Emeritus professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, Bichara Khader (Zababdeh, Palestine, 1944) maintains that the Palestinians have “a just cause, the liberation of their lands, and the worst lawyers: Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.” Author of more than thirty books and collaborator of the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), Khader condemns in an interview with La Vanguardia both the “terrorist nature” of the “horrific” Hamas attack and the martyrdom to which Israel is subjecting the 2, 2 million Gazans.
How did you feel when you heard about the massacre caused by Hamas?
I was plunged into great perplexity, consternation, contemplation and concern. Dismay at the terrorist nature of the attack, with dead civilians and hostages of all ages. Consideration for the ease with which it was produced in the most protected area in the world. And concern, confusion and concern about the tragic consequences for our people, already too martyred; for the region, due to the risk of expansion of the conflict and its social turbulence, and for security in the Mediterranean space due to a possible involvement of external actors, the spillover of violence in Palestine and in other scenarios or the instrumentalization of the Palestinian problem by regional or international actors, or by political parties in Europe.
He speaks of tragic consequences for his people...
Israel is tormenting Gaza and its 2.2 million inhabitants, of whom 75% are children of refugees expelled from their land in 1947 and 1948 when the State of Israel was created. As of today, there are more than 6,500 dead, 50% women and children, and more than 22,000 injured. The images of hundreds of children buried under the rubble of their homes tear and destroy my heart. How is it possible that the army that prides itself on being a “moral army” is killing entire families, with children and women. How is it possible that the Western community authorizes Israel to commit war crimes, punishing the entire population of Gaza, resorting to methods of ethnic cleansing and behaving like those it intends to combat. Israel has become the sacred territory of Westerners' guilty conscience for the Holocaust.
Why has Hamas carried out this massacre knowing that the consequences would be terrible?
I think that the radicalization of Hamas became more visible after four Israeli military offensives since 2007, with trails of destruction and deaths. But the constitution of the current Israeli Government has been the last straw. The repression in the West Bank has left more than 200 young people dead in 2023. The settlers multiplied their acts of vandalism with the approval of the army and the ultra-Orthodox redoubled their incursions into the esplanade of the Mosques. Gaza besieged and the West Bank sealed shut. While Netanyahu and his extremist ministers denied the existence of the Palestinian people, rejected the two-state formula and considered the Oslo process buried. Hamas wanted to not only demonstrate that Palestine cannot be put under a glass bell, but also that it is an unavoidable actor on the Middle East board. Other triggers are the normalization project between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which Hamas wanted to derail, the weakness of the Palestinian Authority, which Hamas wanted to denounce in the perspective of a generational change, and the complicity of the West with Israel by turning a blind eye to its violations of international law. Now, with its heinous attack, Hamas may have signed its death as the ruling institution in Gaza.
What are you afraid of happening now?
I see three hypotheses: apocalyptic, pessimistic and optimistic. The apocalyptic hypothesis would be a second nakba with the transfer-expulsion of the Palestinian population from Gaza to Egypt. The pessimistic hypothesis is plausible: after the destruction of Gaza and the dismantling of Hamas institutions, Israel concentrates its army in the West Bank, intensifies its repression, consolidates its colonization and subjects the West Bank to strict control. This hypothesis carries an existential danger for Palestinians, who could lose all hope of a dignified life and become radicalized.
And the optimistic hypothesis?
It is based on an ethical awakening in Israeli society, a conviction that it will have security when Palestinians can live with dignity, an awareness in the West that Israel cannot benefit from automatic impunity, and a conviction, on the part of the EU, that Israel's colonial policy endangers its Mediterranean policies. A return to the negotiation processes on the parameters of the peace process would be proposed with the aim of launching a Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital.
75 years after the nakba, what future do you think awaits the Palestinian people?
Palestinians have a bitter sense of great loneliness: they have a just cause, the liberation of their lands, and the worst advocates: Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Even worse, Arab countries normalized their relations with the Israeli occupier, while the West turned a blind eye and looked towards Ukraine or China, leaving Israel to manage the status quo in the Palestinian Territories. At this point, I do not see a quick way out of the quagmire without a new generation of Palestinian leaders capable of thinking the unthinkable: resuming the strategic initiative, gaining the trust of the Palestinian people, strengthening the field of peace in Israel, rekindling the flame of solidarity of Arab and Western civil societies and appeal to respect for international law.
And the Arab countries?
The Gaza tragedy highlights the divisions between Arab states, the fallacy and ineffectiveness of the Arab League and its lack of influence in the international system. Now, tragedy can provide an opportunity for peace. Thus, Arab countries could take advantage of the crisis to promote a new strategy led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt and based on the Saudi initiative of 2002 with the support of the United States, Europe, China and Russia; Israel must be integrated into the Arab regional system because it cannot live with its back to the region.
There is a danger of escalation...
The contagion potential of the Israeli offensive in Gaza is enormous. A regional escalation may occur if Hizbullah, a franchise of Iran in Lebanon, considers that the genocide in Gaza has gone too far and decides to open a new front. This hypothesis is plausible. The response from Israel and the United States would be overwhelming. That is why I think that the devastating and destabilizing power of the conflict in Gaza is greater than the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If Israel and States decide to attack Iran, how would Russia and China, allies of the Tehran regime, react? What would happen in the Gulf countries, in Iraq and Syria? It is an uncomfortable and worrying unknown.
