Palestine should be recognized as a state

Shams Ghoneim, Writers’ Group

Transcribed from the clipping

“The world is at the dawn of a potential new page in the history of the Holy Lands and for the long oppressed Palestinian people. From 1967 to the present, Palestinian lands are still illegally occupied by Israel in spite of several United Nations resolutions.

Security Council Resolution 242 (1967) called on Israel to withdraw from territories it had occupied in the 1967 conflict, continues to be ignored. In 1974, the General Assembly reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty and to return.

Israel began the construction of a West Bank separation wall in 2003, within the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice. From 2000 to 2008 more violence, hardship, human rights violations and misery prevailed against the Palestinian people. Israeli civilians also faced many challenges.

The isolation, blockade and the 2008 vicious war against Gaza with the ongoing suffering of ordinary Palestinians are shameful acts and demonstrate indifference by the international community. The world impotently watched brutal horror and aggression raining on Gaza. The invasion was allegedly responding to Hamas’s primitive rockets shelling of Israel.

As Gazans’ blood flowed, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 390 to 5, hailing the invasion as ‘Israel’s right to defend itself.’ When Israeli military used white phosphorus against civilians with many dead children, the international court remained silent.

Today — the International Day of Democracy — Palestinians will be seeking statehood at the United Nations Security Council. The Palestinians currently have U.N. ‘observer’ status. The U.N. approval is required to become a member state. The U.S. has promised to veto such resolution. Palestinians could seek statehood recognition at the U.N.

General Assembly, which if granted, would be highly symbolic, representing a significant public relations victory. If Palestine becomes a non-member U.N. state, it would put it on par with that of the Vatican. Palestine as U.N. member can join the International Criminal Courts and other U.N. bodies.

The court can be instrumental to bring Israeli officials to justice for crimes against Palestinians residing in the occupied territories and potentially end the occupation.

The issue of statehood according to legal experts has been settled, because Palestine is a state in accordance with the first article of the Montevideo Convention, which defines a state as having: » A permanent population. » A defined territory. » A government. » And capacity to enter into relations with the other states.

As protests about the high cost of living in Israel continued in the streets for the fourth week, the Israeli government continued its effort to expedite the illegal construction of new housing in settlements in East Jerusalem, deep inside the West Bank, and more than 10 miles from the pre-1967 Green Line.

Americans should demand more of Israel since our tax dollars provide arms and aid. But the U.S. Congress continues to be an obstructionist where it stands regarding the Palestinian/Israeli lop-sided policy that is dysfunctional and against American interest. Thankfully American and Israeli voices for peace are being raised.

Jewish Voice for Peace, Rabbis for Human Rights, Gush Shalom, Israeli Committee Against House Demolition, Yesh Gvul, New Profile, Ta’ayush, Bat Shalom, The Alternative Information Center: for Middle East Peace are such active groups. Across the Middle East, the waves of freedom seekers are spreading from Tunisia to Egypt, to Bahrain, to Libya, to Syria to Yemen.

The freedom waves will ultimately spread to the Palestinian territories, and Palestinians will shed their chains, seek and obtain peacefully their long-awaited freedom from decades of brutal occupation. Shams Ghoneim is a community member of the Press-Citizen Editorial Board.”

Context added by this archive

A named Palestinian voice in an Iowa daily, on the editorial page, with a photograph. Shams Ghoneim writes as a member of the paper’s own editorial board. The column names nine Israeli and American peace groups by name, and its argument for statehood is made from the Montevideo Convention rather than from grievance.

Cite this item

"Palestine should be recognized as a state," Iowa City Press-Citizen, 15 September 2011. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2011-003. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2011-003