The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A Century-Long Struggle

In Socialist Lawyer, No.94, 2024-1, pp. 24-27

The Israel-Palestine conflict is deeply rooted in historical, political, and social tragedy . From the emergence of Zionism to contentious declarations and wars, and to the recent landmark International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, each phase of this conflict has been soaked in blood. . This article looks briefly at the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, examines the critical aspects of the ICJ’s ruling, and explores the potential aftermath.

In 1893 Nathan Birnbaum coined the term ‘Zionism’ . Theodor Herzl’s “Der Judenstaat” (1896) catalyzed a Zionist movement, culminating in the First Zionist Congress in 1897, which explicitly aimed to establish a Jewish territory in Palestine secured by law.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I led to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided the Middle East between Britain and France but made no mention of a Jewish homeland. However, the 1917 Balfour Declaration set out British support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, albeit with a caveat to not prejudice the rights of non-Jewish communities. Under the League of Nations, established in 1920, Britain became the “Mandatory Power” in Palestine, as well as present-day Jordan and Iraq.

Significant Jewish immigration led to escalating tensions with the native Arab population. The uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against British rule lasted from 1936 until 1939, demanding Arab independence and the end of the policy of open-ended Jewish immigration and land purchases, which had the stated Zionist goal of establishing a “Jewish National Home”. The Jewish population grew under British auspices from 57,000 to 320,000 in 1935. The uprising caused the British Mandate to give crucial support to pre-state Zionist terrorist militias like the Haganah,
In 1935, the Irgun, a Zionist underground military organization, split off from the Haganah. The Peel Commission’s partition recommendation in 1937 and the British White Paper of 1939, attempted to limit Jewish immigration and foresaw an independent Palestine within ten years.

After World War II, between 1945 and the 29 November 1947 UN Partition vote, British soldiers and policemen were targeted by Zionist terrorists, especially Irgun. Haganah at first collaborated with the British against them, before actively joining them in the Jewish Resistance Movement.

The Haganah carried out violent attacks in Palestine, such as the liberation of interned immigrants from the Atlit detainee camp, the bombing of the railroad network, sabotage raids on radar installations and bases of the British Palestine police. It continued to organise illegal immigration throughout WW II.

On 22 July 1946 the British Mandate HQ in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, was bombed in a terrorist attack by Irgun. 91 people of various nationalities were killed, including British officers, Arabs, and Jews, and 46 were injured. In February 1947, Britain announced that it would end the mandate, and withdraw from Palestine and asked for the arbitration of the United Nations.

The UN’s partition plan in 1947, proposed separate Jewish and Arab states. This plan was accepted by the Jewish community but rejected by the Arab states and Palestinian Arabs, leading to the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948 and a subsequent war involving neighbouring Arab countries. During this war the new state of Israel carried out the violent displacement and dispossession of Palestinians, known as the Nakba, the Catastrophe. There were dozens of massacres of Arabs, and about 400 Arab-majority towns and villages were depopulated, with many of these being either completely destroyed or repopulated by Jewish residents and given new Hebrew names. Approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs (about half of Palestine’s Arab population) fled from their homes or were expelled by Zionist militias and later the Israeli army, in what is now Israel proper, which covers 78% of the total land area of the former Mandatory Palestine.

The displaced Arabs are now to be found in the many refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and especially in Gaza, where two thirds of the population are already refugees. The war resulted the annexation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip by Egypt.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) was established in 1949 by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to provide relief to all refugees resulting from the 1948 conflict. More than 5.6 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA as refugees.

After the 1967 Six-Day War Israel occupied Gaza, the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights. The unanimous (including the USA) UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 22 November 1967 , called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the occupied territories, and acknowledged the claim of sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the region.

The 1973 Arab–Israeli War (the Yom Kippur War) was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. The 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty resulted in Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai, but enabled Israel to remain in military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the OPTs.

Palestinian civilians are protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, for Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which Israel ratified. But it has committed numerous violations, grave breaches amounting to war crimes. Even the USA acknowledged that Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem in 1980 was illegal. The more than 300 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and the settler-only roads which connect them, are not only illegal, and amount to apartheid, but make a two state solution impossible.

