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Palestinians Are the Only Stateless People Who Turned Down Repeated Offers of Statehood

(Algemeiner-JNS) Steve Frank - Although the new U.S. peace proposal is unlikely to achieve its purported goal, it is useful because it underscores certain facts. The Palestinians never will accept the existence of a Jewish state in what they consider to be "historic Palestine," which includes present-day Israel. If there was any doubt about that, just listen to the Palestinians' present-day chant for the "liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea" (from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including both the West Bank and all of Israel). The Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations cites the claims for statehood of over 350 stateless peoples. Many are ancient peoples who have had their own separate identities for centuries, including 45 million Kurds, 6 million Tibetans, 70 million Tamils in southern India, 30 million Igbos in Nigeria, 30 million Sikhs in India, 10 million Ahwazi Arabs in Iran, the Basques, and the Catalans. The elevation of the Palestinian narrative is especially anomalous given that, unlike other stateless people, the stateless status of the Palestinians is largely self-inflicted. They are the only stateless people who have turned down repeated offers of statehood and independence over the last hundred years. They are also the only stateless people who have repeatedly and routinely turned to indiscriminate violence and terrorism in pursuit of their goals. The Kurds, Tibetans and other stateless peoples have never turned their call for statehood into an excuse for murder. The writer served for 30 years as an appellate lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington.
2020-01-31 00:00:00
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