Palestinian Public Opinion and the Peace Process

[Coyote]

I originally posted this in response to another thread but, I think it's better as it's own topic and I'll do one for Israeli public opinion.

This thread is to explore Palestinian public opinion as it relates to the Peace Process and their beliefs about Israeli's.

I also think that what matters is not just the numbers, but the beliefs that lie behind them. The popular narrative we hear over and over again (and one that I believe is intended to dehumanize the people), is that it is a "culture of hate the Jews". I believe it's important for everyone to believe that because it enforces the belief that one can not negotiate with the Palestinians, that they are subhuman, and justifies continued marginalization. There are powerful attempts to control the message coming from both the Pro-Zionist's and the Pro-Pallywood camps. I chose those terms deliberately - one side forces the narrative that the Palestinians do not have a just cause or rights, and the other side pushes the narrative that Palestinians are perpetual victims incapable of controlling their own choices.

There are some other disturbing polls though...Palestinian Public Opinion Poll No-58 | PCPSR this one, I've posted before. But what, in my opinion, is more important than just the numbers is what lies behind them - the WHY of it and what people BELIEVE as truth.

One thing that comes out over and over is "national interests" and "national rights" as important factors (as opposed to "exterminate the Jews"). The other is a deep distrust of Israel's motives and ambitions and a giving up on the ability of negotiations as a means of obtaining their rights. Those three things are powerful drivers. Another disturbing trend I read (not in this poll) is that many Palistinians get their news from social media, one of the worst ways to get accurate news because there is no accountability for what is posted. All of this, combined with Israel's own beliefs and actions (which I will make another thread about) lead me to think that prospects for peace are grim.

Taken from that poll:

51% of the Palestinian public (67% in the Gaza Strip and 40% in the West Bank) believe that most of the Palestinians who fell after being shot by the Israeli army or settlers have in fact stabbed or were attempting to stab Israelis. But 47% believe that most of those who were shot have not stabbed or were not attempting to stab Israelis.
​

Almost half of the Palestinian public believes that those were shot by Israeli's were innocent of stabbing. (I'm not talking facts, but beliefs, which are often much more powerful then facts).

We also asked the public in an open-ended question about the motivation of the little school girls who participate in stabbing attacks: 41% said they believe they are driven by national motivation; 26% said the motivation was personal; and 16% said the motivation was religious. 11% said it was a combination of national and religious motivations. ​

Again, here, we see national motivation as the largest category.

This part also speaks to "beliefs" of people (which may or may not be supported by facts, that would be another thread) and it's a disturbingly high number and indicates a high level of distrust of Israel.

(2) The future of the Oslo agreement:

• 90% believe that Israel does not abide by the Oslo Agreement and 68% support abandoning that agreement.
• Two thirds believe that President Abbas is not serious about abandoning the Oslo Agreement.
• 70% support a ban on the importation of Israeli goods; 64% support ending security coordination; and 58% support ending civil coordination even if such steps lead to Israeli retaliation.

Palestinian views on the peace process are also grim when you look at what they believe to be true.

65% believe the two state solution is no longer practical due to settlement construction and 75% believe that the chances for the creation of a Palestinian state during the next five years are slim to non-existent.

82% believe that Israel’s long term aspirations are to extend its borders to include all territories occupied in 1967 and expel the Palestinian inhabitants or deny them their political rights.

51% believe that Israel plans to destroy al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and build a Jewish temple in their place.​

A majority of 65% believes that the two-state solution is no longer practical due to settlement expansion while 34% say it is still practical. Despite this, only 29% support, and 70% oppose, a one-state solution in which Arabs and Jews enjoy equal rights. 75% believe that the chances for establishing a Palestinian state next to the state of Israel in the next five years are slim to non-existent and 24% believe the chances are high or medium. Findings also show that 45% support the Arab Peace Initiative and 53% oppose it. Similarly, only 39% support a mutual recognition of national identity of Israel as the state for the Jewish people and Palestine as the state for the Palestinian people and 61% oppose it.​

