Clinging on to the last vestige of hope….
JVL Introduction
This opinion piece by Raja Shehadeh, an author and human rights activist based in Ramallah, pleads for peace, notes times in the past when he hoped that there would be a basis for that and how this has been dashed by Israelis, especially by Netanyahu, eg at the Madrid Conference, the Oslo Accords and many more occasions. In 1978 the Palestine Liberation Organisation recognised Israel and, at a time when a two state solution still seemed possible, accepted that the future Palestinian State would be on only 22% of historic Palestrine. What more can Palestinians be expected to concede – to lose? And still Israel wants more and more control, more and more land.
That there is still hope is a miracle; but that hope is being tested to the limit. There must be the political will, especially by the International community to prevent total hopelessness, or is hopelessness an aim?
LL
This article was originally published by Guardian Opinion on Sun 15 Oct 2023. Read the original here.
I remember the times when Palestinians dared to hope for peace. How did it come to this?
In my lifetime, leaders on both sides have talked of justice and freedom. Here in the West Bank, those days seem long ago
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That line is stunning: ‘How have the Palestinians become homo sacer in the eyes of the Israeli people – human beings to whom anything can be done?’
Seems to me through the help of Britain, both historically and right now. Just why can’t our political leaders display any kind of political reflection? It’s like Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer aren’t thinking at all, even on their own terms. Security for Israelis will never, and should never come at the expense of the Palestinians. Peace in the Middle East, so it turns out, isn’t best established by blinding Brits to the painful reality of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. It isn’t realized by Israelis being kept apart from Palestinians, unable to see, hear or feel the pain and frustration of a people made to live on the other side of the fence. Either both Palestinians and Israelis are at peace with each other, or no one is.