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Israel Has Not Occupied Another People's Land

(Jerusalem Post) Melanie Phillips - The "occupation" does not cause Palestinian violence. It is unending Palestinian violence that prolongs the "occupation." The Palestinians aren't driven by despair at the absence of their state. They have turned down repeated offers of such a state since the 1930s. The relentless incitement which tells them that their highest calling is to kill Jews and conquer the whole of Israel has rather more to do with it. Moreover, Israel has not occupied another people's land, because the disputed territories never belonged to another people. Nor is Israel there out of an aggressive colonial impulse. The Jews are entitled to hold and settle the territories under international law several times over, both as a legally permitted defense against continuous belligerence and from their never-abrogated entitlement to do so - as the only people for whom this was ever their national homeland - under the terms of the Palestine Mandate. The writer is a columnist for The Times (UK).
2016-02-05 00:00:00
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