(The sign makes a point, but rarely does violence solve anything.)
Dozens of Israeli intellectuals and artists have signed a petition calling for a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders and an end to the occupation. Included are 16 winners of the nation’s highest civilian honor – the Israel Prize.
This handful of influential thinkers are the latest to join a movement that’s been growing within the Jewish community and across the world, as the atrocities caused by the State of Israel come to light.
Israel’s continued human rights violation are outlined by Al J’s Marwan Bishara in his piece describing The Middle East’s oldest dictatorship.
Bishara starts with a brief history of the Israel-Palestine debacle:
Since its inception at the end of the 19th century, Zionism preached self-determination for the Jewish people in “their” homeland. In reality, Israel has directly or indirectly driven Palestinians out of their homeland, confiscated their properties, rejected their right to return to their homeland despite UN resolutions, and occupied and colonised the rest of their homeland for the last four decades.
Throughout, Israeli military and security services ruled over another people against their will. They oppressed, tortured, exploited and robbed the Palestinians of their land, water and most importantly, their freedom.
He goes on to describe the Apartheid type conditions within Israel and occupied Palestine:
The settlements, the bypass roads and the industrial zones it built, are exclusively for Jews. Israel and its various Zionist organisations have built over 600 towns, villages and other form of settlements for the Jews, but none for the Palestinians – not even those it considers part of its own citizens, who make up almost one-fifth of its population.
Bishara concludes with the following thoughts:
Peace is possible between Palestinians and Israelis on the basis of one state, or two independent states divided by the 1967 borders. It’s however not tenable nor moral, let alone revolutionary, for the Palestinians to be forced into accommodation or peace with Israel’s occupation or its colonial dictatorship.
Our planet is waking up, growing interconnected, and exposing the suffering which has prevailed for too long. The Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people is just one of these injustices to be resolved as we usher in a new age for humanity.
