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."

Israel / Palestine

I have spent these recent days, in which the unsolved Israel Palestine problem exploded again, in Germany. I am more than shocked by how one-sided German media have reported this “round”. What you got in most mainstream German newspapers and on German TV is not serious journalism.

 

It is, of course, much more fun for a foreign reporter to live in Tel-Aviv than in Gaza. In that case, they need to find reporters who are willing to do this work. We should not complain about people turning to alternative sources of information, if we won’t deliver the full picture.

 

Unserved by German media, many Germans from Muslim countries understandably turn to media in their countries of origin. They might be more likely, even eager, to get the news from the German media, if that media was seen to be even-handed. Germany should think about – that would also be also in the interest of the rest of society.

Israel and Palestine – International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has ruled that it has jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes by Israel in the Occupied Territories. This might lead to the ICC issuing arrest warrants against Israeli officials and military leaders. Israel – as usual – reaches to its proven and successful hammer and cries Antisemitism.  

 

Anyone who believes that Israel has no right to take over and settle Palestinian lands conquered in 1967 with its own Jewish population, anyone who believes that what Israel does in scandalously criminal, anyone who believes that military control over millions of Palestinians is not only damaging to Palestinians but also has a corrupting effect on the Israeli population and causes Antisemitism, thereby endangering the Jewish people as a whole – should support bringing an end to the Occupation.

 

Israeli voters have proven to be stubborn opponents of any retreat from the Occupied Territories. They support governments that systematically slice Palestinian land and settle Jews on this land. It seems that only trauma, will bring about change in this attitude. A serious war with tens of thousands of dead would be such a trauma. Those who want to prevent this kind of trauma, should support the softer kind: effective sanctions that will force Israel to abide by UN resolutions and International law.

 

The ICC decision is a welcome step.