 Welcome to another capsule of international relations for Shankar A.S. Academy. Today, our topic is the fight for Jerusalem, currently taking place. About a week ago, fighting erupted again between Israel and Hamas after a gap of a few years, because the last battle was in 2014. This is probably the first major battle after 2014. Death toll among the rise person to 192 in Gaza, where the Hamas is established. And about 10 in Israel. About 50-year-old children have lost their lives in Israel. Israel thinks that this was a premeditated attack to gain political power by Hamas, particularly since the election which was taking place in the Palestinian territories has been postponed. They claim that about 3000 rockets were fired into Israel and the intensity has been more than ever before. The Security Council has been trying to meet to discuss the issue and to ask for a ceasefire and return to peace. This has been prevented by the United States, which probably wants to give some time to Israel to wreak their vengeance. Everyone knows that a war will not solve the centuries old problem in the Middle East. What we can achieve is merely a ceasefire and an uneasy peace so that the process of peace can continue. What is surprising is that President Biden has not turned out to be different from President Bush. We thought that President Biden was having a honeymoon with the UN, that he wants to help the UN to solve the problems of the world. But he has behaved exactly like his predecessors by supporting Israel, saying that Israel has the right to defend itself against aggression. But finally, he agreed to an open meeting of the Security Council where everyone was allowed to express his opinion on the subject. This itself was a great advance. And of course, the United States found itself isolated because all the other 14 countries are of the view that the war must stop. This is the present situation. The war is continuing. The rockets are being fired from Gaza into Israel. And Israel is bombarding, bombing Gaza, a small strip of land where the Palestinians live. While this goes on, let us look at the history of this conflict. Why I call it a fight for Jerusalem is because the focus is on this small area called Temple Mount in Jerusalem, measuring about 35 acres consisting of three religious sites. The western wall, which is also called the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and the Aqsa Mosque. First, the Jews. The second, the Christians. And third, the Muslims. Temple Mount is said to be the holiest place for Judaism. This is the area that Jews refer to as the sacrificial site of Abraham's son Isaac. As per the Jewish legend, Abraham went to sacrifice his son Isaac on God's demand, prove his religion and faith, after which a sheep appeared for him from above. And the son was freed. This site is also the location of the first and second temples. Here, many Jewish prophets preached earlier. Jews are of the belief that the dome of the rock is the state of the holy of holies. The western wall is considered to be the closest place. Jews can pray to the holiest spot. The rabbi of the western wall manages it and hosts millions of visitors every year. The Temple Mount is considered to be also the third holiest site in Islam. The first two being in Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Here is where Muslims believe their prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. In Jerusalem, the Muslim quarter is the largest of the four quarters containing the shrine of the dome of rock and the al-Aqsa mosque on a plateau called the Haram al-Sharif or the noble sanctuary. Christians also find Jerusalem of particular importance. They believe the site is significant to their faith. The Old Testament of the Bible mentions this place to have been visited by various prophets and it was also said to be identified, visited by Jesus according to the New Testament. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was constructed in 335 A.D. The site believed by Christians where Jesus was crucified and later had resurrected. This church is located in the Christian quarter of Jerusalem. So, you can imagine the three most important religions, we can call them civilizations, all claim the Jerusalem to be or this little piece of real estate to be the most precious to them and therefore this has become the most explosive real estate in the world. It is only surprising that conflicts do not arise more often here because all these religious groups are totally dedicated to their faith and they believe that every inch of land in Jerusalem should belong to them. This is why the United Nations, when it established two states after the Second World War, that is Israel and Palestine, they kept Jerusalem as separate because it is so important for all the religions and they expected that all these religions will use Jerusalem as an independent territory but with access to all of them. This was being debated and discussed, there have been wars but the most precipitated action taken by President Trump was that he declared unilaterally that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. In normal circumstances, this would have led to a war because many wars have been fought before but though there are protests all around the world against this, the Arabs were not united enough to oppose this move. So the Palestinians raised it and there was bloodshed but this has continued without other countries recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but notionally, Jerusalem now belongs to the Jews that is Israel. This was this explosive situation where the most recent clashes have occurred. In these three places, all these religions do their ceremonies on different occasions not on the same day and they adjust themselves when one religion is having a huge festival, the others keep away and there was a certain amount of coexistence among them but after Israel, after Jerusalem was declared as Israel's capital, tensions have been mounting in this area. According to some reports, Israel has been planning to build a huge synagogue there in one of the corners of this land and in preparation for that, apparently they tried to make some space by evacuating some of the Muslims from that area. This seems to have been the provocation and also there was one particular presidential area in Israel where some Palestinians had settled many years ago, small