The ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel is above all a welcome relief for the Palestinians in Gaza who are suffering from a most brutal and horrific genocide. For 15 months, they endured daily bombings, killings, threats, imprisonment, starvation, disease and other hardships that are difficult for most people to imagine, let alone experience and survive.
The agreement will not come into force until at least Sunday, January 19, 2025, which is not coincidentally a day before Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States. While some attribute the deal’s success to the Trump administration’s unique ability to pressure Israel, it is essential to emphasize that Trump is a master of political theater and undoubtedly wanted Israel to agree. a ceasefire just before his inauguration so he can use this to strengthen his political capital. In other words, Trump did not pressure Netanyahu to accept the deal because he genuinely wants peace and order, or even because he is genuinely committed to the three phases of the agreement. Rather, it is likely that he acted out of personal political calculations aimed at improving his reputation and advancing his administration’s agenda.
We do not know what was said and agreed to behind closed doors between the Trump team and Israeli officials, but what we can be assured of is that the Trump administration is not interested in creating a fully sovereign Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, and is not against Israel’s plans to annex large swaths of the West Bank. In fact, some reports suggest that the Trump administration promised Netanyahu US support for the annexation of certain areas of the West Bank in exchange for his acceptance of the ceasefire agreement, which Israel may not even respected during the past phase 1. In this scenario, if this actually happens, Trump will get what he wants, which is a political victory, and Netanyahu will get what he wants, which is continued settlement. of Palestine.
The main reason for pessimism about this agreement is that the agreement does not guarantee phases 2 and 3, during which Israeli forces would completely withdraw from the Strip, displaced Palestinians would be allowed to return to all areas of the strip and the complete reconstruction of Gaza. Stripping would be undertaken.
It is important to emphasize that in 15 months of genocide, Gaza was reduced to ruins. Large parts of the strip are uninhabitable. People cannot simply return to razed neighborhoods, to buildings without running water, functioning sewage systems, or access to electricity and fuel; there are no schools, universities, clinics or hospitals to use, businesses to run, etc. The economic system has collapsed and the population is entirely dependent on foreign aid to survive. The disease is widespread and many silent killers, like toxins from Israeli bombs, circulate in Gaza’s atmosphere, soil and water. Families have been completely wiped out, others torn apart by Israel’s indiscriminate attack, and many children have been orphaned. Large numbers of people became debilitated and unable to provide for their families. It is not clear how a “normal” life will be possible for Palestinians after all this destruction.
Questions about the governance of the Gaza Strip also remain unclear at best, and there is certainly nothing in the agreement that addresses the main problem or that could lead to a long-term solution. The question of the long-term solution is very critical. The agreement, in the best case scenario, could end this specific genocidal operation, but it certainly says nothing about the heart of the problem: Israel’s structural genocide of the Palestinians.
The structural genocide of Palestinians, what Palestinians call the ongoing Nakba, does not just refer to one or two specific events of genocide such as the 1948 Nakba or this genocidal assault on Gaza, but rather to a colonial structure of genocide which seeks to eliminate Palestinian sovereignty. ending the Palestinian right of return to their land, expelling Palestinians from more of their land, and claiming exclusive Israeli-Jewish sovereignty from the river to the sea. This structure of genocide operates through various methods of elimination and expulsion.
A genocidal operation like the one the world has witnessed and continues to witness in Gaza, which involves physical massacres, mass displacement and massive destruction that renders the land uninhabitable, is obviously one of these instruments, but this is not the only one. There are also progressive displacements and expulsions; prevention of economic development and creation of economic dependence; the erasure of Palestinian history and culture; the fragmentation of the Palestinian population; the denial of the rights, freedoms and dignity of those living under occupation, so that they feel pressured to leave; political obstruction of Palestinian sovereignty, etc.
The real question then becomes: can a ceasefire, even if it goes through all three phases, put an end to this structural genocide? The answer is clearly no, because none of these other instruments of Israeli structural genocide are addressed in the ceasefire agreement.
This structural genocide must be continually denounced, denounced and fought. As long as Israel’s colonial project remains hidden or downplayed in diplomatic and public discourse, the central problem will persist unabated, and we will return to this moment of absolute horror and indescribable suffering, even assuming we obtain a meaningful reprieve thanks to this ceasefire agreement. Without serious and sustained pressure on the Israeli state, without the economic and political isolation of the Israeli state by states and institutions around the world until Israeli settler colonialism is dismantled, we will find ourselves caught in the trap of a perpetual structure of genocide, of a pressure cooker which will eventually find release in an even greater war of total annihilation. For the international community, this is not the time to rejoice or self-congratulate, but rather to take serious political and economic measures against Israel in order to end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in all its forms.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.