Israel and Palestine: Is It a Conflict Or Ethnic Cleansing?

With recent events between Israel and Palestine, many people, including activists, organisations and politicians have raised the question of ethnic cleansing perpetuated by Israel on Palestinian people.

Firstly, for a more comprehensive explanation of what is happening in Israel and Palestine, you should refer to this article.

Is It A Conflict?

The ‘conflict’ between Israel and Palestine seems to be surrounded by a controversial discourse, one that many have described as ‘complicated’ or ‘confusing.’ Many activists that support ‘Free Palestine’ have stated that what is happening in Israel and Palestine is not a conflict, but even among those that are pro-Palestine, they still refer to it as a conflict. A survey found that 69.23 per cent of people consider it a conflict, while 30.77 per cent disagree. However, a large number of those who agreed it was a conflict, still had conflictions about it. One respondent said:

“It is a conflict, albeit a very one-sided one (…) There is a clear invasive aggressor (Israel), although I would suggest that this is the case in almost all conflicts. The problem is that western media often portrays it as either a blow-for-blow war, or Hamas being the aggressors.” Another respondent said:

“Erasure of people in which the aggressor (Israel) is backed by multiple government superpowers can not be considered a ‘conflict’ when one side has such obvious superiority.”

Many leading pro-Palestine activists and their related organisations have spoke about the importance of language when discussing Israel and Palestine. How we talk about Israel and Palestine can shape a person’s views on the situation. For example, if we use the word ‘riot’ instead of ‘protest’ and vice versa, that will change the way it is perceived. Calling it a conflict implies both sides have equal power, which isn’t the case for Palestine.

Israel has continued to respond with disproportionate violence, which has left thousands of Palestinian people including children dead. It has also resulted in one of the biggest refugee crises, with around seven million Palestinian refugees. Israel has one of the most powerful and modernised military forces, the Israel Defense Force (IDF), whereas Palestine does not have a land army, nor an air force.

The Slow Factory, a non-profit organisation, said:

“A conflict means there is equal footing, which is not the case (in Palestine).

"What is happening is settler colonisation, military occupation, land theft, and ethnic cleansing.

“There is an active oppressor (Israel) and an oppressed (Palestine). A coloniser (Israel) and a colonised (Palestine).”

There are many other examples of how the mainstream media missuses the language they chose when talking about Israel and Palestine, such as referring to Israeli forces removing Palestinian people by force and threat from their homes as an ‘eviction.’ The same survey found that just under 55 per cent of Scottish people disagreed that Western media accurately and fairly reports on Israel and Palestine.

In an Instagram poll, 73 per cent of people (predominately from the age group 18 to 30) believe that they will not see a peace agreement between Palestine and Israel in their lifetime– with 27 per cent agreeing they will see a peace agreement.

Many solutions and proposals of peace agreements have been discussed, but a majority of people believe this will continue to last an extremely long time. The most discussed solutions are the One-State and Two-State solution. Again, the debate around Israel and Palestine is so divided that this is hard to discuss and many are losing hope.

Is Israel Committing Ethnic Cleansing?

Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal or extermination of ethnic, racial and/or religious groups from a given area, often with the intent of making a region ethnically homogenous.

The same survey found that 69.23 per cent of people consider what Israel is doing as ethnic cleansing – with 30.77% disagreeing. One respondent commented:

“There are many factors as to why I believe Israel is committing ethnic cleansing against Palestinians. One of them being the fact that Israel refuses to allow any Palestinian refugees to return back to their homes – but Israel continues to strongly encourage Jewish people from other countries (such as France, UK, US) to live in Israel. They (Israel) have continually stated the reason for this is because they want Israel to be Jewish – meaning no Arabs or Muslims. Israeli settlers (a lot of these settlements are illegal) continue to force Palestinians out their homes – homes that have been lived in for generations."

To quote a viral video of an Israeli-American settler who was stealing a Palestinians families home: “If I don’t steal it (your home), someone else will steal it.”

The Human Rights Watch has classified the crimes committed by Israeli authorities against Palestinian people as apartheid. This report was brought out in March 2021. In this report HRW states:

“Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”

The same survey found that 46.15 per cent of people consider Israel to be an apartheid state and 38.46 per cent answered 'not sure.' One respondent said:

"Completely separated and marginalised from their home nation. Palestinians are living in what cannot be anything but an apartheid state."