Israel and the Permanence of the "Status Quo" in the 1967 Territories

In the context of reading the new Israeli strategy towards the occupied Palestinian territories since 1967, which the writer here continues to present a reading of for the third week in a row, in light of what the current, most extreme right-wing Israeli government is doing, an indicative pause was made on how to market the Israeli settlement policy in this context. Lands before international forums, especially the approach of the right-wing forces in control of the reins of government, which claim that this settlement policy does not involve any forceful or high-density population transfer, and that it relies on the legal use of lands that are not privately owned. Accompanying this claim is an indication that it was agreed within the framework of the Oslo Accords that the settlement issue would be one of the issues of the permanent status negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, and that until a final agreement is reached, it is assumed that nothing will hinder either party from carrying out planning and construction work in the areas under its control. control of each of them. It must be said that what Israel concluded from this process is that the settlements are not one of the sources of the conflict, which existed before the establishment of any settlement in the lands of 1967, and in its reading, its source lies mainly in “the attempt of the Arabs since 1948 to prevent the establishment of the State of Israel, and their continued attempts to eradicate and exterminate them.”

Another component of this Israeli strategy is that, as stated in many policy papers issued by think tanks that express the views of the ruling right, the current status quo between Israel and the Palestinians can be permanent.

According to one of them, this status quo, with its political impasse, is not the result of Israeli rejection or obstinacy, as some leaders, governments, and analysts in the West claim. He put forward "negative initiatives" aimed at defaming and undermining Israel's legitimacy and denying its character as a Jewish state. The same paper asserts that the coercive imposition of political solutions from one party, and from global organizations, international conferences, or foreign countries, is not the acceptable and desirable way to change the status quo. At the same time, in the absence of any currently in place and practical diplomatic tracks, the current status quo will surely remain constant and permanent.

As everyone knows, the status quo does not remain as it is, because the measures imposed by Israel unilaterally, as it has almost absolute control over those lands, contribute to its rapid change.

With regard to the arguments for this strategy around the world, perhaps the most striking thing in recent times is the attempt to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. In parallel, considering the tendency of some parties in the international community to link anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, as two phenomena of equal magnitude and strength, reflects a wrong and deceptive position. And as stated in one of the policy papers reflecting the positions of the Israeli right, anti-Semitism is a tragic phenomenon that has been directed only at Jews for thousands of years, and has resulted in numerous massacres, expulsions, mass torture and humiliations, and summary executions. And it caused the conversion of religion by force and coercion, the demolition of synagogues and cemeteries, the phenomena of slavery, the confiscation of property and others. This phenomenon culminated in the Holocaust. The aim of anti-Semitism was to push for the complete extermination of the Jewish people and their complete racial extermination.

As for the phenomenon of Islamophobia, its source, according to the same paper, is the fear of Islam in light of the fanatical fundamentalist movements and the terrorism they practice. But there is no philosophy in this that calls for the elimination and ethnic extermination of Muslims. In the same vein, right-wing Israeli governments have been working in recent years to regard anti-Zionism in the eyes of the governments of most Western countries as delegitimizing the State of Israel and an updated form of anti-Semitism.