The percentage of those who are worried that they would be hurt by Israel or that their land would be confiscated or homes demolished stands at 79%. 21% are not worried. Furthermore, an overwhelming majority of 82% believes that Israel’s long term aspiration is to annex the lands occupied in 1967 and expel their population or deny them their rights. 16% believe that Israel’s long term aspiration is to insure its security and withdraw from all or most of the territories occupied in 1967.When asked about the long term aspiration of the PA and the PLO, 65% said that it is to recover all or parts of the land occupied in 1967 while 26% said it was to conquer the state of Israel or conquer the state of Israel and kill most of the Jews.​

Another narrative being pushed by the Pro-Zionist camp is to conflate ISIS with the Palestinian cause (and throw in the Nazi's for good measure) which is just another form of demonizing a people. But here again - ISIS enjoys very little support.

(6) ISIS, Paris attacks, and waves of refugees:

• 88% believe that ISIS does not represent true Islam.
• An overwhelming majority opposes ISIS attacks in Lebanon, Sinai, and Paris.

This public opinion poll is complex and contradictory - it looks at beliefs and thoughts about prospects. There are some disturbing numbers - for example, "26% believe that the PA/PLO long term aspirations are to conquer Israel or conquer and kill most of the Jews" - that's a distinct minority but a significant minority (I'd like to know the break down and how the original questions were asked). The other significant numbers are the 82% that believe Israel will annex them, confiscate their land and expel them, and only 39% now support recognizing Israel as a Jewish state and Palestine as a Palestinian state. Here two I'd like to see the breakdowns and questions.

These are very powerful beliefs about the other's intentions. How well are they supported by facts and, how can a peace process develop?

Like I said, I'll post a thread on Israel public opinion polls as well.

 

[Coyote]

What do Palestinians want?

The most recent wave of Palestinian terror attacks, now entering its second month, has been mainly the work of “lone wolf” operators running over Israeli civilians, soldiers, and policemen with cars or stabbing them with knives. The perpetrators, many in or just beyond their teenage years, are not, for the most part, activists in the leading militant organizations. They have been setting forth to find targets with the expectation, generally fulfilled, that after scoring a casualty or two they will be killed or badly wounded. What drives these young Palestinians, experts say, is a viral social-media campaign centered on claims that the Jews are endangering the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and that Israel is executing Palestinian children.


Pundits and analysts in Israel and the West, struck by the elements that make this round of violence different from its predecessors over the past decade-and-a-half—which typically featured well-orchestrated shootings, suicide bombings, or rocket fire—have focused on the motivations of individual attackers, on how and why the Palestinian political and religious leadership has been engaging in incitement, and on what Israeli officials or American mediators might do to quell the violence.


Absent almost entirely from this discussion has been any attempt to understand the perspective of everyday Palestinians. Yet it is precisely the climate of public opinion that shapes and in turn is shaped by the declarations of Palestinian leaders, and that creates the atmosphere in which young people choose whether to wake up in the morning, pull a knife from the family kitchen, and go out in search of martyrdom. Whether commentators are ignoring the views of mainstream Palestinians out of a mistaken belief that public opinion does not matter in dictatorships, or out of a dismissive sense that they are powerless pawns whose fate is decided by their leaders, Israel, or regional and world powers, the omission is both patronizing and likely to lead to significant misunderstandings of what is happening. In this essay I aim to fill the lacuna by addressing what Palestinians think both about violence against Israelis and about the core issues that supply its context and justification.

...In what follows, I focus on three related questions: What do Palestinians think of Israel and of Jews? How do they view the Jewish claim to at least a part of the land of Israel, and especially Jerusalem? And what do they believe about the legitimacy, efficacy, and desirability of carrying out terrorist attacks against Israelis? My hope is that, on the basis of these findings, I can provide a better sense of what lies behind the current wave of violence and perhaps stimulate discussion about how it might be curbed.

