Israel-Palestine

UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT

The war on Gaza did not start on October 7. The conflict has a long history which, according to Ilan Pappe, goes as far back as 1882 when the first Zionist settlers arrived in Palestine. Both the actions of Hamas on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli bombardment of Gaza need to be understood in this broader context. 

This chapter begins with an edited version of a section on the background to October 7th from a book by Colin Chapman. This is followed by an extract from a book by Munther Isaac in which he discusses Israel's role in the events leading up to October 7th. And finally, the chapter concludes with two powerful videos which will help us to understand the background from a Palestinian perspective.

WHAT IS THE BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS OF 7TH OCTOBER 2023? 

NB: This is an edited version of a section from Colin Chapman's book Whose Promised Land?

On 24 October, just days after the attack, António Guterres, the Secretary General of the UN, pointed out that there was a context to these events; they ‘did not happen in a vacuum’. He went on to argue that, ‘The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.’1

What was the context of the attacks which were launched by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and which led to Israel’s military incursion into Gaza? 

The Gaza Strip became a separate entity at the time of the Nakba in 1948. The majority of its population consisted of Palestinian refugees who had been driven from their homes in what became the state of Israel. During this time, it was under Egyptian control. 

The area known as the Gaza Strip is 25 miles long and between 3.7 and 7.5 miles wide, covering an area of 139 square miles. It had never been an area that was separate from the rest of Palestine. British readers will understand Jeremy Bowen’s description of Gaza as ‘slightly smaller than the Isle of Wight, which has plenty of room for its 150,000 residents, plus tourists’.2 

Many Palestinians were driven from the area that was to become the state of Israel because of threats of this kind: ‘Leave your homes and go to Gaza where you will be safe. If you don’t leave we will kill you.’3 

Jean-Pierre Filiu explains, therefore, that it: 

'...came into existence only at the behest of Israel, which herded the mass of those expelled in 1948 into it, defining its narrow confines in the heat of war... Although this coastal strip represented only a little more than a hundredth of the area of Mandatory Palestine, it now provided a home for a quarter of Palestine’s Arab population. Up to the present day, the inhabitants of Gaza take the view that their ‘Strip’ has become an involuntary ‘Noah’s Ark’ for the former Palestine which disappeared in 1948.'4 

Most of the present population of 2.3 million, therefore, are refugees or children or grandchildren of refugees who were forced to move from areas that became part of Israel in 1948. Many of the rockets that have been launched from Gaza were landing in areas where their parents and grandparents had been living before 1948.

One Israeli Jew who seemed to know how Palestinians in Gaza felt about the situation in which they found themselves after 1948 was Moshe Dayan, the celebrated military leader. In a eulogy that he gave in 1953 at the funeral of Ro'i Rothberg, a security officer of a kibbutz, who was killed by Palestinian guerrillas, he clearly understood the feelings of Palestinians in Gaza: 

'Let us not, today, cast blame on the marauders. What can we say against their hatred of us? For eight years now, they have sat in the refugee camp of Gaza, and have watched how, before their very eyes, we have turned their lands and villages, where their forefathers dwelt, into our home. It is not among the Arabs of Gaza, but in our own midst that we must seek Ro'i's blood.'4 

Israel’s first occupation of the Gaza Strip began during the Suez crisis in November 1956, and lasted four months until March 1957. 

During this time at least 1,000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces which were determined to root out the fedayin who were operating from the Gaza Strip. ‘As well as the liquidation and the arrest of individuals,’ says Filiu, ‘collective and individual deportations to Sinai, or to Jordan on a permanent basis, were also used as a punishment.’ It was only strong pressure from President Eisenhower that forced Israel to end its occupation in 1957 and allow Egypt to resume its government of Gaza. The UN Secretary General made the Egyptian government promise that Gaza would be demilitarised and the fedayin banned.

Israel’s second occupation of the Gaza Strip began during the Six Day War in June 1967 and lasted until 2005. 

