PROTESTS IN THE WEST BANK. Hamas supporters in the West Bank city of Hebron bemoaned Israel’s assault on Gaza and clashed with Israeli troops last November 16, 2012. Photo by Mamoun Wazwazi/APA.
ON NOVEMBER 14, 2012, the Hamas military commander of the Gaza Strip Ahmed Jabari was killed in his car in an air strike conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces. This marked the beginning of the weeklong Operation Pillar of Defense, another upsurge in the decades-old Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Two weeks later, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization declared its intent to continue enriching uranium that might be used for nuclear weapon production. According to CNN, such weapons might find their way into the hands of Hamas leaders in Gaza.
The Palestinian question
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict forms a part of the wider modern Arab–Israeli conflict, which grew with Zionism and Arab nationalism in the early 2oth century. Emboldened by the Holocaust and widespread anti-Semitism, Zionism is a Jewish movement seeking the reclamation of the Jews’ biblical homeland of Israel. However, this homeland is also considered a religious and historical territory that must be defended by Muslim Arabs in fulfillment of jihad.
When the British Mandate that ruled over Palestine ended in 1948, what took over was the United Nations (UN) Partition Plan. With the exception of Jerusalem, this plan divided Palestine between the Arabs and the Jews. The plan gave the latter autonomy within what is now called the State of Israel. Meanwhile, the statehood of the Arab share of Palestine remained a big question.
At the losing end of the bargain, Arab Palestinians felt that their freedom was curtailed. They acted on the offensive against the Israelis, who in turn then had to fight for security.
The Arab Spring
Engulfed in its own civil war is Egypt, which in the past has been repeatedly implicated and involved in the Arab–Israeli disputes. Current political strife in Egypt began when President Mohamed Morsi issued an edict that exempted his decrees from judicial review on November 22, 2012, a day after the Hamas–Israel ceasefire was brokered. This gradually led to his approved legislation of martial law on December 8, 2012.
Meanwhile, the friction between the Sunnis and the ruling Shi’ites in Syria stokes the rebellion against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Syrians have taken to the streets since March 15, 2011. They are determined not to retreat until the incumbent Ba’ath Party, ruling for nearly five decades, is ousted. According to UN’s estimate this January, some 60,000 Syrians have been killed overall.
Both civil uprisings mentioned are part of the Arab Spring, a chain of wars and protests in the Arab World since December 2010.
Ateneo Political Science Lecturer Millard Lim shares that the region’s growing unrest signals “that domestic regime incumbents can no longer govern without the consent or at least the tolerance of the governed, unlike before.”
Quelling violence, explains Lim, requires constant vigilance, promotion of law and order and respect for human rights. In addition, there should be a balanced and growing economy. “Moderates in power, plus marginalization of extremists, plus good governance, equals absence of conflict,” he postulates.
Ripples
Unrest in the volatile region has had a significant impact on the world’s economy. As of 2011, the Middle East accounts for 66% of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ oil reserves. Generally, oil prices tend to rise along with tension and conflict. At the height of the Egyptian revolution in January 2011, oil prices went up to $100 a barrel again after more than two years.
As for the Philippines, it goes beyond oil. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration records that 61% of overseas Filipino workers were deployed in the Middle East as of 2010. Remittances sent home from the region amounted to $2.9 billion.
Thus, protecting the lives of more than 600,000 Filipinos takes precedence in the list of the Philippine government’s agenda in the region.
At the height of the Iraq War in 2004, Angelo dela Cruz, a truck driver working with the American military, was held hostage for 17 days. His captors threatened to behead him if the Philippine government did not pull out its 51 soldiers and police officers that were part of the US-led “coalition of the willing” fighting in Iraq.
Then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo succumbed to such demands, riling the United States and other countries for reneging on the country’s supposed international commitments. However, this proved to be a popular decision among Filipinos.
The Dela Cruz affair was a pivotal point in Philippine foreign policy, one that echoes tremendously today.
“Strategic silence”
Despite the US-based aid agency International Rescue Committee’s description of the situation in Syria as a “staggering humanitarian crisis,” the Philippines has chosen to take the so-called position of “strategic silence” during crucial votes in the UN denouncing the continuing bloodbath.
Department of Foreign Affairs Spokesman and Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez tells The GUIDON that “the security situation is escalating” and that “the violence is increasing.”
“Our position has been to focus on the safety of our people rather than the political repercussions and implications of the problem in Syria,” explains Hernandez.
Such is reflective of how the Philippine delegation to the UN Human Rights Council was the only delegation in absentia during a vote last June 1, 2012, aimed at condemning the human rights violations in Syria. In similar votes on July 6 and September 28 of the same year, the Philippines abstained.
Several groups voiced out their dismay over the country’s position. In a Philippine Daily Inquirer article entitled “Philippines scored for ‘empty chair’ at UN meet on Syria” published last June 5, 2012, Human Rights Watch Asia researcher Carlos Conde said that “the Philippines should be working with other countries to end the atrocities.”
For Hernandez, however, the Philippine government’s strategy is working. “We think that there are about nearly 8,000 of our people in Syria and we have already repatriated about 3,310 since that time and we will continue doing that. We will do everything possible to get them out of harm’s way,” he explains.
Such an act on the part of the Philippines suggests what kind of puzzle the Middle East crisis has become. Humanitarian aid is not necessarily an easy option for countries, especially when national interest is at stake. But as this debate remains, it seems that the status quo is here to stay.
