Just a few days ago, on July 31, the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) denounced the Israeli occupation forces' attack on and destruction of the Hebron seed bank in the West Bank and its warehouses, which housed all the agricultural diversity. The committees' farmers believe this attack violates Palestinian identity and affects their survival, because "without it, there are no crops."
On the seashore, Gaza—for years an immense open-air prison—is becoming an intolerable extermination camp for humanity, but tolerated by an international community that watches in astonishment as all humanitarian laws are broken, before a powerless world population, before a powerless world population—Israeli citizens who live trapped in the mirage of violence and in the deception that their country is threatened, is legitimately defending itself, and that is why they can stop looking at what for everyone is an incontestable reality: a genocide in progress.
These atrocities are added to the increase in violence by Israeli settlers, who occupy more and more land and towns in the West Bank, where they destroy olive groves, Palestinian family homes and fields, with the necessary connivance of the Israeli army.
The Palestinian tragedy goes way back. The victors in 1945, indebted to the Jewish people, facilitated the creation of a state that was to coexist with the inhabitants of Palestine. But the creation of the new Zionist and Jewish state was born with blood: the blood of more than 15,000 Palestinians, the displacement of 800,000 people, and the depopulation of 600 villages. Since then, the State of Israel has always lived in fear, under threat, and with continued episodes of violence.
Furthermore, the non-recognition of the State of Israel by neighboring countries has added fuel to the fire of a conflict that is considered the most important source of global geopolitical instability. Iran, the greatest power in Shiite Islam, also prevents any future solution by not recognizing Israel's right to exist and demanding an impossible historical turning point.
Faced with the impasse of the current situation, it is essential to create a new order of things that takes into account some principles, which may seem utopian at first reading, but which are based on dialogue between enemies as the indispensable tool to resolve the most persistent crises.
First of all, the recognition of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples' right to have their own state. Right now, Israel's occupation of more and more territories makes a Palestinian state unviable, so a gigantic diplomatic effort will be necessary to bring the parties together and analyze the maps of 1948 and 1967, invoke a mediation legitimized by all... which may result in the imposition of a single one. A very difficult solution to swallow right now. That's why it's important for the international community to recognize, as a first step, a Palestinian state that would legitimize any subsequent dialogue, on equal terms between the parties.
This presupposes, secondly, the acceptance of the end of violence by all. A ceasefire that commits Israel, Hamas, and also the various armed factions in the region, and the explicit declaration by the Middle Eastern countries of the right of both peoples to a state.
If a lasting solution is to be built, thirdly, Israel must commit to complying with international law and United Nations resolutions. This is difficult, because the current crisis has much to do with the discrediting of multilateral organizations, especially the UN, fueled by the US Zionist lobby, among others. But it is essential to build peace based on a legitimacy that includes all countries in the world. This will represent a challenge for Israeli society, but the non-Zionist Jewish diaspora can exert significant pressure and help overcome resistance to avoid being drawn into the negative image that Zionism currently has worldwide.
And finally, the role of the United Nations must be strengthened with a reform that seems impossible today, but for which we must work now to make it possible in a few years. No state can be both judge and party in an international dispute; no state can torpedo a majority agreement; that everyone has a voice and a vote, and that the Security Council has the representation that makes it essential for fostering dialogue and negotiation based on respect and empathy.
Today, it all seems like a pipe dream, but a good portion of informed public opinion knows that this—or something similar—is the only path that leads to true peace.
