Is a paper presented by Professor Abdullahi Danladi at the One-Day Conference on Media Manipulation and Israeli War against Palestinians At Arewa House Kaduna 4th November 2023.
INTRODUCTION Brief History of Palestine
The land of Palestine received its name from the Philistines, who dwelt on the sea coast: it was called Judea, from Judah: and is termed the Holy Land, being the country where Jesus Christ was born, preached his holy doctrines, confirmed them by miracles. The coast and its hinterland were known by a number of names in antiquity, and several of these are attested in Egyptian, Assyrian, and other writings. The earliest common name of Palestine used was Canaan which was an ethnic term.
Generally, Palestine is used to refer to the geographic region spanning from the Mediterranean Sea in the east to the Jordan River in the west. Historically Palestine was made up of the current Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank —referred to as the State of Palestine—and the (illegal) country of Israel. Palestine is the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity and has been controlled by many kingdoms and powers, including Ancient Egypt, Ancient Israel and Judah, the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great and his successors, the Hasmoneans, the Roman Empire, and eventually the Islamic Caliphate and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire ruled the region from the 1500s through 1917.
The name Palestine has not been mentioned in the New Testament. However, in the Holy Quran, some verses mention that the land of Palestine was promised to the Children of Israel in the past, but it does not imply that it belongs to them forever, as their ownership is conditional upon their obedience to Allah.
After World War I, Palestine was administered by the United Kingdom under a mandate received in 1922 from the League of Nations. The modern history of Palestine begins with the termination of the British Mandate, the Partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel, and the ensuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Partition of Palestine
In 1947, the United Nations (U.N.) proposed a Partition Plan for Palestine titled “United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) Future Government of Palestine.” The resolution noted Britain’s planned termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and recommended the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with the Jerusalem-Bethlehem area protected and administered by the United Nations.
The resolution included a highly detailed description of the recommended boundaries for each proposed state. The resolution also contained plans for an economic union between the proposed states and for the protection of religious and minority rights. The resolution called for the withdrawal of British forces and termination of the Mandate by August 1948 and the establishment of the new independent states by October 1948.
Brief review of the wars on Palestine
Before going into the issue of the current war on Palestine by the illegal state of Israel, it will be apt to review the series of wars that have been taking place in the region right from the creation of the cancerous state of Israel.
- i) First Arab-Israeli War (1948)
Jewish leadership accepted the Partition Plan but Arab leaders rejected it. The Arab League threatened to take military measures to prevent the partition of Palestine and to ensure the national rights of the Palestinian Arab population. One day before the British Mandate expired, Israel declared its independence within the borders of the Jewish State set out in the Partition Plan. The Arab countries declared war on the newly formed State of Israel beginning the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
After the war, which Palestinians call the Catastrophe, the 1949 Armistice Agreements established the separation lines between the combatants: Israel controlled some areas designated for the Arab state under the Partition Plan, Transjordan controlled the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip.
- ii) The Six-Day War
The Six-Day War was fought from June 5 to June 10, 1967, with Israel emerging victorious and effectively seizing control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. The U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 242, the “land for peace” formula, which called for Israeli withdrawal “from territories occupied” in 1967 and “the termination of all claims or states of belligerency.” Resolution 242 recognized the right of “every state in the area to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.”
iii) The 1973 War
In October 1973, war broke out again between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai and Syria in the Golan Heights. A ceasefire was achieved (U.N. resolution 339) and U.N. peacekeepers deployed on both the fronts, only withdrawing from the Egyptian front after Israel and Egypt concluded a peace treaty in 1979. U.N. peacekeepers remain deployed in the Golan Heights.
Rise of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
In 1974, the Arab League recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and relinquished its role as representative of the West Bank. The PLO gained observer status at the U.N. General Assembly the same year.
In 1988, the Palestinian National Council of the PLO approved a Palestinian Declaration of Independence in Algiers, Tunisia. The declaration proclaims a “State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory with its capital Jerusalem,” although it does not specify exact borders, and asserts U.N. Resolution 181 supports the rights of Palestinians and Palestine. The declaration was accompanied by a PLO call for multilateral negotiations on the basis of U.N. Resolution 242.
The Intifada (1987 to 1993)
Conditions in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including Jerusalem, after more than 20 years of military occupation, repression and confiscation of land, contributed to a Palestinian uprising called the intifada in December 1987. Between 1987 and 1993, over 1,000 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured, detained, imprisoned in Israel or deported from the Palestinian territories.
