The suffering of Palestinian people in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict isn’t a result of Israeli oppression, but the oppression of Palestinian leaders.
This is clear from the conflict on Oct. 7 between Israel and the Palestinian militant group, Hamas. Though strife has existed for ages, this was different.
The attack on Oct. 7 was the worst, targeting Jews since the Holocaust. In the early hours of that day, the important Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, Hamas terrorists crossed the border from Gaza into southern Israel, specifically targeting civilians, and infiltrated and massacred small Israeli settlements called kibbutzim. They shot children dead in their sleep, raped countless women and young girls, and even beheaded people, according to Israeli officials. They then abducted hundreds of hostages, many of them children.
Hamas is not an organization dedicated to the well being of the Palestinian people, but one that aims to destroy Israel and the Jewish people. Since Oct. 7, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas to prevent similar attacks, but this has also led to the suffering of thousands of Palestinians.
To understand this conflict, it is important to look back more than a thousand years ago.
In 63 BCE, the Roman Empire conquered the Land of Israel, where Jews had already been living for more than a thousand years, and renamed it Palestine. Many Jews fled either to Europe or across the Middle East, but some stayed in Palestine. In 638, Arab Muslims conquered Palestine, and the area became increasingly Muslim.
Throughout the centuries, Jews slowly returned to their homeland as they were being persecuted in Europe and the Middle East, and this was accelerated by the birth of Zionism, a movement to reestablish the Jewish nation in Palestine.
After World War I, Great Britain gained control of the area and named it Palestine. In 1948, Israel finally gained independence when Britain withdrew. The UN agreed to split Palestine roughly in half, creating Israel and what would have been an Arab state.
The following day, seven surrounding Arab countries invaded Israel, rejecting the two-state solution. Israel ended up winning the war and gaining land, but it was clear that attacks attempting to expel all the Jews would continue for a long time.
Many of the Arab Palestinians living in Israel fled to the West Bank or Gaza, which were then occupied by Jordan and Egypt respectively. At the same time, nearly a million Jews living in Arab countries were expelled from their homes and moved to Israel.
In May 1967, Egypt, Jordan and Syria started mobilizing troops and threatening an invasion of Israel. As a result, Israel launched a preemptive strike and the West Bank and Gaza Strip fell under their control.
Israel is often called an apartheid state that treats the Arab population as second-class citizens. But under Israeli law, Arab Israelis, many of whom are Muslim, are given full rights and even hold more rights than if they lived in Arab countries.
In Israel’s democracy, they are given full citizenship, can vote, and have representation in the Israeli Parliament by the United Arab List party and there are Arab judges in courts.
A recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute showed that 70 percent of Arab Israelis feel a sense of kinship with the State of Israel, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, AP News reported Hamas has tyrannically been in control since 2006. Since being elected and killing their opposition, there have been no elections, and they have disregarded the needs of the people. They have put valuable military assets near schools and hospitals, rendering them military targets.
Israel has also been accused of genocide. But while many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have died to Israeli raids or airstrikes, Israel never specifically targets civilians.
In fact, the Israeli army (IDF) contacts civilians and warns them about airstrikes in that area. Many escape in time, but Hamas sometimes blocks roads and does not let civilians through in an attempt to increase civilian casualties and place a larger blame on Israel.
Palestinians have had many chances of statehood. The original partition plan was rejected in 1948. In 2005, Israel left Gaza as an opportunity to normalize relations, but Hamas took over instead. In 2008, the Israeli prime minister offered 97 percent of the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Palestinian authority in order to create a Palestinian state, but that too was rejected by the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
The Palestinians’ suffering is due to their oppressive leaders, especially Hamas, which solely aim to destroy Israel.
Hamas’ charter states, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam invalidates it…” While their goal is obvious, their charter says nothing about helping Palestinians, and it shows.
Billions in international aid to Gaza – $4.5 billion from the UN from 2014-2020 – is taken by Hamas instead of to help their people, according to AP News. NBC News also reported Hamas has plenty of weapons, while about 80 percent of Palestinians in Gaza live in poverty.
The sad reality is this conflict between Israel and Palestinians will continue until Palestinian leaders prefer peace with Israel rather than terror and death.
Aaron Eliahu is a sophomore at Cal High.