Israel is at war and too wounded to withdraw from brutally retaliating upon the sieged Gaza. Close to 9,000 lives have been lost in Gaza as a result of the strikes, whereas Hamas, the self-proclaimed militia leader of the Palestinians, is unapologetic about the massacre of more than 1,400 Israelis on 7 October. Over 240 Israelis are still held hostage in Gaza, including infants, children, teenagers, and senior citizens. Ordinary Palestinians under occupation don’t have choices. Yet, Hamas has a choice to release the hostages and put an end to the loss of lives in Gaza. Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas official, said the responsibility to protect Gazans is of the United Nations or Israel according to the Geneva Convention because 75 per cent of them are refugees. Such is the irony of armed struggles, better-called madness — Hamas believes it won when it carried the surprise attack, shattering the invincibility of Israel.
Neither Israel nor Hamas will ultimately win this war. In his 1959 book Man, the State and the War, Kenneth Waltz, a doyen of international relations, wrote that no one can win a war because winning a war is like winning against an earthquake. It is a matter of relative degree of defeat for all, and the side that loses less often wears the facade of victory.
Peace between Israelis and Palestinians appears faint. Those vociferously pushing for it remain sidelined or are pushed further into a corner. And amid all the chaos lie two victims of the violence — the Palestinian flag and peace activist Vivian Silver.
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The flag — a symbol of resistance
The tricolour Palestinian flag (with a red triangle on the left) was adopted and popularised by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its chairman Yasser Arafat in 1964. Hamas, with a green flag of its own, neither endorses the popular Palestinian flag nor wears the Palestinian keffiyeh, the traditional headdress that came to be associated with Arafat and became a symbol of Palestinian struggle. Supporters of Hamas must consider these facts.
Moreover, the Palestinian flag has been commonly held by Israeli Jews and Arabs in Israeli universities and colleges at solidarity protests, marches, and conferences over the years. When Israel celebrates its foundation day, usually in May every year, various civil society groups and peace activists conduct a ceremony for Palestinians to commemorate Nakba, or the ‘catastrophe’ of 1948 when the Palestinians turned refugees.
The Right-wing government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, sought to end this culture in Israeli academia, which is known for its criticism of the occupation and many other excesses of the State. In June 2023, the government tabled a bill in the Israeli parliament to ban waving the Palestinian flag on campus. A month later, mainstream media in and out of Israel reported on the widespread protests by Israelis against the unilateral judicial reforms bill. The issue of the Palestinian flag did not get much attention outside of Israel.
Since 2012, when I came to Israel for PhD fieldwork, I have been watching the Palestinian flag on its university campuses as a strong pulse of the peace movement even after the failure of the Oslo Accords of 1993. Now, as a visiting faculty at Ben-Gurion University, I keenly follow the issue of the ban on waving the flag, as it concerns academic freedom and freedom of speech.
The heads of universities, collectively and individually, called the bill “fascistic” that will “turn academic institutions into branches of the Israeli Police and the Shin Bet”. Advocating for academic freedom and freedom of speech, they saw no harm in students and faculty of Israeli academia waving the Palestinian flag. Despite the fact that most higher education institutions in Israel are government-funded, university heads firmly stood their ground. The Netanyahu government had to put aside the bill.
“The Palestinian Authority is not an enemy state and is not a terror organisation. Waving the Palestinian flag is an act that is protected under freedom of expression. If we are to act according to this law, we would probably have to ban most of our students, who would rightly object to this form of oppression and will not hesitate to wave the Palestinian flag,” said professor Ariel Porat, president of Tel Aviv University.
The fact that Israeli universities defended the Palestinian flag on their campuses is significant in two ways — and it’s not just about freedom of expression. First, it is about the people who work and sacrifice a lot for the sake of peace at the grassroots level in Israeli society. To them, the unresolved conflict with the Palestinians cannot be an excuse for not having equal respect and support for their national ambitions. Second, it shows how Israeli government universities are independent enough to defy governments — something that we Indians could be envious of.
Hundreds of Israeli professors and students had been at the forefront of the general democratic protests against the Netanyahu government. That campaign is currently on break, as civilians are helping rehabilitate the people of the south of Israel who survived the 7 October massacre. Authorities announced that colleges would remain shut until December, as most of their students are called for military duty and may not return to study for weeks.
Also read: Why Israel must be seen as a sister democracy of India
Don’t miss the wood for the trees
Another victim of the ongoing war is the life and work of Vivian Silver, who has led one of Israel’s most famous peace movements called Women Wage Peace since 2014. She has also been working with a Palestinian women’s organisation called Women of the Sun. In countless marches and peace demonstrations in Israel, Silver held the Palestinian flag as she dedicated her life to the idea of peaceful co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians. Her home is in Kibbutz Be’eri in the south of Israel, where Hamas militants wreaked extreme violence on 7 October. Vivian, 74, is one of the over 240 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Political and ideological camps, and not only nation-states, are sharply divided on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Like the global Left, the Indian Left is erring in granting legitimacy and support to Hamas. The Indian Right, in awe of the air surgical strikes of the Modi government, does not get that Israel lacks peace, which hasn’t come yet with the retaliation-deterrence-revenge strategy practised for decades. It is important not to miss the wood for the trees. Violence for the sake of national liberation is as problematic as violence by a State in the name of national security.
Dr Khinvraj Jangid writes from Tel Aviv. He is Associate Professor and Director, Centre for Israel Studies, Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat. He is visiting faculty at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Views are personal.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)