Essay: Israeli-Palestinian conflict with an alternative narrative of the shadow of ICC

This section will mainly outline the Israeli Actions in the Occupied Palestinian State as it constitutes a Crime of Aggression; the theme analysed in this chapter is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with an alternative narrative of the shadow of ICC. It is argued that the absence of recognition for the human right abuses committed by Israel during and after the 1948 War as it is a crucial obstacle for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A short historical background to the conflict is intended to emphasise the absence of political solutions to the conflict, while historians have effectively showed the injustices that the 1948 and recent Wars produced.
1. History of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
The history of the Palestinian- Israeli disagreement is one of the most controversial conflicts in ancient history as well as in our modern time as dating back to many decades. The current conflict between Palestine– Israeli is becoming more tense each day and therefore, they must reach to an agreement immediately before the violence escalates to become worse between two states.
The Israeli-Palestinian issue has been the subject of some of the most extensive peace building efforts in the world. The recent occurrence in the Middle East between the Israeli extremists and the Palestinian population is mainly related to their historical past. The United Nations’ Resolution 194 unequivocally states that there’s an obligation to return the Palestinian refugees to their homeland from which they were expelled in 1948.  Nonetheless, the problem of the Palestinian refugees has been consistently ignored throughout the ‘peace process’. Even at the time that the Oslo process seemed to produce some sort of change on the ground, it was in essence a settlement that overlooked the fate of the Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian minority in Israel.  Furthermore, the Geneva Accord is entirely silent on the issue,  and the numerous informal peace agreements recognize historical responsibility but vary on the acknowledgment of blame.  Although politically the issue has not been properly addressed, historians have evidenced the problematic outcome of the 1948 War.The numerous peacebuilding projects have been conducted to resolve the conflicts between Israeli and Palestinian group, including programs, interviews, projects, and film setting and assist the official peace procedure over the past 20 years. The meaningful and major changes may have been taken place thanks to the contribution of these projects, however these whole peacebuilding process did not have much impact on Israel and Palestine as expected. Several wars took place due to the conflict between these two states, starting in 1948, through Palestinian population, and Israeli. Now the Palestinian people are not only the victims but also the fighters against these Israel forces that unfortunately threaten the human rights on mostly a daily occurrence. As these activities were being conducted during the same period, the Oslo procedure has fallen through and as a result, Israeli army have increased the violence on Palestinian innocence, by building the separation barrier which led to more tension between them.
Following the advent of the Israeli New Historians, the consensus among the literature  is that the 1948 War led to approximately 750’000 people being expelled or fleeing out of fear, the destruction of more than five hundred villages, and the demolition of a dozen towns. Up until the 80’s the traditional Zionist narrative was practically unchallenged, and there had been no critical historical analysis in Israel of the 1948 War. In the words of Benny Morris: ‘Everything that had preceded it was just memoirs’.  The traditional historical take suggested that the war was a “David versus Goliath” conflict; that the Palestinians left because of the orders of Arab leaders, and were promised that they would shortly return. Each of these elements of Israel’s creation myths were contested by the New Historians. In particular, Israeli historian Ilan Pappè, member of the New Historians, famously used the term ‘ethnic cleansing’ to describe Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians during that period.  Even with the emergence of the New Historians, Israeli society’s understanding of the 1948 War didn’t fundamentally change.
Several incidents occurred in Palestinian territory due to the conflict between two states that those were very bitter and also have a great connection with the current situation between these two parties. Palestinian civilians are brutally killed almost each day by Israel bombers and their army in Palestine territory. With Israeli extremist groups, are causing much negativity and bitterness on Palestine sides of the conflict. Recently, the Israeli army has expanded their restrictions on the Palestinian group and therefore, it is becoming harder to find solution. Several developments have paused the peace operation and delayed the negotiation due to the recent status of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the land of Palestine. As an outcome, Palestinians and Israelis had more mistrust and hatred among them that they are even more isolated from each other than ever before the 1990s. An in-depth knowledge of the history is required to grasp the Israeli-Palestinian conflict of both sides.
