There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people. These negotiations must ensure that Israel has secure, recognized, and defensible borders. And they must ensure that the state of Palestine is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent.
Which candidate has come forth to endorse Bush’s recent statements about peace in the Middle East, which demands an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian people and the creation of a viable Palestinian state?
In a word, none.
What we rather see applied within Israel-Palestine itself is a continuation of the policy that follows the one instituted by Ariel Sharon in the 90s, the “dunam by dunam” policy he applied for two decades to wrest land in the West Bank from the Palestinians, to essentially continue the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Who is speaking out against it? Not the candidates. Only Bush seems intent on turning the tide against the racist policies that nullify a Palestinian state.
As proof the Israelis don’t give a hoot about Bush’s folly, the UN Office of Humanitarian Rights published this news this morning:
ISRAEL-OPT: West Bank farmers face ruin after trees uprooted
JEET, WEST BANK. 27 April 2008 (IRIN) – It was difficult for 87-year-old Jamil Khader to discover that nearly all of the 1,400 olive trees his extended family planted in February had suddenly gone missing, having been uprooted and stolen.
“He became very ill when I told him. He was hospitalised and was in bed for a week,” his son Khalil, from the small town of Jeet in the northern West Bank, told IRIN.
The family reckon that the trees were uprooted in March but they did not find out about it until 16 April, when they got to the land, which they do not do regularly because of its proximity to the nearby Israeli settlement of Kedumim.
And the Israeli response to this outrage: more Orwellian logic:
….the Israeli military said it fell under the jurisdiction of the Civil Administration which in turn asked IRIN to contact the Israeli police. A police spokesman could only say that as the Palestinians had filed a complaint the case would be investigated, and suggested contacting the military.
Will this man,
Will Jamil Khader, 87, who became very will when he discovered that nearly all of the 1,400 olive trees his extended family planted in February had suddenly gone missing, be Israel’s latest victim of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank?
