A CEASEFIRE IS STEP ONE TOWARDS PEACE

India was among the 45 countries that abstained from the Gaza resolution. The government did not push for a ceasefire, possibly due to India’s increased collaboration with Israel

- KAPIL SIBAL

THE horrors of the Holocaust can never be forgotten. A fascist regime, through state-sponsored terror, eliminated six million Jews. In 1917, Britain had publicly pledged to establish a national home for Jewish people. It also called for safeguarding civil and religious rights of Palestinian Arabs, who comprised the vast majority of the local population. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Jews considered Jerusalem their homeland. They started settling in the Palestinian region after 1914. But it was only in 1948 that the State of Israel was established. At that time, there were very few Jewish settlements in Palestine.

In 1948, the Zionist military forces expelled at least 7,50,000 Palestinians and captured 78 percent of historic Palestine. The remaining 22 percent was divided into the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. After 1948, Israel, as a matter of state policy, evicted Palestinians from their homeland and occupied large parts of the West Bank. As a result, 2.1 million Palestinians relocated to the Gaza Strip, where there are no Israelis. In the West Bank, Israeli settlers are in a minority, with 2.7 million Palestinians living there. In West Jerusalem, Israelis are in a majority while in East Jerusalem, Palestinians are in a majority.

During the June 1967 war, Israel occupied all of historic Palestine and evicted 3,00,000 Palestinians from their homes. In 1995, the occupied West Bank was divided into three areas: the relatively small Area-A under Palestinian control, Area-B under joint Israeli-Palestinian control, and Area-C under Israeli control.