The Background on the Conflict
In order to obtain an opinion on this issue one must examine the factual historical background of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Though, its origins go back to the end of the 19th century during the Ottoman or British rule, the expansion of Israel since 1947 is seen as the beginning of the conflict.
For Israelis, 1948 is a year in which two things happened that contradict each other: on one hand, Zionists claimed they fulfilled an ancient dream of returning to a homeland after two thousand years of exile. . On the other hand, 1948 also marked arguably the year in which Israel began committing severe human rights violations towards Palestinians. As a result, recognizing the Palestinians as victims of Israeli action is deeply traumatic. Acknowledging that Israel is responsible for the displacement of 750’000 Palestinians raises numerous ethical issues with crucial implications for the future.  In these terms, losing the status of victimhood has political consequences internationally, but more significantly existential repercussions for the Israeli psyche.   It was Zionism for the Jews against Palestinian nationalism. The border issues, security, ruling Jerusalem, recognition as well as Palestinian freedom of movement were the main conflicts between these two races. These conflicts are considered to be the major intensifying issues that it became daily activity between the two states. The Zionists believed that Palestine was their land as according to them it was part of their historic homeland of Israel. The Palestinians however already inhabited the place for over centuries and so there was a misconception between two nations.
As stated above, the historical background of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict started when the United Nations proposed the partition plan for Jewish in 1947. The Israelis are very happy with the plan however the Palestinians would not agree with this plan as they believe it is not fair to give up on their own land which is occupied by Israelis. Since then, there has been numerous battle occurred between Israel and Palestinians in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982 and so on.
This process of material forgetting was prominent starting from 1948 but also continues today. It has been documented that new Jewish villages were at times established on the ruins of Palestinian villages. Additionally, recreational parks and nature reserves were built on the remains of Palestinian lands and houses.  Still today, Palestinian houses are frequently demolished and new Jewish settlements are built on. Recently, Jerusalem’s municipality has been trying to demolish the entire Palestinian neighbourhood of Issawiya in east Jerusalem claiming the need to establish a national park.  Lastly, symbolic forgetting entails the production of a new symbolic map by changing the Arab names of cities, villages, and neighbourhoods to Hebrew names, thus domesticating them into the dominant narrative.  In this essay, there will be also focused on the conflict in recent history with a brief light on the involvement of the United States in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is not a secret at all that the US has a close relationship with Israel. Taking into account that the US currently is one of the biggest powers in the world, it has fueled the controversies created by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission. United States use these issues of the two states to push their agenda and to make benefit out of it, while Palestinians has been fighting against Israelis for fifty years over Palestinian land as it was granted to them before the Jews.
USA`s position would indeed strike anyone as highly controversial, to say the least. An escalating violence of 20 Israeli casualties against the over 600 on the Palestinian territory, the US seems to be blindly supportive of Israel’s actions instead of reaching a cease-fire urgently. Thus, Israeli is continually obtaining a great support from the United States. Surely, there has been much happened since the creation of Israel, however by at a glance at these sixty-nine years of violent history will undoubtedly prove that the events of Palestine are based on the disagreements between Palestinians and Israelis, and that The white house’s lack of leverage has contributed to the failure of the many attempts that have been made in this direction. There will unfortunately not be many chances of ceasing this bloodshed. Therefore, for the time being, the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis appears to be ongoing subject with no solution in the near future.
According to Israel, the territory of Palestine was promised to their fathers by god so that it actually   belongs to them not the Palestinian. However, Palestinian believes that it belongs to them as they have been living in Palestine for centuries.
There is a constant fight between Israel and Palestine due to the religious history of the land. The West Bank is considered to be their own home by the Palestinians and will continue to fight the Israelis who occupied their own territory for more than 30 years. It is so unfair that the West Bank is ruled by the Israelis over the Palestinians who were inhabited in the West Bank long before Israeli control.
