Israel rejects Peace and Palestine's right to exist
Saturday, 24 March 2007
Following nearly 21,600 days (60 years) of non-stop violence towards the
Palestinians, Israel has once again refused Palestinians their Right to Return
and Just Compensation as required by international law under UN Resolution 194.
According to Nobel Prize winner, Vice Premier Shimon Peres, "the Palestinians
should forgo their demands for the right of return for Palestinian refugees."
“Right of return means only one thing - turning Israel into a Palestinian
state,” Peres claims.
Shortly after the Zionist government was founded, Israel agreed to the terms of
Resolution 194 as a basic condition of their legitimacy as a nation. Instead,
they have spent 60 years denying Palestine's Right to Exist, despite the fact
that it has existed since at least the ancient Persian Empire over 2,500 years
ago, as maps of the empire demonstrate.
To insure that Palestine won't exist in the future, Israel has changed Israeli
maps, renaming all of Palestine as part of Israel. Since 1967, Israel has also
exercised a brutal siege over the population. Also known as, The Occupation, the
Israeli government has waged non-stop violence against Palestine which includes,
but is not limited to, the erection of a concentration camp Wall that allows
them to starve and bombard the population at will.
Recently, the Israeli cabinet voted overwhelmingly to boycott the newly
established Palestinian Unity Government. Israel hopes its actions will continue
to inspire the United States and European nations to maintain their blockade of
food, medicine, and money. In addition, Israel has prevented repairs to
infrastructure, including electrical generation plants, which it had destroyed
throughout sections of Gaza. One of the benefits to Israel is that by
maintaining a stranglehold over the Palestinian land base, it can more easily
confiscate Palestine's water supply for Israeli use or sell the water back to
the population at exorbitant prices.
Defining the Palestinian government, which is dominated by the ruling Hamas
party, as a terrorist organization, Israel recently received billions more in
aid from the United States in their effort to continue to hold the population at
bay. Israel's efforts have not only been largely successful, it is believed by
human rights and health organizations that by maintaining near starvation
conditions and the loss of infrastructure has created conditions in Palestine
which will further demoralize the population and make them increasingly prone to
disease and premature death.
US Presidential hopefuls in both parties have lined up to praise and support
Israeli actions. Writing on behalf of Salon, Gregory Levey commented that the
closing dinner of the AIPAC conference was attended by a “who’s who of
Washington’s A-list”. Rejecting any progress toward a peace settlement is
critical at this time for Democrats and Republicans alike, otherwise candidates
are viewed as soft on terrorism, despite the Iraq Study Group's recommendation
that progress on the Palestinian problem could help avert a conflagration in the
greater Middle East.
It is estimated that there are approximately 9,395,000 Palestinians world-wide,
with about 3.4 million living in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestine's refugee
population is considered to be the largest in the world which adds considerably
to tensions.
Palestinians have traditionally been considered to be among the most educated
people in the world and, prior to Israel's onslaught, was prosperous by world
standards. Yet today, many of Palestine's refugees live in squalor, restricted
in their ability to work and subsisting mostly on hand outs from the United
Nations and a few donor nations. Current Palestinian refugee counts include:
· Jordan 1,827,877 refugees
· Gaza 986,034 refugees
· West Bank 699,817 refugees
· Syria 432,048 refugees
· Lebanon 404,170 refugees
· Saudi Arabia 240,000 refugees
· Egypt 70,245 refugees
- Genevieve Cora Fraser is a poet, playwright and journalist as well as a
long-standing environmental and human rights activist living in Massachusetts.
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