Palestine again

The time of Corona is also the time when it is getting proven that no deadly virus would be more dangerous than the ultra-right movements of the world committed to racial ideologies.  They are using the Covid phase -  when the world is in tremor of the spread of the virus - as a golden opportunity to implement  their agenda,  as exemplified in India too.   The Zionist regime in Israel will have to be termed as one step ahead in this respect.  

Despite the fact that in that country with a population of less than one crore,  over 16,000 were confirmed with Covid infection and about 300 people died,  the priority of the government is not to get over this health emergency,  but to assert formal annexation of the Palestinian territory it occupies.   Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already declared that the large expanse in West Bank, which it had annexed over the last five decades,  will be officially made part of the country.   And for this he has won the backing of its trusted ally that has always stood with it in this mission of occupation, i.e. America.  The nations of the world are silent spectators of this move which cares little for international law.  When this operation is sure to take away the life, property and livelihood of tens of thousands of Palestinians,   not even a whimper of protest is heard from anywhere in the world.   Although a few countries including those of the European Union have come out with disapproval,  they are not going to make any significant impact.  When Palestine thus felt totally ditched and isolated,  it has now adopted a path of 'self-defence'.  It is as part of that decision that President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has declared that it is withdrawing from all deals including the security pacts signed with Israel and the US.

It was after a long political uncertainty of a year and a half that Netanyahu was sworn in as Israeli prime minister last Sunday.  When in spite of three general elections no party or alliance could win a majority,  Netanyahu finally got a deal signed with the Blue and White movement that had all along been his adversary,  and assumed power.   According to the  deal,  Blue and White leader Benny Gantz will become prime minister after a year and a half.  It may be recalled that this understanding and the cabinet formation were agreed upon in view of the exigencies created by the pressing needs like Covid prevention.  If in spite of that if Netanyahu highlighted the Palestinian issue in his very first speech after the swearing in, it needs to be gauged how dangerous the Zionist agenda in the Middle East is.  This has to be construed as nothing but a new phase of the policy of annexation pursued with precise planning for the last several years.  And this enjoys the unstinted support of US President Donald Trump.  Not long after his inaguration,  Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel;  it can be easily seen that after this Israel's West Bank mission did gather momentum.  Subsequently,  Trump made a special plan that would in effect consign the Palestinian soil entirely to Israel.   According to this plan,  touted as the 'Middle East Peace Plan', Palestine would lose all rights over the Jewish settlement areas and the Jordan Valley.  This plan, which Trump would fondly call  the deal of the century, was promptly rejected by the Palestinians.  And now Israel is setting out to implement it unilaterally.

In the begging of 1967,  West Bank did not have a single Israeli citizen.  Fifty years on,  the Jewish population there is now over 4.5 lakhs,  for whom the Israeli government built over 150 housing settlements.  Although every ssettlement there is in violation of international law,  the Zionst government has been announcing new settlements in each budget.  Needless to say,  all of them were built after displacing the native Palestinians living there till then.    Whenever this issue was raised in the UN Security Council in the last fifty years (43 times)  Israel got through unscathed under US veto.   Even Barack Obama,  perceived as relatively accommodating towards Palestine,  took  a stance of siding with Israel by abstaining from vote.  And just before his stepping down from office,  he even increased military aid to Israel.   Trump, who succeeded Obama joined hands with Netanyahu in an outright racial politics.  What is happening behind the curtain of all this,  is a move to expel the roughly 3 million Palestinians from the occupied territory and annex the territory entirely to Israel's ownership.  This means the Palestinian territory,  including West Bank, is set to lose  its historic belonging.   What drover  Mahmoud Abbas and his team probably is a recognition that only desperate remedies was the option left before Palestine. Although fraught with uncertainties,  Abbas's declaration would at least be widely read as a strong protest at the unilateral act of Israel and the US.  As such,  advocates of democracy the world over can only identify themselves with this struggle of Palestine.