Throughout history, the ancient land of Palestine has been contested terrain due to economic, social and religious factors. Two thousand years ago, Rome was notably compelled to maintain two legions of soldiers in Palestine due to persistent conflicts - as opposed to only one in all of Spain. Since the creation of Israel in 1948, the United Nations, along with the United States and other nations, have tried and failed to negotiate an agreement allowing for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel..
On 23 September, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered an address on the subject of Palestinian statehood that turned out to be one of the finest expressions of statesmanship in the twenty-first century. To the UN General Assembly, Abbas proclaimed,
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"I am here to say on behalf of the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization: We extend our hands to the Israeli government and the Israeli people for peace-making. I say to them - let us urgently build together a future for our children where they can enjoy freedom, security and prosperity. Let us build the bridges of dialogue instead of checkpoints and walls of separation, and build cooperative relations based on parity and equity between two neighboring States - Palestine and Israel - instead of policies of occupation, settlement, war and eliminating the other."
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Despite his plea for support, President Obama, along with several American public intellectuals, oppose the creation of a Palestinian state and characterize such a move as 'premature.' With all due respect to the US president and those who share this view, they are simply and utterly wrong.
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Consider the following position taken by Fareed Zakaria, an Indian-born, Harvard PhD who has a high-profile presence on CNN.com and a talk show on CNN TV. In a recent column on the front page of CNN.com, he wrote the following,
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"I oppose the Palestinian UN bid for practical reasons. This is not a time for romantic gestures. At the end of the day, there is only one way you're going to get a Palestinian state. And that's if the Israelis agree to it. They have the land; they have the guns; they have the money."
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It ought to be noted that Mr. Zakaria's 'practical' line of thinking is shared by the Obama administration and several governments in Europe. The validity of this 'practical' view can easily be tested at the bar of history. By this same logic, President Obama and Mr. Zakaria would have argued against Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and a majority of the colonists in their decision to declare independence in July 1776. Why? According to them, the Founding Fathers and the people of America ought to have first obtained permission from the British for their liberty - because the British 'had the land, had the guns and had the money.'
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Question: how many Americans today would take this view of their own history? Answer: none.
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Do not the enduring words of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence apply to the cause of the Palestinians in 2011 as well? Consider the reasoning behind the American Declaration of 1776,
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"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them (the people) under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
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Of course, the Americans in the era of Washington were never under 'absolute Despotism.' That was a rhetorical exaggeration. Yet, American rights had certainly been abridged. Comparatively, the Palestinians are far more oppressed today than the Americans were two centuries ago.
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A full one-third (nearly 2 million) of all Palestinians live in refugee camps. For those fortunate enough to maintain an independent residence in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip or East Jerusalem, their lives are economically and socially precarious. Aside from eking out a living inside an 'adjusted broad unemployment rate' of 49%, Palestinians are routinely denied access to quality health care due to the rigid controls placed on their movements by the Israelis. Due to the intractable questions of land rights and a dearth of jobs, 46% of Palestinians live below the poverty line. As a result of their politically-forced, economic deprivation, four out of every five Palestinians rely on charity.
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When asked to cite the cause of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, former US President Jimmy Carter, who brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel in 1978, did not hesitate saying, "Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement." He is right. Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has refused to permanently withdraw from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip despite UN resolutions demanding its exit. Over the past four decades, Israel has also allowed its citizens to settle in these areas in contravention of international law. There are now more than two hundred Jewish settlements on former Palestinian territory, and these settlements are connected by roads which are policed by Israeli forces - who do not allow Palestinians to travel over their own former lands.
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For the Israeli government, the retention of Palestinian land, the setting up of checkpoints to control the movement of Palestinians and the colonization of Palestinian land stands as part of their security measures to protect Israeli citizens. Of course, several groups of Palestinians have resorted to violence from time to time - and violence is never acceptable. However, are not these Israeli security measures, which deny Palestinians their right to basic human dignity, ultimately the very roots of insecurity for Israel?
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Was not Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) correct in his reply to a British official, "I beg you to accept that there is no people on Earth who would not prefer their own bad government to the good government of an alien power"? The Americans of 1776 certainly took this view. Was not Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) equally correct in writing, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed"?
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A great majority of people in Israel and the Palestinian Territories desire a future of two states - Israel and Palestine - working together to usher in a new era of peace, justice and hope.
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The people of Israel. The people of the Palestinian Territories. The people of the Middle East, and the people of the world - including President Obama - must now stand up to Free Palestine. Only when Palestine is free - will Israel be truly free.
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Free Palestine, Free Israel, Free The World!
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To view an excellent collection of recent photos of life in the Palestinian Territories published in The Guardian (UK), please click onto the following link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/gallery/2011/sep/17/palestinian-territories-levene#/?picture=379159701&index=0e
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Key Source
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To read the 2010 report on Palestine by the World Health Organization, please click onto the following link: http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NS/0/885BD85F892778F28525772700503A4B
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J Roquen