. Israel's continuing crimes against the Palestinians have been exposed, over and over again, by journalists, UN rapporteurs, activists and Palestinians themselves. Yet, most world governments did nothing to pressure Israel to stop to this day. Some issued empty statements to "condemn" Israel, and "urge" it to stop its attacks against the Palestinians, but continued to give Israel diplomatic, political and military support. Others chose to remain completely silent and turned a blind eye to our sufferin, which is another moral betrayal.

But the international community cannot continue to ignore our plight. The UN said some three years ago that it expects Gaza to become "unlivable" by 2020. Since then, Israel not only refused to take action to reverse Gaza's rapid deterioration into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but intensified its attacks on the Strip, hindering efforts by activists, NGOs and locals to keep this open prison habitable for a little longer. With the novel coronavirus now spreading throughout refugee camps and communities across Gaza, we cannot afford to wait any longer for the world to acknowledge our suffering and take action.

Every year on May 15, Palestinians mark the Nakba, or "catastrophe", referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the near-total destruction of Palestinian society in 1948. Since that tragic day, Israel's primary strategic goal has been to keep Palestinians in a state of catastrophe. It has achieved this goal by building a colonial infrastructure to prevent us from escaping its structural violence.

Today, Israel is trying to maintain this state of catastrophe through regular military assaults, daily bombardments and aggressive surveillance. It is trying to force us into compliance by brutally attacking peaceful protests against its occupation and illegal settlement. It is trying to silence us through media campaigns that paint us as "terrorists" and "savages". It is trying to make us forget our humanity and stop fighting for our right to live freely and with dignity by restricting our access to electricity, forcing us to eat inedible food and drink poisoned water.

Israel has kept Palestine in a state of catastrophe for so long that our situation now seems "normal" to the world. But there is nothing normal about Israel's continuing efforts to destroy our communal and personal lives.

Palestinians will undoubtedly continue to resist Israel's colonial policies and build beautiful narratives of grassroots resilience. But we cannot win our righteous, just and moral fight for freedom, equality and dignity without the support of the international community, like it was the case in apartheid South Africa.

This is why we call for the international community to sanction and isolate Israel for its repeated crimes against humanity in colonised Palestine. If the world continues to treat our situation as "normal" and fails to take action, it may soon be just too late to save my homeland and my people." by Majed Abusalama