Push for a ceasefire, and then for a just peace

By Imraan Buccus

Hundreds of lives were lost when the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza was bombed on Tuesday. Bombing a hospital is, of course, a war crime. Gaza’s health ministry swiftly blamed the attack on the Israeli military, but the Israeli state has denied that the military is responsible and said that a rocket fired by Islamic Jihad had failed and hit the hospital in error.

At the time of writing there is no definitive clarity about who fired the weapon that destroyed the hospital. But we do know that the hospital was struck by an Israeli bomb a few days before it was destroyed. A recent report by ReliefWeb, run by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, noted that multiple Israeli strikes have hit hospitals, ambulances, and healthcare workers in the last week.

We also know that powerful actors in the top echelons in the Israeli state are conflating the people of Palestine with Hamas and treating civilians as legitimate targets. This too is a war crime, as was the earlier attack on civilians in Israel by Hamas.

In war, as the old saying goes, truth is always the first causality. There is a view, avidly pushed by some partisan journalists and intellectuals in South Africa, that ‘fake news’ is strictly something produced by states such as Russia and China which have a conflictual relationship with the West. This is unfortunate. After all, the claim by the US that there were ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq was bogus and helped to legitimize a war that in the end, cost over a million lives. 

Israel also has a long and well documented record of denying that its military is responsible for attacks of various kinds, and then later, when the media has moved on to other matters, concedes the opposite. This happened, for instance, with the targeted killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Shortly after she was shot – then Israeli Prime Minister Neftali declared that “it appears likely that armed Palestinians – who were firing indiscriminately at the time – were responsible”. Then Defence Minister Benny Gantz said that “no [Israeli] gunfire was directed at the journalist” and implied that the death of the journalist was a result of “indiscriminate shooting by Palestinian terrorists”. Months later, after various independent investigations released their report and there was very clear information about what had happened, the Israeli government conceded that there was a “high possibility” that she had been killed by their military.

In light of this history, we cannot believe the claims made by the Israeli state in regard to the destruction of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital until we have independent and verifiable evidence about what happened. What we do know, for sure, is that following the horrific attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians Palestinians are being collectively targeted by the Israeli state, and that this is resulting in mass death, destruction and suffering. There are credible fears that things could get even worse in the coming days, and that the conflict could spread beyond the borders of Israel and Palestine. 

What is needed now is, as recommended by the UN, an immediate ceasefire. There is no other way to stop the carnage, carnage that will, in time, produce further rounds of attacks on Israeli citizens. The problem is that with the backing of the US the far-right government in Tel Aviv feels empowered to engage in war crimes with impunity as it treats ordinary Palestinians as enemy combatants. The worst of the extremists in the Israeli government, some describing Palestinians as ‘animals’, are making statements that intimate a desire for mass ethnic cleansing.

This is terrifying and along with being a catastrophe for Palestinians, could risk bringing forces in Lebanon, Syria, and Iran into the conflict. Already wracked by the wars that have devastated Ukraine, Yemen and Ethiopia, the world needs to draw a line and force the US to agree to the urgency of an immediate ceasefire. If the US moves towards supporting peace, then a ceasefire will be possible.

This is a challenge for the world, but places a particular moral burden on Americans, and in particular supporters of the Democratic Party, to make it clear to Joe Biden that a ceasefire is the only way to stop the escalating carnage and, we must not forget, brazen commission of war crimes.

It must be said, though, that a ceasefire on its own cannot build a sustainable peace. Achieving a sustainable peace requires justice and that requires a very long overdue recognition by the Israeli state and its backers in the West that Palestinians deserve the same rights and respect as everyone else, and that they have been and remain victims of a fundamental injustice. 

South Africa doesn’t seem to have much to teach the world these days given our massive problems with unemployment, violent crime, Eskom and all the rest. The only thing that we seem to be able to do well is rugby.

But we must remember that in the 1980’s we were a heavily militarized society, and many predicted a terrible civil war. Our negotiated transition, which required vision on both sides of our political divisions as well as the backing of the global powers, was not perfect. But it avoided a war and took us into a much better space. That sad fact that we have failed to redeem the promise of 1994 is on us, and in particular the ANC. 

We could have used that opportunity to much, much better effect. This means that South Africa – the South Africa that avoided a war and made a major political breakthrough – remains an example for the people stuck in the terrible crisis that is now resulting in the destruction of Gaza. This gives us a special moral responsibility to push for a ceasefire, and then for a just peace.

*Dr Buccus is editor of Al-Qalam.