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Throughout this period, the world at large has witnessed as Israel has systematically destroyed the Gaza region, killing tens of thousands of Palestinian people and maiming an uncounted multitude more. In a similarly perilous move, Israel continues to methodically target medical, education, water and sanitation infrastructure to guarantee that life cannot resume in the Gaza Strip.

Global Stances

Global stances to Israeli operations have varied between cheerleading and unconditional support in the first year of the military campaign on Gaza after 7 October 2023, then came statements of concern and anguished deliberation, to, lately, intermittent declarations of dismay and empty threats that continued Israeli attacks may, at some undefined point, lead to an weapons restrictions or a reduction in commercial ties. Over recent weeks, there have also been highly publicized announcements of conditional recognition of a Palestinian state. The contradiction is stark: tepidly recognizing a state as it, and its citizens, are being obliterated ruthlessly.

Current Developments

Currently, ambiguity clouds the proposed initiative to conclude hostilities and expectations are rising for a exchange of captives. Although cessation of airstrikes, the freedom of captives on the two factions and allowing humanitarian aid into the territory would bring temporary respite in an profoundly dismal situation, it would be a mistake to view the plan as a historic breakthrough for Palestine. The proposed framework is once more American-Israeli concoction cooked up without any Palestinian participation that would maintain continuous Israeli authority over Gaza’s future.

Global powers have consistently ignored to what Palestinians have to say or adequately considered the grave danger emanating from Israeli policies to Palestinian existence, and this has not materially changed despite the increase in performative angst. Conversely, Through multiple generations, Palestinians have endured the world asserting that security priorities – as interpreted by Israel – are of greater significance than fundamental human rights.

Two Forms of Violence

As a result Palestinians face two constant manifestations of violence: physical aggression imposed on our bodies, territory and community, and western violence, where only our destruction causes global powers to notice us and see our humanity – but minimally.

This perspective emerges from observing up close, for a 25-year period, how this pattern of international approach and functioning plays out. Despite two years of carnage in Gaza, and everything the world has learned about the actual goals, that mode is repeating itself as I write this, with international actors supporting a plan that does very little to guarantee Palestinians gain any say over their future.

Rhetoric without consequence has been the west’s modus operandi for a long time. The consequences have been devastating.

A Deceptive Remedy

In late September 2000, I joined the negotiating committee as a legal advisor participating in the negotiations with Israel. This represented a significant step for me: I am the child of Palestinian parents born prior to the 1948 events, the systematic removal of historic Palestine. My parents’ families, in contrast to most of Palestinian people, did not leave in 1948 and later became Israeli citizens, making their home in Nazareth, in a nation that excluded them. In that year, they chose to leave to Canada, where I was born, grown and educated. I had not resided in the region before becoming part of the delegation except for a brief periods. At that point, I had chosen to being in the region for a twelve-month period. I became involved as a legal expert after a colleague, also a member of the legal team, informed me that one of the shortcomings of the peace talks was its lack of clarity. I had believed, ideally, that the team could remedy that.

This was the height of the peace process, as it was described then, which began under the Clinton administration in that year with the historic handshake between the Israeli leader, the Israeli prime minister, and the PLO chairman, the representative. Through a series of agreements, the governing body was created and the Palestinian territories were increasingly fragmented, with additional military posts placed across. Fundamental questions such as borders, outposts, the claims of displaced people and the holy city were deferred without timeline.

The diplomatic efforts evolved into a magic pill making the occupation disappear to the west.

These issues were now matters between two parties for Israel and the Palestinian leadership to resolve between them, with the rest of the world theoretically standing by as neutral observers. But they were taking sides, and the key players were not equals. The US was then and remains Israel’s biggest supplier of military equipment and international advocacy and Europe is the primary commercial ally. Before entering into this peace talks, Palestinians sought assurances, especially from America, that the asymmetry in power would be considered. Such assurances were tacitly provided but routinely disregarded, over years of talks.

Beginning in the 1990s, worldwide approval for negotiations was widespread. But what finally occurred is that endless calls for a “two-state solution” that circumvented actual establishment of independent statehood and autonomy supplanted calls for an termination of Israel’s military occupation. The “peace process” evolved into a magic pill rendering the occupation invisible to the west, masking its expansion, ever-present and progressively harsh form. The Palestinian cause was now limited to a topic for discussion demanding compromises, with the 1948 ethnic cleansing of the land swept under the rug to be overlooked.

Colonial Growth

With this magic pill swallowed, the Israeli government used the pretext of negotiations to build and expand outposts, accurately thinking that these territorial changes would enhance their leverage at the bargaining table. And along with colonies arrived settlers and barriers and an {expanding