Palestine’s right to exist

Netanyahu, Israel’s former prime minister, is a master propaganda artist. One of the ideas that he successfully managed to instil is that anti-Zionism is tantamount to Antisemitism. This, of course, is total nonsense and yet, like parrots, Jewish organisations world-wide as well as many Western politicians repeat the demand that “Israel’s right to exist” be recognized, even by Palestinians, who were made homeless refugees because of Zionism.

 

Here’s a link to a short text of mine IN GERMAN on the subject of Palestine’s right to exist. It was broadcast on German radio a few days ago.

 

And here’s an English translation:

 

Palestine's Right to Exist is Non-Negotiable

 

"Israel's right to exist is non-negotiable" is a principle of German foreign policy. But what about Palestine's right to exist on the other side?  The question is less far-fetched than it might at first seem. In 1947, the United Nations decided not only that a Jewish state should be established in the British Mandate territory of Palestine, but also that an Arab state should be founded. Likewise, the holy city of Jerusalem was to be administered neutrally under international control. 

However, only the Jewish side accepted the UN proposal. The Arab side rejected it, not least because it would not accept that a people who lived in Palestine over 2,000 years ago should, based on a religious text, now claim rights to land on which Arabs have been living for over 1,000 years. 

In practice, the only thing that came of the UN plan was the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Moreover, war with its Arab neighbours enabled Israel to expand the territories allotted to it in the partition plan. Jerusalem ended up as a city divided between Jordan and Israel. Much of the non-Jewish population was displaced from their ancestral lands. 

Israel's conquest and systematic settlement of the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War have resulted in a continuing meltdown of the potential Palestinian territory. What the UN resolution originally called for never came to pass: the establishment of an independent Palestine. 

At least on paper, however, this state does exist. The Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO, had proclaimed it in 1988. In the UN, 138 countries now recognize this Palestine. Significant exceptions, however, are the United States and a large part of the European Union. Chancellor Merkel has even confirmed that Germany would not recognize Palestine without Israel's consent.

What should have become Palestine remains under the control of the Israeli military and intelligence services to this day. The declaration of the Palestinian state remained only a symbolic act.

Israel, on the other hand, is recognized by almost all members of the UN. Although its right to exist is not questioned by any serious party, Germany insists on the mantra that Israel's right to exist is not negotiable. 

In practical terms, Germany's unconditional pro-Israel position means that it repeatedly acts against Palestinian interests. The bottom line is that Germany remains an enabler of Israel's occupation and illegal settlement of the West Bank, with its unfortunate serious consequences for the people in the Israeli-occupied territories: Palestinians are subjugated and dispossessed by means of Israel's military power. 

Does Germany have the moral right to act this way? Is it not high time that we remember the historic decision of the United Nations and add a second mantra to that of Israel's right to exist? Namely, one that reads, "Palestine's right to exist is non-negotiable."