Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.
President
International Association of Educators for World Peace
Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education,
Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament
Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University
The
best way to solve problems properly and effectively is to go straight
to their source. This way adequate solutions could be provided in the
best interest of all those involved. All people in the Middle East area
share one great desire, namely, to live at peace with each other while
enjoying their children grow healthy as much as possible. In spite of
this, there has been continuous wars with thousands of innocent people
left dead or maimed for life. These consist mostly of women, children,
the elderly and the sick.
Creation of Israel and Palestine
In 1967, the Middle East was split into two segments, which came to be
known as Israel and Palestine. Of course, many people on both sides were
not completely satisfied. Several in Israel viewed virtually the entire
Middle East as their de facto territory, while many in the Palestine
looked at the newly formed Israel as still an integral part of
Palestine. Needless to say, such feelings led to conflicts and wars.
This episode proved to be very unfortunate and really sad. The two
segments could have developed well their respective economies.
They could have developed a mutually agreeable collaboration where all
people on both sides could have lived peacefully and productively. What
sounds curious lies in the fact that while Israel was recognized by the
United Nations as a full-fledged nation from the outset, Palestine never
received this same recognition to this day. There had been something
wrong in this regard since when Israel was officially formed a clear-cut
boundary was defined with Palestine and accepted by the world body of
nations.
Almost from the very beginning, Israel confiscated a large Palestinian
territory and annexed it to Israel. Slowly but surely it began to build
plenty of settlements for the Jewish people on Palestinian territory. It
also tried to control all of the Palestinian land the best it could. In
fact, a blockade was built to the extent that the Palestinians were not
free to develop their own economy in conjunction with other
well-developed nations.
This Middle East conflict has now been going for about 50 years. This
tragic conflict between Israelis and Palestinians could be traced to
lack of mutual trust. This lack of mutual trust did not stem from the
ordinary people but mainly from groups of local fanatics who seemed bent
to control the other side for apparently different reasons. For a long
time, the Israelis believed that God had viewed Israel many centuries
ago as the homeland of all Jewish people who always tried to guide
themselves by the Holy Bible.
Source of Initial Conflict
On the other hand, since the first century A.D. the Jewish people did
not have any say on this Middle East territory, commonly known then as
Palestine. For almost 2,000 years the Palestinians always viewed
Palestine as their own territory. When the United Nations transformed
the eastern part of Palestine into Israel, the Palestinians felt very
much offended. As many remarked, the Palestinians should have been
consulted, at least for the sake of courtesy. Some of the active groups
thought of taking drastic steps to remedy the situation.
When the war eventually broke out, Israel which was armed to the teeth,
finished the conflict in just one week, taking virtually all of
Palestine under its control. During the decades that followed, the
Palestinian people were completely subdued like prisoners. In the
meantime, many countries, including the United States, kept on talking
on the need of having two separate and independent nations, while doing
virtually nothing to make sure this noble and important goal is
eventually achieved.
The Palestinian Authority revealed readiness to make compromises with
the Israeli government as to make the concept of the two states living
side by side in peace a reality. At the same time, the Israeli
government was constantly reluctant to do anything constructive. When
members of the Palestinian government in Gaza took drastic steps to
liberate the Palestinians from the Israeli-imposed siege, they were
referred to as Hamas. This meant that they were viewed as dangerous
since their goal seemed to be the destruction of Israel.
The questions that need to be raised here are these? What constitutes
Hamas? What is their philosophy? Are they politicians? Are they members
of the military? Do they have a unanimous goal and objective? Israel
views Hamas as a terrorist organization whose one sole purpose and goal
is the destruction of Israel. Let us assume Israel is right in its
judgment. In this case, how should Israel deal with Hamas? This question
can never be answered intelligently if Israel labels as Hamas anyone
that tries to do anything harmful to the Israelis. This episode has been
explored by UN NGOs in recent years.
For those who may not know, UN stands for United Nations and NGOs
stands for Non-Governmental Organizations. During the Iraqi war some of
the NGOs went to both Iraq and Gaza to talk with young children ranging
from the ages of 9 to 12. Their objective was to explore ways on how
they can help such children concentrate on spending their lifetime
working whole-heartedly for the promotion of world peace. Members of
this humanitarian group asked these children the question: “What would
you plan to do when you grow up?”
Feelings of Palestinian Children
To their surprise, the answer of such children in both Iraq and Gaza
was virtually unanimous. They said determinedly: “Killing Americans…
killing Americans.” These same members of the said humanitarian group
asked calmly: “Why do you want to do this?” The quick answers given were
along the same lines: “Because the Americans killed my father and now I
have no father, they killed my mother and now I have no mother, they
killed or maimed my brothers and sisters; also, they destroyed our homes
and now we are homeless as well as our schools and groceries, which
left us without food.
