The Israeli Parliament can grant Amnesty for Hamas, thereby avoiding contradiction in terms, i.e. fullscale siege of the Gaza Strip after temporary ceasefire for hostage exchange ends, and Israel shedding more blood!
Commentary And Analysis . . . If Hamas can’t engage in VietCong style guerrilla warfare, it can perhaps consider the unthinkable and negotiate Amnesty and/or accept conditional surrender for helping end Israel shedding further blood in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Parliament can grant Amnesty for Hamas, thereby avoiding contradiction in terms, i.e. fullscale siege of the Gaza Strip after temporary ceasefire for hostage exchange ends.
Military analysts agree universally that Hamas has no capacity for fullscale conventional warfare with the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces).
Under Amnesty, Hamas can demobilise and lay down its weapons, in exchange for the release of post-1948 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jail. It’s not known how many of the 8K Palestinian in Israeli jail are political prisoners.
Jew in Israel, i.e. before 1948, were also known as Palestinian, the administrative term codified by the Roman Empire. There were no Arabic speakers, at that time, in the Biblical Holy Land or Old Free Palestine.
Amnesty
Hamas can participate in the elected civil administration of the Gaza Strip if the UN, after Amnesty, repeals its classification as terrorist organisation. The security of the Gaza Strip would probably come under the UN if Israel makes way.
The Hamas Saturday 7 October 2023 attack on music festival in the desert in southern Israel, in retrospect, may have been more about Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
It may not have derailed rapproachement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
It’s clear, based on Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohamad Bin Salman (MBS) briefing the media, that the status of the rapproachement talks remains under active consideration.
Amnesty and Rule Of Law
If the nature of human relationships needs to be regulated, it can be done by the rule of law, out of court settlement or other approaches like going to war i.e. the continuation of politics by other means.
No war can go on forever.
Ultimately, all wars are settled at the negotiation table i.e. out of court. The court of law can record the settlement. Otherwise, there’s risk of war breaking out again.
Muslim and Christian should perhaps emulate Jewish culture and keep religion at home.
Ultimately, it’s Jewish culture that makes the difference in the Biblical Holy Land. Culture, which arises from language, customs, traditions, rituals, food, the habitat and environment, and anthropology and history, has nothing to do with religion. Jew don’t flaunt Judaism.
The rule of law remains another issue.
It isn’t imposed from outside but internal based on the ultimate political documents which set forth the governing institutions of state.
Muslim Arabic speakers generally don’t accept the rule of law, human rights of the individual and international law. Human rights, briefly, remains the basis of international law. There’s no collective human rights, an Islamic concept, in international law which arises from international customary practices.
Israel killing Palestinian
It’s open secret in the Biblical Holy Land that the Narrative among Arabic speakers has been kept simple viz. Israel is torturing and killing Palestinian and stealing their land.
It’s true that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) gave Israel only 20 per cent of the Biblical Holy Land in 1948 under the two state solution. The rump state of Palestine, stillborn, was given 80 per cent of the Biblical Holy Land.
Israel, now, holds 80 per cent of the land after series of conquests following allegedly unprovoked wars launched by Palestinian and Arabic speaking neighbouring states. In addition, Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. The West Bank was under Jordanian Administration, before 1967, and subsequently came under Israeli military administration.
There’s no government in the world which can be prevented from taking private land for public purposes. In case of issues in conflict between parties in dispute, the court of law will rule, unless there’s out of court settlement.
Except where private land was needed by government for public purposes, the Supreme Court of Israel has ruled in favour of Palestinian without land titles, i.e. squatting, on cultivated land for generations. If such land was acquired by the government for public purposes, the cultivators probably get higher compensation from the court.
The Jewish outposts in the West Bank have never been approved by the Israeli government or the Palestine Authority i.e. the Fatah run civil administration working grudgingly with the military administration imposed by Israel for security matters.
It’s not known on what basis the Israeli government approved Jewish settlements in the West Bank. In law, it would be wrong if private land including untitled property was seized for these settlements.
Peace Plans Fail
All peace plans for the proposed two state solution failed because it calls for Israel getting 30 per cent of the West Bank.
Israel, based on Biblical accounts, considers the West Bank as disputed territory. Biblical accounts are not law and, in any case, the historical accounts have been overtaken by inaction in law. There has been transfer of sovereignty from Jewish to Christian and Muslim, away from Hebrew and Aramaic speakers in favour of Arabic speakers. However, the Ottoman and British Empires disregarded land claims by Muslim on the grounds that Islam came from outside.
Still, there’s the little matter of the people in the West Bank having lost sovereignty. There has been no election for decades. The civil administration, being not based on consent of the governed, has no legitimacy. Fatah, the small unelected group, holds absolute power in the West Bank.
Israel claims that it has no partners for peace in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on the grounds that the leaders in the two territories, not being elected, have no legitimacy.
Democratic Government
Democratic government isn’t one man show as in China.
It’s about checks and balances, openness, transparency, public accountability, due diligence, forensic accounting, power sharing, decision making by consensus and collective responsibility.
The Doctrine of Separation of Powers presides over the three arms of government viz. executive, legislative and judiciary.
The Press remains the 4th Estate. — NMH
Longtime Borneo watcher Joe Fernandez has been writing for many years on both sides of the Southeast Asia Sea. He should not be mistaken for a namesake formerly with the Daily Express in Kota Kinabalu. JF keeps a Blog under FernzTheGreat on the nature of human relationships.
Facebook Comments
Facebook Comments