During this war, Israel took control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the Golan Heights. Around 8,500–9,000 Jewish settlers built 21 settlements in Gaza, and controlled 25 per cent of the territory (including 40 per cent of the arable land) and a major share of the water resources. This meant that: 

'...each settler...had 400 times as much land at his disposal as a Palestinian refugee and twenty times more water than a peasant farmer in the Gaza Strip… the Israeli settlers were able to make profits from the export of the harvest they gathered from their agricultural greenhouses.'4  

Israeli officials explained what the occupation meant for Israel: 

'We control electrical power, water resources, telecommunications and so on. We control everything. There are a number of natives who serve as middlemen... The power imbalance between us and the Palestinians never served our interests better in the past, not even before the intifada.'3  

Sara Roy, a Jewish academic at Harvard, in her book The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development defines ‘de-development’ as ‘the deliberate, systematic de-construction of an indigenous economy by a dominant power.’5  Avi Shlaim explains that her work ‘shows in detail the various means by which Israel systematically thwarted the growth of industry in the Gaza Strip and exploited the enclave as a source of cheap labour and a market for its own goods.’6 

Sharon’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005 was a tactical move intended to weaken Palestinian resistance and consolidate Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. 

The withdrawal from Gaza under Sharon in 2008 was presented by Israel as a magnanimous gesture and a major concession to the Palestinians. Hamas saw the withdrawal as a result of ‘the strip’s historic legacy of resistance’. One major reason for the withdrawal was the expense of defending the settlements, which were constantly being attacked. But the underlying motive behind the withdrawal was explained at the time in a very frank interview given by Dov Weisglass, one of Sharon’s closest advisers: 

'The significance (of the unilateral withdrawal) is the freezing of the political process. And when you freeze that process you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and you prevent a discussion about the refugees, the borders, and Jerusalem (all of which are at the heart of the roadmap.) Effectively, this whole package that is called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed from our agenda...'7

Despite its withdrawal, in international law Israel remains responsible for the Gaza Strip and the well-being of its inhabitants. The occupation has been described by Shlaim as ‘the most protracted and brutal military occupation of modern times.’6

Hamas has never given up its commitment to armed resistance. 

This is one of the most fundamental differences between Hamas and Fatah. Its leaders have consistently argued that Israel has responded to non-violence with violence, and that Fatah has not achieved anything distinctive through its abandonment of armed resistance. From 1948 fedayin were regularly launching attacks out of Gaza and inside Israel. Since it broke away from the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987, there has been a cyclical process in which Hamas has fired thousands of rockets into Israel, Israel has responded with aerial bombardment, and a fragile cease-fire has lasted for a few months. Hamas has frequently carried out suicide bombings and taken hostages... The attack on 7 October 2023 was the most devastating attack which Hamas had launched, and convinced Israel that it would not tolerate further attacks of any kind and must therefore destroy Hamas. 

When Hamas took complete control of Gaza in June 2007 in order to pre-empt a challenge from Fatah (supported by Israel and the US), Israel blockaded Gaza, and western powers refused to recognise Hamas’s victory. 

In 2006 Hamas won an election carried out both in Gaza and the West Bank, and proceeded to form a national unity government which included moderates and technocrats from Gaza and the West Bank. Israel, the USA, the EU and Egypt, however, worked together to weaken Hamas and to encourage Fatah to regain power. In order to prevent this happening, Hamas expelled the Fatah leaders and took complete control of the government in 2007. Israel, the USA and the EU responded by demanding that Hamas must (1) renounce violence, (2) recognise the state of Israel, and (3) respect previous agreements. When Hamas refused to comply, the USA and EU refused to recognise the legitimacy of its government. 

Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which began at this point, meant that Israel maintained complete control of the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza and was therefore able to strangle its economy. Hamas responded to the blockade by building a complete network of tunnels under the Gaza Strip, using tunnels under the Egyptian border to import huge quantities of supplies, including weapons. 

Western powers were accused of hypocrisy and double standards because they claimed to be working to spread democracy, but were unwilling to accept the results of a democratic election which produced leaders who did not support their interests. The blockade has been regarded by many as a form of ‘collective punishment’, which is considered to be illegal in international law. 

Israel has engaged in at least six major military incursions into Gaza since 2007 in response to terrorist attacks and rocket attacks sent into Israel.

