Hello, friends! The situation between Israel and Palestine has worsened so much so that it looks like a war. Thousands of rockets are firedand many people are losing their lives. In fact, some kids lost their lives as well. This topic is so controversial that people across the world are divided in their opinion. Even in India. Two trends were at the top on Twitter.
One, India Stands With Israel. And the other, India Stands With Palestine. Who is in the right here? Why did this topic and this war start again? Come, let’s try to find out in today’s video. Friends, this is the map of Israel-Palestine. You can see where Israel is on this mapvery clearly. But one needs to look for Palestine. The highlighted region on the top is known as the West Bank. And the thin green strip at the bottomis known as the Gaza Strip.
In this map, the areas in green are the places where Palestinians live. And the areas in dark green are the ones governed by the Palestinian government. But the pink area in the West Bank is whereIsrael is in control. Some Israelis also live there. Don’t you feel that this is a weird map? How can two countries exist as hundreds of different parts? There are more than a hundred parts.
And if a person starts walking from the top to the bottom, he’ll find that he starts in Israel, reaches Palestine,walks further and then re-enters Israel. Even further and he’s in Palestine again;how is this possible? How can a country exist in more than a hundred different pieces? It has its own interesting history. I won’t talk about the history in this video because it will make this video very long. I’ll make a different video after this that will tell you the historical situation of Israel-Palestine about how this came to be. So it is not very surprising. If two countries exist in pieces surrounded by each other there is bound to be a lot of conflict between them. In the middle of this map is the city of Jerusalem.
A very holy city for the people from three religions,Christians, Muslims and Jews. Jerusalem faces the same situation. West Jerusalem is under Israel’s control and many Israelis live there. And in the East Jerusalem area, many Palestinians live there. And according to International law, it is a part of Palestine. But Israel has occupied that area. Israel believes that the entire Jerusalem city is theirs and should be so. And Palestinians believe that it is theirs, obviously.
In the last several years, in East Jerusalem, many Palestinian families had to face evictions. Israeli Government is accused of forcefully evicting many Palestinian families out of their homes. On the other hand, if we talk about the Gaza Strip, the story differs there. Palestinian Government is not in control there. It is occupied by a militant group/ political party HAMAS. The Palestinian Prime Minister governing the dark green areas in the West Bank, even he doesn’t have any control over theGaza Strip. Because HAMAS has occupied the entireGaza Strip.
And some countries of the world like the USA, Israel, the European Union and Japan, these countries believe that HAMAS is a terrorist group. But on the other hand, there are countries likethe UK and Australia, that consider only the militant wing of HAMAS as a terrorist group. But there are also countries like China, Russia, Turkey, Iran and Norway, that do not consider HAMAS as a terrorist group. HAMAS and the Israeli military often launch rockets against each other. Though Israel has an Iron Dome.
It is a very efficient defence system that keeps them protected against the rockets from HAMAS. The firing of rockets and airstrikes occur between Gaza and Israel. The West Bank of Palestine doesn’t have much to do with it and no rockets are launched by them. Because Israeli people live there too. But at the same time, the borders in Gaza are clearly defined. Israeli people don’t live in Gaza, it is very clearly a dark green strip. In fact, Israel has put complete blockades all around Gaza. On one side Israel has blocked it and on the other Egypt has blocked it completely.
They have been economically cut off from the rest of the world as well. Because of this, the unemployment rate in Gaza is very high. The money that comes to Gaza is from the people across the world that want to help them. Help the people living there. But most of the time HAMAS uses that money to buy weapons and launch rockets. So it is very important to understand this difference. The problems at the border and the problems ofevicting people out of their homes, where Israel is accused of illegally occupying the land, are in the West Bank. And in Gaza, there is HAMAS. Once that you’ve understood this background knowledge now let’s talk about the current events. It can be said that the current issue began with the topic of Sheikh Jarrah. Sheikh Jarrah is a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. Where many Palestinian families were ordered to leave their homes. Additionally, about a week ago, some extremist right-wing Jews had provocating rallies in the neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem. Where they carried the slogans “Death to Arabs”. When these rallies passed, fights outbroke between the Jews and the Arab Muslim communities amidst heightened tensions. And these were inflamed by the extreme right-wing Israeli politicians. Like them. They gave extremely provocating speeches. They claimed that the whole city was theirs. And this led to the worsening of the situation. On 7th May, Palestinian people were protesting against these evictions. These protests turned violent. Stones were thrown, the Israeli police tried to control the situation. The police and the protestors crashed and people were injured on both sides. On 10 May, the Israeli police entered the Al Aqsa mosque rubber bullets were fired and stun grenades were thrown at the Palestinians there. At the people praying there. Israeli police claim that they had information the some Palestinians had collected stones to be thrown at the right-wing people of the passing rallies carrying the “Death to Arabs” slogan.
