Focus 
 

Focus

Cloud of Gloom

The reason for a separate homeland for the Jewish people does not lie entirely in the persecution they have faced; rather, it lies in the land itself.

By Fathima Sheikh | November 2023


To fully understand the Israel and Palestine conflict, we must delve into the history and divinity of the holy land. In recent history, Palestine was a former Ottoman territory that, after the First World War, came under the British mandate by the League of Nations in 1922. While it remained a mandate, there were massive Jewish migrations from Eastern Europe, and the land began to become heavily populated by Jews.

This led to an Arab resistance, causing the 1937 rebellion, and after WW2, the issue was passed over to the United Nations. The UN axed the previous mandate and divided the region into two parts: one for the Jewish homeland, which gained independence in 1948 under the name of Israel, and the other for the Palestinian Arabs, inclusive of all religions, predominantly Muslims. Upon its independence, later called the First Nakba, Israel annexed Palestine further and began to control most of Jerusalem.

Thereof, tensions remained in the region, but it wasn’t until 1967, the Six-Day War, when Israel further seized the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, that severe displacement of Palestinians began. Between 1987 and 1993, also known as The First Intifada, there was further land grabbing by Israel as rebellion on both sides grew— Israel, aided by the US, and Palestine, backed by Syria and Egypt, sought to be assisted by Russia, levied violence on each other and Israel further grasped more land within the Palestinian territory. The Second Intifada began with peaceful Palestinian protests that resulted in the Israeli Defense Force shooting civilians and began a tirade from 2000 till 2003. After this, there was a momentary ceasefire; however, between 2008 and 2014, numerous wars in Gaza resulted in more land grabbing and evacuations of Palestinian homes. The frequency of Palestinian uprooting began to rise drastically in 2021 when the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood came under attack, and parallel to all this, the IDF continuously restricted access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, known as a Holy site for Muslims.

However, recently, in October 2023, one day after Yom Kippur, the Israeli army claims there was a ‘massive surprise attack by Hamas’ that has led them to retaliate aggressively and unveil the violent warfare they have begun against the Palestinian civilians. Israel has, up until now, murdered approximately 5,000 and dislocated about 1.2 million Palestinian civilians. It has also evacuated almost all Palestinians from the North of the Gaza Strip to take control and vowed to seize the entire territory of what is left of the country. While Israel tells you it’s being attacked, Palestine shows you the massacre as it unfolds before our eyes. Bloodied Palestinians with terrified children, wounded women, and dead men are visible across all social media platforms, portraying a reality far from the narrative fed to us by the pro-Zionist agenda. Scenes of war that are unimaginable, distraught children who have lost siblings and parents are normalised under the illusion that Hamas is just as powerful and violent as the IDF when, in fact, the power imbalance is visible. Israel has a stockpile of 80 and 400 nuclear weapons and inhabits one of the world’s strongest armies and allies. Unfortunately, the Palestinians only have insurgents, activists, protestors, and no substantial weapons or allies. Their courageous struggle to voice injustice and suffering is the only power that has become a de-sensitised and fetishised cultural reality everyone taps into when they feel necessary.

In recent news, Sari Bashi of Human Watch has claimed that ‘Israel is bombing refugees who have nowhere else to go,’ globally, on X, the hashtag #CeaseFireNow is trending number one; Jewish people across the world outside Israel have condemned these atrocious war crimes and people, in large numbers across the United States, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan and many other countries have flooded the streets to protest Israel’s continuous bombing. How much more visible could war ever be? Who is on the wrong side of history? How can these Zionist Jews claim to be ‘God’s chosen people’ when they behave in the most ungodly manner? Who is to attain this mass ethnic cleansing? These anxieties linger against the violence and silence.


Interestingly, Israel’s 1947 handover by the United Nations has always been disputed since the infamous Balfour Declaration dated 1917 precedes the end of World War Two (1945) and is evidence of a Zionist promise of attaining a ‘homeland for the Jewish people’ one way or the other. Although unfortunate, the War then seems a catalyst to push an already existing narrative; hence, the reason for a separate homeland for the Jewish people does not only lie in the persecution they have faced; rather, it lies in the land itself since the violence levied against the Palestinians almost seems personal, as if it was not the Palestinian welcome which allowed Jewish settlers to live on this land. Anyone contesting this reality would have to deny Palestine’s history, which is a testament to its existence as a cohabiting land for Abrahamic religions for centuries.

Bloodied Palestinians with terrified children, wounded women, and dead men are visible across all social media platforms, portraying a reality far from the narrative fed to us by the pro-Zionist agenda.

The persistence, then, and now escalation of the war does not seem solely rooted in the violence from Hamas; rather, the country’s holiness has frenzied Zionists to capture it. The Four Holy cities of Judaism are Jerusalem, which inhabits the Al-Aqsa Mosque that has witnessed the foundation and creation of Abrahamic religious miracles; Hebron, which homes the Cave of Judaism’s Patriarchs: Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah; then Safed, a city where Jews found refuge after their exile from Spain and Tiberias, a city where the Holy scriptures of Talmud were assembled and where many infamous rabbis lie. Time and again, the conflict over the ownership of this sacred land has caused atrocities across the region, most prominently on the Palestinian side, that continue to grow smaller and smaller through forced land grabbing by the Zionist Jews. The Zion remembrance and ‘birthright’ of a homeland for God’s ‘once’ chosen people makes the War seem a catalyst to push an existing narrative. Hence, the reason for a separate homeland for the Jewish people does not lie entirely in the persecution they have faced; rather, it lies in the land itself. More specifically, the land where Palestine sits is a hallmark of all Abrahamic religions and the first of them, as we all know, is Judaism – they claim their right to it by fair means or foul.

However, this never-ending violence against innocent Palestinians hangs like a cloud of gloom over each of us; it is a conscience clock that, if unchecked, will run its course and erase our sympathies. As people, we must portray the truth, rise for Palestine and help in the ways we can, for the greatest torment you could afflict on someone is to uproot them from a place they once called home and the most banal form of resistance to call out injustice, if not resist it face forward.

Read More