The first of these incursions in 2000, called ‘Defensive Shield’, was in response to the al-Aqsa Intifada, and caused widespread destruction and the killing of 300 Palestinians and 30 Israeli soldiers. ‘By the time it concluded,’ writes Tareq Baconi, ‘Sharon had effectively pulverised the economic, social, and political fabric within the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.’8 A report of the International Crisis Group, Rebuilding the Gaza Ceasefire stated that Israel had made over two hundred incursions into Gaza between 2015 and 2018.9

A report produced by the UN Human Rights Council claimed that both sides had been guilty of war crimes, but that Israel had engaged in ‘a deliberate and disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorise a civilian population.’ Subsequent attacks in 2012, 2014, 2021 and 2022 were described by the Israeli Defence Force as ‘mowing the grass’. This is how this policy was explained: 

'‘Mowing the grass’, a new term in...strategic parlance, reflects the assumption that Israel (is) in protracted intractable conflict with extremely hostile non-state entities... The use of force is not intended to attain impossible political goals, but to debilitate the capabilities of the enemy to harm Israel.’10 

The policy of successive Israeli governments (and especially that of Netanyahu) has been to maintain the status quo in Gaza. 

Referring to the incursion in 2014, Shlaim wrote: 

'It is difficult to resist the conclusion that Israel’s real objective in unleashing this offensive is to bomb Hamas into a humiliating surrender. Israel’s ultimate aim seems to be not just a peace but the re-imposition of the status quo with a fragmented Palestine and with itself as an imperial overlord.'11 

In 2019 Netanyahu explained his overall policy in relation to Gaza to his Likud party leaders: 

'Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas … This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians of Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.'12

Assaf Sharon gave his understanding of Netanyahu’s strategy: ‘The war in Gaza,’ he said ‘is, fundamentally, not about tunnels and not against rockets. It is a euphemism for maintaining the status quo of settlement and occupation, allowing no progress.’13 

This is how Tareq Baconi sums up Netanyahu’s approach to Gaza: 

'Israel has worked over the past decade to contain Hamas in the Gaza Strip and to turn it into an administrative authority akin to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.'14 

The fundamental reason behind Hamas’s attack on October 7 – the most extensive attack ever launched on Israel – was its refusal to accept Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and its blockade of Gaza. 

Hamas was protesting against an occupation which it (and many governments in the world) regard as illegal, and against the stifling blockade which has made Gaza ‘the largest open-air prison in the world’. These words spoken by Hamas leaders in 2014 could easily have been spoken before the attacks of 7 October 2023: 

'(Our people) can no longer accept the blockade of Gaza, under starvation...can no longer live in the shadow of the settlements, murder, house demolition, violation of village (in the West Bank). It is time for the Israeli occupation to end. Our people do not like to escalate and do not seek it... But you have closed all the doors, so blame only yourselves.'14 

'The occupiers and all the world must know the truth about what our people are asking for. All we want is for the occupation to go away, from our supplies and the milk of our children, our fuel. But it insists, to hold on, punishing us, strangling us whenever it wants and letting us breathe whenever it wants. This cannot be allowed to go on after today.'14

Hamas had concluded many years ago that Fatah, with its policy of non-violent resistance, had not achieved any improvement in the situation of Palestinians. It was determined to prevent several Arab governments going ahead with the Abraham Accords, in which they were entering into closer relations with Israel while doing nothing to further the Palestinian cause. Their leaders felt that they had been badly let down by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, Arab governments, the UN, the USA and the EU, and that they needed to stage a spectacular attack in order to bring their conflict with Israel to a head and to draw the world’s attention. In their reading of history, Hamas’s leaders are convinced that, just as the Crusaders were eventually driven out of the land, the Zionist state of Israel will eventually be dismantled. 

Against this background, it’s hard to deny that António Guterres, the Secretary General of the UN, was justified in pointing out that there was a context to the events of 7 October; they ‘did not happen in a vacuum’.

ISRAEL'S ROLE IN OCTOBER 7TH

NB: This is an edited version of a section from Christ In The Rubble by Munther Isaac, showing that Israel itself had a role in the events that led up to October 7th.

