Ending Israeli Apartheid Is the Only Path to Peace
The crucial context for the violence in Israel and Palestine is that the world’s longest occupation turned into a formal annexation, with not even the pretense of a process toward a Palestinian state. To achieve lasting peace, Israeli apartheid must end.
A view of destroyed buildings and debris in the al-Rimal neighborhood after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza Strip on October 10, 2023. (Ashraf Amra / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Things couldn’t stay as they were — and so, they didn’t. After almost a year of escalation, which was largely ignored by the international media despite near-daily death tolls, Israel and the Palestinian territories have erupted into a brutal and devastating war.
The political backdrop to this war was stark. After more than fifty years of pretense that the Palestinians would be permitted to have a state on the 1967 borders, the world’s longest occupation has turned into a formal process of annexation.
That shift was barely remarked upon by many of those now covering the violence. But it is, nonetheless, the single most important factor to understanding the war. It marked a historic turning point, which has been recognized by every faction in Israeli and Palestinian politics.
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