By Richelle Andrei I. Manalo
If you were alone to suffer everyday, you would want the world to see the abuse and fight freedom with you. All over the feeds of many are the statements “Free Palestine” along with images of injury, bombing, and death of Palestinians that suffered from the oppressing country, Israel. What is seen in pictures and videos are just enough for you to be human and sympathize with the oppressed.
The conflict between the two nations did not just revolve around religion to who are Jews and who are Arabs but it was also the land occupation they had from the very beginning. History proved that Palestinian had the rights and are now being pushed to lose them. The Balfour Declaration in 1917 which stated the establishment Jewish people of a national home in Palestine and in 1947 was Resolution 181 or the Partition Resolution, a British Mandate in which Palestine was divided into Arab and Jewish states. Creating a tension between the two nations on how the Palestinian had to be divided to the land they owned and was slowly being outnumbered by Jews when a number of them started to migrate back again to the land after being exploited from European countries. This started the war on May 14, 1948, an end to the British Mandate to which created the State of Israel that sparkled from the Arab-Israeli war where Palestine was divided into three after Israel gained most of the territory with 750,000 of Palestinian being displaced. From there started the slow moves of Israel up to present day on how they are trying up until now to claim the land they believed is theirs.
Through years of oppression, Palestinian had to suffer around the territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to which are now the remaining territories they have after being slowly taken down by Israel from the Six-Day War in 1967. These two locations run through self-government but are not totally considered as free due to Israel maintaining military occupation and settlements along the area that is seen as illegal in international law. Palestinian is suffering around 75 years now with lives at risk and ready to be exploited from their own territory which was the driving force on why Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Hamas) was created along with the oppression. Hamas is a military-political resistance group semi-governing the territory of Gaza considered by western government as a terrorist organization created by Palestinian. Hamas stated their goal clearly is to reject the existence of Israel after the years of oppression they’ve made for Palestine that took part through violence. This organization is seen by the people as the main reason why every attack is happening every now and then ever since the occurrence of what happened on October 7, 2023. It was the date where Hamas gunmen were found in the border of Gaza together with thousands of rockets they sent in Israel that killed around 1,400 of their people, held hundreds hostage, and injured many. This occurrence flamed up more the oppression Israel is putting to Palestine wherein they produce massive backfire to them ever since the attack making Palestinian lives at risk.
At present, a report from Al Jazeera News, Omar Rahman, an expert on Israel-Palestine with the Middle East Council for Global Affairs said that Israel is seeking total damage to Gaza and no chance for them to cease, which is also seen in their action everyday as the death of Palestinian increases. The bombing of Israel started from the north part of Gaza forcing half of the 2.3 million population to run and evacuate at Rafah, the southern part that was considered a “safe zone” for them but turned out to be a complete opposite now. The bombing of Rafah is an order from Israel’s prime minister office in order to pressure Hamas that affects the Plaestinians causing them to experience injuries and death. The Israeli government who controls the borders of Gaza closed it, meaning blockade, causing the basic necessities of those in Gaza to be insufficient for them. Water, food, and electricity are closed down for them to receive together with bombings of hospitals, schools, and buildings. In short, Palestine is being deprived from their basic necessities also to live as is in their territory that is captivated by the Israeli government hindering them to efficiently exercise their rights. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the number of people dead due to this sums up to 37, 296 with almost half of it are children who suffer innocently to the path they are born to due to the massive greed other nations imply. These are just the suffering of Palestinian after the October 7 attack but even before the year of 2023 it has been happening for decades. This is not a war, the conflict between Palestine and Israel can not be called a war wherein Palestine does not have the right amount of forces to fight back a state that has leading weapons and is funded for the military every year. The conflict between them falls under the grounds of genocide in which one exploits another nation. It is clearly seen that Israel wants ethnic cleanse sooner or later to be fully accountable to the land of Palestine. In a report by UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese, it is stated there that Israel commits three out of the five ground for genocide listed under UN Genocide Convention. The three acts were:killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to the group’s members; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. The inhumane acts of Israel to Palestinian led to an unwanted death, trauma, and if not taken more can be a history of how a nation can exploit one to be removed out of the map.
Israel does not want a ceasefire to happen due to the threat that Hamas has implied to them. The use of Hamas as the reason why everything has started is an invalidation of all the oppression Palestine received decades before Hamas was even created. The existence of Hamas is not synonymous to what is truly fought in the statement “Free Palestine,” it is not the defined terrorists people are screaming for but those who are crying everyday for freedom to their own territory. The want of Israel to extinct Hamas does not mean also involving innocent citizens. To the act they’ve shown for the past few months, they used Hamas as a reason to why they send violence but it slowly involves those who are not part of it and have tendencies to extinct their kind. Orders that tell Palestinian to evacuate in a safe place to not be involved is not even applicable when every place they can go to is under Israel. Borders are closed and life for them is as the lowest point wherein if they try to escape their choice left is death and discrimination from their oppressors. The genocide did not started during the 7th of October but in 1948 where Palestine is divided to three when it was supposed to be their as a land of one. Letting the settlers be the owners is letting the rights of Palestinians vanish and kill them.
In the state of Palestine, resistance becomes their duty but every resistance they make calls for another bomb to drop. This is not a war, this is genocide. The world does not need another 75 years for people to be humans and value the real oppressed in this settler and landlord abuse that is happening right now. Opening your eyes and voicing out “Free Palestine” won’t hurt anyone but only those oppressors who are trying to exploit them.