Seven months after the start of the war in Gaza, Elias Sanbar, former Palestinian ambassador to UNESCO, essayist and French translator of the poet Mahmoud Darwish, delivers his analysis of the political and military dynamics at work in Israel and in the occupied territories. He has just published, with Gallimard, “The Last War? »: Palestine, October 7, 2023 – April 2, 2024in the “Tracts” collection (nᵒ 56, 48 pages, 3.90 euros).
Already seven months of war in Gaza. What began as a retaliatory operation following the terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, has transformed into a massacre of staggering proportions, which nothing seems to be able to stop. How do you interpret this war?
This war can be approached as a “return to square one”, radically distinct from all Israeli-Arab wars, because it returns to the original war between the Palestinian people and the Jewish community in Palestine. Described, rightly, as “civil” by some historians, this war goes from the vote on the plan to partition Palestine by the UN, on November 29, 1947, to the entry into war of the Arab armies, on May 15, 1948. , the day after Israel’s declaration of independence.
What are the characteristics of this tête-à-tête between the two historical protagonists of the conflict?
I see three. The fighting pits Palestinians and Jews against each other only, the war takes place over the entire territory of historic Palestine, within the borders of British Mandate Palestine, and it contains an existential dimension for both parties, because the presence of one or the other in Palestine will depend on the outcome of the fighting. The essentials of the Nakba [« catastrophe », en arabe, l’expulsion de près de 800 000 Palestiniens] took place during these five and a half months. Israel has always hidden the fact that on May 15, 1948, the day the first Arab soldier entered Palestine, Palestinians were already refugees. An essential omission to present our expulsion as the consequence of Arab aggression. On May 15, 1948, another story began.
In what way is the war underway since October 7 also existential, twin to this first war of 1947-1948?
A game of chess began on October 7, launched by a war crime committed by Hamas, to which, for almost seven months, a terrifying succession of war crimes committed by the Israeli army. The Hamas attack aimed to force Israel into Gaza and become mired there. The Islamist movement wanted to break with the pattern of previous wars (2008-2009, 2012, 2014, 2021), which failed to change the balance of power.
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