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The war in Israel is not the war of my country, the Philippines, but I feel compelled to write something at this moment, because not doing so would be neglecting my duty as an intellectual to share my views with people who might find them useful. On one hand, it is my deep and sincere hope that Israel and Palestinian Hamas once and for all stop the violence for the welfare of their people.
The conflict between Hamas and Israel is rooted in history, and their claim on land. Both sides have used diplomacy and force to resolve their claims, but at the moment force is what remains to be visible. Because of too many casualties resulting from the fight of the past of these two sides (thousands of deaths, decades of fear, and hatred), the cycle of violence evolved into an unimaginable thing a civilized world did not wish to happen.
Being civilized means that we have the power to negotiate by words, this is what separates us from another form of species. By not negotiating by words and instead using force and violence we are becoming our old selves, an animal whose only way of deterrence is physical force. I can understand if a human uses physical force on an animal (let’s say a lion) who is threatening to attack since an animal does not understand the language of humans, but we humans understand each other verbally and non-verbally, and the last thing we should do is kill each other.
What Hamas did to Israel is intolerable; they killed and harmed thousands of Israeli people, and they instilled fear in Israeli civilians whose only wish is to live in peace – the people who did this to Israel must be captured and punished. For Palestinian civilians, they have the right to live: they are our fellow humans. Every human life is precious, Israel and Hamas has no license to take the lives of innocent people.
Israel and Palestine must talk, must forgive, and must forget - by forgetting I don’t mean that it must not be written in historical records. The Palestine government must assure Israel that it will handle Hamas and other extremist groups who resides in Palestinian territory with clear evidence; the Palestine government must return to Israel the hostages taken by Hamas, and in return, Israel must promise Palestine that it will stop the attack to Gaza and other Palestinian territory. Justice must be given for civilians of Israel and Palestine whose lives have been taken by war and violence.
Let me go back to the phrase that I said “forgive and forget”, others might say that, I can easily say this because we are not in the position of Israel and Palestine. The Philippines was in that position during World War 2; during the Bataan Death March an estimated more than 16,000 Filipino soldiers died in the hands of the Japanese; this is in the history records. We 'forgive' the Japanese people and right at this moment we are friends. We ‘forget’ in ways that we no longer bring out the death march conversation at the table. Because we understand that this is a thing of the past and that people make mistakes. And that everyone should move on and focus on nation building. In the end, the two conflicting parties must forgive and forget, and the stronger side must help the weaker side rebuild.
Everything I wrote here are my thoughts and does not represent the views of my country. May peace be with the world.
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