We cannot bypass one important factor that led to the events of October 7, and consequently to the tragedy of Gaza. Any attempt to understand Hamas must consider that Netanyahu himself, backed by the Israeli government, deliberately enabled Hamas to stay in power so as to weaken the Palestinian Authority and maintain division among Palestinians. Yes, you read that correctly: Netanyahu himself supported Hamas. It is now well documented that Netanyahu has adopted a policy of 'divide and conquer' to keep Palestinians divided, weaken the Palestinian Authority, and eradicate any possibility of a Palestinian state. Senator Chris Van Hollen confirmed this in an address to Congress: 

'But what we rarely, if ever, discuss is the inconvenient truth that, until the unexpected horror of the Hamas attack on October 7, Prime Minister Netanyahu himself saw it as in his interest to keep Hamas in control in Gaza. Don’t take my word for it. He told us this back in 2019 at a Likud Party meeting, where he said: 'Anyone who wants to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state needs to support strengthening Hamas. This is part of our strategy to divide the Palestinians between those in Gaza and those in Judea and Samaria.'15

In fact, the Israeli government under Netanyahu channeled upward of hundreds of millions of dollars over the years from Qatar to Hamas in Gaza. Although these actions are well documented in Israeli sources,16 Israel’s support of Hamas does not seem to be a main talking point in most Western coverage of the war. Netanyahu might claim that he allowed this for humanitarian reasons, but as a report in Israeli newspaper Haaretz shows: 

'Allowing cash transfers, as the Qatari envoy comes and goes to Gaza as he pleases, agreeing to the import of a broad array of goods, construction materials in particular, with the knowledge that much of the material will be designated for terrorism and not for building civilian infrastructure... All these developments created symbiosis between the flowering of fundamentalism and preservation of Netanyahu’s rule. 

'Take note: It would be a mistake to assume that Netanyahu thought about the well-being of the poor and oppressed Gazans - who are also victims of Hamas - when allowing the transfer of funds. His goal was to hurt Abbas and prevent division of the Land of Israel into states.'17

A New York Times columnist gives a similar account of this affair, citing previous Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The columnist states that 'Netanyahu’s aim, according to Barak and others, was to buttress Hamas so as to weaken the rival Palestinian Authority and undermine any possibility of a two-state solution.'18 

This is the same Netanyahu who was welcomed as a hero in the US Congress over half a year into the war. This kind of policy is not new to Israel, nor indeed to the United States, its biggest supporter. Did not the United States play a role in toppling the Iranian coup in the 1950s, to support its own interests? Did not the United States help the Taliban fight against the Soviet Union? Did not the United States help create ISIS in its attempt to overthrow the Syrian regime? And did not Israel play a role in creating Hamas, so that it could weaken the PLO? Again, all of the above is well documented.19 

So, again, I ask, how is Netanyahu still regarded as the victim in this context? Or even the hero? Why is this very critical component of the war on Gaza ignored? Why do world leaders and some church leaders continue to deal with Israel and Netanyahu as if none of this happened? This is beyond my comprehension. Perhaps because to admit Netanyahu’s role would be to admit America’s guilt as well? Would the West ever admit its complicity and role in the mess we find ourselves in, which has resulted in the death of thousands over the years?

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN AT THE NEW MILLENNIUM CHURCH, LITTLE ROCK

This is a talk given by Professor Norman Finkelstein at the New Millennium Church, Little Rock in Arkansas on 25 August 2025. Norman is a world-renowned political scientist who has been studying and writing about the Israel-Palestine conflict since 1982. He is the son of Jewish parents who survived the Holocaust.

His talk begins at 00:07:11 and finishes at 01:09:12.

Norman has written two books, specifically on the subject of Gaza. The first, published in 2018, is Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom and the second, due to be published in May 2026, is Gaza's Gravediggers. In either case, as usual, click on the image of the book to order a copy from Amazon.

