Astonishingly inaccurate essay, particularly the last paragraph:
"The problem of Palestinian statelessness was created by the 1947-1948 Zionist ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinian villagers, which resulted in 720,000 out of 1.2 million being kicked out of their homes, with the Jewish immigrants moving into them without paying any compensation."
There was ethnic cleansing on by both sides, with a single massacre by each. And the number of acts of deliberate ethnic cleansing is insufficient to account for the degree to which Palestinian Arabs left. It should be noted that had the Arab ethnic cleansing succeeded, there would likely have been another holocaust.
"The League of Nations had recognized Palestine as a Class A Mandate scheduled for statehood at the Versailles peace conferences"
Uh, no, the League of Nations didn't exist until AFTER the Paris Peace Conference, and the Palestine Mandate, approved several years later, made no mention of statehood. It did, however, mention that a major purpose of the Mandate was to create a Jewish National Home in Palestine, as approved at the Paris Peace Conference.
"the British mandatory authorities repeated this pledge in their 1939 White Paper"
The 1939 White Paper reneged on the Mandate's pledge to create a Jewish National Home, just in time for Hitler to start murdering millions of Jews who had no opportunity to escape.
"but instead European Jewish immigrants displaced the locals"
The entire intent of the Mandate was to attract Jewish immigration to Palestine, which had been approved by the Ottomon authorities before World War I.
"and made them a homeless nation, a nation without rights of citizenship in a state."
Every Palestinian who ended up on the Israeli side of the 1949 Armistice Line was granted citizenship in Israel. Arabs have served in every Knesset, even including the first one that was elected in 1949. Jordan also granted citizenship all Palestinians who ended up within the frontiers it controlled. It is Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and other Arab states who have kept Palestinians Arabs as stateless people.
"Now the far right wing nationalist parties, the Likud and Israel Beitenu,"
Actually both are to the left of the Democratic Party in the US in terms of their economic and fiscal policies.
" are trying to make sure yet another generation of Palestinians lives and dies without having a passport or a country that could so much as back their claim to own their own homes."
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have passports issued by the Palestinian Authority. And both Likud and Yisrael Beitanu support a Palestinian State, as long as it is no threat to Israel. In fact, MOST Israeli political parties support a Palestinian State today. However, Hamas, which won a plurality victory in the 2006 Palestinian election, still rejects any Jewish state and still uses violent terrorism to achieve those goals.
"The far right wing government of Binyamin Netanyahu"
Huh????
If I listen to the Republicans in the US, it is a Far Left Socialist government. It forces every Israeli to have health insurance. And it owns or controls most of the land in the country.
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Astonishingly inaccurate essay, particularly the last paragraph:
"The problem of Palestinian statelessness was created by the 1947-1948 Zionist ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinian villagers, which resulted in 720,000 out of 1.2 million being kicked out of their homes, with the Jewish immigrants moving into them without paying any compensation."
There was ethnic cleansing on by both sides, with a single massacre by each. And the number of acts of deliberate ethnic cleansing is insufficient to account for the degree to which Palestinian Arabs left. It should be noted that had the Arab ethnic cleansing succeeded, there would likely have been another holocaust.
"The League of Nations had recognized Palestine as a Class A Mandate scheduled for statehood at the Versailles peace conferences"
Uh, no, the League of Nations didn't exist until AFTER the Paris Peace Conference, and the Palestine Mandate, approved several years later, made no mention of statehood. It did, however, mention that a major purpose of the Mandate was to create a Jewish National Home in Palestine, as approved at the Paris Peace Conference.
"the British mandatory authorities repeated this pledge in their 1939 White Paper"
The 1939 White Paper reneged on the Mandate's pledge to create a Jewish National Home, just in time for Hitler to start murdering millions of Jews who had no opportunity to escape.
"but instead European Jewish immigrants displaced the locals"
The entire intent of the Mandate was to attract Jewish immigration to Palestine, which had been approved by the Ottomon authorities before World War I.
"and made them a homeless nation, a nation without rights of citizenship in a state."
Every Palestinian who ended up on the Israeli side of the 1949 Armistice Line was granted citizenship in Israel. Arabs have served in every Knesset, even including the first one that was elected in 1949. Jordan also granted citizenship all Palestinians who ended up within the frontiers it controlled. It is Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and other Arab states who have kept Palestinians Arabs as stateless people.
"Now the far right wing nationalist parties, the Likud and Israel Beitenu,"
Actually both are to the left of the Democratic Party in the US in terms of their economic and fiscal policies.
" are trying to make sure yet another generation of Palestinians lives and dies without having a passport or a country that could so much as back their claim to own their own homes."
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have passports issued by the Palestinian Authority. And both Likud and Yisrael Beitanu support a Palestinian State, as long as it is no threat to Israel. In fact, MOST Israeli political parties support a Palestinian State today. However, Hamas, which won a plurality victory in the 2006 Palestinian election, still rejects any Jewish state and still uses violent terrorism to achieve those goals.
Meretz is Center-Left? That would be news to its voters!
"The far right wing government of Binyamin Netanyahu"
Huh????
If I listen to the Republicans in the US, it is a Far Left Socialist government. It forces every Israeli to have health insurance. And it owns or controls most of the land in the country.