WHAT DOES ISRAEL FEAR FROM PALESTINE

By Raja Shehadeh

Profile, Rs 299

Raja Shehadeh, a celebrated Palestinian writer, revisits the origin of the Israel-Palestine conflict and argues that the Palestinians were denied their legitimate demand by Israel and the major powers in the world.

The book’s provocative title comes at a time when Israeli-Palestinian relations have reached their lowest ebb in the wake of the Gaza war. The conflict has also sharply polarised the world and exposed the hypocrisy of the US and other Western powers’ commitment to peace in West Asia as they have continued to arm Israel. Israel’s image, too, has taken a beating. A recent survey showed that globally people who thought positively of Israel dropped to 18.5% in 42 out of 43 countries.

Shehadeh points out that the differences between the two sides emerged from the day the State of Israel was established by the British on Palestinian land in 1948. Israel celebrated the day as its victory in the war over the British. But Palestinians saw it as ‘Nakba’ or a catastrophe that forced them out of their land and allowed Jews to demolish their villages and rename them in Hebrew to erase signs that would suggest they once belonged to Palestinians.

Israeli soldiers celebrating in Gaza Sourced by The Telegraph

Shehadeh is surprised that Israelis celebrate it as a day of victory against the British since it was the British who helped create Israel on Palestinian land through the Balfour Declaration. “The loss came as a shock and led to a decade of despair for Palestine,” he writes. Even after more than seven decades, they can neither return to their land nor can they have a homeland of their own.

He puts forward several arguments to show how, despite several attempts, there has been no peace between the two sides as Israel is afraid that recognising Palestine would prevent it from usurping the entire land that once belonged to the Palestinians.

The crisp narrative and sound logic notwithstanding, Shehadeh is an activist and the book reflects only the Palestinian point of view on an extremely complex issue with claims and counter-claims between two sides.

The 108-page book, divided in two parts, the first dealing with the origin of the conflict and the second part with the Gaza war and its impact, may be treated as a long essay. Some of the arguments may be known but the book is a ready-reckoner to recall the Palestinian side of the story.