Quote:
Originally posted by russellwarshay
Palestine existed as a state from 1948 until 1967, when Israel was invaded... again. Under international law, Israel is under no obligation to return the land seized in its defense. The ensuing control poor treatment of what are now called the Palestinian people, combined with the poor treatment of Palestinian refugees in Arab nations, especially Jordan, created a solidarity that has culturally manifested itself into what most would consider a nation.
It reasonable to assert that Palestine has never existed as a state and as a nation at the same time. But Palestine does exist.
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Actually...see UN Resolution 242...passed Nov. of 1967. It mandated the return of Palestinian lands acquired from the 1967 war (basically this would have restored the borders to the 1948 standard). So they indeed are obligated to return land seized in conflict, regardless if it was on the defense or not.
And Palestine DID exist as a British controlled colony as mandated by the Balfour Declaration of 1922. This partitioned off some of the Arab states that were previously under Ottoman control, not including Egypt, which had been under British "rule" (I put that in quotes because they had a king, but he was basically a puppet of the British gov't and interests). Lebanon and Syria (or what is now known as Lebanon and Syria) were given to the French and Jordan (then called Trans-Jordan) and Palestine were given to the UK.
When the Zionist mov't started back in the 1880s, the hopeful migrants were told that there was no one living in the area that was then called Palestine. In actuality there were around 800,000 Arabs (of varying religious groups) living there. However they were more than happy to sell their land to the incoming Jews from all over the world. For a while things were fairly calm. Conflicts of a small nature began to erupt in the post WWI years because Arabs realized that they had sold quite a bit of their land and were being pressured to sell more. However, they had already dug themselves a bit of a hole. Once the UN created the state of Israel, they then realized their predicament. They were disenfranchised of even more of their land, but in MY opinion they (the Palestinians) sort of brought it upon themselves. However, since the UN mandated it, the states of Israel *and* Palestine both deserve to exist, albeit within the 1948 borders. The wall is a pretty bad idea diplomatically speaking. It will cause more suffering among Palestinians, greater division between the Israelis and Palestinians, and it creates a nasty PR problem for Israel and its government.
Honestly, it's a huge mess and I'm so glad I'm not there. I am going to Egypt in a couple weeks and I am very interested in learning even more. I'll be on the Sinai Peninsula for a few days. It should be interesting.