Unholy War in the Holy Land

Berk Berkeliev

TThe conflict between Israel and Palestine may be one of the most underreported and misunderstood geopolitical clashes of the last half-century. Ever since Britain’s decolonization of Palestine, the region has been defined by a struggle for both territorial and religious primacy. Seventy-four percent of the populations in the occupied Israel territory is Jewish, while 85 percent of the Palestinian land is Muslim.

Friday, January 27, a Palestinian gunman killed seven and injured at least three Israeli civilians outside a synagogue in Neve Yaakov, an Israeli settlement in the Northeastern part of Jerusalem. According to the police, the 21-year-old suspect was shot and killed after a brief chase, and over 40 people have now been arrested under suspicion of connection to the shooter.

Saturday, January 28, a separate attack left two wounded, after a 13-year-old boy opened fire just outside the Old City of Jerusalem. Police say that after being “neutralized” and taken into custody, the boy was also identified as a Palestinian.

In response to the two attacks, Israeli authorities have positioned officers from a counter-terrorism unit “permanently” in the Jerusalem area to “promptly respond to exceptional events whenever necessary.” Jerusalem is an internationally disputed territory between Israel and Palestine.

Many believe that the two shootings came as retaliation for Israel’s deadly raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on January 26. Ten Palestinians were killed, including an elderly woman, after dozens of Israeli soldiers attacked a house. In a separate incident that day, a 22-year-old Palestinian man was shot by Israeli forces in the town of al-Ram, north of Jerusalem. Israel had also launched multiple air attacks on the Gaza Strip overnight. Local sources in Gaza told Al Jazeera that Israeli warplanes hit the alMaghazi refugee camp in the center of the territory, with at least 13 attacks by the early hours of Friday.

When their story about One TWU’s event was published on February 16, Langley Advance Times was unable to receive comment from TWU’s administration, despite multiple attempts at reaching out. Mars’ Hill reached out to TWU administration for comment via email on February 17, February 21, and February 24 and via phone on February 22 and February 24. At the time of publication, we have received no statement from the university.

The conflict flared again, not even a month later, when Israeli forces raided an apartment building in the West Bank city of Nabluson on February 22, leaving 11 Palestinians dead and more than 80 hospitalized. The ages of the victims ranged from 16 to 72.

The Israeli army said that the raid was targeting suspected terrorists in a hideout apartment, while Palestinian official Hussein al Sheikh declared the event a “massacre” and called for “international protection of our people”. Israel has continuously sent raids and bombings to populated areas both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip due to what they call suspicions of terrorist hideouts and weapons manufacturing.

The White House has not been shy to express its strategic partnership with Israel, even selling them $735 million worth of weaponry in 2021. It then comes as no surprise that Western media has consistently favoured the side of Israel and has made out the Palestinians to seem like terrorists. But there is no innocent side in this war, with tens of thousands of lives being lost, the vast majority of which have been Palestinian. While numerous efforts have been made in the past half-century to stop this dispute, developments over the weekend of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day as well as the February 22 raid have surely added more fuel to the fire.

The Economist has called the conflict between Israel and Palestine the “unholy war of the holy land.”