‘Democratic’ ethnic cleansing – Newspaper

THE discourse on democracy in the West — in particular — is self-congratulatory, and other systems that have delivered hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, hunger, illness, illiteracy and constant want are looked upon with disdain, suspicion, even derision.

For all my life, I have been a firm believer in democracy as the only viable system of governance which is rules-based and ensures participatory politics, inclusion and safeguards of the rights of the many. This was the theory at least. Of late, dozens of example of flawed democracy have shaken — all but shattered — my faith in the system.

When US President Donald Trump announced his Gaza ethnic cleansing plan from the White House podium, as Israeli Prime Minister Benja­min Netanyahu stood next to him with a smirk affixed to his face, the international outrage was only directed at what Trump’s words represented.

It was a few days later that someone pointed out on X that these words were uttered by a convicted felon as he was feting a man wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity that is war crimes.

There were always going to be three possible outcomes of the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

And if this was ironical, even more so was the fact that ‘democratic Europe’, many of whose leaders have often been uncomfortable with the manner in which the US has bulldozed its way through world affairs, quietly held out guarantees to Israel that their leader should not fear arrest to face war crimes charges as he flew over Greek, Italian and French air space en route to Washington, D.C.’s Andrews Air Force Base.

From African dictators to Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic (who died in his cell in The Hague) to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and military chief Ratko Mladic, all must wonder what they did wrong to be arrested and hauled before the International Criminal Court or tribunals to be tried for war crimes, when Netanyahu is feted in the White House and assured of ‘no arrest’ if his plane were to land anywhere in Europe.

Not just that. The honoured guest smiled on as his host publicly committed to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza in a so-called plan that one Israeli commentator called the coming true of a … dream of the far right of the apartheid state. All international law experts and human rights groups said any such move would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing, even genocide.

Trump apologists in the US quickly started spinning his plan as ‘out of the box’ thoughts to find a solution to a long-standing issue. There was some back-pedalling by the White House spokesperson and the secretary of state, both of whom said the president was misunderstood and he didn’t mean for the Palestinians to be relocated permanently. This, when the president used the word ‘permanently’ too.

On the conclusion of his visit to Israel and a quick in and out of occupied Gaza, presidential envoy Steve Witkoff had said it would take 10-15 years to clear the rubble and unexploded ordnance from the Strip before its rebuilding could start. What was the implication of this ‘assessment’, if not relocation?

The Gaza forced expulsion plan has been the subject of a think tank’s commissioned study and a ministerial report, both of which have been discussed in the Israeli cabinet. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said exactly the same last year as the president has proposed now.

To property developers Trump, Kushner and Witkoff, Gaza is real estate worth drooling over, and its two million Palestinian inhabitants, the rightful owners of the land, no more than an inconvenience. This is no less than a godsend for the Israeli premier who, before Oct 7, 2023, was facing corruption charges that many Israeli legal experts thought would not only see him ejected from office but also land him in a prison cell.

Both Trump and Netanyahu are not freaks but products of a flawed democratic order where the hard right’s capture of the narrative allows it to manipulate public opinion to its advantage. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán is another glaring example. He has been in power for 15 years and is the longest-serving prime minister of his country and has completely brought all state institutions, including the judiciary, under his thumb.

The problem with many of us commentators and aspirational democrats is that we see world systems through the tainted Western lens that downplays their own flaws and development and innovation in societies such as the Chinese today and the Soviet Union in years gone by.

Reverting to the Middle East crisis, there were always going to be three possible outcomes of the Palestinian struggle for freedom. The first was a viable two-state solution, which would have meant concessions by Israel that it has been unwilling to make. The second could have been ‘one state’, with equal rights and dignity for all citizens. One can also see how Israel would recoil from it, as apartheid is the cornerstone of the Zionist state.

The third and what should be called the ‘final solution’ is what is being proposed now. The expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza (announced already) in the first phase and annexation of the West Bank and mass expulsion of up to a million Palestinians from there. Yes, it is called ethnic cleansing, which is a war crime.

It is the US and Israeli ‘democracies’ proposing this, despite the protestations of their democratic yet ineffectual European allies. Any such move would turn the (despotic) regional Arab nations from being US allies, who have peace deals or potential deals with Israel, into ‘front-line resistance states’, as Palestinian politician Marwan Barghouti explicitly warned and former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Feisal also suggested to CNN.

The driver for the Arab states may well be one of self-preservation, because of the likelihood of explosive repercussions of a ‘forced relocation’, but as long as the Palestinians can get some justice, all else is unimportant.

The writer is a former editor of Dawn.

abbas.nasir@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2025