My friend, Saeed Dahshan, martyred by Israel

This morning, I lost one of my dearest friends, Dr. Said Dahshan, as a result of a crazy Israeli airstrike on the neighbourhood where he lived in the Gaza Strip. The airstrike claimed his life, as well as the lives of his mother, his wife, his son, his two daughters, his brother’s family, and some of the neighbours.

My friend Said, or rather, my friend “the martyr” Said, was specialised in international law. He left behind a collection of books, with “How to Sue Israel” being the foremost among them. It is as if he left us with a testament to seek justice from this criminal state and for the families of the Palestinian people.

Said, who still had faith in this international system that, unfortunately, has proven its failure over 75 years of Palestine’s occupation, applauded Israel as it destroyed entire residential areas, cut off water, electricity, fuel, food and internet, and targeted the only passage that allows Palestinians to travel abroad – the Rafah crossing. All of this was done with the blessing of the United States and the West.

Not content with this level of criminality, they obtained a license to kill from the American administration, which sent aircraft carriers to the region as if it were entering a third world war. They shamelessly sided with the Occupation, propagated its lies and flooded the media with demonisation and the dehumanisation of the Palestinian people, justifying the massacres. For instance, the statement made by President Joe Biden about the resistance cutting off children’s heads and raping women, which was later proven to be false, and the subsequent denial by the White House. The consequences of granting this license to kill will be unbearable for the European countries and the United States.

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We are now witnessing a rapid increase in oil prices, while the security situation in the region is deteriorating rapidly. This worsening economic situation, which becomes more challenging over time, will have an impact on the region, as well as the European and global economy, which have already suffered greatly from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The “West”, still haunted by the arrogance of power and colonial thinking, believes it can bypass the rights of the Palestinian people. It has reached a state of complete bankruptcy because its agreements have failed to reach a fair solution for the Palestinian people. Through international institutions, it has worked to ignore and erode these rights, including the two-state solution and the Oslo Accords, which led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. This Authority has been ignored and has become meaningless, with no role in any event.

The arrival of the American aircraft carrier to the region and Western incitement will push towards an accelerated polarisation of the international community and the emergence of new alliances that reinforce what the Russian-Ukrainian war has started. We have seen this in the Russian and Chinese positions, especially in the Security Council, which refused to condemn the Resistance and called for a two-state solution.

What has happened represents a collapse of the Zionist project and the gamble on it because it marks a collapse in the role played by the Zionist state, which the West portrayed as militarily, technologically and economically superior. It has proved that this superiority is nothing more than a bubble. It has dealt a blow to normalisation, especially with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is now in a position where it cannot even consider normalisation. I had previously written and predicted that it would be difficult for Saudi Arabia to move towards normalisation.

What happened has brought the issue back to before 1948, at a moment when Israel believed it had eliminated any possibility of relinquishing any part of the land it occupied in 1967, thus diminishing the Palestinian people’s chances of establishing their State. The entry of the Palestinian Resistance into the Occupied Territories brought the issue back.

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The Israeli occupation, and the Western powers behind it, believed that the Israeli aggression, disregard for the rights of the Palestinian people and the blockade of Gaza would lead to self-restraint and a weakening of Palestinian awareness. However, what is happening has proven the failure of this theory. The more the blockade intensifies, the more the Palestinian people innovate and develop their resistance methods. According to the Israeli occupation’s own admission, the majority of Hamas’ weapons are locally manufactured in the Gaza Strip.

Where will this savage offensive lead? Will it be able to change the situation and defeat the Palestinian people or will it follow the pattern of previous bloody attacks that targeted civilians, only to discover that the Resistance grows stronger and more determined?

Attacks against civilians and residential areas indicate the bankruptcy of the international system politically, militarily and strategically. We will see Arab countries, which have been historically associated with the Palestinian cause, paying a high price for their empty words and deviation from the Palestinian position. Anyone who succumbs to American pressure will pay the price with the future of their nation and the stability of the region.

Ignoring the Palestinian people will lead to an international and regional war, and we can already see its signs, with the arrival of aircraft carriers in the region. There will be no solution except through recognising the right of the Palestinian people to their independent State, with Jerusalem as its capital.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.