One man, one vote will end the Palestinian plight once and for all

THE letters by L Oosthuizen and John Whitlock recently, based on untruths and distortion of history in support of apartheid Israel, cannot go unchallenged.

To obtain a factual and unbiased report of the sad state of affairs, vis-à-vis the Palestinians, I suggest one studies the publication via Google viz: “The origin of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict” produced by Jews for Justice in the Middle East (Berkley CA, 2001).

In summary, it traces its roots to the birth of Zionism in the 1890s, with its quest for a Jewish homeland which was later supported by Britain in the form of the infamous Balfour Declaration of 1917.

Palestine, a country inhabited by almost 800 000 inhabitants, was chosen; yet it and other Arab states had been promised independence because they had allied themselves to Britain against the Ottoman Empire.

After World War I, Britain was mandated to administer Palestine (just as the then South West Africa – now Namibia – was mandated to South Africa).

Over the next three decades, there were waves of migration of Jews to the region so that whereas in 1922 they constituted only 11% of the population, by 1947 the figure had risen to 32% – still a minority.

However, their land ownership increased from 2.5% to only 6% during this period.

Yet the UN, being dominated by the US, Britain and other Western powers, without consulting the indigenous people, unfairly partitioned Palestine such that Israel was created, owning 55% of the country while 45% was allocated to the majority Palestinians.

However, just before partition and subsequently by terrorism, ethnic cleansing and forced removals, the Zionists occupied another 23% of the country (78% in total).

In the process, more than 400 villages were wiped out.

It was the massacres at Deir Yassin and elsewhere that provoked the surrounding Arab states to assist the Palestinians but their armies were not only out-numbered but also had inferior arms and were no match for the well-armed Zionists who had retained the armaments provided to them during World War II when they fought alongside the Allied forces.

Subsequently, Israel’s expansionist goals continued, culminating in its taking over Gaza and the West Bank where it has established numerous Jewish settlements in contravention of international law.

Therefore, from the moral angle, any individual with a conscience will have nothing but sympathy for the Palestinians who are resisting an occupying power.

The solution will be to follow the South African model: one man, one vote in a unified Palestine.

MA OMAR | Westville