I accept that Israel “has a right to exist” despite the way it came into existence — through armed displacement of over 700,000 Palestinians who were forced from their homes into refugee camps. Today, Israel has spread far beyond it’s initial 1948 UN sanctioned borders and is swallowing Palestine whole.
There are over 6 million Palestinian refugees — a stateless people — scattered in refugee camps in Middle Eastern countries and throughout the world. Millions more are crammed into their shrinking territory which they have held for over three thousand years.
There is no purpose to further Israeli expansion, other than to crowd Palestinians out of what remains of their homeland. Most Israelis are from somewhere else — America, Europe, the Middle East, etc. What the UN Security Council is attempting to do through the December 23 resolution condemning Israeli encroachment through settlements is to uphold international law and allow Palestinians a piece of what is rightfully theirs, in terms of land documents and a heritage dating back to ancient biblical times. The Palestinian issue is at the heart of the problem in the Middle East. Settle that and you begin to calm the waters. Allow Israel to proceed full bore and you will ignite the world in a conflagration.
Genevieve Fraser
Orange