Israel peace is possible

In the public discourse on the conflict between Israel and Palestine there always has been an emphasis on balance and avoidance of bias, at least among the middle-ground. The mantra has always been that there is wrong on both sides, without much interrogation into the depth of the respective sides liabilities.

After Israel’s merciless scorched-earth destruction of Gaza, there no longer can be such nervous equivocation.

Images of shelters, hospitals, schools, church buildings, power stations and other infrastructure being destroyed, of children on beaches being blown up by rockets, of mothers holding their lifeless babies can leave no heart unmoved.

When the ratio of civilian deaths exceeds 500:1, we have to speak of collective punishment  a war crime.

One cannot be unbiased in the face of such suffering. To be unbiased and balanced in this case is to be on the wrong side of justice.

By exercising disproportionate and excessive force on a thin pretext  Hamas rockets were ineffectual Israel has lost much of the sympathy and benefit of doubt it previously took for granted.

The images from Gaza  and of Israelis sitting on hills overlooking the region, cheering the impact of each lethal bomb  speak for themselves. Even Western news outlets which once were solidly pro-Israel have voiced strong criticism.

The movement for boycotts and embargoes against Israel will now gather pace. South Africa’s apartheid rulers learnt 30 years ago that it is a small step from grassroots pressure to diplomatic action.

It is in a spirit of love for Israel and her people that churches are joining a pressure movement which aims for peaceable coexistence between all who live in that land.

Peace in Israel/Palestine is possible only in a unitary, secular state under a constitutional democracy which provides for certain group rights.

The two-state solution, which is still advocated by the Holy See, has been made impossible by the illegal settlements which Israel has built in the West Bank. Israel has made it clear that the two-state solution is not an option. It must now be discarded.

Of course, the prospects for the one-state solution seem slim at present.

For Palestinians, the primary obstacle will be the negation of the sensitive right to return question. Many families still hold the keys to the properties that were taken from them after 1948; for most Palestinians this issue is non-negotiable.

The one-state solution, even if subject to checks and balances, will also be difficult to sell to Israelis.

Some of their fears will be reasonable, particularly in questions that concern security. Other objections would likely regard religion, politics and social issues. None of them trump the imperative for peace and justice.

The only possibility for peace resides not in the total subjugation of Palestinians, as Israel seems to think, but in the secular unitary state.

No doubt, Israel will need to be robustly persuaded of the justice of the secular one-state solution, much as white South Africans had to be as apartheid crumbled.

Israel’s only alternative is to perpetuate its violence to the point where Palestinians are squeezed out of all viable land and are concentrated in ghettos. Such a campaign of ethnic cleansing cannot be tolerated.

So far Palestinian resistance has given Israel a pretext for intensifying its repression under the cloak of defending itself, with the moral and material support of the United States and European Union. After Gaza, this propaganda is patently absurd and unacceptable to people of justice.

People of justice cannot wait for governments to act, though some will and already have. The pressure has to come from civil society to force governments, one by one, to adapt their policies to the end that they will emphatically communicate to Israel and Palestine, even by use of sanctions, the world’s demand for a solution that brings a lasting peace.

Boycotts, economic embargoes and protests (which may not use the contemptible rhetoric of anti-semitism) can play a role in that.

Those who seek peace must set the goal  a unitary, secular state in a constitutional democracy  and mobilise towards it, as an act of solidarity with the people of Israel and Palestine who seek peace.