The history of ceasefire agreements signed between Israel and its neighbors begins in February of 1949 when the newly established State of Israel signed armistice agreements with Egypt, Jordan – also newly created states, Lebanon and Syria. All the agreements say more or less the same things, the main differences being the boundaries as they were determined between Palestine and the various other countries. All of the agreements state that their purpose is:
“Promoting the return of permanent peace in Palestine.” These agreements were negotiated in the presence of international parties and based on various relevant United Nations resolutions. No Palestinian representatives were party to any of the agreements, and no agreement was ever signed with any Palestinian party.
Although Palestinians were the victims of the Zionist aggression, they were not present. In fact, one can say that these agreements between Israel and the Arab countries surrounding Palestine were an essential part of the plan to legitimize the new owners of Palestine, who now were de facto recognized by the Arab countries.
The agreements state very clearly that neither side should attack the other and what type of forces each side was permitted to keep near the borders. However, as we know all too well, Israel violated these agreements; its forces entered the territories of the other signatories, and ultimately, Israel took lands when and where it saw fit.
Today, some seventy-five years after these and many other agreements were signed and then violated by Israel, we hear about yet more ceasefire agreements. The claim made by those who call for yet another ceasefire agreement is that it may bring some relief to the people of Gaza, who are victims of genocide. However, after a history of eight decades, it is time to stop accommodating Israel and aiming at short-term agreements that provide little relief and end the murder of Palestinians by Israel.
Such an end can only be made with a permanent political solution. It is no longer an agreement with Israel but one that creates a new political reality where Palestinians are free and independent and can determine their own fate in their homeland, Palestine. A problem that some see with this proposition is that it means the dismantling of the State of Israel. Well, it is time for us to get used to this.
For almost eight decades, Israeli governments, elected by the Israeli people, have shown that there are three characteristics of the Zionist state that make its further existence impossible. Those three are the fact that it is an apartheid regime, that it is engaged in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and that it is engaged to continue to perpetrate a genocide of the Palestinian people.
During the genocide of the Jewish and other people by the Nazis during World War Two, negotiations for a ceasefire would have been grossly inappropriate and unacceptable. Today, in Palestine, after seventy-five years of gross violations of international and humanitarian laws and violations of agreements signed, it is time for a political solution that will guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people to safety and security and will guarantee full equality to all people who reside within the boundaries of historic Palestine. This can only be achieved once the apartheid regime known as the State of Israel is dismantled and a free and democratic Palestine is established in its place.
Miko Peled is a MintPress News contributing writer, published author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem. His latest books are”The General’s Son. Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” and “Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.”