OPINION: The humanitarian imperative for a resolution beyond conflict for Israelis and Palestinians
Sir Mick Davis, former chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, says Hamas must of course be vanquished, but the conditions that allow terrorists to dictate the agenda must also finally be addressed
On that terrible morning of 7 October I knew four things:
First, Hamas is an evil Jew-hating organisation with brutal terror hardwired in its DNA. Its only concern for Palestinians is how useful they are as cannon fodder for its genocidal ideology. Anyone who will not condemn the atrocity that day and since, separates themselves from the community of humanity.
Anyone who uses that day’s outrage to call for the destruction of Israel, as the chant puts it, “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free”, separates themselves from the community of humanity.
Anyone who calls Israel a “colonial enterprise” and Zionism a “racist endeavour”, ignoring both the UN Resolution on which Israel was founded and the intimate connection between the Jews, their land and wider Middle East, wittingly or otherwise, separates themselves from the community of humanity as they create a justification for genocide.
That UN Resolution, passed by two-thirds of nations, recognised the legitimacy of both Jews and Palestinians to independent statehood. The Jews accepted this, the Palestinians and the Arab world at the time did not. That is the crux of why peace does not reside in this contested land.
Second, I stand with Israel. Without hesitation. Without doubt. Hamas slaughtered families, beheaded babies, raped, tortured, burnt alive and mutilated civilians, it made clear it is as vicious and despicable as any terrorist organisation in history. The US, UK and most western states have rightly backed Israel, which has an obligation to cripple Hamas and neutralise its threat.
Anyone with a shred of humanity should also speak up for the innocent civilians ripped from their homes and held hostage in Gaza. Our hearts go out to the families of those held – estimated at around 200 but quite possibly more – many mourning the destruction of their communities while facing anguish and uncertainty over the fate of their babies, children, parents and grandparents.
States, international agencies, priests of all faiths, NGOs and the media should be demanding their immediate freedom. But instead we hear silence from so many who claim moral authority and stand in perverse judgement on a people under siege.
Hamas knew its callously planned mass murder and mass kidnappings would be met with a severe response, as did the Iranian regime it serves. They deliberately set out to plunge the region into war regardless how many Palestinian civilians who Hamas hides behind would pay the price.
Hamas showed the world it is no better than ISIS, and that its rule over Gaza is the greatest obstacle to improving the situation in that territory for both Palestinians within it and Israelis adjacent to it.
It must go.
Thirdly, for some time, however uncomfortable it is to say, Gaza has been a human tragedy. The culpability for that is less about Israeli missteps as much as the paradigm created by Hamas. That paradigm has given Hamas the ability, time and space to pursue its agendas of the eradication of Israel and the killing of Jews. This has been to the detriment of the interests of Palestinians in Gaza.
Yet while Israel cannot change Hamas, it has not up till this point done enough to change the paradigm. Once this war is over, positive steps need to be taken to provide the people of Gaza with opportunity and access to fairness. Hamas must be vanquished, but the conditions that allow terrorists to dictate the agenda must also be addressed.
Fourthly, the horrific events of the last two weeks have shown that you cannot “manage” a conflict; you have to take steps to resolve it. President Biden has it right when he says that while Hamas must be eliminated, a path to a better future that offers sovereignty and security to both Israel and the Palestinians, must be preserved and strengthened. A strategy for what comes after needs to be built into how Israel fights this war.
For too long, “managing the conflict” has been the prevailing approach of successive Israeli governments. It is a disastrous strategy and both Israelis and Palestinians have paid a high price for it.
There are of course no easy answers to the current crisis. A premature ceasefire that leaves Hamas intact is unsustainable. The human price is inevitably unbearable and humanitarian corridors should be implemented both to tend to the needs of Palestinian civilians and to release Israeli hostages.
The media also must get to grips with its responsibilities and fast. Poor judgment, failure to describe terrorists in clear and accurate terms and a tendency to report rumours and speculation as facts means that too many times, the media is not so much reporting the conflict as being, knowingly or unknowingly, weapons within it.
The initial reporting of the explosion at al-Ahli hospital being a case in point. We must not lose sight of what Hamas set out to do: not only kill and kidnap as many Jews as possible but deliberately create a scenario it knew would harm Palestinians.
Israelis will assess the performance of their own government, which will face a reckoning in due course. The Israeli public shows that it remains vibrant, innovative and democratic, demonstrating heroism and courage in the face of horrific events and plugging leadership vacuums with a sense of civic duty.
From that, I am hopeful that an Israeli government will emerge that will take responsibility for creating conditions that don’t merely stall and contain the conflict but bring us closer to solving it.
We can no longer drift, leaving Gaza to fester in a status quo in which only terrorists have agency. It is time Israel reclaimed agency, backed up by a robust commitment to its own security and reassurances from its allies to be sure, but intent on searching for a more peaceful future for all.
- Sir Mick Davis, philanthropist and former chair of the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC)
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