Palestinian refugees being ethnically cleansed leading up to the declaration of Israeli independence. (Photo credit: Palestinian Refugee Centre)
Earlier today a seemingly lovely lady said to me on LinkedIn, “Can we put as much energy into solving the problem and looking forward?”
It was in response to a post where I highlighted the unacceptable difference between extremist Jews and Israel believing in the right to return (law of return law passed in 1950). BUT the same people don’t believe in the right of return for Palestinians.
THE CONTEXT: the former has been away for thousands of years and believes in their right of return, but the latter has only been away for seventy-five years.
My response to the lady was that this indeed is in our very small way of trying help solve the problem and looking forward.
Because one of the key bottlenecks and solutions to that bottleneck, is alluded to in those short few sentences that I posted.
Point being, the problem is; Israel’s complete reluctance to accept to look forward to a júst peace, and compromise on solving the problem; what’s outlined in international law is that Palestinian refugees, as with all refugees, have a right of return. As outlined in the Geneva Convention and with case laws such as the Nottebohm case of 1955. Adjudicated at the International Court of Justice.
The lady’s response was that an election today in Israel would mean a shift towards the left.
I presume she is suggesting that this would help in achieving a júst peace.
I believe an election today or moving forward in the foreseeable future won’t shift further left – nor does it make any meaningful difference even if it did.
All the main parties in Israel are relatively far-right to extreme-right on the Palestinian issue; all support illegal expansions to varying degrees, all support wanting all of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and none support Palestinian refugee return.
Let’s not forget, David Ben-Gurion wanted to get rid of all Arabs from historic Palestine – and he was from what we would call a centre-left party.
Furthermore, Yitzhak Rabin (murdered by a Jewish terrorist for drafting a “fair” (not fair) deal) and Ehud Barak, who came closest to a “fair” (not fair) deal, were also of what we would call centre-left parties – and both failed at the Oslo Accords and Camp David Summit respectively because they couldn’t make concessions on the big areas – namely, the status of Jerusalem as a shared capital, the status of refugees, and the illegal settlements.
What more often than not is the first building block of achieving a júst peace, is making the wider public understand what the real facts, principles being applied, and realities are.
Applying the principle of apartheid where one has a right to return just because they are Jewish, and the others do not just because they are Muslim, Christian, etc must be dismantled.
And those who are striving for this objective, are indeed in their very small ways, trying to help solve the problem and are looking forward. Because the legacy ideologies, principles and mind-sets have failed miserably.