The right wing members of Netanyahu’s coalition, especially Ben Gvir, Minister for Settlements, himself a settler, and Smotrich, advocate a Greater Israel, from the River to the Sea, according to God’s covenant to Abraham for Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and completion of the Nakba. Netanyahu has always been totally opposed to anything resembling Palestinian statehood.

The Oslo Accords of 1993 are regarded by Palestinians as another disaster, greatly increasing the number and size of illegal settlements, and creating a Palestinian Authority which is subject to military occupation and which collaborates with Israel.

This led on the Israel side to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 and the Second Intifada 2000 to 2005. Israel, withdrew Israeli settlements from Gaza, and began construction of the “Separation Barrier” a more than 700 km concrete wall through the West Bank, condemned by the ICJ in 2004 as violating the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination., Hamas, encouraged by Israel’s desire to split Fatah, won the legislative election in Gaza in 2006. Instead of attempting to negotiate, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza

There was armed conflict between Hamas and Israel, with many deaths, in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021, 2022 and early 2023. Israeli complacency and intelligence failure enabled
Hamas lead a terrorist attack into Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel declared war on Gaza, and the horror of its invasion continues to the present day.

In January 2024 South Africa in a bold and unexpected initiative, filed a claim against Israel under the 1948 Genocide Convention at the UN’s International Court of Justice seeking interim measures (an injuction). Israel, which has ignored the International Criminal Court, was obliged to respond, as a UN member and signatory to the Convention.

After two days of public hearings on 11 and 12 January 2024, on 26 January 2024 the ICJ held that South Africa had presented a “plausible” case that Israel was violating the Genocide Convention ruling and that “the catastrophic humanitarian situation” in Gaza “is at serious risk of deteriorating further before the Court renders its final judgment.”

The ICJ ordered six provisional measures aimed at safeguarding the rights and lives of Palestinians:

1. Israel shall take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all genocidal acts, particularly (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
2. Israel shall ensure with immediate effect that its military does not commit any acts described in point 1 above.
3. Israel shall take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide.
4. Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza.
5. Israel shall take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence.
6. Israel shall submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect to this Order within one month from the date of this Order.

The orders stopped short of requiring Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations” in Gaza, as requested by South Africa. However, the provisional measures arguably effectively require a ceasefire in all but name, since complying with the orders that forbid the genocidal killing of Palestinians and require Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza will be unworkable in the absence of one.
South Africa’s powerful submissions on 11 January were ignored in the UK mainstream media, but have been watched on Al Jazeera, the UK’s Islam Channel, and by millions all over the world, doing immense damage to Israel’s standing and credibility. Also on 26 January, following unsubstantiated allegations by Israel, the USA, UK Germany and other states which are now complicit in Israel’s crimes suspended funding to UNWRA. This was a classic “dead cat” move to distract attention from the ICJ’s powerful ruling and decision, and also further condemns the millions now crammed into southern Gaza to misery and starvation. The Haldane Society and its European Colleagues in EDH condemn the suspension, and salute the state such as Belgium, Ireland and Spain which have refused to comply.
At the time of writing, Israel must submit its report. It has already condemned the ICJ, and the UN, as antisemitic, and has rejected the decision. Netanyahu threatens continuation of the war on Gaza until 2025. Members of the Israeli government openly call for the completion of the Nakba. The horror continues.
The first words of Haldane member Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC’’s closing submissions to the ICj on 11 January 2024.
“In a powerful sermon delivered from a church in Bethlehem on Christmas Day (the same day Israel had killed 250 Palestinians, including at least 86 people many from the same family, massacred in a single strike on Magazi refugee camp) Palestinian Pastor Munther Isaak, addressed his congregation and the world. He said, and I quote, “Gaza as we know it no longer exists. This is an annihilation. This is a genocide. We will rise. We will stand up again from the midst of destruction as we have always done as Palestinians, though this is by far maybe the biggest blow we have received. But no apologies will be accepted after the genocide. What has been done has been done. I want you to look in the mirror and ask “where was I when Gaza was going through a genocide””. South Africa is here before this court, in the Peace Palace, it has done what it could, it is doing what it can by initiating these proceedings by seeking interim measures against itself as well as against Israel. South Africa now respectfully and humbly calls on this honourable Court to do what is in its power to do to indicate the provisional measures that are so urgently required to prevent further irreparable harm to the Palestinian people in Gaza, whose hopes including for their very survival, are now vested in this court.”