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The current developments in the region point towards a kind of re-formulation of the prevailing situation in the Middle East. First, there were the Palestinian protests ‘Marches of Return’ from Gaza Strip and the massacres of the marchers by Israeli troops deployed along the border in 11 battalions with the besieged Strip. The protests launched, among other goals, aimed to condemn Israel’s ten-year blockade of Gaza.
Second, the US inaugurated its embassy (indeed its ‘colony’) in occupied Jerusalem to meet the “promise” made by the US President Donald Trump, despite international condemnation and deep concern over the violation of international legitimacy and the stability of the regional situation.
Third, the ongoing storming of Al Aqsa Mosque has antagonised the Palestinians more than any other measure since the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967; especially when the Israeli flag was raised by the Jewish colonisers during celebrations of the socalled Israeli ‘Day of Unification of Jerusalem’.
A fourth prominent development came with the broad tension between Iran, the US and Israel particularly in the Syrian arena, which is likely to escalate in the region as a whole.
In response to the massacres in the Gaza Strip, the occupying Israeli state claimed that it was defending itself in the context of its usual claim of “existential threat to the state”. But on the ground there appears confusion, if not fear, of everything that happened and will happen. The dilemma for Israel is that losing control of Gaza Strip means it will have a snowballing effect that will turn graver and ever larger as it moves towards the West Bank and the 1948 Palestine. With the current state of partial attrition of the Israeli occupying forces and deployment of regular troops along the tensed northern Syrian-Lebanese front, the snowballing effect is indeed rolling and getting bigger across historic Palestine and the region as well.
Neither the inauguration ceremony of the US embassy, nor the speeches delivered drew the attention of the world which was preoccupied with the massacres in the Gaza Strip that called for a global reaction to Israel’s thoughtless killing of the defenceless Palestinian protesters. Israel sought to make a successful ceremony of the transfer of the US embassy to encourage other countries to follow suit. But countries around the world soon condemned the “unwarranted Israeli violence” as Israeli snipers continued to target peaceful protesters, journalists and medical teams as well as other Gazans who had converged on the border area.
It was only the US who moved to blame Hamas and the innocent Palestinian protesters for the massacres. Moreover, the US blocked a UN Security Council draft statement voicing outrage at the
■ Professor As’ad Abdul Rahman is the chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopaedia.