The Question of a Permanent Ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza War 

5.15.24

My senior year senior research paper. (High School) (English class)

To understand the current war in Gaza that was launched in Israel on October 27 of last year, we need to go back to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Israel was built off of stolen land from the Palestinian people who were already there. Israel as a state project was enacted in Palestine because Britain pledged their newly conquered Palestine to “establish the Jewish homeland” to side with the Zionist community for many reasons that led favorably to the British government. It should be a reminder that many other countries were planned by The World Zionist Congress to enact settler colonialism, like Uganda, but turned those proposals down once Britain pledged Palestine to the congress. With the history of the establishment of Israel gone over - it would then be simple to recognize Israel for what it is, a fascist apartheid state that is committing genocide against Palestinians. However, the mainstream view is ignoring/unconditionally supporting the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian territories and genocide in Gaza, committed by Israel, and funded/supported by the American government. There needs to be a permanent ceasefire enacted in the current Israel-Gaza war to stop the genocide in Gaza, dismantle the Israeli apartheid state, dissolve the Israeli fascist government, and return Palestine to its one state. 

There aren’t enough words to describe, in my paper, the destruction and flattening of the Gaza Strip. Israel has dropped 29,000 bombs since December 2023 which was reported by the Wall Street Journal. It is horrifying that some bombs didn’t detonate because if intact could detonate, leak its harmful chemicals into the soil and water, and are extremely difficult to remove. The United Nations, its bodies/programs, and organs have reported throughout the months: 35% of Gaza’s buildings are destroyed, 88, 868 buildings are damaged, and infrastructure damages were estimated at $18.5 billion dollars, the energy, water, and municipal sectors have suffered nearly $800m in damages, 84% of health facilities damaged or destroyed with 12 out of 36 hospitals remaining partially functional. Mass graves of Palestinians are always left behind in all of the Gaza Strip’s hospitals -  when the Israel Defense Forces leave after their weeks of raiding and occupying the remains of the hospitals. The United Nations, its bodies/programs, and organs has also reported: 70% of school buildings have been damaged, all of Gaza’s 625,000 students are out of school, 26 million tonnes of debris and rubble, 56% percent of Gaza’s death toll is women and children, and 66% of employment has been lost in Gaza (equivalent to 192,000 jobs). It has been widely reported that Israel systematically kills: Women (United Nations on March 1 reported that 9,000 women were killed), children (Al Jazeera reported on May 19 that 15,000 children have been killed), journalists (The Committee to Protect Journalists reported on March 19 that 105 were killed), 250 humanitarian aid workers have been killed (reported on May 14 by Human Rights Watch, prominent Palestinian people, and technology experts. Israel has been proven to systematically delay aid pre-October 2023 invasion and the current war in Gaza, with humanitarian aid trucks/ships denied to only let in very little, and most trucks are sitting idle that is raided by Zionist protesters in Israel; all to speed up the approaching a famine in Gaza,. Now with the recent closing of the Rafah border crossing by Israel (in their current slow invasion into Rafah, which is the last uninvaded city in the Gaza Strip) where aid into Gaza is shut off. It has been widely documented that the Israel Defense Forces soldiers target Palestinians at aid trucks; even using trucks as ‘bait’ to kill starving Palestinians trying to get aid. Israel systematically bombs water wells, reservoirs, pipelines, hospitals (as well as conducting ground assaults), bakeries, United Nations schools, universities (all of Gaza’s universities are destroyed), and United Nations facilities (as well as conducting ground assaults, homes, media buildings, mosques, refugee camps (as well as conducting ground assaults). Israel systematically targets the ability of Gazans to sustain themselves: Razes crops, banning parts for water desalination, banning seeds, and keeping the now ten-year-old blockade. Israel has been proven to target Gazans’ most precious sites and their overall livelihood by desecrating cemeteries, destroying museums, destroying libraries, illegally displacing Palestinians into “safe areas” to only push Gazans to smaller inhumane areas, establishing “kill zones” where IDF soldiers kill any Gaza civilians that come into contact. Israel has set up camps where IDF soldiers have been proven to kidnap and torture Gazans. In Israeli military prison facilities, it has been proven that detained Palestinians are subjected to torture and physical & psychological violence. During military prison facilities' incarceration period, the prison conditions are extremely cruel, inhumane, and humiliating. In today’s modern age of war, Artificial and non-human controlled military weapons/equipment are more common than ever in countries, and Israel is no stranger to it. The IDF has been reported to be using AI tools to carry out air strikes in Gaza, which are “Lavender”, “Where’s Daddy?”, and “The Gospel”. “Lavender’: Where the army almost completely relied on Lavender, carried out the bombing of 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants along with their homes and bombed usually at night while their whole families were present & rather than during military activity. The second AI tool is “Where’s Daddy?”: Tracks the targeted individuals and carries out bombings - when they have entered their family’s residences. The last AI tool is“The Gospel”: Marks buildings and structures (which the IDF claims militants operate from), and many of these attacks kill civilians and entire families as “collateral damage.” It should be no surprise why many countries have accused Israel of carrying out the genocide of the Gazan people & countries heavily involved with Israel like the United States & Germany, and even some taking Israel to court in the International Court of Justice like South Africa in last ICJ ruled case in January of this year & continuing to recommend the ICJ take action against Israel 

