The massacre of Palestinian protesters this week by Israeli soldiers was appalling, but we shouldn’t have been surprised. And we should expect the suffering will only get worse.

We know now with certainty that the toxic combination of an emboldened Israeli prime minister and a reckless American president — both of them racist to the core, in my view — is certain to have an explosive impact on the region.

But that, by any international standard, is not acceptable. So, not unlike the 1980s when international pressure brought the South African apartheid regime to its knees, the time has come for the world through boycotts and protests to impose some sanity in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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The flashpoint last Monday was the ceremony with Israeli and U.S. luminaries celebrating the opening of the new American Embassy in Jerusalem. It was a decision by Donald Trump that enflamed Palestinians who see East Jerusalem as their future capital.

As the ceremony was happening, there were protests 80 kilometres away on the Gaza-Israeli border. Due to the isolation of Gaza imposed by Israel, there is increasing desperation over the growing humanitarian crisis. In the clashes, Israeli soldiers killed at least 58 Palestinians — the deadliest day in Gaza since the 2014 war.

The contrasting realities were dramatically captured in split-screen TV coverage.

On one screen were scenes of the Gaza clashes between protesters and Israeli soldiers, featuring Palestinian dead and injured.

On the other screen were scenes from inside the new American Embassy where officials congratulated themselves for their commitment to peace and harmony, and the world outside seemed far, far way.

The decision by Trump to move the embassy from Tel Aviv was clearly intended as a gift to his American political base — Christian evangelicals — who have a biblical obsession with Israel.

For that reason, two evangelical pastors spoke at the ceremony at Trump’s request.

One, Robert Jeffress, a Dallas evangelical pastor who opened the ceremony, once said that Jews, Muslims and Mormons are going to hell. The other pastor, televangelist John C. Hagee, who closed the ceremony, once suggested that Hitler was part of God’s plan to return Jews to Israel.

But perhaps the most surreal presence at the ceremony — given the human carnage happening simultaneously — was that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Dear friends, what a glorious day!” he told the audience. “Remember this moment.”

This prompted a headline the next day in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: “What kind of man grins like that, knowing the Gaza death toll is rising by 10 an hour?”

As long as Netanyahu and Trump are around, coupled with a discredited and corrupt Palestinian leadership, it is clear the idea of a “two state solution” for Israel and Palestine is dead. But that then appears to leave an apartheid Israel as the only alternative — which would not be acceptable to world opinion.

In an excellent book, titled Why Dissent Matters, Canadian lawyer and author William Kaplan devotes two chapters to Israel, Palestine and their Arab neighbours. In his section on Gaza, which is quite prophetic, he notes that the current Israeli approach will lead to a dead-end.

Kaplan supports efforts to apply pressure on Israel — through boycotts and sanctions — and writes there are alternative models beyond the status quo: “Israel has South Africa and Northern Ireland as models to choose from — two other settler colonial states that made peace with the past and charted a new course for the future.”

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I remember hearing a similar thing from Nelson Mandela in 1990 after he was released from jail, and Barbara Frum and I had the privilege to meet him.

Hearing that I had just returned from covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said:

“There is a peaceful solution to be found there somewhere. Remember they said I would never be released from jail.”

Tony Burman is former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News. Reach him @TonyBurman or at is former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News. Reach him @TonyBurman or at tony.burman@gmail.com

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