What`s behind the Al-Aqsa Intifada?

After decades of indiscriminate oppression, tyranny, cruelty and coercion, the neo-imperial tyrant Israel has resuscitated its war machine against unarmed Palestinian civilians.  The sinister spectre of carpet bombing on Eastern besieged enclave has unraveled the entire faux edifice of International law. This latest episode of Zionist offensive is textbook example of ‘ethnic cleansing’ or ‘Nakba’ (in Palestinian history) while the Machiavellian corporate media is painting it as a ‘conflict’ between two belligerents. The question arises that what`s behind the latest avalanche of military aggression in East Jerusalem during Holy month of Ramadan when religious fervor is astronomically high? The Zionist conspirators have planned to expel scores of native Palestinian families from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. In order to provoke Palestinian protests and resistance ahead of this forceful eviction, Israeli forces placed barriers outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate, a popular gathering place after the evening prayers during the holy month. In a nutshell, this latest episode of colonial violence is desperate attempt of Israel to erase Palestinians completely from Jerusalem.

Retrospectively, the structural constructs of this thorniest colonial episode triggered the violent Israeli raid on iconic golden dome holy mosque Al-Aqsa. The horrible equilibrium between Israel as occupation power, Palestinian Authority in West Bank and Hamas rule in Gaza Strip is defining feature of Palestinian question. Why would Israel sporadically simmer humanitarian quandary in Palestine when this fragile status-quo already preserves its iron-clad occupation? Since Jerusalem is emotional epicenter of Muslim Ummah, Israeli brutality has garnered incessant condemnation and hatred from Muslim diaspora and global civil society, raising questions on sanity of Israeli government. The explanation lies in the fact that giving Palestinians some political and economic breathing space jeopardizes expansionist project ‘The Greater Israel’ which ruthlessly envisions absolute erasure of Palestinian Muslims from the region`s geography and history. Furthermore, economic, socio-cultural and political fragmentation of Palestinians coupled with their geographical isolation, forced by bombing and demolition of their residences, is the quintessential colonial tactic of ‘divide and conquer’.

The internal political dynamics exhibit that the stage was already set for brutal conflagration. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas recently canceled Palestinian elections owing to overwhelming public support for Hamas which is revered in Palestine as sole resistance movement against Israeli. Apparently intimidated by Hamas` popular appeal and the looming prospects of Hamas winning elections and establishing unified durable political rule in West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel mounted provocations to trigger Hamas` rocket fires and then capitalizing on the opportunity to crush the movement. Furthermore, prior to unleashing ‘fire and fury’ over Gaza strip, embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu`s political future was bleak as opponents from across the spectrum, who just last week seemed ready to set aside their differences in order to unseat him. Sitting in an ivory tower, Netanyahu has conveniently liquidated political opposition by whipping nationalist frenzy, making it difficult for political parties to stand against him on rounds of corruption and financial embezzlement. The current crisis seem half conspiracy and half contingency owing to dubious timing of the unrest which escalated just as Netanyahu’s stubborn grip over Israeli politics seemed to be loosening, unraveling that Netanyahu had orchestrated the crisis for sake of narrow political interests. Hence, the political empire of Israeli Prime Minister is sapping the blood of Palestinians while its indispensible ally ‘leader of the free world’ is ‘pivoting to Asia’ as Gaza burns.

While 10,000 Palestinians have already left their homes to flee Israeli carpet bombing, there is nobody to document this ‘trail of tears’ as Israel has bombed Gaza based media outlets, including   Aljazeera office, to hide its atrocities. The gruesome ‘Digital Apartheid’ whereby voices clamoring for Palestinian cause have been stifled on social media while propaganda pages promoting Zionist agendas are widely circulated. The illiberal pariah states and Islamophobe groups round the world outpoured Israel with overwhelming support, the vanguard being Indian right wingers RSS who orchestrated annexation of Kashmir. Modi-Netanyahu bonhomie depicts that both illiberal fascist tyrants share the same ethnonationalist worldview. In late November 2019, there was widespread outrage over a video of the Indian Consul-General in New York, Sandeep Chakravorty, in which he brazenly suggested to a gathering of Kashmiri Hindus that India should follow the Israeli model, and build settlements in the Kashmir Valley to secure the return of Hindus. Diplomacy failed to halt the creeping violence because faux moral vigilantism of West failed to differentiate between colossal brutality of oppressor and meager resistance of oppressed. The ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is giving ‘holocaust’ déjà vu while reminding that oppression always nurtures Osama bin Ladens whose ideological charisma entangled an imperial power in treacherous terrains of Afghanistan and sapped its blood and capital.