The Jewish government in Israel views the entire Old Testament as the
word of God which they should follow literally, even though when the
promised Messiah came, He told the Jews emphatically: “The God you know
is not the God I know. The God you know talks of the “eye for an eye and
the tooth for a tooth; but the God I know is a God of love and mercy;
He is not a God of hatred and revenge. When you are stricken on the
face, you do not retaliate but rather turn the other cheek. Do to others
what you would like others to do to you.”
Judged by their actions the members of the Israeli government, who
claim openly belief in Yaweh, that is, in God the creator of heaven and
earth, follow God’s apparent instructions only if they agree with Him.
If they happen to disagree, then they go to extremes. As the world has
observed recently and in several instances before as well, the Old
Testament “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth,” was changed by Israel
into “100 eyes for one eye and 100 teeth for one tooth!” This has been
revealed clearly in the present Middle East conflict.
Whereas the Palestinians in Gaza killed some dozen Israeli civilians,
the Israelis killed at least 1,500 Palestinian civilians and wounded
about 5,000 mostly children, women, the elderly and the sick. Besides,
the infrastructure of various areas of Gaza was obliterated. The real
problem for a permanent peace in the Middle East stems from the fact
that the Israeli government does not seem to realize that these innocent
Palestinian children are faced with no choice when they grow up except
for devising ways to avenge the cruelty they had received.
The United Nations must assume the responsibility of solving the Middle
East conflict permanently. The most logical solution lies in the
establishment of two states, with Palestine becoming a full-fledged
member of the United Nations. We need to establish an approach that
should completely eliminate every sort of paranoia from the Israeli
government that may stem from the possibility that the Palestinians may
attack Israel at some time in the future. In this case, the Palestinian
nation should be fully demilitarized. The money that would have been
spent on the military could be spent on health care and education.
Development of Palestinian Economy
Moreover, Palestine could concentrate on the development of its economy
starting by inviting some leading economic industries to have a base in
Palestine. Such industries may be from a variety of nations that may
include, Russia, China, India, Germany, United States, France, Brazil,
Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, and Japan, in addition to others. Any
nation that would like to contribute to the development of Palestine may
contribute with the building of some of the best hospitals and schools
in the world, with no military equipment of any kind.
A brief study of history reveals that any country that stopped relying
on military power but instead tried to develop reliance on health care,
education and strong economy, ended up eliminating poverty completely
from its surface. In addition, its people were provided with the
opportunity to develop the maximum of their full potential and to
experience the joy and satisfaction of living in peace and prosperity
within a relatively very short period. Needless to say, a developed
Palestinian state would eventually benefit Israel immensely.
Over the past few decades, when nations spoke of the establishment of
two Middle East States living in peace and harmony side by side, they
all referred to the 1967 original boundaries. Although this may sound to
be theoretically sound, in practice it may not turn out to be
politically logical. We have to admit that some of the actions taken by
Israel over the past few decades need to be fully well addressed. Among
such actions we find the building of Israeli settlements on Palestinian
land, the annexation of East Jerusalem to Israel, and the complete
isolation of Palestine from virtually the rest of the world.
The tremendous psychological harm that has been inflicted on the people
in the Middle East cannot be taken lightly. Forgiving and forgetting
would be a very sound philosophy. Considering that the 1967 war was
practically initiated by Palestinians and considering also that the
Israelis drastic reaction went too far as far as the safeguard of
thousands of innocent lives were concerned, some kind of fair compromise
should be expected if needed.
First of all, the creation of a two-state solution must proceed under
the auspices of the United Nations by all means. Here is what the
Israeli government and the Palestinian government should be fully
prepared to do in the best interest of a permanent peace by eliminating
all kind of litigation if possible. The ultimate goal of the two-state
solution is that both Israel and Palestine feel 100% safe by viewing
each other as beneficial neighbors. Here is what the United Nations
would be expected to do with full cooperation of both parties.
Eventual Roles of Israel and Palestine
The Palestinian government should be fully in control of all
Palestinian territory as was designated by the 1967 boarder with some
modification. All the Israeli settlements built by Israel on Palestinian
territory should become under the full control of the Palestinian
government. The Israeli people within such confines ought to be fully
respected. They should be given by Palestine permanent residency and
even Palestinian citizenship, thus enjoying having two citizenships. All
of the Israeli military forces should leave Palestinian territory.
This means no more blockades for Palestine, which should be free to
establish diplomatic relations with all the nations of the world. In due
time, a corridor should be established between Gaza and the West Bank
so that Palestinians could move freely within their own territory by all
means. Most importantly, Palestine, from the outset, should be a fully
demilitarized nation. This should make Israel feel perfectly safe with
no excuses of creating sieges around Palestinian boundaries.
Besides, it would help strengthen the political relations of both
nations if Palestine were to let Israel keep East Jerusalem as to have
eventually a fully united traditionally sacred city. If Palestine were
to concentrate fully on the development of the national economy, the
provision of a good health care as well as a good educational system,
the Palestinian people are bound to experience positive and constructive
results before they even know it. The creation of a functional
two-state system should not be viewed as a form of apartheid.