​

This is an interesting analysis of a number of public opinion polls, from a Jewish source (Mosaic) - what people believe matters in this conflict, because belief about the other is as much a driver as nationalist aspirations. It's also the hardest thing to counteract I think. There is some bias here, but the conclusions are thought provoking.

Notable conclusions:

• A large majority of Palestinians were convinced that Israel sought deliberately to target civilians, and held Hamas blameless for positioning its leadership, fighters, and weapons in populated areas.

• A majority of Palestinians, 51 percent, assert that Israel will “destroy al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques and build a synagogue in their place.”

• On the rare occasions when they have been given the opportunity to generalize, Palestinians characterize Israelis as belligerent and untrustworthy but clever and strong, and finger Judaism as the most violent of all religions.

• 98 percent of Palestinians said the killing of 29 Palestinians in Hebron by Baruch Goldstein was terrorism, but only 15 percent were willing to say the same for an attack by suicide bombers that killed 21 Israelis in Tel Aviv.

• When Palestinians look back at sustained campaigns of violence, whether in the second intifada or in the three wars with Hamas, they see them as victories, and they tend to believe that armed campaigns are also likely to be effective in the future.

• 61 percent thought it morally “right” to “name streets after Palestinian suicide bombers like Dalal al-Maghrabi who killed Israeli civilians within Israel.”

• Anyone contemplating an armed attack can expect to benefit from a substantial network of backers, and if successful to bring great honor upon himself and his family.

• It’s unlikely that a change in Israeli actions will help dampen the situation. A half-century of Israeli restraint at the Temple Mount, for example, hasn’t convinced Palestinians that there is no plan to replace the mosques with a Third Temple.

 

[Coyote]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

 

[P F Tinmore]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle​

, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

 

[Phoenall]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

 

[P F Tinmore]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

 

[Hollie]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

The power of BDS™

Really tinny. Wrong thread for silly BDS'ing.

 

[Phoenall]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

AGAIN after being given the same answer hundreds of times, deflection away from having to prove you are a liar.

So produce your international laws and date on implementation, remembering that UN resolutions are not International laws.

 

[P F Tinmore]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

AGAIN after being given the same answer hundreds of times, deflection away from having to prove you are a liar.

So produce your international laws and date on implementation, remembering that UN resolutions are not International laws.

You need a new duck. This one is getting old.

 

[Phoenall]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

AGAIN after being given the same answer hundreds of times, deflection away from having to prove you are a liar.

So produce your international laws and date on implementation, remembering that UN resolutions are not International laws.

You need a new duck. This one is getting old.

Then stop asking the same stupid question that you have no intention of reading the answer to. Accept that you are wrong and be done with it

 

[waltky]

American tax payers' money used to support terrorists' families...

Expert: 10% of Palestinian Authority Budget Paid to Families of Jailed and ‘Martyred’ Terrorists
July 7, 2016 – The Palestinian Authority dedicates an estimated ten percent of its budget to pay the families of Palestinian terrorists, including those killed during attacks and those in prison, the House Foreign Affairs Committee heard Wednesday.

American taxpayers will account for $442 million in aid to the P.A. in FY 2016. In the P.A.’s 2016 budget, $137.8 million was earmarked for prisoners and their families, and $172.5 million for the families of “martyrs,” Yigal Carmon, founder and president of Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), told the panel. Carmon said a P.A. government regulation instituted in 2010 stipulated that the amount paid to prisoners’ families depended on the length of sentence – ranging from $364 a month for jail terms of up to three years, to $3,120 a month for 30 years or more. In addition, he said, terrorists from Jerusalem get a further $78 monthly supplement while Arab Israelis get an $130 monthly supplement.

Anyone imprisoned for five years or more is automatically eligible on release for a job with the P.A. institution, he added. With regard to the families of Palestinians killed carrying out terrorist attacks, Carmon cited 2011 Palestinian media reports saying that the family of each “martyr” receives a one-off payment of $1,560, plus a monthly allowance of $364. Married terrorists and those with children receive additional supplements ($104 for those who were married, and $52 per child). Committee chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said that the sliding scale of payment for imprisoned Palestinians meant that “the highest payments go to those serving life sentences – to those who prove most brutal.” “If a Palestinian state was established, it’s hard to see how this ‘pay to slay’ policy wouldn’t put them on the state sponsor of terrorism list,” he observed.

