War, Detainees and Migration

As Netanyahu said, he will not stop the war in the Gaza Strip in search of achieving impossible goals. He knows that very well, but he will not stop the war in order to justify his political survival and so that Israel does not collapse in front of the axis of resistance. Stopping the war means entering into real negotiations, and Netanyahu does not want that, and he cannot do that either. He is acting with the logic of a victor, not one seeking a settlement. He wants to continue the war to achieve its hidden goals. He does not care about the prisoners or uprooting the Hamas movement. What he cares about is erasing the place, ensuring calm for decades, and turning the Strip into a crossroads for transportation, communications, investments, and settlement. What he cares about is a complete change in the Palestinian demographics and geography in a way that will forever block any settlement with the Palestinian state, and an unprecedented separation between the Palestinian people’s communities so that they will no longer be able to build a society or establish a state. Destroying the Gaza Strip and displacing its people is the erasure of the geography that protected, embraced, and nourished the Palestinian national identity. These are Netanyahu's real goals in continuing his war on the Strip, as he may reduce its intensity, but he will certainly not end his occupation of the Strip, even if there are negotiations with Arab, international or Palestinian parties on how to manage the Strip. This time, Israel wants to control everything related to the life of the Strip and the lives of its people. These goals also include working to displace the Palestinian citizen by all available means. This ultimately means that Netanyahu is investing in the war to prolong his rule, prolong the occupation and prolong the conflict as well.

Almost all leaders in the East and West agree in their statements that the release of the Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip is their first demand. Nothing occupies, stops or concerns them except these prisoners. There are those who weep over them and point to the suffering of their families and the necessity of reuniting families, and there are those who point to their mistreatment and the harsh conditions under which they live. We are not against the release of every prisoner on the face of this earth because that guarantees the release of more than ten thousand Palestinian prisoners whom no one remembers, no one sympathizes with, and no one demands their release or work to improve their detention conditions despite all the horrific news about their detention conditions. Weeping over the Israeli prisoners is part of this hypocrisy, deception, duplicity and dominance of power. It reflects that the colonial West in particular gives Israel all it needs in terms of legitimacy, money, weapons, protection and adoption of the Israeli narrative of the entire conflict. In other words, these statements are not just words and not just a free compliment, but rather a complete vision of the conflict. The colonial West has dropped all the masks from its face, and no longer compliments anyone at all. It will not allow Israel to be defeated, criticized, or its actions to be delegitimized. This time, the West stands completely naked to reveal its ugly shame completely, as the German Foreign Minister expressed it by saying: “All Palestinian civilian targets lose their justification for protection because they are used as a shelter for terrorists,” or as she said… this is where things have come to.

We must admit that there is migration among our citizens, and I am not just saying young people, there are families migrating, yes, it must be said that this is happening. Away from the slogans and big words, the most common and used claim among these people is that everything has deteriorated, there is no security, no safety, no stability, no peaceful life, and that the occupation is restricting all means of living, and it is not only restricting it, but it is also depriving us of our means of living and depriving us of them as well. The occupation has made our lives an unbearable hell, it has confiscated land, dried up water, closed streets, and prevented construction and even hiking in the mountains. There is poverty, overcrowding, a non-existent infrastructure, and a polluted environment, as we know and do not know. There is social injustice, disparities, disharmony, and internal violence at all levels, and war or war conditions bring out the worst in people. For all of this, migration has become an easy, close, and available way out and solution for many reasons that are not hidden from any sane person. I say this with all my pain, and I do not claim solutions here nor do I propose ways out of this predicament. Preventing or reducing migration is not only due to social institutional efforts, but is an individual decision in the end. Migration is a torment for those who do not know, and staying in the homeland is also a torment, and one torment from another makes a big difference in reality.

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Crying over Israeli prisoners is part of this hypocrisy, deception, duplicity, and dominance of power, and it reflects that the colonial West itself gives Israel all it needs in terms of legitimacy, money, weapons, protection, and adoption of the Israeli narrative of the entire conflict.