Palestine – Israel Ceasefire

In News

• Recently, a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants took effect in a bid to end nearly three days of violence that killed dozens of Palestinians and disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelis in Gaza.

Recent conflict

• The flare-up was the worst fighting between Israel and Gaza militant groups since Israel and Hamas fought an 11-day war last year.
• The risk of the cross-border fighting turning into a full-fledged war remained as long as no truce was reached.   

Israel-Palestine Conflict

Inception of Conflict:

• The United Nations (UN) proposed an Arab-Jewish partition of Palestine between Palestine and the new state of Israel. 
• This partition plan mandated 53 per cent of the land to the Jewish-majority state (Israel) and 47 per cent to the Palestinian-majority state (Palestine).
• This idea didn’t receive well by the Arab countries in the Middle East.

First Arab-Israeli war:

• Jewish paramilitary groups, however, formed the state of Israel by force in 1948. This prompted a deadly war with its Arab neighbours – Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan in 1948. This was the first Arab-Israeli war.
• Israel won this war and ended up occupying more land than previously envisaged in the 1947 UN partition plan.
• The Palestinians were forced out of their homes when the State of Israel was created in historical Palestine in 1948 (the Palestinians call the events ‘Nakba’, or catastrophe). 
• Twenty-eight of those Palestinian families moved to Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem to settle there.

Six-Day War of 1967:

• In 1967, the Arab countries again refused to recognise Israel as a state, which led to another war, known as the Six-Day War.
• Israel won this war too and occupied even more parts of Palestine. 
• The West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, which houses the holy Old City, came under Israel’s control. 
• It also occupied Syrian Golan Heights and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
• By the early 1970s, Jewish agencies started demanding the families leave the land.

Oslo Accords:

• It was backed by the United Nations (UN) and signed between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1993. 
• Under this, a part of the West Bank came under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Present Scenario

• Israel considers whole Jerusalem as its capital and not just a part of it. But Palestinians don’t agree with that and rather want it to be their capital of future independent Palestine.
• Earlier this year, the Central Court in East Jerusalem upheld a decision to evict four Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah in favor of Jewish settlers.
• Recently, with the start of Ramzan, Israeli police had put up barricades at Damascus Gate which created a problem for Palestinians.
• Israeli police stormed inside Al-aqsa Mosque leaving a number of people injured. This was done on Jerusalem Day. 
• In retaliation, Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs Gaza, fired dozens of rockets. 
• The Israelis launched an airstrike on Gaza in response, killing at least 65 Palestinians, including 16 children.

India’s Stand on Israel Palestine Conflict

• India has remained “steadfast” in its support for Palestinian rights and has consistently voted in favour of Palestine at the United Nations.
• India had voted in the UN General Assembly that had sharply criticised the United States for recognising Jerusalem as the Israeli capital in 2017. 
• India had voted in favour of another UNGA resolution “deploring the use of excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians” in 2018.
• India has consistently voted in favour of those resolutions that promote the two-state solution with a Palestinian claim to East Jerusalem.
• Recently, India condemned “all acts of violence” but specifically criticised rocket attacks from Gaza at an emergency closed-door session of the United Nations Security Council.

Way Ahead

• Peace based on a “two-state solution” is much needed with the help of international organisations and can only be achieved from Israel-Palestine talks.
• Signed in 2020, the Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and mediated by the United States, was a significant breakthrough to facilitate cooperation between Arab nations and Israel. Now, it’s an urgent need of hour to find a peaceful and sustainable solution for the ongoing conflict.
• India has good relations with both Israel and Palestine and is also attached to multilateral principles that can play an “enhanced” role in the search for a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
• India should enhance political and diplomatic support to talks, as well as development aid and cooperation for institution building in Palestine.

Source: TH