OPINION

Hikmat Ajjuri

The Palestinian upheaval which broke out in October last year, in the Occupied East Jerusalem, is a natural outcome of 57 years of persecution of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli occupying forces; army and settlers. This fact was asserted directly and indirectly by many politicians in the world including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Kin-moon.

On Tuesday 26/1/2016, Mr. Ki-moon said that the Palestinian youth’s violent response to Israeli occupation is ‘human nature’. He added by saying that “Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process.” “Occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism.”

This indisputable truth was deceitfully responded to by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that the remarks of Ki-moon “give a tailwind to terrorism.”

The five decades’ of silence of the International Community against all the crimes conducted by Israel the occupying power against the Palestinians was perceived by the Israelis as an International community´s endorsement of their crimes. While on the other hand was perceived by the Palestinians as complacency and betrayal of the International Community to its values and laws including the IHL Laws meant to serve the legitimate aspirations of all nations including the Palestinians to live in peace and prosperity with dignity in their own sovereign countries.

Factually, it is not only this shameful silence but also the carelessness of the International Community which favored not to know that killing a Palestinian child in cold blood in the streets of the occupied East Jerusalem and the overrun by an Israeli Bulldozer, of an American young woman, Rachel Corrie, because of her protest to the Israeli atrocities, had a spark effect to this instability and violence which hits every were in the region and now beyond.

Any EU global strategy that aims to sustain peace and prosperity for all Europeans will never succeed unless this strategy is well informed by the European values.

Security and defense which means that Europe keeps its finger all the time on the trigger, is not only a very tiring process but has proved to be a wrong approach to serving a meaningful European strategy.

Democracy is a European value and ought to be sustained in order to keep the European system sound, secure and constructive.

The European silence on the crimes conducted by an alleged democracy “Israel” in addition to its controlling the life of Palestinians against their wish and will, is an utter contradiction of this value.

As important reference to a European strategy is the recognition by leaders of western democracies including America of the Israeli Oppression of millions of Palestinians under their occupation, a main recruiting tool for the terror which is becoming uncontrollable worse than a cancer.

In this context the question worth asking is whether the current coalition of sixty countries are truly fighting DAESH to uproot terrorism, or in fact, un-intentionally or ignorantly are flourishing it.

Mindful of the tools used by this evil (terror) to promote its crimes, in order to recruit brain washed youth worldwide. Experiences learnt from Afghanistan and the war against AL-Qaeda proves that the western Democracies need to review their global strategies in order to sustain their civilized systems, the core of which is human rights and democracy. The new generations of the developing world including the Middle East are no more afraid of dictators and very much benefiting from the technology which turned the world into a small village.

In this village the shared human values should be observed based on the wisdom of Martin Luther King “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.

On conclusion, I am for once inspired by the brave move taken by the French Foreign Minister Fabius, calling for International conference as a non- violent means to end this decades long Israeli military occupation of the State of Palestine.

May be it is high time for a new European strategy adopting this French peace initiative as an effective alternative to the military might which has so far proved its failure in its war against terror.

Article first appeared on 08.02.2016: https://www.publico.pt/mundo/noticia/a-palestina-e-a-estrategia-global-da-ue-1722654?page=-1