Gaza, the non-existent ceasefire and the genocide enablers

'THIRD STATES'

- YESH GOVENDER

A PALESTINIAN boy carries a pot of rice he received at a shelter where families have been living, in Nuseirat in the middle of the Gaza Strip.

(EYAD BABA AFP)

IS THERE a ceasefire in Palestine? Did you think that merely declaring a "ceasefire" would set the world right and that we could all go back to our "normal" lives? Those normal lives in which we didn't see unarmed civilians bombed, and didn't watch grieving families holding the tattered remnants of what used to be living, breathing and loving human beings? If you actually indulged that thought, then I say that you are naïve.

The US, Israel and a number of Arab nations imposed a “peace plan” on the Palestinians. I won't cover every point of this “peace plan”, just the most critical of the points.

The Palestinian resistance accepted most of the terms of the peace plan, such as the release of the remaining Israeli prisoners taken on October 7, 2023, the phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the cessation of hostilities between the two sides. and the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The resistance groups rejected other terms of the “peace plan”, including the Israeli-American demand that they disarm and disband.

They have also rejected the terms which would place Gaza under the governorship of a “peace council” headed by Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, and Donald Trump. To any educated observer, this aspect of the “peace plan” is simply Western colonial tendencies made manifest.

Palestinian land placed under European, Israeli and American control? That's colonialism, pure and simple, and it is unacceptable to Palestinians who are fighting for their right to self-determination. Instead, Hamas has counter-proposed that it will not govern Gaza, and will relinquish governance to a technocratic Palestinian government.