The second important aspect of why a permanent ceasefire needs to happen is to end the Israeli apartheid state. Israel illegally occupies the Palestinian territories and controls the Palestinian’s natural resources, housing, human resources, political participation, financial resources, trade, technology, infrastructure, and cultural heritage. Israel has built an illegal separation barrier in Gaza (maintained since 2007) and the West Bank (since 2002), where tens of thousands of Palestinian workers are forced to wait in long queues to pass military checkpoints on their way to work in Israel. Under the Israeli permit system, Palestinians are subject to random searches with required identification documents. Israel illegally has maintained its occupation of the Palestinian territories. Israel has maintained its military courts that systematically discriminately prosecuting the Palestinian people (especially Palestinian kids) and houses the inhumane treatment in prisons. Israel has been documented to systematically reject Palestinian infrastructure and approve Israeli infrastructure, as the state illegally demolishes Palestinian houses (In 2009, Israel demolished 10,700 Palestinian homes, displacing more than 16,000 people) and now ramping up its state-backed Israeli settler movement. The Israeli settler movement (protected and heavily supported by the Israeli government) built more than 290 illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, where now 700,000 settlers live. In the West Bank, 32% of employment has been lost (equivalent to 276,000 jobs). Israel forces killing West Bank Palestinians with impunity, which has been heavily documented and illegal. Israel maintains its laws against Palestinian Christians and Muslims from worshiping in religious buildings and areas - especially. barring worshippers from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (in East Jerusalem) and raids the compound. It is totally disgusting how the Israeli government allows the occupied West Bank and Israeli settlements properties to be sold in America and Canada (as well as it being disgusting for America and Canada to allow this) by an Israeli real estate company) at Israeli real estate events. Israel maintains its law of different cars between Israelis and Palestinians, meant to push the notion (in Israeli society) to view Palestinians as lesser than. Israel has significant financial influence over Palestinians through tax collection and regularly withholds payments to Palestinian civil servants. Palestinians are denied to certain hospitals. Another important aspect of the Israeli apartheid state is the control over the airspace, coastline, groundwater, telecommunications. In 2023, Israelis on average consumed 247 liters (65 liters), in contrast, Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank only got 82 liters (22 gallons) a day. Israel controls the movement of Palestinian imports and exports. In 2001, Israeli forces destroyed Palestine’s only airport, which was located in Gaza, called the Yasser Arafat International Airport (meant to facilitate international trade and tourism). Recently, Israel illegally annexed the West Bank, which furthered the illegal occupation of the West Bank. Israel maintains its anti-relation laws between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel, in its occupied territories and in the territories of Israel, maintains anti-movement along its occupied territories. Israel has no democracy and is ruled by a fascist government. Gaza has been declared an open-air prison by the United Nations, nongovernmental organizations, and humanitarian organizations. Israelis have access to high-speed 5G mobile internet, and Palestinian network operations are only allowed to use 3G in the occupied West Bank (since 2018) and 2G in Gaza. Israel has been illegally demolishing Palestinian homes. It should be no shock to say that Israel's maintained an apartheid state now for 75 years and pointing out how Israel violates international law so frequently. 

The greater Western powers which are the European Union, the United States, and Britain have sole responsibility in this conflict. America has been the sole backer of the Israeli state since Israel’s inception through billions in aid consistently, illegal intervention in Palestine, very strong diplomatic ties, Israel’s strong American lobby arms & lobby groups that follow Israel’s interests, and intervention in the Middle East on behalf of Western hegemony & Israeli gov’s interests. The European Union (EU) has been another major aid provider of weapons and built strong relations with Israel. Britain has been a major aid of weapons and built strong relations with Israel. American and international companies working with the Israeli government that profit from the apartheid state and genocidal campaign. America has been at the front defending Israel from being prosecuted by international law throughout history, and only Israel gets to maintain itself as an illegal state. The Western powers’s governments, especially the United States (America) government, are the major backers of Israel, are responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, and are complacent in the Israeli apartheid state and genocidal campaign in Gaza now (as they all are extremely aware of the Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza & its apartheid state).

