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As we mark one year since Hamas and other armed groups’ deadly attack on Israel and Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza, the Middle East is teetering on the brink of a major conflagration.
Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed nearly 2,000 people, caused widespread destruction and threaten to provoke a larger war with Iran, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems intent on dragging the United States into. President Joe Biden has the power to de-escalate the situation and end the violence, yet up until this point he has refused to use Washington’s enormous leverage.
Over the past 12 months, the Israeli military has laid waste to much of Gaza, killing more than 41,600 Palestinians in one of the most lethal and destructive bombing campaigns in history.
Hunger and disease are rampant, with Israel weaponizing starvation against the population, restricting the entry of food, water, medicine and other humanitarian supplies. About 90% of Gaza’s population has been driven from their homes, forced to flee for their lives again and again and endlessly bombed in areas Israel cynically designates “safe zones.” Israel has not left a single university standing in Gaza, and nearly all of the hospitals have been bombed.
International law is clear on Israel’s human rights record
Many years ago, I had the privilege of living in Gaza from 2005-06, before and after Israel pulled settlers out of the Gaza Strip while maintaining military control over.
I remember, with fondness, that time, and I made many lifelong friends there. I also remember living under Israeli military closure and almost daily Israeli attacks. I remember not having drinkable water or sufficient food due to Israel’s siege. I remember seeing relatives of friends die of cancer because they were barred from obtaining necessary treatment outside Gaza when Israel denied them permission to exit.
In short, I remember what it was like to live in an open-air prison sealed off from the world.
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The world already had failed the people of Gaza then, as it has even more profoundly today: No one stopped Israel from cutting Gaza off from the world, and today, Israel has been allowed to violate international humanitarian law before our eyes with no one tangibly lifting a finger to halt it.
I think of my many friends in Gaza daily. They have faced three fates: killed, homeless or cast outside of Gaza. Not a single friend of mine remains in their home in Gaza; not a single one has not had close relatives killed by Israel’s onslaught.
Both the International Court of Justice and a U.S. federal court have ruled that it is plausible that Israel may be guilty of genocide in Gaza, with the former continuing to gather facts.
The International Court of Justice also ruled in July that Israel’s more than half-century occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal.
Indeed, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his defense minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, charges likely to be broadened by the prosecution.
Arrest warrants were also requested for Hamas leaders.
Violence against Palestinians is nothing new and not limited to Gaza
Meanwhile, as the world’s attention has been focused on Gaza, the Israeli military and settlers have launched a massive wave of violence and repression against Palestinians in the West Bank, where more than 700 Palestinians have been killed over the past year and more than 1,600 Palestinians have been driven out of their homes.
It is critical to view the past year’s events in their historical context to understand what is really happening and to hasten tangible movement towards a future in which Palestinians and Israelis live in peace and with mutual security.
Most Palestinians in Gaza are refugees whose families were expelled from their homeland during what became southern Israel during the state’s establishment in 1948. Since 1967, they have lived under draconian Israeli military rule, with almost every aspect of their lives controlled by Israel.
‘Will Palestine still exist when this war is over?’ My answers to my children’s questions.
Since 2007, when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority, Palestinians have lived under a suffocating Israeli siege and naval blockade condemned by the United Nations and rights groups. Gazans also have endured periodic Israeli bombardments over several decades that have killed thousands of civilians, even before the past year’s carnage.
And for more than half a century, Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and the 20% of Israel’s citizens who are Palestinian have lived under a discriminatory system of oppression that leading human rights groups and legal experts describe as apartheid.
Unless or until the underlying causes of the violence we have been witnessing for the past year are addressed, Palestinians and Israelis are doomed to unending death and suffering.
President Biden has the power to stop the violence in Lebanon and Gaza and to put the region on a path to a more peaceful future. But instead of working to de-escalate, he has continued to flood Israel with billions of dollars worth of weapons even as evidence mounted that Israel is using them in violation of both U.S. and international law ‒ and contrary to the will of a majority of Americans who support a cease-fire and an end to weapons transfers to Israel as long as the violence continues.
He has done so even after acknowledging that Israel has been engaging in “indiscriminate bombing” of civilians, giving Israel a clear green light to continue the killing and destruction.
His failure to rein in Israel’s government and stop the bloodshed in Gaza has emboldened Netanyahu to spread Israel’s war to Lebanon, dragging in Iran, pushing the region to the terrifying precipice we face today and risking a direct confrontation between Iran and the United States, which would be disastrous for everyone involved.
Intervention from the United States and the international community is urgently needed to avoid further escalation into a full-blown regional conflict.
Decades of U.S. support for Israel paved the way for the situation we face today.
President Biden is Israel’s greatest backer. He has the power to stop the violence in Lebanon and Gaza and to put the region on a path to a more peaceful future by following experts’ calls to end all arms transfers to Israel immediately, to impose an immediate cease-fire to end the killing in Gaza and Lebanon, and for Israel to begin respecting Palestinian human rights. He must act before things spiral completely out of control, with unforeseen consequences for both the region and the United States.
Diana Buttu is a lawyer based in Haifa, Israel. She previously served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team during its peace talks with Israel.
