Voices crying in the desert
It is common for Israeli senior officials, once retired, to criticize the government and denounce the occupation of the Palestinian territories, and sometimes even the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population or the no less systematic persecution and dispossession in general. They make comments to this effect, which in some cases are public.
Shortly before their criticisms against the occupation, they held positions of great responsibility within the terrible Israeli system and acted with extreme harshness against Palestinians, sometimes from within the army or secret services, obeying the orders they received from the authorities, that is, from the government, the ministers or even directly from the prime minister, like pieces of a precision machine that operates with a routine prepared for death and dispossession.
This August, 102 former French and British diplomats who held positions in Israel, Palestine or elsewhere in the Middle East before retiring, signed a letter of this kind. These are people, therefore, who know the area, and the recipients of the letter are the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the new British prime minister, Andy Burnham.
The signatories call for immediate and decisive intervention from European powers. The reason for the letter is the project for the construction of settlements in the so-called E1 Zone, a space in the West Bank located between Jerusalem and the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim, east of the Holy City. The planned construction will completely cut off the connection between the north and south of the West Bank and will have terrible consequences for the future of Palestinians and Palestine.
The letter from former European officials is not entirely comparable to the calls made by former Israeli officials, even though in both cases the objective is to curb expansion and "ethnic cleansing", an expression that significantly captures the letter from French and British diplomats.
The difference between the two groups is that former European diplomats have often denounced the excesses committed by Israeli authorities confidentially from their postings, when they were still officials, even though their comments usually have no impact on the ground.
The paralysis of European governments
A European diplomat once told me that they were fed up with producing reports that arrived punctually in European capitals but had no impact afterwards, because the leaders prevented a debate in which the Jewish state would be criticized at the highest level and corresponding sanctions adopted. European leaders did not allow any similar topic to be included on the agenda of the leaders.
The constructive momentum in E1 comes a few weeks before the Israeli elections scheduled for October 27. There are still two months before the polls open, and it is easy for the provocations of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to multiply during this time, provocations that are increasingly cynical in the face of the paralysis of European leaders.
The voices of former European diplomats and former Israeli officials cry out in the wilderness and have no chance of succeeding. The former diplomats know from experience that the protest will have no repercussions, because the leaders are simply not interested in resolving the conflict. There may be some more or less grandiloquent condemnation, but it is obvious that Paris, London, or Berlin will not take any decisive action aimed at resolving the issue.