Sorry Palestine ......One day .....Peace ..... Will Happen
Towards the end of the 1800s questions arose as to how the Jewish people could
overcome increasing persecution and anti-Semitism in Europe. The biblical
Promised Land led to a political movement, Zionism, to establish a Jewish
homeland in Palestine, in the Middle East.
From 1920 to 1947, the British Empire had a
mandate over Palestine. At that time, Palestine included all of Israel and
today’s Occupied Territories, of Gaza, West Bank, etc. The increasing number of
Jewish people immigrating to the “Holy Land” increased tensions in the region.
European geopolitics in the earlier half of
the 20th century in the wider Middle East region contributed to a lot of
instability overall. The British Empire, especially, played a major role in the
region.
During World War I, in 1916, it convinced
Arab leaders to revolt against the Ottoman Empire (which was allied with
Germany). In return, the British government would support the establishment of
an independent Arab state in the region, including Palestine.
Yet, in contradiction to this, and to also
get support of Jewish people, in 1917, Lord Arthur Balfour, then British
Foreign Minister, issued a declaration (the Balfour Declaration). This
announced the British Empire’s support for the establishment of “a Jewish
national home in Palestine.”
As a further complication, there was a deal
between Imperial Britain and France to carve up the Arab provinces of the
Ottoman Empire and divide control of the region. The spoils of war were to be
shared. As with the 1885 Berlin Conference where Africa was carved up amongst
the various European empires, parts of the Middle East were also to be carved
up, which would require artificial borders, support of monarchies, dictators
and other leaders that could be regarded as “puppets” or at least could be
influenced by these external powers.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted
in a seemingly intractable dispute over land claimed by Jews as their biblical
birthright and by the Palestinians, who seek self-determination, and help to
free their land. Its world's longest refugee crisis and war.
Despite repeated attempts to end the
conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, there is no peace settlement
in sight. Neither side has fulfilled the commitments it made under the 2003
roadmap - a phased timetable designed to lead to a viable Palestinian state
alongside Israel put together by the United States, European Union, Russia and
the United Nations.
Million people struggle in their life for
years. Nearly 50 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza – 2.1
million people – are refugees, many of whom live in crowded camps. Life in the
Palestinian territories has got worse in recent years and economic hardship has
deepened.
Socio-economic conditions in Gaza, which is
subject to the most severe Israeli restrictions, have deteriorated particularly
sharply and the population is increasingly reliant on food aid.
At the end of 2008, Israel launched a major
operation in Gaza with the declared aim of stopping Hamas militants from firing
rockets into the Jewish state. The offensive, the biggest in four decades,
killed hundreds including many civilians.
Israel followed up its attack by shelling
Gaza from land, air and sea, and mobilized tens of thousands of military
reservists along the border with Gaza.
I believe Palestine has THE RIGHT OF RETURN
to their land, but this DOES NOT MEAN THE DESTRUCTION OF
ISRAEL. Many people do not believe that any ethnic group has the right to
guarantee an ethnic majority in a nation-state, and therefore do not believe
that Israeli Jews have the right to demand a perpetual Jewish-majority state.
However: even those who support a Jewish majority in Israel should be able to
accept the Palestinian Right of Return, since acceptance of this right will not
necessarily overturn the Jewish majority in Israel.
• While all refugees must be given the right to return, not all will choose to exercise that right.
• The two-state solution, supported by most Palestinians and Israelis, would allow many Palestinian refugees to resettle in inside the Palestinian state. Many other refugees would choose to stay where they are.
• Even if two million Palestinians from refugee camps returned to Israel, the total Israeli Palestinian population would still be a minority of some three million, with Israeli Jews a clear majority of almost five million.
• The right of return does not mean that individual Israelis must give up their homes. In other refugee return situations, the right of return has been interpreted to mean that, if a former home no longer exists or is occupied by an innocent third party, return should be permitted to the vicinity of the former home.
Israeli historian Benny Morris has
documented 369 Palestinian villages that were eradicated in the war of 1947-9.
At least 234 of those villages were destroyed by direct Israeli military
action. At least 80 of these villages were outside the territory of the
UN-defined Jewish state. Israeli towns were founded on many of the sites.
Some of the Palestinian refugees were forced elsewhere in Palestine; most were forced out of the country altogether. The United Nations set up refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and inside Israel. The acceptance of the newly-founded Israel into the United Nations was conditional on Israel's compliance with resolution 194, calling on Israel to allow the return or give compensation to these refugees. Israel refused to comply.
Some of the Palestinian refugees were forced elsewhere in Palestine; most were forced out of the country altogether. The United Nations set up refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and inside Israel. The acceptance of the newly-founded Israel into the United Nations was conditional on Israel's compliance with resolution 194, calling on Israel to allow the return or give compensation to these refugees. Israel refused to comply.
The new state of Israel spread the story that all these Palestinians had left under orders from Arab leaders, citing "Arab broadcasts" telling people to move away so that Arab armies could "operate without interference.” There has never been any evidence for this story. Both US and British intelligence services were monitoring all broadcasts during the period, and not a single "Arab broadcast" telling people to leave was recorded. In fact, several Arab broadcasts were recorded telling the population to stay put. Israeli forces, meanwhile, were using threats, violence, and murder to force many Palestinians out of their homes.
It is no longer the official line of the Israeli Foreign Office that Arab leaders ordered Palestinians to leave Palestine. The State of Israel bears the primary responsibility for the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem.
PALESTINIANS HAVE THE RIGHT OF RETURN UNDER
INTERNATIONAL LAW.
