The Association for Community and Dialogue condemns the latest eruption of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
There is a constant conflict after decades of occupation that takes the form of apartheid. It regularly heats up, resulting in violence, while the response from the international community is nothing more than condemnation or to espouse a two-state solution or unity in sectarian terms.
The root cause of the conflict has nothing to do with secondary issues such as trouble at the Al-Aqsa Mosque at Jerusalem or the rockets fired into Israel by Hamas that demand a swift response from the Zionist regime. These types of secondary reasoning have been used by both Israel and US to justify aggression and occupation. There is a difference between people who are resisting occupation and terrorists who have an ideological inclination to deliberately kill.
The cause of the decades-old conflict is Israel’s obsession with security that determines its relationship with its neighbours, and the continued occupation of Palestinian lands, where such an ideology has also affected its Arab population. This is reinforced by the Jewish state’s building of expansionist settlements in occupied territories.
Unless the Jewish state has a paradigm shift of thinking and can come to terms with the notion that authentic security is linked to justice – by returning lands that are occupied – and learn to live with peace with its neighbours based on the principles of solidarity, equality and mutual interest, the so-called Israeli and Palestinian peace is just an illusion.
The so-called idea of a two-state solution – of having Palestinians and Israelis living in peace – is a utopian dream that is not reflected in the realities on the ground.
These have to be resolved before any peace deal can become a reality. The UN General Assembly should be the facilitator for peace instead of the UN Security council or organisations revolving around sectarian goals that have their own self-serving agenda in the Middle East. – The Malaysian Insight
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