Israeli occupation, oppression, segregation, murders and crimes against the Palestinian people have been going on for decades. They did not begin on October 7, 2023 nor do they end with the ceasefire agreement that comes into force today and which, for the moment, is more of a temporary pause.
Truces save lives and, in that sense, the plan is perceived with relief, but at the moment it does not have the necessary content to become permanent and definitive, nor does it address the fundamental issues that have been perpetuating abuse and violence for decades.
The risk of breaking the truce in the first phase
The first phase of the pact, the only one more detailed, would last forty-two days. The risk of violation of the ceasefire during this period is very high. At this stage, the release of 33 Israelis and 1,890 Palestinians and the entry of up to 600 trucks of humanitarian aid per day are contemplated, after months with a Israeli blockade that has generated hunger and disease and that has been indicated like a act of genocide in itself for experts and rapporteurs of the UN.
Furthermore, Israeli troops will have to withdraw only from populated areas of the Strip and will be able to continue their aerial reconnaissance operations fourteen hours a day. The next phases of the agreement are less defined and must be negotiated in more detail within sixteen days.
For now, the second phase contemplates the release of more Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and the withdrawal of the Israeli Army from other areas, but maintaining a presence in parts of the Philadelphia corridor, which extends along the border between Gaza and Egypt.
Past pacts did not prevent Israel from committing further massacres of civilians in Gaza in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2021
What is not defined
Israel will try to impose its preferences for a future government of Gaza, something that must correspond only to the Palestinian population. He will also resist abandoning the Philadelphia corridor or handing over control of the border crossings. Any incident or excuse will be used to justify the permanence of Israeli troops and the perpetuation of the occupation, as has happened over the years.
Nothing is mentioned about the future of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA)essential for the survival of the population – through its educational, health and humanitarian aid services – and banned by the Israeli Parliament through a recent resolution that goes into effect at the end of this month. The possibility of a permanent ceasefire is also not outlined.
All this leaves a wide margin for the fragility of the agreement. In fact, Netanyahu said a few hours ago that Trump has assured him of temporary nature of the ceasefire and that both he and Biden have given him “full support” to restart the attacks in Gaza “if Israel considers that the negotiations in the second phase are going nowhere.”
In southern Lebanon, where a ceasefire was agreed last November, the Israeli Army often violates the agreement, with shooting, raids, demolishing houses or flying drones.
Any incident or excuse can be used to justify the permanence of Israeli troops and the occupation.
The past agreements
Phased pacts have never reached the final stage. Prime Minister Netanyahu has a long history of non-compliance, including the 1998 Wye River Memorandum, which committed to partial withdrawal from the West Bank.
The Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995 also did not go beyond their first phases, and have been used by Israel as an instrument to divide the West Bank into cantoned areas where the Palestinian population lives without freedom of movement, and where Israeli colonialism has been spreading beyond the Area C, which he completely controls.
The detailed negotiation on the military withdrawal never took place, because the objective of successive Israeli governments has been – and is – to occupy more territory, make use of its natural resources and not disappoint the sectors in favor of Greater Israel.
From the nineties to today, far from what was established by UN resolutions and various agreements, the Israeli population in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank has tripledthrough the illegal occupation. This in itself constitutes a war crime, defined as such by international law: the transfer of population from the occupying State to the occupied territory.
Since the Oslo Accords of 1993 until today, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has tripled.
In Gaza, in the last two decades and before the current genocide, the Israeli Army carried out massacres in 2004, 2006, 2008-2009, 2011, 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2021, with thousands of Palestinian civilians dead. The ceasefire agreements reached in each of those years mentioned did not serve to prevent Israel from committing the following massacres.
The one that has now come into force does not address the Gordian knot either. Without the end of the illegal occupation Israeli, colonialism, apartheid system against the Palestinian population and without pressure measures that force Israel to abandon its policies of abuse and annexation of more Palestinian territory, there will be no lasting solution. What has happened over the decades is good proof of this.