The general right of return is affirmed in numerous human rights and international law documents, including:
• the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 13(2): “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” • the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Art. 12 (4): “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.” This allows those outside their own country to return for the first time, even if they were born elsewhere and would be entering for the first time, so long as they have maintained a "genuine and effective link" to the country and have not renounced their ties to it.
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. (Art. 5 ii)
• The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (Art. 1.C), focuses on return as the preferred option for refugees by ending protection of refugees only once the refugees have voluntarily repatriated.
• The right of return is a general principle in international law and has been affirmed by the American and European Human Rights Conventions (Art. 22(5); and 4th Protocol respectively), and by the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights in cases involving Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosova, Uganda, and East/Central Europe.
Palestinians have a specific right of return according to the United Nations:
• UN General Assembly Resolution 194 III in 1948 provided that Palestinian “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return....” (Art. 11)
Resolution 194 has been reaffirmed more than 100 times by the General Assembly in other resolutions including 513, 2452, 2936, and 3236.
The general right of return is affirmed in numerous human rights and international law documents, including:
• the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 13(2): “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” • the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Art. 12 (4): “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.” This allows those outside their own country to return for the first time, even if they were born elsewhere and would be entering for the first time, so long as they have maintained a "genuine and effective link" to the country and have not renounced their ties to it.
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. (Art. 5 ii)
• The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (Art. 1.C), focuses on return as the preferred option for refugees by ending protection of refugees only once the refugees have voluntarily repatriated.
• The right of return is a general principle in international law and has been affirmed by the American and European Human Rights Conventions (Art. 22(5); and 4th Protocol respectively), and by the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights in cases involving Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosova, Uganda, and East/Central Europe.
Palestinians have a specific right of return according to the United Nations:
• UN General Assembly Resolution 194 III in 1948 provided that Palestinian “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return....” (Art. 11)
Resolution 194 has been reaffirmed more than 100 times by the General Assembly in other resolutions including 513, 2452, 2936, and 3236.
Israel's conduct toward fishermen in Gaza
is unacceptable and must be condemned by the international community.
Unacceptable as the tightened restrictions may be, however, they are far from
surprising, as they are merely the latest in a long history of Israeli war crimes
and human-rights abuses committed against the Palestinian people.
Israeli Journalist Amira Hass Sparks Furor
at Home for Defending Palestinian Right to Resist
See Link below
THE OPPOSING VIEW
The comparison is very different when it is
viewed historically and it is in this context that we should realize the
criminality of Peres’ narrative which is as horrific as the occupation, and
potentially far worse. For the president of Israel, a Nobel Peace Prize
laureate, there were never Palestinians before he initiated in 1993
the Oslo process, and when he did, they were only the ones living a small
part of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
In his discourse, he already eliminated most of
the Palestinians. If you did not exist when Peres came to Palestine, you
definitely do not exist when he is the president in 2013. This elimination is
the point where ethnic cleansing becomes genocidal. When you are eliminated
from the history book and the discourse of the top politicians, there is always
a danger that the next attempt would be your physical elimination.
It happened before. The early Zionists,
including the current president, talked about the transfer of the Palestinians
long before they actually disposed them in 1948. These visions of a de-Arabized
Palestine appeared in every Zionist diary, journal and inner conversation since
the beginning of the 20th century. If one talks about nothingness in a place
where there is plenty it can be willful ignorance. But if one talks about
nothingness as a vision or undeniable reality, it is only a matter of power and
opportunity before the vision becomes reality.
Jewish people are a peaceful people, and I know that because I’m Jew,
Many of us are against Zionism, and Israel have a right to the Holy Land,
but not in Palestine because taking someone else land by violence
is diffidently not what we were told to do as established in the Old Testament,
we have to wait and not build our land.
Sure the Jews had lived in Jerusalem and the surrounding area
for nearly 2000 years before being thrown out by the Romans. But that was
a minority .After the Holocaust, thousands of homeless European Jews needed a
place to settle, where they could be free of anti-Semitism and violent
oppression. Part of this is true
Israel was pushing my
parents to come join The Jews leaving in Palestine, but we refused also many of
the Jews community who leaves in Morocco refused the call.
I don’t know match what to say about the argument of Israel because
sometimes i feel ashamed of Israeli
terrorism and other countries facilitating it. It's not about racial or
national solidarity; it's about morality, and the Human right.
My big brother and his Wife are Orthodox
Jews living near Tel Aviv. They are outraged at Israel's behavior, especially
the restrictions on sick patients needing to leave Gaza.
My sister-in-law, a medicine from Tel Aviv
University and a specialist in medical ethics, has complained publicly about
this.As a Jew, I, too, am ashamed and disgusted at what is happening. Yes,
Israel needs security. But what is happening goes far beyond security needs.
Israel's actions amount to collective
punishment, forbidden under international law. I am ashamed of Israel government
and the killing the do against Palestinian kids
Is there any solution , I think we so much
far from that , and I don’t know what is the answer ….all I know is kids are
paying for this war and so are we. We need to move on; this conflict took many lives,
and destroyed many families in both sides. The Israeli government and Palestine
have to think for the families, and people who pay the price every day.
I’m sick of the torture and the barbarized
war between both sides, sure Israel is taking this beyond the cruel, but Hamas
needs to sit and find a solution with all sides in this endless conflict.
We want peace, and need peace.
Jalila,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Very well-researched! You did a great job of opening up this topic and then describing the needs and grievances of both sides.
I also like that you explain your personal view, as a Jew who grew up in Morocco. Your perspective is very interesting, and your argument is very powerful.
Overall, your design is good. Your pictures are captivating and very supportive of your thesis/tone.
Overall, excellent work. I enjoy reading your posts, because they are full of information and passion.
GR: 100
Thank you , i'm glad you like it
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