It is very important to teach people, around you, about why a ceasefire is necessary in the Israel-Gaza war. I chose to conduct a Google form, for my real-world source, to survey my classmates if they supported or didn’t support a ceasefire. I opened my poll from May 9th until May 17th and was only able to get 16 responses from students in my classes. The 93.8% majority said they supported the ceasefire and the little that answered with no support was 6.3%. I interpret these results (since I did not talk to all respondents about their responses) as those who are either aware or watchful of the ongoing war do recognize the need for a ceasefire because of the humanitarian crisis (in Gaza) caused by the Israeli government. I wanted to note that in the making of this survey and my presentation: I did not specifically ask the question of a permanent ceasefire, as I used a ceasefire with a permanent ceasefire interchangeably; though my research project is focused on the need for a permanent ceasefire.

For those deeply confused or outright denying the history of Israel and the ongoing inhumane actions of the Israeli government will champion the counterargument to permanent ceasefire: Israel has the right to defend itself, as it was Hamas who started the war in October 2023. According to pro-Israel supporters and Zionists, the apartheid state of Israel has the right to invade its internationally illegally occupied territories to “destroy” Hamas from all of Gaza. The Israel supporters, representing the counterargument to a permanent ceasefire in this war, view the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as the “most moral army in the world” that fights for the “only democratic nation in the Middle East. The counters do not support a permanent ceasefire for a free Palestine & defend the Israeli state, built on stolen ethnically cleansed land, to maintain its Jewish entho state regime.  

The notion that what is happening between Israel-Gaza is just war is downplaying the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel and the Palestinian armed militias do not have equal footing. What Israel is carrying out in Gaza is nothing more than genocide. Israel repeatedly violates international law through its genocidal campaign, throughout the Gaza region. Israel is a settler-colonial state that is built off stolen land and upholds an apartheid state. The only reason Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 was to launch an armed resistance against their life in an open-air prison. The general belief that both sides have a responsibility to find a peaceful solution to co-exist is fine on its own. Although this general belief misses the point that the people of Palestine have had their land: colonized & settled by Zionists, been ethnically cleansed & their land claimed as Israel, living in an apartheid state for 75 years now, Gaza separated from the West Bank/East Jerusalem, and since last October the people of Gaza have been on the receiving end of the ongoing genocidal campaign by Israel. Saying that there the “sides” of both Israel and Palestine is a false thinking of this conflict because it is, in reality, the sides of Zionists and pro-western hegemony leaders VERUSES indigenous people of Palestine, anti-Zionist people, anti-apartheid people, anti-western hegemony people, and anti-genocide people. Specifically, to paint the sides in Israel & Palestine, it is between the Zionist Israeli government and the indigenous people of Palestine. The goal of the Israeli government is to ethnically cleanse the indigenous people of Palestine, so the Israeli government can establish a Jewish entho state (when one racial or ethnic group systematically rules the state, and ethnically cleanses all other groups from it) across all of (historical; pre-Israeli state) Palestine. The only moral responsibility of the sides in this conflict is to enact a permanent ceasefiree in the current Israel-Gaza war to: Stop the genocide in Gaza, dismantle the Israeli apartheid state, dissolve the Israeli fascist government, and return Palestine to its one state. 

Works Cited 

Malsin, Jared, and Saeed Shah. “The Ruined Landscape of Gaza after Nearly Three Months of Bombing - WSJ.” The Wall Street Journal, 30 Dec. 2023, www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-destruction-bombing-israel-aa528542. 

Hill, Evan, et al. “Destruction in Gaza Outpaces Other Recent Conflicts, Evidence Shows - Washington Post.” The Washington Post, 23 Dec. 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace. 

Frankel, Julia. “Israel’s Military Campaign in Gaza Seen as among the Most Destructive in Recent History, Experts Say.” Associated Press News, Associated Press, 11 Jan. 2024, apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-bombs-destruction-death-toll-scope-419488c511f83c85baea22458472a796. 

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Kayali, Laura. “French, German Arms Sales to Israel Hit by Legal Action.” Politico, Axel Springer SE, 12 Apr. 2024, www.politico.eu/article/11-ngos-take-france-to-court-over-arms-sales-to-israel.

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