Palestinians won’t accept Israel

MANDLA Seleoane in his opinion piece, “Struggle for freedom valid” (March 12), fails to acknowledge that the Palestinians had many opportunities to secure their freedom. In 1936, when the British were trying to woo over the Arabs, a Royal Commission recommended the division of Palestine, granting more than 82% of the land to the Palestinians.

The British in 1946 granted all the land east of the Jordan River, which in the 1922 San Remo Conference was designated for Jewish settlement, to the Hashemite Transjordan. This land comprised about 75% of the British mandate of Palestine, and the vast majority of its inhabitants were and still are Palestinians.

If Jordan, as it is now known, had been a real democracy, then this would be a true Palestinian state. Had the Palestinians really sought and craved freedom, then surely they should have been happy with what the British offered them, but as always, they shot themselves in the foot and rejected the idea of sharing the land with the Jews.

In 1947, the United Nations recommended the partition of Palestine into two states, granting 55% to the Jews, which was comprised 85% of the Negev desert. The 45% of the land that the Palestinians were offered was all the fertile land of the Galilee and of northern Israel.

The Palestinians chose not to opt for freedom and opted for a war they were confident, with the support of five Arab states, they would win. The Arab states started in 1947, even before Israel was created, a boycott against the nascent Jewish state, which had the intention of cutting it off from the world and ultimately of destroying it.

Mr Seleoane, you must acknowledge, that the dominant motive driving the Palestinians has been to destroy Israel and not to achieve the “freedom” that you talk about.

All the time, between wars, Arab and Palestinian “fedayeen” as they were then called, tried to enter Israel to kill Jewish civilians. In 1963, even before one metre of land was so-called “occupied” the Palestinian Liberation Organisation was formed, with the sole intention of destroying Israel.

They exported their hate overseas, perpetrating heinous hijackings against civilians on planes and ships and at the Olympic Games. So irrespective of the UN resolutions 242 and 338 that you refer to, the issue is not the “occupation”, but the existence of Israel.

When the Palestinians recognise the existence of Israel’s right to be a refuge for Jews and its right to define itself as a “Jewish” state, then there will be peace.