The Political and Legal Underpinnings of the Palestine-Israel Conflict

On 7 October 2023, Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a massive attack on Israeli territory, killing 1405 people including over 300 soldiers according to the Israeli state, although a month later the death toll miraculously came down to 1200. The Israeli state has responded by bombing the Gaza Strip, in which Hamas has its headquarters and over 2.3 million civilians have their homes, starving inhabitants of food, water, medicines and fuel. But why did this happen? And what can be done about it? On these questions, there is no agreement whatsoever.

Who is to blame?

In its editorial of 8 October 2023, the Israeli paper Haaretz was unequivocal in assigning responsibility for the death and destruction resulting from the Hamas ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’:

The disaster that befell Israel on the holiday of Simchat Torah is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister… completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession, when appointing Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir to key positions, while embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians…

Antisemitism: How It Should And Should Not Be Defined

 The origins of antisemitism

‘Antisemitism’ is the term commonly used for racism against Jews, if we define ‘racism’ very broadly as oppression of any group of people on the grounds of physical characteristics (like skin colour), language, religion, sect, caste, tribe or ancestry. It ranges from hate-speech and discrimination to persecution, exclusion, expulsion and mass murder. The term ‘antisemitism’ may not be entirely accurate, but we will use it here because it has become widely accepted, just as ‘Islamophobia’ is an inaccurate but widely accepted term for racism against Muslims.