Palestine and Pakistan
This paper asks you to compare two very long running campaigns of terrorist violence: Palestinian violence against Israel and insurgent terrorism in Kashmir. In both cases the violence has persisted so long that different groups have entered the picture, each claiming to represent their communities and as a result the overall political cause seems to have been lost. The violence now seems to be self-perpetuating, or at least to serve different ends—the ends of different groups within each political community rather than of the communities as whole. With this in mind, answer the following in a well-argued essay: Are the various Palestinian groups fighting Israel for the purpose of Palestinian statehood and the jihadi groups fighting in Kashmir truly fighting for the political communities they claim to represent, or have they become sidetracked by organizational motivations? If so, what kind of agenda are these groups serving now? To what extent have they lost sight of their political goals and instead become bogged down in inter-group rivalries or criminal activities? Have other actors such as state governments hijacked or redirected the terrorists’ violence? What do these outside actors hope to achieve, and how do these goals compare with those of the people of Kashmir and Palestine? For the Palestinian dimension, see background in Law and the PowerPoint/Lecture, then draw details on various groups/factions from Harold Cubert’s chapter “The PFLP’s Role and Position within the PLO,” Ch. 5 of Byman, Robin Wright’s “The Palestinians,” and Ch. 2 of Stern. For Kashmir, see Stern (Chs. 5 and 8) and Byman (Ch. 6). If the violence of these groups has become disconnected from its political goals, how does one deal with it? What can be done to solve the problem of terrorist violence in these two areas?
ANSWER
Palestine and Pakistan
The three main duties the Palestinian Liberation Movement has as the legitimate ruling and governance party are national liberation, representation, and service delivery. PLO currently can barely lay claim to one of these. The group’s claim to represent all Palestinians is weak as major political actors like Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian National Initiative, and the influential Hamas control swathes of the territory. The dire situation that Palestinians live in under the Israeli occupation has led to the militarization of political grouping and the radicalization of the people of the territory. Political groups recognized internationally as terrorist organizations have won legitimate elections in Palestine. The United Nations and the international community recognize Israel’s violation of human rights law and international humanitarian law. The lack of achieving a lasting peace deal and political solution coupled with the continued suffering of the Palestinians has radicalized many Palestinians. Political groups have turned to terrorism as the only avenue to air their grievances. There is no end in sight to the conflict.
The Kashmir case is remarkably similar to the Palestinian one. A people seeking national liberation have been condemned to years of strong-arm rule from India and violence both local political groups, neighboring Pakistan, and the Indian military. Both the Palestinian and the Kashmir conflicts are exacerbated by religious differences and intolerance. Israel’s population is predominantly Judaist and India’s Hindu. Palestinian and Kashmir residents are Muslim. The political movements fighting for national liberation in both territories have metamorphosed into radical Islamic groups that use terrorism and religious justifications to fight what they consider injustice. Deep down the main goal of the majority of these groups is still to liberate their people of injustices meted on them by their more powerful rulers and achieve national liberation. The fact of the matter is that their grievances are rarely considered legitimate by the powerful states. This means that the status quo will continue or worsen.