The Israeli objective in the West Bank is to occupy more territory, make use of its natural resources and not disappoint the sectors in favor of Greater Israel
The role of the US
In your last interviewJoe Biden has said that, in October 2023, he asked the Israeli prime minister not to attack civilian areas in Gaza. He replied that bombed civilians because it was necessary, and he had to understand it because the US had also launched bombings against civilians in Germany and Japan in World War II, using the nuclear bomb.
In the Biden interview affirms that Netanyahu “made a legitimate argument: ‘those are the ones who killed my people.’” After Netanyahu’s reference to the use of the US nuclear bomb against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Biden continued to provide weapons, military aid and political support to Israel for months, until today, without putting real pressure on the Israeli president. In fact, the pact now reached is the same one that Israel rejected in July.
In recent days, the Trump and Biden teams have wanted to take credit for the ceasefire agreement. Various media Israelisas well as sources in Washington and Qatar, emphasize the importance of the efforts of the Trump’s special envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, who informed the Biden team of the progress. When he won the election in November, Trump stated that he would assume the presidency with an agreement under his arm for the release of the hostages.
In addition to the private steps, on January 7, Trump posted on the net Truth Social a video by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, in which he harshly criticizes Netanyahu and accuses him of having been obsessed with promoting “endless wars” in the Middle East. The release of that video by Trump constitutes a public gesture of pressure on the Israeli prime minister.
Trump’s son-in-law this week doubled his stake in an Israeli firm that benefits from the illegal annexation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank
This does not mean that there is not a privileged relationship between both leaders, nor that Trump does not support Israel’s impunity, but rather that he considered a staging necessary. This was expressed on several occasions before the summer, when he expressed concern about Israel’s damaged image and the Netanyahu government’s lack of care for “public relations.” The new US president, who takes office this Monday, wants to appear on the scene as a decisive leader, achieve the release of Israeli hostages and, at the same time, guarantee Israel’s colonial project.
It should not be forgotten that, in his previous term, Trump declared Israeli sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights – illegally occupied for decades – and recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, contrary to UN resolutions and international law. In addition, he defended the possibility of a plan that basically consisted of the annexation of a good part of the West Bank by Israel.
The backbone of his policies in the area was the promotion of the Abraham Accords, through which several Arab countries – Emirates, Sudan, Morocco and Bahrain – normalized their relations with Israel. These pacts left aside the Palestinian issue and allowed the perpetuation of Israeli impunity.
Joe Biden continued with the same plan and attempted to sign the Abraham Accords between Saudi Arabia and Israel, a scenario that closed the door to Palestinian rights. In his new mandate, Donald Trump will try to close that agreement between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, push for governments sympathetic to Israel in the region and facilitate the illegal occupation and annexation of more Palestinian territory.
This past Wednesday, his son-in-law and close confidant, Jared Kushner, doubled his participation in a Israeli finance and insurance firm -Phoenix Financial Ltd- which invests in illegal settlements Israelis in the Syrian Golan Heights and the West Bank, and which benefits from the extension of that illegal annexation.
If the foundations for a just peace and real freedom for Palestine are not laid, the loop will continue, over and over again.
Nothing ends today. As the Palestinian American lawyer has written Noura Erakat“a ceasefire may prevent the sky from collapsing over Gaza, but the conditions that limit the possibility of life have already been created.” If the foundations for a just peace and real freedom for Palestine are not laid, if accountability is not ensured, the loop will continue, over and over again.
This was recalled by the United Nations Committee of Experts this week, emphasizing that “sustainable peace requires addressing the root causes of the conflict,” “ending racial segregation and apartheid, as ordered by the International Court of Justice.” in July 2024guarantee equal rights”, “the return of Palestinians displaced since 1948” and “justice for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide”.
In his farewell, Biden and his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, have offered speeches and interviews wanting to ignore their active complicity with Israeli crimes. As wrote at the beginning of this genocide the novelist Omer Al Akkad“one day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal inconvenience in calling it what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone responsible, everyone will always have been against this.”
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