Stuck in limbo

Ten years ago, we, the Palestinians, were cautiously optimistic – we saw the possibility of change on the horizon. We thought the world was finally, albeit slowly, starting to pay attention to our plight. We believed, perhaps naively, that justice and freedom were within our reach.

A lot has changed since then. Today, we simply cannot shake off the feeling that we are stuck in limbo. Israel’s political and diplomatic standing in the world is noticeably on the rise, and its illegal occupation is rapidly being normalised. While more and more people are acknowledging the fact that Israel has built an illegal system of apartheid on our homeland, the international community appears to be more reluctant than ever to hold it to account. The unjust, illegal and deadly status quo in Palestine is slowly becoming permanent before our eyes.

Earlier this month, leading Israeli rights group, B’tselem, published an explosive report describing Israel and its control of the Palestinian territories as a single “apartheid” government and stating that the lands between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea are being governed by “a regime of Jewish supremacy”. This was a much welcome recognition of our reality on the ground, but it did little to change the increasingly positive perception of Israel in the international arena.

The normalisation deals it signed with a number of Arab states, and its impressive drive to vaccinate its citizens against Covid-19, provided Israel with a lot of good press. Despite its ongoing crimes against the Palestinians and persistent violations of international law, it is not being shunned as a pariah state or sanctioned by the international community. Instead, it is strengthening its political, diplomatic and economic ties with the world. Most recently, it started exporting produce from its illegal settlements to the United Arab Emirates. These exports labelled “Made in Israel”, help normalise Israel’s settlement enterprise and claim of sovereignty over the occupied territories.

Meanwhile, the situation at home is only getting worse. Settlement expansion is continuing at an unprecedented pace, with more and more Palestinians being kicked out of their homes. According to the most recent report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Territories, 2020 witnessed “the highest number of demolitions and people displaced by Israeli authorities in recent years”.

Israel is also completing crucial infrastructure projects to ensure its illegal settlements are here to stay. It is expanding the separation wall, building bypass bridges for settlers, and approving Palestinian-only separation roads across the West Bank to transform its so-called “temporary occupation” into a permanent, hellish reality. It is also routinely sending its security forces into Palestinian population centres such as Ramallah to make it clear to the Palestinians they are living at the mercy of Israel at all times. And all this is happening amid a deadly pandemic.

Excerpted: ‘We, the Palestinians, are stuck in limbo’

Aljazeera.com