Gaza: Mediators Turned the Demand for Independence and Sovereignty into Investment Deals
By Afaf Aniba
The ceasefire in Gaza has obscured the failure of Muslims to enforce the Palestinians’ right to their own state. The contents of the ceasefire, or what are referred to as American “peace plans,” have largely not been implemented to this day, nor have they addressed the core Palestinian demand: the establishment of an independent, sovereign state.
The Zionist occupation returned to Gaza after a nominal withdrawal, while maintaining control over the crossings for more than twenty years, turning the current occupation into a permanent one rather than a temporary condition. The mediators—some Gulf states and Turkey—have transformed the demand for sovereignty and independence into investment deals through which the right of self-determination of a people, both Muslim and Christian, is buried.
All the sacrifices that were made are now meant to be forgotten in favor of the ambitions of ruling regimes that view Palestine as a bargaining chip and a source of profit, not a cause of liberation. The remains of tens of thousands of martyrs, men and women alike, and the hundreds of thousands of wounded, disabled, prisoners, and exiles—from before 1948 to the present—are reduced to narrow financial and political calculations.
The Arab system of fragmentation today suffers from moral, political, and economic bankruptcy. A few thousand ruling princes manage the affairs of an entire nation with the mentality of merchants who buy and sell, while the last thing that concerns them is the final message they were entrusted to carry, and the liberation of the Arab-Islamic world from the grip of Zionism.
They believe that the reins of power will remain in their hands indefinitely—another illusion. Conditions, from Palestine to the farthest reaches of our world, will not remain as they are. The escalation of tyranny and corruption inevitably leads, sooner or later, to a reversal of circumstances against the despots. Whoever believes that money and technology guarantee eternal rule ignores an immutable divine law:whoever turns away from divine justice and sets himself against God’s laws is destined to perish.
