Chapter
5: Two calendars (Gregorian & Hijri)
5-5(41) Palestinians left behind the history
Before and after Hijri 1400 (i.e. 1980AD), big
incidents took place in the Islamic world one after another. They were the
Egyptian Israel Peace Treaty in1979, the Iranian Revolution by Ayatollah
Khomeini in 1979, the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980 and the USSR
invasion into Afghanistan in 1980. The world history has also been turbulant
during the last two decades of the 20th century. In 1980s the socialism regime of
the USSR was melt down. The first trigger was shown at the city between the
border of the capitalism and the socialism. Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and
the German reunification in 1990 were the end of the USSR regime. USSR
collapsed in 1991. The Soviet Union was defeated by capitalism in European
front and by Islamic Jihadist in Central Asian front. The Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, which was born at the Russian Revolution in 1917, asserted
that socialism would dominate all over the world in the future. But USSR was
dissolved in the history within less than 80 years. The United States as the
top runner of capitalism dominated the world.
In the turbulent history of the world and the Middle
East, the Palestinian issue was gradually left behind. After the World War II,
Palestinian issue was the first one in the Middle East for a long time. But the
concern about Palestine was quickly faded out when Egypt and Israel signed Camp
David Accords in 1978 and Peace Treaty in 1979. Western countries have got the
illusion as if all of the problems were solved permanently by giving Sadat and
Beguin the Nobel Peace Prize. However, the occupation of the Palestinian
homeland by the Jews was never solved by the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Balfour Declaration of giving Palestinian
territory to the Jews had three meanings for UK and other European countries.
First, it was a remuneration for Jews who financially supported the UK for the
victory of the World War I. In the second, it was an atonement of the Europeans
for historical oppression against Jewish people. And thirdly it was the best
idea to get rid of troublesome Jews from Europe to distant Palestine. The Balfour
Declaration had triple merits for European society.
But for Palestinians it was nothing to do with them
that Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty and Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin
received the Nobel Peace Prize. It couldn’t solve any problems at all. Jewish
people had been shouting the slogan, “People defunct land to landless people”.
But it was a selfish idea because the Jews completely ignored the history of
Palestinians who had been living in that place for nearly two thousand years
after Jewish people had left Palestine and scattered to various areas of Europe
as diaspora (great discretion).
After Israeli independence Palestinians
fought for construction of the Palestinian state recapturing their own land.
The Arab countries actively supported the Palestinians and raised to military
action. But the Ramadan War in 1973 was the final one. Egypt left from Arab
allies by bilateral peace treaty with Israel. Other Arab countries condemned
Egypt, but no country offered assistance physically to Palestine. Palestinians
were left behind in the paradigm shift of the world and the Middle East.
It was a matter of course that Palestinians were not
silent and did not overlook the situation. Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) based in southern Lebanon persistently attacked Israel. Lebanese
government could not control PLO’s military campaign. Israel counterattacked PLO
Headquarter in the Palestinian refugee camp in South Lebanon. The PLO could not
match Israel in military operations at all. In 1982, the PLO withdrew from
Lebanon and fled to Tunisia.
Norway mediated between Israel and PLO. In 1993, both
parties signed an Oslo Accords. It was a historical achievement to recognize the
Palestinians’ legitimate and political rights. Yasser Arafat, Chairman of PLO,
Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister of Israel, and Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of
Israel, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. However, Rabin was assassinated by
the right-wing Jews next year and the peace accord ended with no fruits after
all. It was a reproduction of the nightmare that Anwar Sadat of Egypt was
assassinated after he and Menachem Begin of Israel won the Nobel Peace Prize in
1978. When talking about peace in the Middle East, the Nobel Peace Prize did not
bring permanent peace in the Middle East in any way. It gave only the illusion
of the peace of the Middle East for the Western people especially the
intellectuals in Europe.
(To be continued
----)
By
Areha Kazuya
E-mail:
Arehakazuya1@gmail.com
Home Page: OCIN INITIATIVE
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