After hearing the news of the mosque, the HAMAS group gave an ultimatum to the Israeli government to withdraw Israeli police from the mosqueor else they would attack. Even though the Palestinians living in the West Bank hardly have anything to do with HAMAS, but still, HAMAS posed as the representative of the Palestinians and gave this warning. And after some hours, started firing rockets at Israel. The HAMAS group launched thousands of rockets against Israel from Gaza. And when these rockets fell on Israel,Israel retaliated with airstrikes on Gaza. Israel carried out more than 130 airstrikes on Gaza. And in the last two days, more than 40 Palestinian people have died. Including more than 9 kids.
On the Israeli side, two Israelis have diedas well as one Indian person. The biggest question arising here isWho is right and Who’s wrong? There is no end to excuses on both sides to justify their actions. Israel claims that they carried out the airstrikes because HAMAS launched rockets against them. HAMAS says that they launched the rockets because the Israelis attacked the mosque. Israel says that they attacked the mosques because people were throwing stones there. And the people throwing the stones say they did so because their land is being unfairly occupied. And then those people will say that it was not an unfair occupation of land because it was a legal matter finalized in the court. And then the conversation will turn to history. There is no end to the excuses on either side. One excuse after the another.
And then it’ll lead to history about what happened in the 1967 war. But a few things are very clear that we need to remember in this situation, in my opinion. First, what do international observers have to say? European Union says that the evictions by Israel are illegal on humanitarian grounds and lead to tensions among the masses. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the law enforced by Israel is inherently discriminatory.
And the sending of Israelis to occupy land is prohibited under International Humanitarian law and that it may amount to a war crime. So it is clear that Israel’s occupation of the areas of the West Bank and eviction of Palestinians is wrong according to the International observers. But does that mean that the actions of HAMAS are right? Absolutely not. In fact, the rockets of HAMAS are often pointed at the common cities of Israel where the common citizens are harmed. It is a good thing that Israel has such a good defence system, the Iron Dome, because of this, most of the rockets launched by HAMAS cause no destruction.
And there are little to no casualties on the Israeli side. But if there were no protection against the rockets from HAMAS, many Israelis would’ve lost their lives. Violence as a response to violenceand even more violence to its response does not improve the situation;it worsens the situation exponentially. Like Gandhi Ji had said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Secondly, the situation as of now is that more than 60 people have lost their lives. Including more than 17 children. All of them were humans.
But the unfortunate reality is that the extremists in Israel and Palestine do not see humans. They can see only terrorists. Israelis think that all the Palestinians are terrorists. And some Palestinians believe that all the Palestinians are terrorists. They don’t see them as humans. The politicians and militant groups have instigated so much hate in people on both the sides That both groups of people cannot treat each other with compassion and respect. They behave like sworn enemies. This is why they keep justifying one act of violence after the other. “We did this in defence.”
“We did this to protect our lives.” It needs to be understood that all the Palestinians do not support HAMAS. At the same time, all the Israelis do not support the Israeli Government or its actions. In the past, there have been politicians that have tried to maintain as much peace as possible. And they were assassinated byextremist Israeli Jews. There are a lot of extremist people on both sides. The population of the extremist people are so significant that it is overpowering. And to term the entire country as terrorist because of this reason, to say that all the Israelis are terrorists, or that all the Palestinians are terrorists, is extremely wrong.
If you say this, it will only increase the hatred on both sides. The third is the quote from Spiderman,”With great power lies great responsibility.” Look at both sides, which side has more power? It is quite obvious. The military technology of Israel, its defence system, agencies like Mossad, It is next to impossible to compete against them. Israel is one of the best military powers in the world. With so much power, their responsibility is also enhanced. The organizations like HAMAS which is considered to be terrorists by Israel. If the terrorist group launch rockets at them, they do not have to respond similarly. They do not have to respond violently to violence. The Gaza airstrikes by Israel killed many civilians and children. And Israel has so much technology that they should take precautions to target only the rocket launchers and the terrorist groups. The children as not involved in terrorism. And to say that there will be casualties every time you target them is not right. Had your family member been there.
And if there were terrorists in the next building. And your family member died because the building next to them was bombed, will it be justified? It will never be. Especially when this is done by one of the top military powers in the world. These things need to be thought of. Remember them whenever you talk about this issue with anyone. And I will make a detailed video on the history of Israel-Palestine soon. You will get the answer to many questions when you see their detailed history.
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