2 weeks Ago By Guest Editorial
Nine months ago when Jamaica formally recognised Palestine as a sovereign state, that recognition was indivisible. Jamaica embraced Palestine as a single entity, comprising the West Bank and Gaza, not two separate states. This, therefore, is a critical context in which the Holness administration - and the other members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) that have all recognised the Palestinian state - must keep in mind when considering any effort by US President Donald Trump to evict Palestinians from Gaza, under the guise of providing them with a better life, or as a temporary move to facilitate the rebuilding of the strip after Israel’s war with Hamas.
For, should Mr Trump get his way, it would likely embolden Israel’s settler movement and its rightwing politicians to push for a similar initiative in the West Bank, thus effectively placing the tombstone on the concept of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian question. Indeed, Palestinians/Gazans would unquestionably view their removal as another Nakba, or great catastrophe – which is how Palestinians refer to the expulsion and displacement of over 750,000 Arabs from Palestine after the war that followed Israel’s creation in 1948. Moreover, rather than ensuring peace for Israel, the removals would only lead to new rounds of terrorism against that country and its citizens, even if the acts would now be perpetrated from farther distances, instead of being cross-border assaults, as happened with Hamas’ terror attack on Israel 15 months ago.
Hamas, an Islamist group that doesn’t recognise the legitimacy of the Israeli state, has been in control of Gaza since 2007 when it expelled its political rival, Fatah, from the territory, in an escalation of their long-standing feud following Hamas’ victory in Palestinian legislative elections, which it wasn’t being allowed to keep. In a surprise move in October 2023, Hamas fighters crossed into Israel and indiscriminately killed an estimated 1,200 people, including children and the elderly. About 200 hostages were carted back to Gaza.
In response – for which it faced accusations of war crimes – Israel, over 15 months, until a ceasefire a fortnight ago, sustained a bombing campaign on Gaza that flattened an estimated 75 per cent of the buildings on the strip, which is a mere 25 miles long and six miles wide. Tens of thousands of people are now homeless and Gaza is without critical infrastructure. Before the war, an estimated 2.
3 million were crammed into the tiny territory. An estimated 47,000, or two per cent of the population, were killed in the campaign. Most of the victims were women and children.
With the lull in the fighting, Mr Trump has suggested that Jordan and Egypt should take in the Gazans. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Mr Trump told reporters 10 days ago. “I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.
” Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, was reported to have discussed the suggestion with Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, during a visit to Jerusalem. Both Jordan and Egypt have rejected the idea. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told reporters in Cairo: “Regarding what is being said about the displacement of Palestinians, it can never be tolerated or allowed, because of its impact on Egyptian national security .
.. “The deportation or displacement of the Palestinian people is an injustice in which we cannot participate.
” The several UN resolutions on the settlement of the Palestinian issue are predicated on a two-state solution, based on Israel’s border before the 1967. Jamaica, like its Caricom partners, has historically supported this position. Its most recent public endorsement of the two-state concept was when it formally recognised the Palestinian state.
As of now, therefore, the borders of the Palestinian state are legally established on the basis of those UN resolutions. They should only be altered in negotiations between the Palestinian and the Israelis, not by edict, expulsion or illegal land grab by ‘settlers’. Should Mr Trump pursue his plan, the matter is likely to reach either the UN General Assembly or the Security Council, or both, in resolutions supporting the Palestinians’ right of place in Gaza.
Jamaica, in the circumstance, might feel itself in a difficult situation, fearing retaliation if it votes against the US. But Jamaica and its Caricom partners would be morally bound to support the Palestinians on the matter, or openly declare their retreat from the two-state option and their acceptance of displacement. That is why the Palestinian question must join the list of other issues concerning the region’s response to Mr Trump’s presidency that Caricom’s leaders must place on the agenda for their February summit.
Further, Caricom, as a friend and regional partner of the United States, must articulate with clarity why displacing the Palestinians can’t, in the long term, be in America’s interest. —Reprinted from the Jamaica Gleaner.
