TONIGHT’S marking of Brexit promises to be an emotional mixture of tragedy and triumphalism. For those of us here in Scotland, one thousand three hundred and eighteen days after the EU referendum in which a majority
of us voted to remain part of the EU, the departure will be a painful affair.
Boris Johnson’s “special address” to the country, the red, white and blue projected countdown clock on 10 Downing Street not to mention Nigel Farage’s Parliament Square “party,” will, as they say, be enough to give a camel the dry boak.
I’m sure I speak for many fellow Scots when I confess to feeling a grievous sense of loss in no longer being officially part of the European family of nations.
I’m sure I echo their sentiments too when I say I remain undaunted and more determined than ever to return to that European fold as part of an independent Scotland.
As befitting the brief of this column as a “window on the world”, that impending sense of loss and of being dragged in a political direction not of one’s choosing, got me thinking of what Palestinians must have felt after Donald Trump this week announced what he smugly called his “deal of the century.”
The Palestinians are no strangers to loss. For decades their land, homes and human rights have vanished to rapacious politics, but Trump’s so-called deal is by far the most pro-Israeli vision for a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to come out of the White House.
READ MORE: Palestinian refugees insulted by Donald Trump’s ‘shameful’ deal
Make no mistake about it Trump’s deal is no such thing. For not only does it fail to reflect a compromise between two equal partners, it is in fact an attempt to impose Trump’s ideas on the Palestinians
In effect, his proposals legitimise, incentivise and even reward Israel for its unlawful land grab in the West Bank and further dispossession of the Palestinians that has already been going on for years.
Having now been given Trump’s full endorsement, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already signalled that Israel would formally annex the Jordan Valley and all West Bank settlements perhaps as early as Sunday. The devil as ever lies in the plan’s detail.
Among other things, it would mean the Palestinians’ capital would not be occupied East Jerusalem, as they have long sought, but probably in a suburb separated from the city demarcated by some checkpoint or barrier. The plan too shows nothing that remotely resembles a viable Palestinian state and would force them to give up any claim to territory where the Israelis have established settlements.
As the Israeli human rights group B’selem has pointed out, far from building peace as Trump and Netanyahu attest, they have in effect “delivered apartheid.”
Trump’s vision for the Palestinians the group says is comparable to the Bantustans of South Africa’s apartheid regime, meaning Palestinians will be “relegated to small, enclosed, isolated enclaves, with no control over their lives”. Another Israeli human rights group agrees with this assessment.
READ MORE: David Pratt: Benjamin Netanyahu is the master of Project Fear
Breaking the Silence was established in 2004 by veterans of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and gives serving and discharged Israeli personnel and reservists a means to confidentially recount their experiences in the Occupied Territories.
Breaking the Silence was equally unequivocal in its condemnation, stressing that the plan “is cementing occupation, fragmentation and discrimination which means apartheid”.
According to the Israeli military, there are now more Palestinians than Jews living in the territory under Israel’s control and the Trump-Netanyahu plan will only further confine the majority Palestinians into less than a quarter of the territory.
As far back as 2006, when I first wrote as a journalist about Israeli policy toward the Palestinians being tantamount to apartheid, I faced a barrage of criticism from certain quarters. Such an assessment was “over the top” “exaggerated” “inaccurate” such opponents unfailingly reminded me.
But as time has passed the true nature of the segregation that underpins Israel policy has now become undeniably clear.
Comparing Trump’s plan to a Swiss cheese in which the cheese is offered to the Israelis and the holes to the Palestinians, B’tselem is right when it says it reveals a worldview that sees Palestinians as perennial subjects rather than free, autonomous human beings.
For the simple inescapable fact is that you cannot have an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan without the Palestinians and at no point were they even consulted in the formulation of Trump and Netanyahu’s “deal.”
Perhaps this should come as no real surprise given that from the very outset the Trump’s administration’s objective has never been to negotiate a two-state solution.
Indeed every single policy emanating from this administration with regards to the Israeli-Palestinian issue has pointed towards a single objective: permanent Israeli control between the Jordan River and the sea.
Not only has Trump’s approach been immoral and degrading towards the Palestinians, but is also highly dangerous as it effectively leaves Israel free reign to annex further Palestinian territory.
That the Palestinian leadership are not entirely blameless in all of this goes without saying. For over ten years now it has failed to hold elections and tackle the corruption that has left it discredited at home and isolated internationally. But even given these shortcomings it could not possibly have accepted the “deal” as presented by Trump and Netanyahu.
Those who most staunchly defend Israel like to say it is being singled out. But is that really such a surprise when under Netanyahu’s malign and opportunist leadership it continues to perpetuate policies that reinforce permanent military occupation and subjugates Palestinians to apartheid?
Far from being the “win-win” for both sides as Trump claims, this one-sided plan will see Palestinians face even further hardship and loss.
For 100 years now this conflict has been going on in one form or another.
Today though the Palestinians are arguably facing the most daunting circumstances since the British government announced its support for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine with the Balfour declaration of 1917.
In that entire time, the Palestinian story has been characterised by a litany of political loss. Trump’s political triumphalism over his Middle East “deal” will tonight doubtless find its mirror image among some gloating Brexiteers
Perhaps it’s worth taking note though that for the Palestinians such political setbacks have only served to further crystallise their sense of being a nation and working for a better future.
There is inspiration and a lesson there for us all.
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