The author and human rights activist on why a future Palestinian state is further away than ever.
Raja Shehadeh, a prominent author and human rights activist, reflects on the devastating cycle of violence between Israel and Gaza, particularly the five major Israeli attacks over the past 16 years. The most recent conflict, which erupted on October 7, 2023, after Hamas’s attack on Israel, has surpassed previous wars in both scale and impact. In this war, around 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed, and 240 hostages were taken.
Shehadeh critiques Israel’s failure to take responsibility for the destruction it has caused in Gaza. He highlights that, despite numerous attacks on the besieged region, Israel has not been held accountable for the damages and losses inflicted on Gaza’s people and infrastructure. There was one instance of compensation—$10.5 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in 2010 for damages to its buildings during an earlier operation—but this is an exception rather than the rule.
This ongoing failure to compensate, combined with Israel’s repeated military strikes, has allowed the cycle of destruction to continue with little international accountability. Shehadeh emphasizes that this lack of accountability and the lack of meaningful consequences for Israel’s actions have contributed to the prolonged suffering of Palestinians, further delaying any prospect of a viable, independent Palestinian state.