SUSAN ABULHAWA AT THE OXFORD UNION

This is a recording of a speech given by author and human rights activist Susan Abulhawa. It was given at the recent Oxford Union debate, in which the motion presented was ‘This House believes Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide’. One reviewer says:

'Her speech in favour of the motion is probably the most powerful statement I’ve ever heard in response to the events of the last 15 months and to many that took place long before that too. The daughter of Palestinians expelled by Israel following the 1967 war, this is her history, her heritage.

'She was invited to speak in this debate at the Oxford Union and frankly after hearing this only the most hard-hearted of Zionists could possibly have voted against the motion.'20

For the record, the motion was passed by 278 votes in favour to 59 against. There were eight speeches in all, four in favour and four against. If you wish, you can watch them all here.

Notes

1. https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statements/2023-10-24/secretary-generals-remarks-the-security-council-the-middle-east-delivered 

2. The Making of the Modern Middle East: A Personal History by Jeremy Bowen

3. Enemies and Neighbours by Ian Black

4. Gaza by Jean-Pierre Filiu

5. The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development by Sara Roy

6. The Gaza War in Historical Context, Keynote Speech by Avi Shlaim, International Centre for Justice for Palestinians, London 30 October 2023. 

7. Quoted in Gaza Contained by Tareq Baconi

8. Gaza Contained by Tareq Baconi

9. Middle East Report 191, 16 November 2018

10. 'Mowing the Grass': Israel’s Strategy For Protracted Intractable Conflict by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shamir in Journal of Strategic Studies, 37 (1), quoted in Enemies and Neighbours by Ian Black

11. What’s The Use Of 'Balance' In Such An Asymetric War? by Avi Shlaim in The Independent on Sunday, 27 July 2014

12. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-09/ty-article/.premium/another-concept-implodes-israel-cant-be-managed-by-a-criminal-defendant/0000018b-1382-d2fc-a59f-d39b5dbf0000  

13. Assaf Sharon, New York Times, 24 July 2014, quoted in Enemies and Neighbours by Ian Black. 

14. Hamas Contained by Tareq Baconi

15. Congressional Record, Vol. 170 no. 46, 14 March 2024: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2024-03-14/html/CREC-2024-03-14-pt1-PgS2387-7.htm.  See also Netanyahu: Money to Hamas Part of Strategy to Keep Palestinians Divided by Lahav Harkov in Jerusalem Post, 12 March 2019: https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/netanyahu-money-to-hamas-part-of-strategy-to-keep-palestinians-divided-583082; For Years, Netanyahu Propped Up Hamas. Now It’s Blown Up in Our Faces by Tal Schneider in Times of Israel, 8 October 2023: https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces. 

16. Documents Show Israel Sought, Valued Qatari Aid for Gaza in Years Leading to October 7 by Jacob Magid in Times of Israel, 22 March 2024: https://www.timesofisrael.com/documents-show-israel-sought-valued-qatari-aid-for-gaza-in-years-leading-to-oct-7; Qatar Sent Millions to Gaza for Years - with Israel’s Backing. Here’s What We Know About the Controversial Deal by Nima Elbagir et al. in CNN, 12 December 2023: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/11/middleeast/qatar-hamas-funds-israel-backing-intl/index.html   

17. A Brief History of the Netanyahu-Hamas Alliance by Adam Raz in Haaretz, 20 October 20 2023: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-20/ty-article-opinion/.premium/a-brief-history-of-the-netanyahu-hamas-alliance/0000018b-47d9-d242-abef-57ff1be90000   

18. We Are Overpaying the Price for a Sin We Didn’t Commit by Nicholas Kristof in New York Times, 28 October 2023: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/28/opinion/israel-gaza-hamas-invasion.html 

19. Blowback: How Israel Went from Helping Create Hamas to Bombing It by Mehdi Hasan and Dina Sayedahmed in Intercept, 19 February 2018: https://theintercept.com/2018/02/19/hamas-israel-palestine-conflict;  How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas by Andrew Higgins in Wall Street Journal, 24 January 2009: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123275572295011847; How Israel Helped Create Hamas by Ishaan Tharoor in Washington Post, 30 July 2014: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/07/30/how-israel-helped-create-hamas 

20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4snHu0SOm0