The conference is the first of its kind organized inside Palestine since the start of the war on Gaza (Al Jazeera)
Occupied Jerusalem - under the title "The war on the Gaza Strip... An academic conference was held on Friday evening in the city of Haifa in the Palestinian interior, which discussed the Israeli war on Gaza, which continues for the 71st day from a political, intellectual and strategic perspective, and scenarios for the course of the war and its repercussions on the Palestinian cause.
The conference, which is the first of its kind organized inside Palestine since the start of the war on Gaza, was attended by a group of Palestinian and Israeli academics and intellectuals, in cooperation between Mada al-Carmel (Arab Center for Applied Social Studies), the Arab Youth Association (Baladna) and the Arab Culture Association.
Al Jazeera Net attended a session entitled "Israeli war on Gaza", while the titles of the rest of the sessions "two months of war .. Political, Intellectual, and Strategic Readings", and "Israel the Tribe... its internal and external borders", and "the history of Gaza and its territory... Urban, cultural, and political readings."
The speakers agreed that the surprise attack of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) by launching the battle of "Al-Aqsa Flood" on October 7 is a product of the policies of successive Israeli governments, and reflects the undeclared political goal of Benjamin Netanyahu's government of war to displace Palestinians from the Strip.
The speakers agreed that the results of the war on Gaza will determine the fate and future of the Palestinian cause, and therefore believe that what is happening in Gaza is a war on the Palestinian people and not a war on Hamas as promoted by the Israeli establishment.
Palestinian and Israeli academics and intellectuals participated in the conference sessions (Al Jazeera)
Forced displacement
In a political, intellectual and strategic reading from an Israeli perspective of the future of Gaza and the Palestinians the day after the war, sociologist Dr. Walid Habas said that "Israel seeks to impose sovereignty and control over the Palestinians through a policy of punishment and reward and a return to the policy of the military ruler in all of historic Palestine."
On the basis of these rules, Habas said, "Israel seeks to perpetuate the policy of siege and mass closure and to adopt a policy of forced displacement and internal displacement in the Gaza Strip, and even in the West Bank, in order to disconnect Palestinians from the land and convert it to expand the settlement project, and to aspire to find Palestinian figures to manage the local affairs of the population under the umbrella of the civil administration of the occupation."
The sociologist believes that Israel has failed to apply this model in the Gaza Strip, which has produced a local Palestinian administration that refuses to submit to Israeli dictates, resists the policy of punishment and reward, and continues to resist until liberation and independence from occupation, and therefore Israel wages war on the Strip because Hamas refused to submit to the system of the military ruler and the civil administration.
Walid Habas believes that Israel seeks to perpetuate the policy of siege, mass closure and forced displacement in Gaza and the West Bank (Al Jazeera)
Nakba scenes
The same reading was reviewed by the Israeli sociologist Yehuda Shenhav, who described the war on Gaza and its repercussions as a "tragedy" for the future generation in historic Palestine, for Jews and Palestinians alike, noting that "this common place, which was a kind of alliance to live together, is no longer so."
He explained that what is happening in Israeli society in light of the unprecedented consensus on the war reflects the collapse of the Green Line proposal, which formed the border separating the Palestinians in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1976, as at the center of this debate over the deletion of the separation borders in particular are those who previously called for a settlement of the conflict under the two-state solution.
The researcher pointed out that the Hamas attack is the result of the policies of successive Israeli governments, and that the scenario of a comprehensive Israeli war on Gaza was expressed by many indicators and signs and the normalization train, which was a station to bypass the Palestinians and prejudice the Palestinian cause and seek to liquidate it Israeli.
Regarding the reality of the 48 Palestinians under the state of emergency and war, Shenhav explained that the war on Gaza proved that citizenship is not a safety net for the 48 Palestinians, who are seen as enemies, not as citizens with rights, saying that "Israeli society under the war clearly declared that there is no Palestinian people, and there is no citizenship. Either friend or foe, what is happening now is a repetition of the scenes of the first Nakba in 1948."
Yehuda Shenhav: Hamas attack is the result of the policies of successive Israeli governments (Al Jazeera)
New Right
In a session entitled "Israel the Tribe... Antoine Shalhat, a researcher on Israeli affairs, explained that Israel's transformation in the last two decades has spawned the new right, which now rules Israel and is trying to achieve the following goals: a free economy, governance, nationalist extremism, and preserving Israel's Jewish character.
Shalhat pointed out that the new Israeli right, whose initial features began to take shape with Netanyahu's return to power in 2009, is completely different from the traditional Israeli right, whose features were formulated by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, saying that "what happened in Israel before October 7 and the quest for amendments to the judiciary represent the mentality of the new Yemen."
He pointed out that the doctrine of the new Israeli right is to enshrine the principle of governance, that is, to hold on to power and rule at any cost and regardless of what happens, saying that "Israel, with the formation of the current Netanyahu government, is moving towards the rule of the religious, that is, giving a religious character to the civil authority, which paves the way for the domination of the religious on the government."
In the Israeli war on Gaza, Shalhat said, "The dominance of the religious was manifested even over the army, which resorted a lot to religious and biblical texts to justify the war, as the phenomenon of religiosity expands in the Israeli army, which is divided into the official army, and the armed militia that is established in Israeli towns."
Antoine Shalhat says the new Israeli right seeks to hold on to power and rule at all costs (Al Jazeera)
Israeli Awareness
In turn, political science researcher Dr. Muhannad Mustafa reviewed the goals of the undeclared war on Gaza in the absence of a political horizon, pointing out that the goal was to employ the war for the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Sinai, which means a new Nakba, a plan that was thwarted due to the steadfastness of the Gazans, as well as the Egyptian position that surprised the Israeli establishment.
Mustafa shed light on the reality of the Palestinian cause before October 7, which was not present internationally, regionally, Arably and Islamically, as it was absent and sought to overcome it under the cover of normalization agreements.
He pointed out that the Palestinian cause was also forgotten and marginalized, both by the Israeli establishment and by Israeli society, as for many years the Palestinian was absent from the Israeli consciousness.
Mustafa pointed out that Israel's attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause came through building a strategy based on the 2020 deal of the century, which relied on 3 components: expanding the settlement project, displacing Palestinians and annexation, and strengthening the Palestinian geographical, political and organizational division between the West Bank and Gaza, saying that "the results of the war on Gaza determine the status and future of the Palestinian cause."
Source : Al Jazeera