Citizen indifference is over, and that's good news. There's also a fragile agreement for a ceasefire And it's also good news. But there's no place on earth where we should be more cautious than in the Middle East. The peace agreement proposed by the US and Israel serves, in principle, to stop the bombings and secure the return of the hostages. Both are excellent news, if confirmed, but in no way do they guarantee a stable solution in the medium or long term. The skill and weakness of the agreement is that it stops hell, but leaves the future open and in dire humanitarian conditions. Negotiations will have to be made, and the Palestinians will do so from a position of territorial weakness, a position of representation, and every other perspective.
The truly important step, which would be the implementation of an effective and stable peace plan, is nowhere in sight. In the current situation, the two-state solution is no longer viable, because the Jewish colonies in the West Bank and the Gaza enclave have irreversibly fragmented the Palestinian territory, and Gaza is literally devastated, both physically and humanly.
Future pressure from civil society on our representatives is essential to save the multilateral system of government and prevent Palestinian disappearance. It is also essential to save the face of the EU. The European Union's inaction must take a social toll on our public representatives, and the cries of thousands of citizens must serve to demonstrate that the threshold for the bearable suffering of others has long been crossed. The long road to judgment of the Israeli prime minister now begins, and it remains important to force European countries to take action to isolate him militarily and commercially.
Start over
This is not a conflict that is easy to understand historically, and each new barbarity resets the memory counter of a new generation to zero. Today, two years after the murder in Israel of 1,195 people—36 minors—and the kidnapping of another 251, Gaza is devastated and more than 66,000 Palestinians have died, thousands of them children.
Against this backdrop, it's worth examining the basic values at stake, and that is nothing less than the humanity of the Palestinians. Hatred has been brewing for decades and has now allowed hunger to be used as a weapon of war, the UN to become a powerless dinosaur, Arab countries to abandon the Palestinians, and the US to pursue a predatory international policy driven by vanity and business.
How Hatred Is Rooted
Amira Hass, an Israeli reporter and daughter of Holocaust survivors, has been appointed correspondent for the Israeli newspaperHaaretz and decided to live in Gaza in the early 1990s to gain a closer understanding of everyday life under the occupation. Her experience gave rise to a book, Drinking the sea at Gaza, never translated into Catalan or Spanish. It is a story that is still essential to understanding where we are, how we got here, and the difficulties that lie ahead. The book is the result of her direct experience: personal observation, witnesses, and a critical look at both Israel and the Palestinian power structures.
The author uses the metaphor of water to explain the Gazan condition. The scarcity and salinity of the water express the impossibility of living normally in that territory: "The brackish water that comes out of the taps is a constant reminder of the impossible: in Gaza, to live, you would have to drink the sea."
Through her travels through the refugee camps, Hass explains how the memory of the 1948 Nakba is inherited by new generations and becomes an inseparable part of the collective identity: "Every child born in a refugee camp inherits not only scarcity, but also the memory of loss." And today, does anyone doubt the wave of hatred inherited with so much death?
Despite the poverty, military repression, and disappointment over the failure to comply with the Oslo Accords, the reporter also highlighted the everyday strength of Palestinian society. Life itself becomes a form of resistance. "Every daily gesture—studying, getting married, writing a poem—was a challenge to the imposed destiny." Today, what was once an open-air prison is a vast cemetery. But, in the words of the reporter, Haaretz"Gaza is the truth that Israel refuses to look at: a people who continue to live, even though the sea that surrounds them is salty and bitter."
Hass described a permanent siege. The bombings, hunger, lack of water, and forced displacement were not mistakes, but military tools. That's why he asserts that destruction and death are not a victory, but rather "the moral and political defeat of Israel." It will be on our conscience to allow a Riviera to be built on a vast cemetery.
