A Good Article
By Hasan Afif El-Hasan
Palestine Chronicle
"........Members of the Israeli peace movement, including “Peace Now” and many scholars, have criticized Israel’s conduct in the occupied territory seized in 1967, but they do not accept the position that Israel was responsible for the refugees’ suffering, and they do not criticize the essence of Zionism. They support the government policy of denying the Palestinian refugees’ right of return.......
Real peace may be achieved only if the Israelis change major tenets of the Zionist’s ideology. Zionism goal since the nineteenth century has been to establish a state exclusively for Jews and no provisions on the role of non-Jews citizens. Coexistence with the Arabs is anathema to Zionist Jews. The Zionists’ program is based on redeeming the land, coexistence with the indigenous Palestinians on the same land was not considered an option; for Zionism, the Palestinians presence on the land is a problem.
Yosef Weitz, the director of the Settlement Department of Jewish National Fund, wrote in his diary on December 20, 1940: “Amongst ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples in this country…The only way is to transfer the Arabs from here to neighboring countries, all of them, except perhaps Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Old Jerusalem. Not a single village or a single tribe must be left”.
Actions of the Zionist governments, left or right since the establishment of Israel, suggest no intention of recognizing the rights of Palestinians.
The Israelis have to change their consciousness to deal courageously with their collective responsibility for the Palestinian tragedy. Only the Jewish Israeli members of the peace camp can drive this message home to the Israeli people. "
By Hasan Afif El-Hasan
Palestine Chronicle
"........Members of the Israeli peace movement, including “Peace Now” and many scholars, have criticized Israel’s conduct in the occupied territory seized in 1967, but they do not accept the position that Israel was responsible for the refugees’ suffering, and they do not criticize the essence of Zionism. They support the government policy of denying the Palestinian refugees’ right of return.......
Real peace may be achieved only if the Israelis change major tenets of the Zionist’s ideology. Zionism goal since the nineteenth century has been to establish a state exclusively for Jews and no provisions on the role of non-Jews citizens. Coexistence with the Arabs is anathema to Zionist Jews. The Zionists’ program is based on redeeming the land, coexistence with the indigenous Palestinians on the same land was not considered an option; for Zionism, the Palestinians presence on the land is a problem.
Yosef Weitz, the director of the Settlement Department of Jewish National Fund, wrote in his diary on December 20, 1940: “Amongst ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples in this country…The only way is to transfer the Arabs from here to neighboring countries, all of them, except perhaps Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Old Jerusalem. Not a single village or a single tribe must be left”.
Actions of the Zionist governments, left or right since the establishment of Israel, suggest no intention of recognizing the rights of Palestinians.
The Israelis have to change their consciousness to deal courageously with their collective responsibility for the Palestinian tragedy. Only the Jewish Israeli members of the peace camp can drive this message home to the Israeli people. "
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