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
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
INTERACTIVE:
Palestinian Remix
Palestinian Center
for Human Rights
International Solidarity
Movement – Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom
Defense for
Children
Breaking the Silence
BRASIL
AOS FATOS:Todas as declarações de Bolsonaro, checadas
