Conflicto palestino-israelí

As I step into the role of prime minister-designate of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) under excruciating and unprecedented circumstances, I am acutely aware of the monumental challenges that lie ahead. The Palestinian people find themselves at yet another critical juncture, facing a tragic confluence of crises that are testing our resilience and ingenuity, qualities we have proved we possess in abundance time and time again.

There are, however, at least a couple of differences this time: the injustices are more horrific than ever, and they are on global display.

At this pivotal moment, Palestinians and the international community are more galvanised and determined to create real change than perhaps ever before.…  Seguir leyendo »

Acaba de publicarse en España un interesante libro Cien años de guerra en Palestina obra de Rashid Khalidi, autor palestino musulmán que, sin embargo, busca un relato objetivo de lo que efectivamente es una serie de guerras que ya duran más de un siglo.

En 1917, acabada la Primera Guerra Mundial, al Imperio Británico se le asigna una parte del hasta entonces territorio turco de Palestina, en forma de mandato, con las directrices del acuerdo franco británico Sykes-Picot. La Declaración Balfour de 1917 contiene el compromiso británico de crear un «hogar judío» en Palestina «sin perjuicio de los derechos civiles y religiosos de las comunidades no judías existentes».…  Seguir leyendo »

A view of a damaged house in Kibbutz Be’eri near the border with Gaza on Oct. 20, 2023. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)

The path to Palestinian statehood has been crushed beneath an avalanche of bombs, bullets, smoke, and fire. “After Hamas is destroyed Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a prepared statement in January.

What little hard-earned trust there was between Israelis and Palestinians has been shattered both by the slaughter of civilians by Hamas in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7, 2023—the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust—and the subsequent war between Hamas and Israel.…  Seguir leyendo »

Protesters take part in a demonstration against the Israeli government and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 3 February 2024 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images).

During his State of the Union address of 7 March, US President Joe Biden announced that a port will be constructed off the coast of Gaza to help deliver aid to Palestinian civilians. While an important humanitarian measure, it was mostly an acknowledgment of the failure to reach a ceasefire, and to convince Israel to allow sufficient humanitarian assistance in by land.

Only a fortnight ago, Biden had announced that a ceasefire deal would be reached by 4 March, with an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners expected. But despite weeks of painstaking Qatari, Egyptian and US mediation, a ceasefire was not agreed before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on 11 March.…  Seguir leyendo »

Las banderas de los dos Estados observadores ante la ONU, la Santa Sede y el Estado de Palestina, ondean en la sede de las Naciones Unidas en Nueva York (2015). Foto: UN Photo/Cia Pak (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Deed)

Tema

El gobierno español ha anunciado su intención de formalizar el reconocimiento del Estado de Palestina. Este paso puede quedarse en algo puntual y con escasa trascendencia o puede servir para algo más que contribuya a no mantener el statu quo en Israel/Palestina.

Resumen

El gobierno español ha anunciado su decisión de reconocer el Estado de Palestina después de muchas dilaciones, empujado por la actual guerra en Gaza y por su inclusión explícita en el acuerdo de gobierno de coalición. Dada su histórica posición sobre la cuestión palestino-israelí y su importante compromiso político y económico con el esfuerzo internacional para construir las instituciones de un Estado palestino desde 1994, España debería haber dado ese paso hace tiempo.…  Seguir leyendo »

Palestinians gathering near an airstrike crater in Rafah, Gaza, February 2024. Mohammed Salem / Reuters

In February, Israeli military intelligence reportedly informed the country’s leaders that Hamas will survive as a terrorist group after the war. Despite this assessment, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to declare that there will be “total victory” over Hamas, and that it will take “months, not years” to achieve.

In part, this is because October 7 changed Israel, inflicting trauma and hardening Israelis’ belief that they cannot live with Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip. Israel’s air and ground campaign into Gaza seemed designed to root Hamas out—a daunting task given its extensive labyrinth of tunnels and its cynical use of the entire population of the strip as its shield.…  Seguir leyendo »

As circumstances change, the Israeli left must reconsider its stand on the war on Gaza. So should liberal supporters of Israel abroad.

