"Yet I want to step back and claim that this war constitutes yet another chapter, perhaps the most grisly since 1947, of a conflict that has existed since at least 1917, when Britain issued the Balfour Declaration promising Jews a national homeland in Palestine, and that intensified since 1948, when Israel was established as a state. I make this claim because the conflict has not been settled in a just way, owing to the fact that various Palestinian rights have not been respected or implemented."
"In this respect, the Balfour Declaration, according to which the British government views "with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people...it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country," was a watershed moment."
The conflict traces back to at least 1917 when the Balfour Declaration promised a Jewish national homeland while acknowledging only civil and religious rights for non-Jewish communities. The establishment of Israel in 1948 intensified the conflict and left Palestinian territorial rights unsettled. The Balfour Declaration functioned as a watershed by implying erosion of Palestinian territorial claims. Territorial rights remain the conflict's core: which peoples have rights to historic Palestine, including Israel, the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza. International consensus, following the 1947 UN Partition Plan, envisions two states: Israel and a Palestinian state comprising the West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem. Unless territorial rights are answered fairly, violence is likely to persist.
Read at Apaonline
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]