Israel: ‘A state of thieves’?

Of all reactions around the world rejecting the Israeli theft of Palestinian land and annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights, some interesting remarks were made by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who described Israel as “a state of thieves”.

Highlighting that Malaysia is friendly with all nations of the world and underlining that his country is not against Jews, he emphasised that Malaysia does not accept illegal acts of “robbery”.

The remarks were made on Friday, one day after US President Donald Trump announced his intention to recognise Israel’s annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights, which it occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Malaysia is one of the 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which threw their full weight behind the 2002 Arab Peace initiative, expressing support for the establishment of a comprehensive peace with Israel in return for its restoration of all occupied Arab land. Israel did not show interest in the initiative due to one main reason: It does not intend to return land it occupied by force in 1967, despite the pretension it was showing during the peace talks that it always attempted to foil.

Now Israel has all it wanted with the presence in the White House of a US president who is showing a total disregard for international laws, principles of justice and the simplest principles of integrity, with the aim of appeasing lobby groups and his pro-Israeli son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was entrusted with preparing a “peace” plan that only the Israelis know about and approve.

A peace deal has to be brokered between two parties, not imposed by one of them, lest it be considered surrender and a humiliation deal. A peace deal has to be acceptable to the concerned parties and has to work for achieving the principle of justice, which in this case should mean the restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people and enabling them to establish their own independent state on their national soil, west of the River Jordan. Just like all peoples of the world, the Palestinians, estimated to now number more than 12 million, deserve a place under the sun. They have already had enough suffering because of Israeli occupation and world hypocrisy, such as the type shown by the White House now.

In the middle of this hypocrisy and disregard for human rights, a German Jewish organisation was earlier this month honoured for defending Palestinian rights. Germany’s Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Near East received a prize from the city of Göttingen, according to news reports. This organisation is not the first Jewish organisation to stand for justice and will never be the last. Even in Israel, there are pro-peace activists whose voices have been drowned out by all the nonsensical corrupt Israeli and world politics. This group faced harsh criticism by other pro-Israeli groups for standing for what is right, being described as “anti-Semetic” and “the wrong kind of Jews”. This group is not alone, as there are many pro-peace Jews around the world, but their voices are scattered, and they lack resources, unlike the strong lobby groups controlling decision-making processes in main Western capitals. The pro-peace groups believe that Israel is giving the world Jewry a bad name by persecuting other peoples and stealing their land.

They are in agreement with the Malaysian president, who was vocal in his criticism of land theft and annexation: “You cannot seize others’ lands and form a state. It’s like a state of robbers.”

Forces of sanity in Israel, the US and Western countries who still have the courage to speak out have to do it now. Land thefts and injustices do not bring peace. On the contrary, they radicalise people and prolong conflicts.

Sane forces have to come together to ensure that a just peace is still possible and that the acquisition of other people’s land by force is not permissible.

Jordan still stands ready to help any peace talks aiming to establish justice, while also rejecting any solution that will be made at its and the Palestinian people’s expense. The terms of reference for any peace deal should be United Nations and international legitimacy resolutions calling for the restoration of occupied land.