Israeli-Palestinian conflict | In the absence of peace, revolution brews

No humanitarian crisis in the world has been better documented than that experienced by the Palestinians for years. But the West preferred to close its eyes and believe Israel, which thought it had the situation well in hand, laments Professor Michael Lynk, a specialist in international humanitarian law. Interview with the man who served as United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories for six years, until 2022.

Already in 2018, Michael Lynk, now an associate professor at the Faculty of Law at Western University in Ontario, wrote: “With its economy in free fall, with 70% of young people unemployed, with tap water largely contaminated and with the collapse of its health system, Gaza has become unlivable. »

Before the current war, the last major clash between Israel and Palestinian armed groups dates back to 2014. The UN estimates that there were 67 soldiers and 6 civilians killed on the Israeli side. On the Palestinian side, some 2,100 dead, mainly civilians.

“There were 1,500 Palestinian civilians killed in 2014 and it took six years for the reconstruction of Gaza, which was financed by international aid,” Lynk said. However, in ten days, there are already more Palestinian civilians dead and the damage is already greater in Gaza than in 2014.”

If he dared to make a prediction now, it would be this. “The international community will find itself with a new reconstruction to ensure, with a humanitarian crisis on its hands, and the United States may very well have to come to Israel’s aid when the country has seen too many soldiers die. »

Until October 7, Israel’s strategy held up, he continues. The country “continued its occupation, resisted calls for Palestinian self-determination, continued to install even more settlers in the occupied territories, continued the blockade of Gaza.”

The United Nations and humanitarian organizations have multiplied resolutions and denunciations. American and European politicians knew full well that the Palestinians were “in a desperate situation,” Mr. Lynk observed.

The media has shifted its focus to newer conflicts. The Palestinian situation, in recent years, has therefore largely gone under the radar.

Boiling situation

Mr. Lynk himself tried to sound the alarm on several occasions, to no avail. His work as special rapporteur was also considerably complicated, he notes, by the fact that Israel blocked his access to the occupied territories, forcing him to rely on the actors on the spot (Mr. Lynk had previously this lived in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, he notes).

“Israel did not recognize my mandate, judged that the UN was biased. Israel rejects criticism of it. » Life continued, the country convinced its population and its allies that it was armored with its anti-missile shield, this wall behind which its enemies were well confined, and that the worst was behind it.

However, it was illusory. Israel was “on a volcano”, which erupted on October 7, emphasizes Mr. Lynk.

Israeli civilians were brutally shot and taken hostage. The Israeli anti-missile shield, the “Iron Dome”, could not resist the thousands of rockets launched at once at the country.

Hamas knew perfectly well, according to Mr. Lynk, that Israel’s response would obviously be terrible. He suggests that what he may have hoped for “was another Battle of Stalingrad”, a turning point in the Second World War.

One thing is certain, as the media have since reported, Israeli civilians find themselves doubly stunned by the fact of having suffered such violence and the shock of realizing that their government is not as powerful as they had hoped.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is staying the course of his predecessors and the creation of a Palestinian state is in no way in the cards, any more than a diplomatic or political route is in sight, analyzes M .Lynk.

Joe Biden’s warm embrace of Netanyahu on Wednesday, “at a time when the toll of Palestinian victims from Israeli tanks and missiles is growing” and “in the aftermath of the strike against the Palestinian hospital – whatever it may be “author” – will, in his opinion, leave an aftertaste in many people, “including America’s allies in the Middle East.”

Protests are increasing in Arab countries and will not stop, he says.

He concludes with the famous phrase of John F. Kennedy. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” This is what is happening. »