The peace process
In 1993, the Oslo Accords, the first direct, face-to-face agreement between Israel and the PLO, were signed and intended to provide a framework for the future relations between the two parties. The Accords created the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) with responsibility for the administration of the territory under its control. The Accords also called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Implementation of the Oslo Accords suffered a serious setback with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister and signer of the Oslo Accords, in November 1995. Since 1995, several peace summits and proposals, including the Camp David Summit (2000), Taba Summit (2001), the Road Map for Peace (2002), and the Arab Peace Initiative (2002 and 2007), have attempted to broker a solution, with no success. At the same time, internal divisions between two Palestinian political parties ― Hamas and Fatah ― after Hamas won legislative elections in 2006 and took over administration of the Gaza Strip, led to conflicts that undermined the peace process.
The drive for recognition of Palestinian statehood
In September 2011, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, requested recognition of a Palestinian state from both the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council. In October 2011, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) admitted Palestine as a member. In November 2012, the U.N. granted Palestine non-member observer State status. This progress on the international scene, however, was undercut by developments in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
In June 2014, Hamas and Fatah instituted a unified national Palestinian government retaining Abbas as President, prompting Israel to condemn the new government and withdraw from negotiations, claiming that a Palestinian government including Hamas would lead to increased terrorism and threaten the security of Israel. Fighting immediately broke out in Gaza between Israel security forces and Hamas and lasted through the summer, ending in an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire in August 2014. Since that time, periodic violent conflicts have occurred between Palestinians and Israeli security forces with deaths on both sides.
In May 2017, Hamas officials proposed a Palestinian state defined by the 1967 borders with the capital in Jerusalem, but refused to recognize Israel as a state. In so doing, the proposal undercut a central aim of the Oslo Accords and other proposed agreements ― a two-state solution that recognizes an independent state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel. Israel immediately rejected this proposal.
Late in 2017, the U.S. government made statements recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This prompted Palestinian leaders including President Abbas in January 2018 to call for an end of Palestinian recognition of Israel until Israel recognized the state of Palestine as defined by the 1967 borders including the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem, along with suspension of settlement efforts in the West Bank.
In May 2021, a further round of violence erupted between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, in response to protests in East Jerusalem over the potential eviction of several Palestinian families. The ensuing violence claimed more than 250 Palestinian lives and more than a dozen Israelis, before Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire.
The 7th October, 2023 War
The recent events in the Middle East and particularly the occupied land of Palestine have opened another chapter in human history. For over seventy five years the Zionist have been killing and forcefully ejecting the Palestinians from their homes under the watch and supervision of the hypocritical America and her evil allies. So far several thousand have been killed, mostly of whom are children and women, while properties worth billions of dollars have been destroyed. Hospitals, schools and refugee centers have not been spared of the crimes of Israel.
The Concept of Greater Israel
One of the reasons for the expansion and land grabbing of Palestine by the Zionist is the concept of greater Israel which to them is an expression with a biblical and political meaning which has differed and evolved over time. It is called the Zionist Plan for the Middle East. The concept of a “Greater Israel”, according to the founding father of Zionism Theodore Herzl, is a Jewish State stretching “from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.”
Thus it would have included:
- The historic Palestine
- South Lebanon up to Sidon and the Litani River
- Syria’s Golan Heights, Hauran Plain and Deraa
- Hejaz Railway from Deraa to Amman, Jordan as well as the Gulf of Aqaba
- This implies that Greater Israel is the inclusion of Palestine in Israel.
- A great part of Saudi Arabia which will include Madina, the city of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAWA)
- While many other Zionists also say that Greater Israel included the land from the Nile in the West to the Euphrates in the East, comprising Palestine, Lebanon, Western Syria and Southern Turkey
Many historians and International Relations watchers state that this is the reason Israel is slowly and strategically grabbing more and more land from its neighbors, especially Palestine.
Response of International Communities to the Current Genocide
The kind of support being shown to the weak and oppressed people of Palestine globally by people of different faiths and nationalities stands as a clear testimony to the fact that the illegal state of Israel today stands out as the most hated and cursed state in the world.
