Complexities of Palestinian issue

There has been a spate of letters and articles in The Gazette following the celebration in May of Israel's founding in 1948 (which the Palestinians regard as a disaster). The writers are correct that merely setting up a Palestinian state will not solve the problems. A Palestinian state is a secondary issue; there is a fundamental, underlying issue that needs to be addressed first, something which neither they nor Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, seem to comprehend.

If invasion, occupation and enslavement of other nations is considered evil when it was done by some nations during WWII, by what standard do these actions become good when done by Israel? Is it not a mistake for the Israelis to deprive Palestinians of their freedom? If Israeli freedom can be built only on the enslavement of the Palestinians then it is not true freedom.

A writer justifies Israel's possession of the land based on purchases, a UN resolution by colonial powers to establish Israel, and war with vastly superior American weaponry against inferior forces, and Biblical verses. If Scriptures are to be involved, should not the Scriptures of the Muslims also be given equal weight? And why ignore the great blessings in the Torah in the Book of Genesis to Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael, with their tremendous implications? The covenant of the Israelites with God still stands, according to the Quran 2: 40. "O children of Israel! call to mind the (special) favor which I bestowed upon you and fulfil your covenant with Me as I fulfil My covenant with you and fear none but Me." According to God's covenant with the Jews in the Torah, permission for Jews to live in the land is conditional on their obedience to God's commandments; it includes protection from God if they are faithful, and expulsion if they are not. Is it not strange that those who proffer the Torah as justification for Jews' right to the land ignore many other commandments in the Torah, and prefer to not live in Israel?

For a nation based on Judaism, the secular tendencies of the majority of Israeli and American Jews, the Orthodox excepted, should be a concern because their secularism suggests that they have adopted Israel as the modern Golden Calf, which drives their actions, not God's Commandments.

It is understandable that Jews need a place where they could feel safe from Christian-perpetrated massacres and holocausts. However, the modern state of Israel was created at the expense of the Muslims and Palestinians without their agreement, taking away land Muslims had held for over a thousand years, land which is also holy to them. This is similar to what the Christian Crusaders had done centuries ago, and it has evoked a similar reaction from the Muslims, regardless of the excuses made for the seizure of the land. It took the Muslims about 120 years, under the leadership of Salahuddin Ayubi, to expel the Crusaders from the Holy Lands. This is the real issue for all Muslims, not just the Palestinians, an issue that the writers and Netanyahu seem to not comprehend. It is a political issue over the ownership of the Holy Lands, an issue with a religious component, not unlike the troubles in Northern Ireland which have gone on for decades, while Palestinian statehood is a secondary issue. This is the underlying issue which needs to be resolved first by Israel taking the initiative in seeking recognition and acceptance from the Muslims; only after this is addressed at the political and religious levels can there be other meaningful steps toward a true peace, like a Palestinian state.

It is possible to impose an unjust peace on the Palestinians, and even on the Israelis.

Unless all parties involved, Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, feel justice has been done in whatever solution is proposed, a just and lasting peace cannot be achieved.

Until and unless the moderates take control, and the extremists on both sides (there are Jewish extremists also) cease to direct policies and peace negotiations, it will not be possible to attain a lasting and just peace.

There are two choices for Israel: one is to declare the issues intractable, as the writers have done, so as to justify maintaining the status quo, and continue using AIPAC's pressuring of American politicians to continue getting American support and American-supplied sophisticated weaponry; the other is to seek real peace, recognition and security by engaging in serious political and religious negotiations with the Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims to resolve the fundamental underlying issue, using the common Abrahamic roots of Judaism and Islam as a starting point. America is also part of the problem and it needs to be part of the solution, and it will require America to move the other parties toward negotiations because they will not do so on their own.

-

Yousufi is the spokesman for the Islamic Society of Colorado Springs.