Ethnic cleansing: genocide in the human experience Palestine and Israel
Ethnic cleansing has become one of the most common types of violence which are usually directed towards a certain group. It involves the forceful removal of a specific ethnic group from a particular region. In as much as the world has turned a blind eye on such activities, ethnic cleansing is more similar to genocide as it has resulted in the deaths of very many people in the world. Ethnic cleansing is mostly carried out by the world's strong states in order to shape the country's population maps. This is especially witnessed in border zones in states that have witnessed breakups and are having power struggles. People living in the border zones are regularly forced to migrate to the side that favors them. Another factor that has led to ethnic cleansing is when a state that is religiously or ethnically mixed tries to divide itself into geographical regions based on the religious/ethnical group's location. This separation has been viewed as both ethnic cleansing trigger and as well as a cure for ethnical cleansing.
The Israel- Palestinian war is dated back in 1947. This is when the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two states; Palestine (Arabs) and Israel (Jews). It was agreed that the Jewish state was to have a minority Arabs. The leaders of Palestine Arabs rejected that partition of Palestine into two states and in retaliation vowed to attack and destroy the Jewish state. A day after the famous UN vote, the Palestinians launched guerilla attacks on the Jewish state. This was and is still witnessed/experienced in the West Bank and the Gaza strip which is the border between the two states. Before this attacks, there were no Palestine refugees. Israel attained its independence in 1948, and it's after this that it embarked on expelling all its Arabs residents with a target of creating an exclusively Jewish state. It is estimated that over 700,000 Arabs were forced from their homes. (The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War)
Economic Impact
The Israel-Palestine war has negatively impacted the two Middle East countries with Palestine being the worst affected. In the recent times, Israel has come up with strong restrictions on the movement of people foreign investment especially Palestine along the borders. The rate of unemployment in Israel is estimated to be at 5% while the Palestinian unemployment rate stands at 17.7% in West Bank and 42% in Gaza. (CIA World Factbook on Israel (2016), CIA World Factbook on the West Bank (2014) and the World Bank (2016)). According to Frode Mauring who acts as the U.N. Development Program's Special Representative for Gaza and West Bank, it is estimated that close to 30,000 Gazans lost their jobs due to the latest Israel policies in a bid to curb the war. It's also estimated that the war has cost Gaza close to $200 million in economic loses. This economic loss is greatly attributed to the Israel policies that have led to the blockade of Gaza in the air, sea, and land all aimed at killing the economy of Gaza. (Huffington Post). On the other hand, Israel has not been spared either. Israel has been spending a lot of budgetary allocations in fighting the Palestine attacks. In 2014 Israel got engaged in a war with Palestine and it's said that the war had adverse effects on the Israel economy. The tourism sector contributes 2% of the Israel economy and during this war, the number of tourists significantly dropped. (The Jerusalem Post)
Source: Haver Analytics
Religious Impact
The Israel- Palestine war begun as a fight for their land but through the in-depth analysis, religion has played a key role in the spread of the conflict. In recent times through the religious leaders from the two antagonist states, it's quite evident that the war can only be solved through religion. The war has led to enormous animosity between the two warring states. In Israel, there are extremely religious Zionist who is very sensitive when it comes to interactions with the Arabs. On the other hand, there is Islamist extremist in Palestine who are advocating for the liberalization of their holy religious sites that are found in the Jewish state. This has led to the continuous growth of religious animosity between the two religious states. The Islamic leaders have continuously preached violence and hatred against Israel and the Jewish people at large. This clearly brings out the point that the war has created a very big rift on the religious affiliation of the two states. Religion discrimination has spread out the entire world where the Jews and Palestinians never meet. The late Israeli professor Israel Shahak stated that "The State of Israel officially discriminates in favor of Jews and against non-Jews in many domains of life, of which I regard three as being the most important: residency rights, the right to work and the right to equality before the law." This discrimination is arguably the largest blockage to peace between the two parties. This clearly shows that the war has brought a negative impact on the religion of the two states.
Cultural impact
The Israel-Palestine war has greatly impacted on the lifestyle and the general living of the two warring states. The respect for human life is no longer in the minds of Jews and Palestinians. Deaths have become the order of the day. In the recent past, Israel has carried a series of attacks on Palestine which has led to deaths of children and mothers. In 2014, Israel launched a retaliatory attack after a young Israelite was murdered by Palestine. This lead to a fifty-day war between Israel and Hamas which led to the deaths of over 500 children. According to the Jews, this was nothing and they never felt any effect. It was clear that the value of human life was no longer respected. Also, through the animosity brought about by the war, and cultural interaction between the Jews and Palestine doesn't exist. The two nations view each other as great enemies yet they are neighbors. Citizens from the two nations can no longer intermarry or mingle in any way. Members from the warring countries cannot share anything or even offer each other support in time of need. Israel has on several occasions blocked humanitarian aid workers from accessing the Gaza strip to offer any support be it medical, food etc. to the injured people and the most affected(children and mothers) They consider each other as their greatest enemies and no matter the peace efforts that have been made, no improvements have been witnessed.
The world needs to wake up and come up with a long lasting solution to the Israel-Palestine war. The war doesn't consider human dignity and should be condemned in the strongest terms possible. It's the time the war ends and the two nations live together in peace and harmony.
References
Levinson, David. Ethnic relations: a cross-cultural encyclopedia. Abc-Clio Incorporated, 1994.
Pappe, Ilan. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld Publications, 2007.
Hammack, Phillip L. "Identity as burden or benefit? Youth, historical narrative, and the legacy of political conflict." Human Development 53.4 (2010): 173-201.
James L. Gelvin. The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War Cambridge University Press, Jan 20, 2014 - 313 pages
Rouhana, Nadim N. "Group identity and power asymmetry in reconciliation processes: The Israeli-Palestinian case." Peace and Conflict 10.1 (2004): 33-52.
