This may come as a shock to many, but the people of Thailand, the “Land of the Free”, are uniquely placed to help bring peace to the Middle East.
How so? Very simple. Just visit both Israel and Palestine, see and experience the reality for themselves.
A nice, peaceful way of establishing the truth and then deciding whom and what to believe.
Because the Truth, and Truth alone, will set Palestine free.
Why are the Thai people so uniquely placed to play this role? In fact, why should they bother at all?
For many reasons.
Within the next few weeks, the fate of the remaining eight Thai hostages — be it good or bad — will again dominate the headlines.
The barrage of information, disinformation and misinformation will resume, with all sides jockeying to establish their perspectives as “The Truth”.
In a world of deep fakes, manipulation, bald-faced lies and mind-bending persuasion tactics, to sift fact from fiction is of paramount importance, especially in order to better understand the broader context and history of an intractable conflict.
As many people discover when they travel, what they read and see in the media is often vastly different from the reality on the ground.
A trip to Israel and Palestine can have the same impact.
Thailand is known as the “Land of the Free”. It has never been colonised. And its bend-with-the-wind foreign policy strives to maintain good relations with all sides.
On one side, Thailand and Israel have extensive military, commercial and economic relations. There are 28,000 Thai workers in Israel.
Israeli business are active in Thailand selling security services, information technology, agricultural know-how, alternative energy products, pharmaceuticals and more.
Many dual-citizen Israelis are embedded in Thai business circles, academia, media and NGOs.
On the other side, Thailand recognises and has diplomatic relations with the state of Palestine.
It has always voted with Palestine in UN forums.
It has regularly hosted Palestinian delegations for “study trips” to share Thailand’s experience in promoting tourism.
If Thai taxpayers are helping Palestinians promote tourism, Thai taxpayers have every right to visit Palestine as tourists.
At the ITB Berlin in March 2024, the Israelis had a pavilion to promote “Tourism for Peace.”
The Thai people should take them up on that.
That’s when the experiencing-is-believing challenge will begin.
The first step is a visa application.
Israelis can visit Thailand with no visa. But Thais need visas to visit Israel.
Monitor the process. Check out the documents required, the “interview”, the “attitude” of the Israeli consular officers, the content and quality of questions asked.
Then ask about getting access to Palestine. See what happens.
Although Thailand recognizes the “State of Palestine”, access to the “State of Palestine” is controlled by Israel, an occupying power in violation of all international law.
Millions of Thais would love to visit the “State of Palestine” — for leisure and business, to create jobs, income and prosperity for the people of Palestine.
But they need Israel’s permission first.
So, even if they don’t want to visit Israel at all, just Palestine, they still have to apply for a visa and submit to an interrogation and security check by an Israeli immigration/security officer.
In fact, many Thais do visit Palestine as part of strictly controlled religious tours.
But they have to go through an Israeli border control checkpoint, either via the Allenby bridge on the Israel-Jordan border or via Tel Aviv airport.
If the Israelis have a “file” on anyone for pro-Palestinian activism, that individual will be subjected to extra scrutiny.
A Thai-Muslim will be treated very differently from a non-Muslim.
For those who get there, check out the segregated highways, the checkpoints, the living conditions of the local people. See the vast contrasts between life in Israel and life in the occupied West Bank. Talk to local people and hear their stories.
Then go to the southern part of Israel and look across at the utter destruction of Gaza.
Take lots of photographs and videos. Israel is promoting “terror tourism” to the sites attacked by Hamas on Oct 7.
Come back home and post them on social networks.
A famous saying in journalism reads: In times of war, the first casualty is truth.
Disinformation and misinformation is the order of the day. Both sides know that controlling the narrative is a very important part of managing public sympathy.
This is an interesting and, in my opinion, valid perspective.