With the 60 year-long Palestine-Israel conflict flaring up again in January, Ahsan Ali Mir gives a brief history and discusses the worldwide reaction to the recent war in Gaza.

In this present age, the Palestine-Israel conflict makes its way into the news media almost everyday. However, the roots of the conflict are buried deep in history.

Being one of the most talked about topics in world politics, the approaches taken to the issue indeed vary and different views are adopted on the different aspects of the conflict. Most common of these approaches to the main cause of the problem is the ‘imperialism’ of Israel as most people are of the view that West Bank and Gaza are seen as the colonies of Israel. The need for a separate homeland for Jewish    people was sought by the European Jews, later dubbed as Zionists, who had suffered persecution throughout Europe; the most significant of them is the holocaust. This led to the inflow of Jews into Palestine, hundreds of thousands at a time beginning after the formation of the first World Zionist Congress in 1897.

The settlement bore the seeds of systematic occupation of the Palestinian land, already stated to be in the British rule by the League of Nations in 1920 after WWI under British Mandate. Later on, Palestine was divided rather unfairly amongst Jews and Muslims by the United Nation as Muslims constituted two thirds of the population but were only given 44 percent of the land. Other events that followed such as the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Six Day War in 1967 and the Yom-Kippur War in 1973 did not help the cause of Muslims but resulted in Israel occupying the rest of Palestine. Israel’s occupation of Lebanon between 1982-2000 and second war with Lebanon in 2006 adversely affected the Palestine-Israel relationship.

Since the occupation, the situation has not got any better. According to some historians, the actions of Israel are seen as ethnic cleansing of the region by denying Palestinians their basic human rights. The region has suffered heavily from not only military attacks but also because of the geo-politics. This is because Israeli settlements in the region are planned in a way to isolate Palestinian settlements, creating further hardships for the Palestinians. In a way, Zionist powers are trying to evict Palestinians from their own land. Certain parties such as Hamas and Fatah have formed to support the struggle for independence but apartheid remains. People in the West Bank and Gaza are still denied basic human rights such as freedom to move and freedom to education. The inhabitants are faced with problems such as scarcity of food, water and other necessities on a day to day basis.

Samera Baalusha (right) sits with her surviving daughter and son at the funeral of her five other daughters, killed in an air raid on 29 December 2008 in the Jebaliya refugee camp, Gaza strip

Attacks to date have not stopped. The most recent of them was the 22 day attack on the Gaza strip by the Israeli forces which left 1300 dead including a high proportion of children. During this time the bombings of hospitals and schools by Israel were witnessed and many accusations of war crimes have come forward since. Palestinian people were denied food, water and medicinal supplies which further worsened the condition for the residents of the Gaza Strip.

This Zionist act sparked a wave of protests and resistance across the globe including Israel. Political personalities like Sir Gerald Kaufman, a Jewish Labour MP compared this act with the act of Nazis in Europe and stated that “Israel was born out of Jewish Terrorism”. The strongest campaign in UK has so far been the Boycott Divestment Sanction (BDS) which aims to boycott Israeli goods, encourage people to stop investing in Israeli companies and push the government to impose economic sanctions on Israel such as withdrawing trade contracts. Resistance to Israel by this means is a mere adaptation of the strategy, which led to the end of apartheid in South Africa.

Unanimous support has been seen in the UK from students and professionals alike. Demonstrations and protests have been organised and attended by tens of thousands of people. Charities have worked actively to provide necessities to the people of war torn Gaza. Student organisations such as   Action Palestine have led a coordinated campaign against the war across the country. Students at certain universities such as University of Manchester even resorted to peaceful occupation of the university building, to convince the university officials to adapt a pro-Palestinian approach to the situation.

It is our moral and religious obligation as Muslims to help the oppressed Gazans. The suffering of the people is immense and numerous have lost everything they had. I urge everyone to show sympathy for the Gazans and show active participation in the opposition. Imam Ali Ibn Abi-Talib (as) said:

“To come to the relief of the distressed and to help the oppressed acts as expiation amends to many sins.” Imam Ali (as)

The lack of supplies in the region already devoid of food and water can benefit from charity to Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) which has already made an appeal for donations. Awareness can also be raised through writing to local MPs and registering concerns about the conflict.  Moreover, attending talks and protests in your area can  increase its impact of the general movement. The more enthusiasm shown by us Muslims will support the cause and by Allah’s (swt) Grace that day would not be far when Palestine will exist as an independent state.