“Where do you live?” I ask my landlord after a while. It’s 2011, and I’m studying political history in Jerusalem for a semester. I rent a small apartment from an optometrist wearing a kippah. He doesn’t mention his hometown, saying only, “I live a few kilometers east of Jerusalem.”
Everything in Israel is political, who you are and where you live, above all. “Just a few kilometers east of Jerusalem” is the West Bank. My landlord is a settler. And since everything in this country is political, that means that, through the rent I pay him, I am indirectly financing the occupation of Palestinian territory.
I don’t dare ask him why he would want to live there. Maybe he is an opportunist who was able to buy a nice house cheaply with the help of the Israeli government. Maybe he is a staunch settler who believes that Israel has a historical and religious right to settle in the West Bank. Maybe he doesn’t even care if Palestinian homes or lives have been destroyed as a result. Maybe there are other reasons that I don’t understand either.
Thirteen years later, I am living in The Hague, the “international city of peace and justice.” Here, in the Peace Palace, the International Court of Justice concluded last Friday that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal, that it must end as soon as possible, and that the Palestinians are entitled to compensation for the damage suffered.
I see less and less perspective
The Court also states that Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are structurally discriminated against on the basis of race, religion or ethnic origin. Nothing that I did not know, see or hear during my visits to the West Bank, but still: never before has the Court ruled so clearly on this issue.
I hope it will make a difference, but I fear the worst. Twenty years ago, the Court also ruled that settlements were illegal. In the years since, Israel has built more settlements than ever before. Some seven hundred thousand settlers now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Moreover, the capture of the occupied West Bank continues apace.
I think of the optometrist and wonder what he sees when he looks out of the window. I see less and less perspective. For a two-state solution to be achieved, there must be one state left, besides Israel. Gaza has been destroyed, East Jerusalem and the West Bank are nothing more than a piece of cheese thanks to illegal settlements. And who should govern the Palestinian territories?
As long as Netanyahu and his political supporters are in power and maintain sufficient international support, Israel will not care about the “advice” from the Peace Palace and there will be no Palestinian state.
Last week, a majority in the Israeli parliament even voted against the two-state solution for the first time in history. Add to this the fact that Geert Wilders proclaimed in X that Jordan is the only real Palestinian state, and you know: Palestinians are moving further and further away from home.
Eveline van Rijswijk is a historian, presenter and columnist and will replace Kelli van der Waals this summer.