No peace without addressing cause of trouble

The root cause of trouble in this region for the last 60 years has been the usurpation of Palestinian rights by Israel.

This is a fact that Israeli Minister of Economy Naftali Bennett is oblivious to. Last week, he criticised US Secretary of State John Kerry for saying that various leaders in the region believe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fuels violence and leads to recruitment of new followers by jihadist organisations.

But it is a well-documented historical fact that Abdullah Azzam, Osama Ben Laden’s ideological mentor, was a Palestinian driven away from his hometown of Jenin who found work in Saudi Arabia.

Abdel Karim Qassem of Iraq, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Husni Al Zaim of Syria were military officers in their respective armies who fought in Palestine and managed to revolt against their governments in support of the Palestinian people whose rights were usurped and lands occupied.

Kerry was expressing the truth when he intimated that jihadists are recruited from among Palestinian refugee camps, where the younger generation suffers intellectual alienation, financial deprivation, social frustration, political humiliation and utter desperation.

The only hope for the new generations is what looks like a salvation rallying call by terrorist groups.

It is a normal reaction for Palestinians to become radicalised when Israeli leaders give no hope for justice.

For example, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, in a press statement to the Jerusalem Post, two days ago, said that there will never be a Palestinian state and the maximum Palestinians will have is some form of autonomy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added fuel to the fire by permitting extremist groups to stop Muslim worshippers from performing prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque, while allowing settlers to carry out their Talmudic rituals inside the holy mosque.

The Israeli prime minister had mobilised against him the whole Arab world when he refused the two-state solution.

Last July, an Israeli journalist, David Horowitz, published parts of what Netanyahu said. The priority right now, he said, was to “take care of Hamas”. But implicit in the current escalation is the fact that Israel has to ensure that “we don’t get another Gaza in Judea and Samaria”.

Netanyahu elaborated: “I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan.”

Such statements from two in the top echelon of Israeli decision makers, about Judaisation of Jerusalem’s holy mosques and the continuation of an unresolved conflict, will be an ideal mechanism to recruit more Muslim suicide bombers.

Furthermore, with such Israeli aggressive acts, the region’s stability will never be restored.