A clarion call amidst the clamour of war
The world has been watching the genocide underway in Gaza, already reeling from the illegal land, air and naval blockade imposed by Israel since 2007. After the shocking events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched terror strikes against the Jewish communities on the Gaza border, which claimed about 1200 lives and took 251 hostages, a disproportionately violent response was elicited from Israel.
The unrelenting waves of warfare led to the deaths of around 45,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians and children, saw many more injured, much of the Gaza strip reduced to rubble and its entire populace forcibly displaced from their homes, relegated to refugee status. For those struggling to grapple with the complex geopolitical realities that have led to this humanitarian crisis, Stanly Johny’s Original Sin: Israel, Palestine, and the Revenge of Old West Asia is a timely guide that helps one connect the dots.
Based on his travels, interviews, research and observations of ground reality as an International Affairs Editor with over a decade’s experience, Johny’s book attempts to trace the roots of this conflict, identify the main players in this foreign affairs nightmare and outline India’s evolving equation with Israel and Palestine.
With a reporter’s clear-eyed yet empathetic gaze, he takes the reader back in time to key moments in history when the seeds for the present conflict were sown. Over a century ago, the Balfour Declaration was signed, with the British promising the Zionists a country in Palestine where the Arab natives made up over 90 per cent of the population. This had a seismic effect, the reverberations of which are felt to the present day, Johny points out.
After World War II, the United Nations called for the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. The Arabs rejected this, as 55 per cent of Palestine had been handed over to the Jews along with the fertile coastal region. At the end of the 1948 war, Israel controlled 75 per cent of Palestine, including West Jerusalem, having defeated four Arab countries. For Palestinians, it was Al-Nakba—the catastrophe, as roughly 7,50,000 former inhabitants were violently dislodged and scattered by Zionist militias. In the six-day war of 1967, Israel captured all of Palestine and never gave it back, despite stiff resistance and armed conflict over the years.
Johny’s wry observations acquaint the reader with the political skullduggery and Machiavellian manoeuvring that resulted in the Ottoman Empire (including Palestine) being carved up between Britain and France after WWII and the disgraceful protocol of Sevres, where Israel, Britain, and France colluded against Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, resulting in the transfer of Western influence in the region from the Europeans to the Americans.
He also exposes the ‘myth of Arab unity’ with the Palestinian cause, making it clear that nationalistic interests, ambition and sectarian fault lines usually trump ideology and brotherhood. It is also apparent that even the so-called legitimate and recognised official bodies representing the Palestinians may be corrupt and self-serving, content to make moving speeches in international forums and pocket funds that keep pouring in from sympathisers while allowing the situation to deteriorate.
The profiles of the heads of state involved in this hot spot as well as key figures amongst the non-state actors such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad etc. carefully constructed by Johny make for riveting reading.
The roles played by Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and of course, the United States of America in this crisis as outlined by Johny is most telling: ‘The United States, which is otherwise very vocal about human rights violations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, always overlooks allegations of war crimes levelled against Israel, even when they are backed by UN investigations.’
The author can take a bow because The Original Sin is that brave book that emphatically reports the truth as it is without kowtowing to higher powers seeking to establish a narrative that actively endorses genocide.