Reflections on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

By now, we have all seen the heart-breaking images coming out of the middle-east following the attacks by Hamas. We have also seen the effects of the Israeli government’s retaliation. Thousands of Gazans buried in rubble and innocents left without their families, homes, or hope. We are quick to take sides, aren’t we? And, is this not why conflicts persevere? But, in my opinion war breeds war, the oppressed become oppressors, and the only means to end all wars is the emancipation of the individual mind.

Many parallels have been drawn between Israel and South Africa (the country from which I come). After South Africa’s liberation from apartheid in 1994, international leaders used the Government of National Unity (GNU) as a case study for achieving a two-state solution in Israel. More recently, the term apartheid has been used to refer to Israel’s oppressive systems and structures. But, do we know the extent of these parallels? Have we interrogated them sufficiently to understand? Or, do we simply use these labels to pass judgement?

History tells us that long before the Afrikaner invented the system of apartheid, they were oppressed by the English. The Afrikaner came to South Africa to plant and to build communities and those farms and homesteads were systematically destroyed under the ‘Scorched Earth’ policy of the British. Afrikaners, much like Jews, were placed in concentration camps during the Second Anglo-Boer War and were denied equal citizenship, and access to economic, social, and political participation. At the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902, Afrikaners gained self-governance but they did not gain power over the systems of commerce, social capital, or cultural dominance of the English.

The new state under the Afrikaner, therefore, sought to make social, political, and economic in-roads by building parallel structures to the British structures of dominance. They did this through the aggressive promotion of the Afrikaans language and culture, supporting Afrikaner-owned businesses through subsidies and transfers of land from non-Afrikaners. Apartheid, therefore, arose out of a necessity to secure Afrikaner dominance. When the GNU took power in 1994, it inherited a system that was characterized by centuries of oppression and inequality and that is why South Africa remains one of the most unequal places on earth.

Likewise, the systems and structures of oppression in Israel are a response deemed necessary by a people who were systematically murdered. The world turned a blind eye for much of the holocaust as much of the world has ignored the plight of Palestinians. Oppression breeds oppression and fear breeds brutality. The only way to build a sustainable peace is by addressing the fear in all our minds. It is assuring every human on earth that they have a place, that they are entitled to that place, and to the rights that come with it.

It is only when we all feel safe and gain a sense of belonging in our society that we will have the capacity to accept one another. Israel and Palestine are at war, the far-right wants migrants to disappear, supremacists are fearful of The Grand Replacement Theory, heterosexuals fear LGBTQ, men fear women are emasculating them by taking their roles and jobs. ?The wheel needs to stop turning, history needs to stop repeating itself, and we need to learn that we can co-exist.