During the first weeks of the war, following the October 7th atrocities, many on the Israeli left, myself included, refused to call for an immediate ceasefire. We were, even then, well aware of the tremendous suffering and loss among innocent Palestinians, and critical of some of the ways in which the war was conducted. Still, many of us were convinced—justifiably, I still think—that the October 7th attacks and their aftermath left Israel with no reasonable alternative to a large-scale military action in Gaza, despite its horrendous price.…  Seguir leyendo »

Nos gustaría hablar de otros temas que no fueran Gaza o Ucrania. Pero no tenemos elección; estos conflictos definen nuestro tiempo y nuestro futuro inmediato. Sobre Ucrania sólo podemos repetir banalidades. Si Europa y Estados Unidos abandonan Ucrania, nuestras democracias se verán directamente amenazadas por uno de los dictadores más agresivos del mundo. Desgraciadamente, vemos cómo se organiza un partido prorruso en Europa, financiado por el Kremlin o influido por una hostilidad antiestadounidense latente. También vemos que la gente empieza a cansarse y se pregunta si este conflicto merece estos sacrificios. Recordemos la historia del siglo XX; cada vez que los demócratas han vacilado frente a los dictadores, estos han aprovechado la ocasión y han destruido civilizaciones enteras.…  Seguir leyendo »

An Muslim imam, a Christian priest and two Jewish rabbis join a prayer calling for rain on November 11, 2010 in the West Bank village of Walajeh near Bethlehem. HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images

Something strange is going on with Israel, writes Elie Barnavi, a former Israeli ambassador to France and a prominent historian and writer, in his autobiography  Confessions d’un bon à rien: In less than a century his country “has gone through the entire sequence of European wars, but in reverse order”.

Barnavi’s book (which has not been translated into English) was published in 2022. He could not have known at the time that a furious war between Israel and Hamas would erupt in late 2023. Even so, his analysis of Israel getting involved in Europeans wars “but in reverse order” is perfectly applicable to the war now raging in Gaza.…  Seguir leyendo »

El plan del presidente estadounidense Joe Biden para la paz en Medio Oriente —que supuestamente conlleva el retorno a una solución de dos Estados y la completa normalización de las relaciones entre Israel y el mundo árabe— ofrece a los israelíes y palestinos la oportunidad de rescatar sus respectivos proyectos nacionales del desastre causado por las políticas contraproducentes que ellos mismos implementaron.

Biden reconoce que, históricamente, los avances para la paz entre árabes e israelíes tuvieron lugar después de grandes guerras y cambios estratégicos; parece creer que la misma lógica podría aplicarse a la guerra actual de Gaza, la más devastadora en la región desde la de 1948.…  Seguir leyendo »

Israeli soldiers standing near the border with Gaza, March 2024. Ammar Awad / Reuters.

Since Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israel has found itself embroiled in a multi-front war for the first time in nearly 60 years. It is fighting in Gaza, countering armed groups in the West Bank, and facing missile strikes from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Israel seems less safe than most Israelis assumed it to be on October 6—and its leadership must now reshape the country’s national security policies accordingly.

For the moment, Israel’s priorities are to secure the release of the remaining hostages, eliminate Hamas’s military capabilities, and ensure the safe return of hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens to their communities in both the north and south of the country.…  Seguir leyendo »

El tiempo transcurrido desde el condenable ataque de Hamás y la Yihad Islámica Palestina el pasado 7 de octubre y desde el inmediato arranque de la operación de castigo decidida por Israel ya permite depurar la sustancia de tantos discursos vacíos, llenos de autojustificaciones insostenibles y de tantas complicidades, llenas de vacuos lamentos. En esencia, lo que se impone, desnuda, es la cruda realidad de que Benjamín Netanyahu y los suyos están aprovechando la oportunidad derivada del tremendo error cometido por Hamás para acelerar el proceso que les acerca a su objetivo último: lograr el dominio total de la Palestina histórica, que se extiende desde el río Jordán hasta el Mediterráneo.…  Seguir leyendo »

La destrucción de vidas humanas e infraestructuras en Gaza produce incredulidad. En el momento de escribir estas líneas, se estima que las víctimas palestinas ya son más de 30.000 en un periodo de tan solo cinco meses. El territorio está siendo arrasado y las condiciones de vida de la población en la franja son extremas y críticas. Los vídeos, reportajes y testimonios que llegan sobre lo que allí sucede son de una dureza insoportable. Resulta difícil asimilar que un régimen democrático, uno de los nuestros, pueda llegar a hacer algo así. La historia reciente ofrece numerosos ejemplos de dictaduras que han cometido atrocidades semejantes o mayores, pero no hay tantos precedentes entre las democracias.…  Seguir leyendo »

A pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the EU Commission building in Brussels on 19 February 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Europe is flanked by two grotesque wars involving mass slaughter (Gaza is, after all, just 578km away from Cyprus), waged by far-right fanatics harbouring either imperial or colonial intentions, and for whom war has become inextricably tied up with holding on to political power. One war implicates European security directly; the other is a shot at projecting its voice in the world. On both, the EU must start acting like a foreign policy superpower – not just independent of the US but also capable of nudging its hand.