number of families and Israel has also been trying to evict them from their land to send them away. So the problem arose when such evictions were taking place and since the situation is so explosive, the reaction was strong and Hamas, which actually administers Gaza and very well equipped, particularly with rockets and others, fired a couple of rockets into Israel which started the war. Though Hamas is capable of launching rockets into their targets and can damage, cause damage to Israel, Israel's strength is in bombing of the enemy's KBS. So the retaliation was disproportionate. So if they threw two rockets, they would bomb, they would put 100 bombs into Gaza. That is why there is bigger casualty in Gaza, including children and a smaller number of people die in Israel also. So the war is raging and both sides are quite determined to go forward. When the two states were established in 1947-48, when the proposal was made to do this, India was one country which voted against the bifurcation of Islam. Palestine had always been there after the First World War, after the Ottoman Empire broke up and several countries were born. There was a Palestine region there and their Jews started coming from Europe and others where they had suffered persecution. Because you know the stories of Holocaust and how thousands of Jews were murdered in various European countries. In fact, it is believed that the only country where Jews were not persecuted. They had come to India also in Kotshinder as a synagogue. But everywhere else, the Jews were not persecuted and they were wanting to look for a home for themselves. And since this region of Palestine was under the administration of the British, they gave them a promise to Israel that homeland will be given to them somewhere in the Palestinian region. That is called the Balfour Declaration. And therefore, many Jews migrated to this whole Palestine area. And when the area was divided into Israel and Palestine, Israel occupied that region and established a state while Palestine was not allowed to do so. So even today, Israel is a real state, a powerful state where Palestine has remained notional only because the continuing wars that took place. So in 1948, the First War and 1967, the Second Arab-Israeli War, the things got stabilized that what is now called Gaza and the West Bank have been administered by the Jews Hamas in Gaza and the old Fatah in the West Bank. And these Jerusalem was left as an international area, which has now changed. In 2005, the Jews pulled out of the whole of Gaza and left it for Palestinians. But they have been kept under slavery all these days. Though they live there and they are free, but their access to the outside world is controlled by Israel and all their activities are monitored to make sure they do not do any harm to Israel. So the present conflict was sparked off, as I said, because of the efforts made by Israel to impose some controls on Jerusalem. They put up some barricades and the protest began. There is also an area called Sheikh Jarrah, where a group of, as I mentioned earlier, 28 families had settled there and they were also being evicted. About four families were actually evicted from there. So the position is Israel has become an established developed strong nation. Palestine is still without a homeland. And the solution that there should be two states, Israel and Palestine, have been accepted by the whole world. But this can happen only if Israel withdraws from the Palestinian territories they occupied in the 1967 war. So the formula being suggested by virtually all the countries is that Israel has to be dropped to its borders as in 1967. And in which case Israel will have the security and existence. But till they do that, the Arabs had pledged that Israel will not be permitted security. So Israel's argument for continuing the conflict with the Palestinians and the other Arabs is to make sure that this land that they have occupied, they are able to continue, because they think that otherwise Israel will not be a viable state. So they have never accepted the concept of their having to withdraw from the Palestinian area. So it was an existential threat to Israel. The Arabs said that till they withdraw from these territories, will not give them peace. And Israel continued to fight the Arabs one after the other and sometimes occupied more areas. But some countries, they conceded some land by a bilateral agreement. And this was going on and of course you know the most recent Abraham Accords under which more Arab countries established diplomatic relations with Israel. Saudi Arabia has not done that but UAE and Kuwait and others have established diplomatic relations. And the United States by doing this, we thought that the situation in the Middle East had changed. But what has changed is the support that the Palestinians used to have from the Arab countries has become weaker and weaker. Now none of these Arab states is willing to go to war with Israel for the sake of Palestine. So the Palestine has to negotiate and find a solution rather than fight a war. This is the reason why when Israel was given to Israel, there was no conflict. Many people supported Palestine but nobody raised their little finger to oppose what President Trump had done. So that kind of feeling is what has now erupted. So obviously as I said before, this cannot be a solution by war. Israel of course is saying that if they continue this, they will drive them out of Gaza. But where will they go? There's no place to go. So that will be in total destruction. One of the other reasons mentioned is that Natanya, who had an interest in President Trump's term, long as serving Prime Minister of Israel, in creating a situation which would strengthen his hands as the protector of Israel. Because in four elections, he has not been able to win a working majority. He is working with coalitions fixing here and there. So some suspect that this was provoked by Israel in order to strengthen Natanya's position. And he's also facing criminal charges for corruption, etc. So one theory is that this is the reason why they have done this. But the truth of the matter is there is no symmetry in this conflict. Israel far out numbers outforces the Palestinians, particularly Hamas, which is fighting this matter. And therefore it has to be a big tragedy. It will be only a big tragedy and there will be no result. Neither side