Demonstrations, rallies, and vigils have been staged around the world calling for an end to Israel’s blockage and airstrikes on the people of Gaza. Such demonstrations have been taking place in Muslim countries and beyond like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, South Africa, and Nigeria. These demonstrations and rallies have not been limited to Islamic countries alone. They have taken place in America, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and many more places with hundreds of thousands of people condemning the barbaric actions of the Zionist. In some parts of the world, these protests against the genocide on the people of Palestine have been met with heavy crack down on the protesters by the puppet government of their countries to please their Zionist masters.
America not only support the illegal state of Israel in its crime against the poor people of Palestine, president Joe Biden went in person to assure them of his government’s support. He also deployed warships to assist the murder of innocent citizens of Palestine in addition; recently the sum of about $14 billion has been approved as aid to the illegal state of Israel.
It is very clear that without the support of America, Israel will crumble in a very short time. While America and her allies are busy gathering support for the crime being committed in Palestine, countries like Iran, Bolivia, Turkey, Yemen and many more have openly declared their support for Palestine. Some have even gone ahead to cut of ties with the illegal state of Israel, while there are calls for boycott of Israeli products from religious leaders and concerned organizations. The barbaric massacre of innocent lives is being condemned even by right thinking Jews who refused to be carried away by sentiment against reason and humanity.
Iraq, Yemen and Hezbollah of Lebanon have already been drawn in to the war, while the Islamic republic of Iran is keenly watching and fully supporting and assisting Hamas and the forces of resistance in Palestine.
For those who are ignorant of the history and events in the Middle East and tend to see the Zionist as their brothers in faith, the recent attacks on Churches and hospitals are enough to show that it is beyond the issue of religion rather it is crime against humanity which must be condemned. The desperation shown by the barbaric attacks only exposes the weakness of the illegal state of Israel and is clear sign of their inevitable collapse and downfall in not a very far future.
To any keen observer of the current happenings in Gaza and the Mideast, it will be a glaring fact that the issue of Gaza and illegal state of Israel is an issue between truth and falsehood, between humanity and barbarism, between justice and oppression and so long as there is an element of humanity, one can never be neutral on this issue. We are all responsible for what is happening in Gaza Palestine and for sure Allah (SWT) will ask all of us on the day of resurrection.
It can be seen how people of different races, and colors have converged on the issue of Palestine. Similarly, the Muslim Ummah has been united on a common front for a very long time.
To the brave people of Palestine who have remained steadfast in their holy struggle, we salute you and assure you of our continuous prayers and support. Indeed the Islamic Movement under the revered leadership of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky has been in unflinching support of the Palestinians. For about four decades, the Islamic Movement has been commemorating the International Quds Day as set by the great Imam Khomeini (peace be upon him). It may be recalled that in the year 2014, 34 of the disciples of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky including his three biological sons were gunned down by the Nigerian security forces for participating in the procession to support the oppressed people of Palestine and the liberation of Masjid AL’ Aqsa.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I want to quote Danny Yatom, former MOSSAD Chief who was reported saying “What’s happening? Has the lord of Moses and Aaron abandoned us? I don’t understand what’s going on. An Israeli Merkva tank, the pride of Telaviv’s industry, costing $170 million was wiped off the face of the earth by an RPG? I don’t believe that was this steel fortress tank destroyed by an RPG. Has anyone seen that when our tank was hit by this shell, the ground shook and the tank exploded as if it had been hit by bomb weighing tone of stones? Ii don’t believe that? Who fights for them? Who fights with them? There are hidden ghosts that help them kill the Jews. Did the lord of Mossed and Aaron abandon us? There is a hidden force tat has helped them and fought with them since October 7, they have not missed the target in their attacks on us throughout Palestine, as if they had a satellite. Unfortunately, the end of the state of Israel is inevitably approaching.
Perhaps Mr. Danny Yatom has forgotten that the children of Israel had earlier faced consequences for refusing Allah’s command and were cursed and punished for their sins. And that the Bani Israel were expelled from the promised land due to their transgressions and betrayal of their covenant with God. They had their time and have successfully spread mischief on Earth. Now it is the turn of truth to take over falsehood. The end of global oppression which has filled the earth is around the Conner as promised by our noble Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) which will happen with the appearance of the awaited Imam Mahdi (AF)
I will like to once again call on the Nigerian government to answer the call of Nigerians to severe all ties with the illegal state of Israel for failing to respect the sanctity of human lives and committing genocide on the people of Gaza and other war crimes.