Peace is considered to be the absence of conflict. But in war-ravaged Gaza, it seems to be a luxury.
Obstacles to peace in Gaza
At a glance it appears as if Gaza—the battered and bloodied tiny enclave — will be finally staring at a peaceful future, with soaring hopes of a peaceful, stable, and, most importantly, prosperous future. But the reality is far more complicated and, in some ways, grim.
The first roadblock in the long journey to peace is Israel. Israel’s response to the October 7, 2023 attack is emblematic of the utter contempt the country in general and its right-wing fanatical government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular has for international law and internationally agreed rules of responsible conduct.
The response saw Israel literally going scorched earth on millions of innocent Palestinians. Today, almost three years down the line, hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians have been killed; more than 90% of the Gazan population has been displaced; the infrastructure of the enclave lies in shambles; and, more importantly, the future generations of Gaza are staring at a hard, bleak future.
Living in refugee camps, moving from one place to another in fear of becoming victims of Israel’s ground and air campaign, seems to become the new ‘normal.’ To make matters worse, Israel has dismissed international attempts to hold it accountable. Even as different quarters of the international community, including the UN, have rightly called Israel’s campaign in Gaza ‘genocide,’ Tel Aviv continues its illegal action, particularly capturing more and more of the enclave.
Gaza: hostage to big politics and resort ambitions
The next roadblock is the American President Donald Trump himself. Known for his mercurial and boisterous style of personalized diplomacy, Trump has kept the international community at its wits’s end as to how to respond to the American president’s actions. In the context of Gaza, he has made his plans explicit—to turn the enclave into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’.
If recent actions of the American president are any indication, then it is quite possible that he will baffle the international community with this outrageous and outlandish plan. At a time when Iran has been the latest victim of American imperialism, it won’t be surprising if Trump’s allies in Washington and in Tel Aviv try to make ‘concrete’ plans to depopulate the enclave and then follow through with the plan to fundamentally restructure the landscape of it and then turn it into some kind of luxury ‘holiday destination’.
The next roadblock is Europe. The continent itself is divided; economic giants of the continent, such as Germany and France, continue to rally behind Israel, even as Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia have resolutely opposed Israel’s illegal campaign. In addition, the moral hypocrisy of the continent is telling—when it comes to Russia’s righteous war against the Neo-Nazi regime of Ukraine, Europe has taken a hard-line stance, painting the Russian action as constituting an ‘existential threat’ to it; contrast that to the blatantly timid response to Gaza. In reality, most countries of the region consider “Europe’s problems to be the world’s problems and the world’s problems to not be Europe’s problems,” to paraphrase Dr. S. Jaishankar, the External Affairs Minister of India.
Time for decisive action
What is all the more baffling is that despite the International Court of Justice calling on Israel to end its campaign in Gaza, European governments are emboldening the country through the sale of state-of-the-art military assets, via which Israel continues to kill scores of Palestinian people every single day.
What can we do then? It is time that the Global South takes matters into its hands. No more loss of lives can be allowed. Under such conditions, India can take the lead. Notwithstanding New Delhi’s close ties with Israel, it must be equally committed to the Palestinian people’s cause. Strategic considerations cannot come at the expense of moral bankruptcy. It is time we walk the talk.
Consolidated efforts to create alternative pressure mechanisms are necessary. This could include the introduction of targeted sanctions, the cessation of military-technical cooperation with the aggressor at the level of interstate blocs, and the creation of independent international commissions to investigate war crimes that would be independent of the political dynamics of the UN Security Council.
Peace in Gaza cannot be “gifted” by external players pursuing their own geopolitical interests—whether by turning the enclave into a resort or by annexing it entirely. True peace is only possible with the recognition of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, sovereignty, and security.
History teaches us that justice does not come by itself—it is the result of persistent struggle and the solidarity of those who refuse to accept the “new normal” of violence. If the international community fails to stop this process today, tomorrow will only bring new flashpoints of conflict, where the right of the might will finally displace the human right to life. The time for half measures is over; the moment has come for decisive and collective action that can stop the humanitarian catastrophe and return the region to the path of real, not declarative, settlement.
Pranay Kumar Shome, a research analyst who is a PhD candidate at Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Bihar, India
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