It’s striking how much images of Gaza and Mariupol look similar. Bombed-out and destroyed, as broken as the bodies of the thousands of civilians killed beneath Russian bombs in one place, and Israeli bombs in the other.…  Seguir leyendo »

Israel está cayendo en un abismo

A medida que la mañana del 7 de octubre se aleja, sus horrores no parecen sino crecer. Una y otra vez, los israelíes nos contamos lo que ya se ha convertido en parte de la historia formativa de nuestra identidad y nuestro destino. Cómo durante varias horas los terroristas de Hamás invadieron hogares de israelíes, asesinaron a unas 1200 personas, violaron y secuestraron, saquearon e incendiaron. Durante esas horas terribles, antes de que las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel salieran de su estado de conmoción, los israelíes tuvieron una perspectiva dura y concreta de lo que podría ocurrir si su país no solo sufriera un golpe severo, sino que realmente dejara de existir.…  Seguir leyendo »

Cadáveres de palestinos muertos en un ataque Israelí en Rafah, Gaza, el 3 de marzo.HAITHAM IMAD (EFE)

Europa no puede permanecer en silencio mientras asiste a la catástrofe que se está desarrollando en Gaza. La inminente operación terrestre en Rafah acarrearía un sufrimiento indecible e inaceptable, con 1,4 millones de palestinos desplazados atrapados cerca de la frontera con Egipto. La espeluznante apertura de fuego contra los palestinos que hacían cola para recibir ayuda humanitaria, esencial para sus vidas, con el resultado de más de 100 muertos y más de 700 heridos la semana pasada, es otra llamada de atención a la comunidad internacional.

Por todo ello, necesitamos que Europa pida de forma clara y al unísono un alto el fuego inmediato, el pleno acceso de la ayuda humanitaria, la liberación de todos los rehenes y el pleno reconocimiento del derecho del pueblo palestino a la autodeterminación, entre otras muchas cosas.…  Seguir leyendo »

Devastation caused by Israeli strikes in Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza, February 2024. Mahmoud Issa / Reuters

The atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 did not end that day. Over 130 Israelis are still held hostage in the Gaza Strip, many hundreds are in mourning, and the prospect of a similar attack keeps every Israeli family up at night. And yet the ongoing offensive in Gaza, ostensibly aimed at dismantling militant networks and making a repeat of Hamas’s attack impossible, does not promise to deliver any certainty for Israelis or their neighbors. It has dragged on with no end in sight, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now insists that he wants to maintain an indefinite occupation of the Gaza Strip.…  Seguir leyendo »

A child looking out at the ruins of Rafah’s Al-Faruq mosque, which was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, Gaza, February 25, 2024. Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images.

In the city of Rafah, at the southern edge of Gaza, people are consumed by terror and dread. Over the course of nearly five months, IDF airstrikes have funneled over half of the Strip’s population to this slim region within a few miles of the Egyptian border. Families are crammed into whatever buildings are still standing, or huddled in vast tent cities, or sprawled outside in the mud and in the streets. They now brace for what may be the final major ground incursion in Israel’s military offensive, which has to date killed about 30,000 people, wounded 70,000, and destroyed or damaged nearly two thirds of the Strip’s housing units.…  Seguir leyendo »

Ofri Bibas Levy with her nephew Ariel (left), now a hostage in Gaza, and her daughter (right). Ofri Bibas Levy

We were naive.

When countless people around the world watched the footage of armed terrorists abducting two little redheaded boys and their mother on October 7th, we were naive enough to believe it would be just a matter of days until the world’s outrage would be so great, the pressure so severe, that Hamas would surely release my nephews.

Kfir and Ariel were just 9 months and 4 years old when they were kidnapped from their home. And as far as we know, four-and-a-half months later, Kfir and Ariel are still held captive in Gaza. Kfir turned one in captivity, where he has spent a third of his life.…  Seguir leyendo »

Israel Is Falling Into an Abyss

As the morning of Oct. 7 recedes into the distance, its horrors only seem to be growing. Again and again, we Israelis tell ourselves what has become part of the formative story of our identity and our destiny. How for several hours Hamas terrorists invaded the homes of Israelis, murdered some 1,200 people, raped and kidnapped, looted and burned. During those nightmarish hours, before the Israel Defense Forces snapped out of its shock, Israelis had a harsh and concrete glimpse of what might happen if their country not only suffered a punishing blow but also actually ceased to exist. If Israel were no longer.…  Seguir leyendo »