Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced the closure of Israel’s diplomatic mission in Ireland on Monday after joining the legal case, waged by the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
European Momentum on Palestinian Recognition
Ireland’s decision to join the ICJ case is no surprise after Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and Norway announced in May, earlier this year, the formal recognition of a Palestinian state. Recognition, before any formal peace process, remains a sticking point for states that acclaim public support for the self-determination of the ‘Palestinian people’ whilst shying away from any formal action. Successive votes, in the UN General Assembly and UN Security Council, attest to this.
Ireland’s action to recognise Palestine signalled a momentous break in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dublin, like others, did not buy the age old ‘two-state solution.’ In reality, what has the two-state paradigm done for anyone, but Israel?
Israeli leaders, namely Binyamin Netanyahu, formerly spoke of a Palestinian state in English-speaking outlets whilst in Hebrew Netanyahu openly embraces Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria otherwise green-lighting expansion, settlement, and annexation.
Foreign Policy Shifts
Israel’s war in Gaza, otherwise rephrased by Arab media outlets as ‘Israel’s war on Gaza’, continues to pile pressure on other EU-27 states to recognise Palestinian statehood all the while supporting South Africa’s case at the ICJ. Malta, Belgium, and Luxembourg are reported to be considering recognition according to diplomatic sources.
Israel’s initial military actions in Gaza appeared totally proportionate in response to the horrific terrorist attack carried out by Hamas on the 7th October. IDF troops entered Gaza hoping to destroy, eliminate, and tackle the security threat posed at its southern border.
IDF Actions
However, IDF actions continue to come under scrutiny. The age old ‘human shields’ argument, postulated by Israeli Ambassadors on media screens, is tiring as it is taxing. Simply put, both Israel and Hamas situate their command rooms in densely populated areas at risk of bombing at any time. Hamas’ tunnel networks harnesses houses, hospitals, and towns as command rooms whilst Israel’s Mossad intelligence centre is located in central Tel-Aviv.
The death toll in Gaza was to be high in any case, based on previous encounters between the IDF in previous Gaza wars, although warfare requires proportionality.
Foreign Minister of Jordan Ayman Safadi – Hamas is an ideology and you cannot kill ideology.
Even if we take away, proportionality, FM Safadi is right to note the legitimacy of going after Hamas… even without Hamas’ infrastructure, Israel will fail to dislocate Palestinian’ trauma in the Nakba, War of 1967, Second Intifada, and now the war on Gaza.
Humanitarian Suffering in Gaza
The targeting of humanitarian workers, shutdown of media reporting in Gaza, and the false advertising of ‘designated safe zones’ across Gaza questions the genuine war aims of Israel if it sought to eliminate Hamas’ infrastructure.
Hamas does embezzle aid flows, divert food deliveries, and monitor its own population, however, to blame Hamas alone for the death toll in Gaza is duplicitous. Israel controls aid inflows into Gaza at the point of entry by land and sea. Therefore, Israel has a moral responsibility – as well as legal jurisdiction under humanitarian law – to ensure a sufficient provision of humanitarian assistance at the point of entry irrespective of Hamas’ actions inside Gaza.
The ICJ Case of South Africa
The Global South were quick to support South Africa in its case against Israel. As a state, built on racial division, South Africans share a lot with the Palestinian people as does Ireland. Subjugated by colonial force, post-colonial states understand the power dynamics at play across the international system. Spain and Ireland’s support for the ICJ case are testamont to a universal application of international humanitarian law without its cookie-cut application by actors namely Washington.
Internal Politics in Israel
One of the key issues in Israeli politics today is ‘trauma.’ Trauma does strange things to the human psyche… in fact, it defiles our rational state of mind and makes one prone to finding someone to blame, some polarising argument, or even safety in the act of punishment: physical or emotional. Either way, the Jews and Arabs have suffered significant periods of trauma throughout history yet both people(s) have co-existed in Europe and the Middle East.
Dialogue, inclusion, and sincerity are all necessary if Jews and Arabs are to build bridges after the events preceding and following the 7th of October.
Future Path Ahead: ‘The End of all Wars’
The international community can do a lot to guide Israelis and Palestinians to a better path even if that subverts justice at the ICJ. President Trump is likely to scupper ICJ officials from arresting Netanyahu and sanctions on the ICJ are likely.
Two options are on the table, one is ideal, yet only one is realistic: a one-state reality. Trump’s plans to expand the Abraham Accords whilst green-lighting Israeli expansion into the occupied Palestinian territories will inevitably solidify this concept of ‘Greater Israel’ whilst the status of Gaza will be governed by an international security force under a UN-mandate. Israel’s operation in Lebanon, up until the Litani river, occupation and expansion of settlements in the Golan Heights up to Mount Hermon, Syria, and now westwards to the Jordan river only confirms the inevitable.
At the end of all this suffering, compiled by trauma, Palestinians deserve self-determination even if that translates to one sovereign state between the river and the sea under Israeli sovereignty. Palestinian fragmentation, political and geographical, and Israeli politics remain the fundamental barrier to any two-state solution. Breaking down either barrier demands tackling trauma on both sides.
Trump’s presidency and the realities of the international system mean that the time is up on any two-state solution.