The battle has been going on between Palestinians and Israelis as non-stop for the area of the West Bank over the last few years. This territory has three borders which run by Israeli and it is surrounded by the Jordan River. Israel has invaded The West Bank since 1967 even though, it originally belongs to the Palestinian territory. As the majority of Palestinians are still living in the West Bank, but it is controlled by the Israeli government. Palestinian inhabitants appear to be trapped in a merciless circle where at this point seems to have no end. They rightfully still believe that the West Bank belongs to them as it has always been theirs and the majority of Palestinian casualties have been living there since 1967. The fights have been going on between these two states so many times over the use of the land and the West Bank has been administered by Palestinian with no control over it since the 1990s. Palestinians feel betrayed by Israelis and naturally want their territory back. Palestinian believe that Israel should give control back of the West Bank to Palestinians. If the Israeli continue controlling over the Palestinian own territory, then only bad things would come out of it. Palestinians are also furious about the fact that their land was occupied by Israeli forces by turning Palestinians into Refugees in their own land.
Norway has secretly drawn up a peace agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis with the hopes of bringing all the violence to an end in 1993. The chairman of the PLO, and the prime minister of Israel shook hands at the White House in front of President Bill Clinton to reach the agreement at the time. This was considered to be a great step towards peace in a long time between these two nations, and everyone almost believed that the battle was going to come an end. These agreements were significant as it was the first time that Israel ever accepted the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the representatives of Palestine.
The Oslo aimed to pull the Israeli army out of all from the West Bank and Gaza, and also create opportunity for Palestinians to govern themselves in their own territory. However, Palestinians were still unhappy and the conflict continued even after the agreement signed by the two states. When Sharon took over after the election, he immediately called off the Oslo agreement, and the Israeli army became worse as they unfortunately tortured over 2000 Palestine. As the conflict has been going on for over three decades, some of the agreement were reached but there are unfortunately still some recent issues need to be resolved before the tension escalates between the two states. Even though several peace negotiations have resulted in a certain degrees of success, however, Israelis always refused to accept the existence of Palestinian casualties in their own territory.
Recent History of Israel-Palestine
Since Gaza-2014, over 600 hundred Palestinian civilians and more than 80 thousand Palestinian refugees displaced across so many various shelter camps, this recent round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has shaken the world in awe. In addition to this, the astonishing phenomenon of another bloodshed has been witnessed by us all just a few years after and unable to make any prediction about what will happen next in Palestine territory.  This initiative is the first of its kind in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though other similar unofficial truth projects have been undertaken in the past in other settings.  This commission is active while the conflict is on-going, as the latest war in Gaza caused the death of more than 2,100 Palestinians and 73 Israelis , and a peace settlement seems more distant than ever. Moreover, the commission self-consciously avoids the element of reconciliation because the conflict has not yet been resolved.  After June 2014, the media all over the world, are providing more detailed news of the incidents in the Gaza and the several social medias are flooded with images and different views. The Palestinian population is as usual, paying the highest price. After the government the elections in Gaza 2006, more brutal action took place as Hamas fires rockets against Israel, Israel fires against Gaza, and both incidents cause the death over hundreds of innocent Palestinians civilians in a brutal way of increasing more violence.
The most importantly, the White House seems to be wearing the traditional blindfold every time Israel gets involved in a serious attack against Palestinian civilians and acts as the international superpower for Israelis. Israel always claimed to have the right to exist, however denying the Palestinians of their right to exist, as they started ruling Palestinians activities such as the airspace and the water, the activities, the Palestinians’ movements in and out of Gaza, as well as the electric supplies and etc. Israel claims to be defending themselves, however, it is destroying the innocent Palestinian casualties by mercilessly firing hundreds of rockets against Gaza. Israel is claiming to ensure their own survival, however is viciously ending hundreds of Palestinian lives almost each day. Washington should no longer tolerate such actions. It is time to address this issue and find a definitive solution that could finally put an end to these tragic events.
Palestinians were forced to leave their homes and their land and sent to Refugee camps and then ruled by Israelis in their own territory. Palestinians claim that their forceful eviction is completely illegal and they should pay for their crime.