While the government of Israel was administering and encouraging the establishment of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the world was looking the other way. We looked the other way so much that we didn’t see that there are half a million Jewish settlers who have settled on West Bank land. It seems to me that half a million is noticeable. Who protested? Who looked? Who has the decency to look? Reading the report on the Israeli presence in the West Bank in The duty of June 26th blew me away!
The world looked away 279 times: this is probably lower than the reality. This is the number of settlements recorded in the West Bank (according to another text published in The duty).
When China looks at Taiwan, we get offended and engage in war maneuvers. When Russia invades Ukraine, we get offended and arm Ukraine. When Israel appropriates the West Bank, we look the other way. Sometimes we get indignant. But it’s just for form’s sake: no one is fooled.
Given all that has been said about life in the Gaza Strip before October 2023, the hope for a decent life is pretty slim, isn’t it? When your neighbor controls the water you drink, who visits you, and the electricity that runs your hospitals, there is little hope.
You are not born a terrorist, you become one, at least I think so for the majority of people. When there is only terror left… I imagine that when you are twenty years old and you have suffered twenty years of such forced submission to your neighbor, you are tempted to try something else…
We cry over the fate of the hostages in the hands of Hamas, and rightly so. Did all those who are outraged today by these hostage-takings look the other way when Israel claimed the West Bank? Some have said that the Jewish pain caused by the Holocaust has been sanctified: we tolerate the excesses of those who suffered greatly. And we save ourselves votes too.
When the crisis is over, we will start looking elsewhere again. An observer once said that states have no principles, they only have interests. The current crisis gives us a very good example of this. Before looking elsewhere again, can we not tell ourselves that what is happening over there is somewhat our fault?