The news today of on-going strife in Gaza - including the Israelis weighing in with attacks on the territory and targeted individuals - only highlights that something must be done to resolve the Palestinian "issue". Leaving to one side the undoubted difficulties between various Palestinian factions and despite what they proclaim, an apparent reluctance of the Israelis to see a long-term peace with its Palestinian neighbours, it is clear that 59 years after the establishment of Israel, the displacement of the Palestinians has been a running sore.
Sonja Karkar, President of Women for Palestine [in Melbourne in Australia] writes in counterpunch:
"Fifty-nine years is a long time to wait to return home, yet the Palestinian refugees have waited, and waited resolutely. However, despite every international law that recognises their right to return home, despite the universal consensus that has affirmed that right over 130 times in the UN, despite the humanitarian organisations that urge their return, despite the reams of authoritative papers and books documenting their 1948 existence, dispossession and displacement, and despite the global grassroots movements protesting their plight, the Palestinians have been left out in the cold. In fact, they have been living the catastrophe that saw them uprooted from their homes and homeland in 1948 ever since.
Today, there are 7.2 million Palestinian refugees. That number has escalated considerably from the original 750,000 Palestinians who fled in terror in the events leading up to the declaration of the new state of Israel on 14 May 1948, as well as in the weeks and months after. As the years slipped into each other and the world did nothing, Israel acted as if it had no responsibility for this despairing mass of humanity. Instead, it launched a devious campaign of myths and lies to convince a world still smarting after the revelations of the Holocaust in Europe that these refugees were really a nomadic people drifting in and out of desert land with no attachments at all to that place. This then became the barren land gifted by God to the Jews and so was born the catchcry "a land without people for a people without land". Perhaps the world forgot the reason for the 1947 UN Partition in the first place."
Lest it be thought that Women for Palestine is some rabid and loud reactionary group, their web site declares their position as follows:
"Women for Palestine is a network of Australian women who stand for nonviolence and human rights in the Holy Land. As women, we believe that our inherent inclination for healing and nurturing can indeed have a powerful effect on the attitudes and actions of all people who are caught in a spiral of hurt, anger and retribution. We believe that peace is the only solution to conflict and that even small beginnings can make a difference."
Interestingly, Forward magazine has published an article reporting on Israeli leadership being upraided by the likes of Elie Wiesel for Israel's lack of movement toward establishing a peace with the Palestinians:
"Some of Israel’s strongest supporters chastised the country’s leadership this week for failing to take up opportunities to solve the long-standing conflict with neighboring Arab countries.
The criticisms were aired Tuesday at the third annual Petra Conference in Jordan, a meeting of Nobel laureates and distinguished figures who brainstorm together to improve the world.
In an onstage interview before some 200 well-heeled participants and the world media, co-host Elie Wiesel grilled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over his country’s conditions for making peace with the Palestinians. “What does it mean?” asked Wiesel, one of Israel’s most prominent supporters, after Olmert said that terrorism must stop before negotiations can begin on the terms of peace negotiations. “You are negotiating to negotiate further?” asked the famed Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, drawing laughter from the audience."
Sonja Karkar, President of Women for Palestine [in Melbourne in Australia] writes in counterpunch:
"Fifty-nine years is a long time to wait to return home, yet the Palestinian refugees have waited, and waited resolutely. However, despite every international law that recognises their right to return home, despite the universal consensus that has affirmed that right over 130 times in the UN, despite the humanitarian organisations that urge their return, despite the reams of authoritative papers and books documenting their 1948 existence, dispossession and displacement, and despite the global grassroots movements protesting their plight, the Palestinians have been left out in the cold. In fact, they have been living the catastrophe that saw them uprooted from their homes and homeland in 1948 ever since.
Today, there are 7.2 million Palestinian refugees. That number has escalated considerably from the original 750,000 Palestinians who fled in terror in the events leading up to the declaration of the new state of Israel on 14 May 1948, as well as in the weeks and months after. As the years slipped into each other and the world did nothing, Israel acted as if it had no responsibility for this despairing mass of humanity. Instead, it launched a devious campaign of myths and lies to convince a world still smarting after the revelations of the Holocaust in Europe that these refugees were really a nomadic people drifting in and out of desert land with no attachments at all to that place. This then became the barren land gifted by God to the Jews and so was born the catchcry "a land without people for a people without land". Perhaps the world forgot the reason for the 1947 UN Partition in the first place."
Lest it be thought that Women for Palestine is some rabid and loud reactionary group, their web site declares their position as follows:
"Women for Palestine is a network of Australian women who stand for nonviolence and human rights in the Holy Land. As women, we believe that our inherent inclination for healing and nurturing can indeed have a powerful effect on the attitudes and actions of all people who are caught in a spiral of hurt, anger and retribution. We believe that peace is the only solution to conflict and that even small beginnings can make a difference."
Interestingly, Forward magazine has published an article reporting on Israeli leadership being upraided by the likes of Elie Wiesel for Israel's lack of movement toward establishing a peace with the Palestinians:
"Some of Israel’s strongest supporters chastised the country’s leadership this week for failing to take up opportunities to solve the long-standing conflict with neighboring Arab countries.
The criticisms were aired Tuesday at the third annual Petra Conference in Jordan, a meeting of Nobel laureates and distinguished figures who brainstorm together to improve the world.
In an onstage interview before some 200 well-heeled participants and the world media, co-host Elie Wiesel grilled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over his country’s conditions for making peace with the Palestinians. “What does it mean?” asked Wiesel, one of Israel’s most prominent supporters, after Olmert said that terrorism must stop before negotiations can begin on the terms of peace negotiations. “You are negotiating to negotiate further?” asked the famed Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, drawing laughter from the audience."
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