Unresolved Israel-Palestine Issue Is Problem Instead Of Hamas Attack, World Blind To Israeli Occupation: Palestinian Envoy To India

Adnan Mohammad Jaber Abualhayjaa, the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to India, is not your typical foreign office diplomat. He sees himself more as a freedom fighter. 

Abualhayjaa had undergone military training and was injured in battles in Beirut in 1975 and in 1982. The scars of the war are still evident. There is a drag to his walk. 

Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas War and the humanitarian crisis enveloping the Palestinians in Gaza Strip, life is not easy for any Palestinian diplomat at the moment. Here are excerpts from his interview with Outlook’s Seema Guha:

How do you view the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas? While it has helped to bring the Israel-Palestine issue back to the centre stage of international attention, the cost has been heavy on the people of Gaza. Where will this go?

The problem is not about what Hamas has done now and what followed. The problem is that the Palestinian-Israel issue, one of the oldest unresolved conflicts in the world, remains just that. The international community has forgotten about us. There are over 800 resolutions before the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as well as the UN General Assembly (UNGA), yet nothing has happened. We are no nearer to implementing the two-state solution today than we were when it was signed.  

It is difficult to say right now where all this will lead to, however, we hope the world will wake up and the international community will stop the siege. Palestinians are living under Israeli occupation and the world has turned a blind eye to that. The Israeli occupation of Palestine is one of the most brutal in the world. There are over 645 military checkpoints in the West Bank where Palestinians are daily subjected to searches and humiliation. The settlements in the West Bank are extending with the backing of the state authorities and the defence forces.

Since the beginning of this year, 260 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by settlers. The number is 36 since Saturday’s Hamas attack. The world has allowed this to happen. When an Israeli settler kills a Palestinian, his sentence is light. He is debarred from visiting the West Bank for two weeks. Once that period is over, he is free to do what he wants and cross to the West Bank. But when a Palestinian kills an Israeli settler, he will be arrested and imprisoned for life. That is the reality of life in an apartheid regime.

What would an Israeli ground invasion mean for civilians in the Gaza Strip? They are already without water, electricity,  food, and medical supplies. How bad will it get in case of a ground attack?

More misery, more violence. 

But I doubt that Israeli forces will venture into the inhabited areas. Remember, the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Palestinians are packed like sardines in that small square area. The Israeli army would not risk going into these populated areas.

Now, of course, Palestinians have been asked to get out of northern Gaza within 24 hours but where will they go? Does nobody care about that? The heavy bombing is also to ensure that Palestinians leave their homes in Gaza and flee to the Sinai desert in Egypt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is talking about redrawing the political boundaries of the region. What do you think he means? Does he mean taking over the Gaza Strip?

Yes, this September during his address to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu displayed a map of Israel which straddles the entire land from river to the sea, negating Palestine and its people. For the last 30 years, Benjamin Netanyahu has worked to ensure that the two-state theory does not hold. Today, he has been empowered by the world to do what he likes to the Palestinians. The current cabinet of Netanyahu is one of the most extremist governments that have ruled Israel.

The US and its allies have lost no time to free the hands of the Netanyahu government and give it carte blanche to take whatever action it wants in the Gaza Strip. So, in the name of the war against terror, Israel is free to kill, free to destroy, free to starve our people.  Are those not war crimes?

What are the chances of Hamas and Fatah coming together to meet a common challenge at a time of grave threat to the people?

Of course, we will cooperate whenever the larger interest of Palestinians comes up.

What is your reaction to the overwhelming support for Israel across the world?

The US and the Western world have two different interpretations of  “occupation” when it comes to Russia and Israel. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is condemned and the world pours arms, ammunition, and finances to extend support to Ukraine to fight the invaders. Russians are the occupation forces. But Israel is treated with kid gloves, Israel is allowed to do what it pleases with the Palestinians, and not a whimper is raised. The Israeli occupation is not called occupation by the US and the West.

America has always backed Israel 100 per cent in everything. Israel is a military base for the US in the region. It also provides Tel Aviv with the best military hardware. Ukraine’s Zelensky would love to be in the same position as Israel’s Netanyahu. Unfortunately, in an unequal world, this is how it is.

Can this develop into a larger regional confrontation with Lebanon’s Hezbollah also getting involved?

I can’t say that right away, but Hezbollah had not intervened during earlier wars between Israel and Palestinians. Yes, if Israel attacks their areas in Lebanon, they will defend their homeland.

How do you see India’s Stand on the conflict?

India has traditionally supported the two-nation theory. I hope New Delhi will look to the problems from both sides and do something to restore peace.

What do you have to say to the pictures released by the Israeli PM’s office showing babies being beheaded by Hamas?

That photo is fake and another of Netanyahu’s lies. Babies can never be targets.