will concede. So as I said earlier, the idea is to somehow stop the war. And this is not happening because either side is giving ultimatum to the other. If we don't stop, we will do this. So United Nations, as I mentioned, has not yet even released a statement saying what to do. But out of the 15 members of the Security Council, 14 are in favour of a ceasefire and cessation of hostilities. As far as India's position is concerned, it is well known that we have been supporting Palestine. And that was the reason why we did not have a very close relationship with Israel for many years. We had diplomatic relations with Israel right on the beginning, but we did not maintain a mission in Israel because we felt that Israel would become legitimate only after they were brought to the 1967 borders. But we had cooperation with Israel in many matters, particularly in irrigation, agriculture, etc. Though we didn't have a formal embassy in Tel Aviv. And as you know, after the Cold War, we developed our relations with Israel. This was after, of course, many Arab countries had already established relations with Israel, so we cannot say that we let the Arabs down. But we found common cause with Israel in many matters, particularly on security, defence, etc. And therefore, we have a full-fledged relationship with Israel. But at the same time, we have not abandoned Palestine. India was one of the first countries to recognize Chairman Arafat as President Arafat and considered PLO as a government of Palestine. And that position has not changed. But interestingly, Israel was not particularly unhappy with our relations with Palestine because they knew this was a historic bond. And so they didn't mind it because this was not going to cause any problems to them. So even with our favor, our being in favor with the Palestinians, the Israelis did not raise any objection to having our continuing with that policy even after established relations with Israel. In the UN, we changed the vote slightly different from the earlier voting pattern in the Human Rights Council. But inside India, there was no support to that. And so we have gone back and our voting position in the Security Council, in the United Nations is as before, in support of the Israeli position. So what is India doing at this present? We know very well that the last few days, our Ambassador Mr. Thirumofi has been working with other non-aligned countries and even others, 14 others to bring about some kind of an appeal from the Security Council. So India called for, in the recent statement that he made, I'm looking at that statement, he called for an immediate de-escalation of the situation between Israel and Palestine at this public meeting and the current surge in hostilities between the two parties here created feelings, etc. The virtual public meeting was held on Sunday after diplomats reached a compromise following US objections to a public meeting. Immediately, the Ambassador said, we said, India said, immediate de-escalation is the need of the hour. So as to arrest any further slide towards them, we urge both sides to show extreme restraint. This is from actions that exacerbate tensions and refrain from attempts to unilaterally change the existing status quo, including in just East Jerusalem and its neighborhood. The indiscriminate rocket firing from Gaza. So it means we are not one-sided. The indiscriminate rocket firing from Gaza, targeting the civilian population in Israel, which we condemn, strong word, and the retaliatory strikes into Gaza have caused immense suffering and resulted in many deaths. The Ambassador also mentioned that India had lost one of its citizens, a caregiver in Israel, Saumia Santosh from Kerala, whose body has been brought to Kerala by the Israelis, given their great honor, and the Israeli consul himself went to the funeral. So that was a poignant moment for us because the death was caused by a Palestinian rocket attack other than any other. And therefore, the poignancy is small because it came from the friendly side. But also the India statement mentions that we continue to support the cause of Palestine. So it was a very balanced statement. And we will continue on that basis. But the important thing is to return to why war, re-situation, conflict, re-situation. Nobody knows what the way for it is. The Americans are constantly in touch with Israel and with the other members of the UN Security Council. And the only thing we can hope is that both sides will realize that there's a futile war. Neither side is going to get any benefit out of this. If any benefit has to come, it has to be the basis of the existing relationship between the Arabs and the Israelis. And then coming to some understanding, even if no final solutions are met. At least in 2014, there has been some uneasy peace in Israel and Palestine. And at least that could continue so that lives can be saved and a big tragedy is avoided. But there is no sign of it as such. And we simply have to open play. And that too, at this particular time when the pandemic has affected the old mankind. This is something that we cannot understand. But all these conflict should arise at a time when this is also happening. And as far as the pandemic is concerned, Israel claims to have come out of it completely because they have vaccinated the entire population. But the Palestinians for whom they are responsible for supplies, et cetera, have not had vaccines except for about 1% of the population. And this becomes more sad because Israel has excess vaccines in their custody. Actually, they had ordered Zeneca vaccine in huge quantities before the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine had come into the market. And when the American vaccines came, they used that for their population. And apparently a huge quantity of the Zeneca vaccine is stored in Israel. Even that is not being given to the Palestinians. So they are complained about discrimination. I would call this criminal discrimination. If these Maikanda's medicines be given to them, it would have been a win-win situation. But an Israeli newspaper reported that they would rather toss it into the sea rather than use the Palestinians. This shows the extreme feelings that they have for each other and the extreme adversary character of the relationship. So we only can hope that the situation will improve and then peace can be restored to Israel. Thank you very much.