Liberating Spaces

If you have followed the international news lately, you may know that Israel in an agreement with Hamas has accepted to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for the release of the soldier Gilad Shalit. This morning Hamas, Egypt – the mediator – and Israel have confirmed that Shalit is in Egypt.

So 1,000 prisoners for one soldier? At first, it seems that Hamas has won this one. If we count it in numbers. But actually they have lost it. With this agreement they have reinforced the idea that one Israeli soldier, that is, one Israeli life, is worth at least 1,000 Palestinian lives. It is this kind of statements that are at the base of the conflict between both countries/people. This time Israel has done the right thing and ultimately its government is showing that they care for one life of theirs, much worth it, in their eyes, than 1,000 of the others. In the meantime, besides the joy of the families of the released and that the freedom of one human being is always good news, politically this agreement may be just one step more in no direction.

I heard about the indiscriminate killing of activists on a boat bringing aid to Gaza by the Israeli army when I was in Paris a couple of days ago. I obviously felt concerned by the people on the boat, but the first thing I thought was “what a mistake!”. Israel’s relationships in the region would not probably be a case study for a guidebook on good neighbourly relations. In fact, the only country with which Israel had until now relatively good relations was Turkey, the relationship with Egypt and Jordan being more ambiguous, and with the rest (i.e. Lebanon and Syria) being “unfriendly”. Turkey and Israel signed in 1996 a military cooperation agreement and later a 20-year deal for water transfers from Turkey to Israel. Now the relation is on the verge of breaking.

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