Royce asked Carmon – whose organization’s monitoring over almost two decades has included a focus on Palestinian institutions and official media – what proportion of the annual P.A. budget is used for “these salaries to terrorists.” Carmon said it was hard to be certain, as the P.A. budgetary process is opaque, but judging from what is known, and what has been made public by the media, “it would be about ten percent.” “About ten percent goes to reward people who carry out attacks, stabbings and shootings of the Israeli population,” Royce summarized.

The U.S. gave $338 million in foreign assistance to the P.A. in fiscal year 2015, according to State Department data. The Obama administration plans $442 million in aid in FY 2016 (of which $47.7 million has been spent so far) and $363.5 million in FY 2017. Of the $338 million spend in FY 2015, the lion’s share went to education and social services ($161 million), health ($63.8 million) and economic development ($49.5 million).

Congress moves to close loophole

 

[Phoenall]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

Anti semitism and racism are banned under international law, so how can BDS wich is RACIST and ANTI SEMITIC be based on international law then. You do talk some crap sometimes in regards to BDS and what is stands for, it is nothing more than a left wing nazi smokescreen to hide hatred of the Jews from the public, a pity far too many people have seen through it and are bringing complaints against the BDS supporters.How many bans have been instigated against BDS now. Dont forget to include the omne brought by the palestinians themselves as it damages them more than it damages Israel.

More Israeli produce in the shops now that we have started trading with Israel and the people are buying them up

 

[Phoenall]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

In the Geneva conventions as interpreted by the ICC/ICJ who have stated they cant bring charges against Israel under them

 

[Phoenall]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

AGAIN after being given the same answer hundreds of times, deflection away from having to prove you are a liar.

So produce your international laws and date on implementation, remembering that UN resolutions are not International laws.

You need a new duck. This one is getting old.

No duck at all, just putting you in the spotlight and you dont like it, so do your usual duck, dive and deflection rather than answer the question.

So will you ever produce these fantasy international laws ?

 

[P F Tinmore]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

In the Geneva conventions as interpreted by the ICC/ICJ who have stated they cant bring charges against Israel under them

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

 

[P F Tinmore]

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

AGAIN after being given the same answer hundreds of times, deflection away from having to prove you are a liar.

So produce your international laws and date on implementation, remembering that UN resolutions are not International laws.

You need a new duck. This one is getting old.

No duck at all, just putting you in the spotlight and you dont like it, so do your usual duck, dive and deflection rather than answer the question.

So will you ever produce these fantasy international laws ?

 

[Hollie]

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

AGAIN after being given the same answer hundreds of times, deflection away from having to prove you are a liar.

So produce your international laws and date on implementation, remembering that UN resolutions are not International laws.

You need a new duck. This one is getting old.

No duck at all, just putting you in the spotlight and you dont like it, so do your usual duck, dive and deflection rather than answer the question.

So will you ever produce these fantasy international laws ?

You will eventually have to come to terms with the fact that Egypt, Syria and Lebanon are not going to allow the return of the stooges you falsely label as Pal'istanians.

 

[Phoenall]

Another interesting analysis, also with some bias, from a Palestinian source.....What Palestinians really want (Opinion) - CNN.com

...For the past 25 years, world -- and even Palestinian -- leaders have backed the idea of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian public was not interested in a state simply to have a chair at the United Nations, to have embassies in foreign capitals or to have postage stamps or a different face on their currency. Nor are they interested in the empty bit of symbolism this week of raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Who cares?

It doesn't feed or educate a besieged child in Gaza or grant a West Bank Palestinian child the same rights as a Jewish child living in an illegal settlement.


If Palestinians wanted a state at all, it was as a means to an end, a vehicle toward realizing their rights. But instead of moving toward the sovereignty of statehood that would undergird the rights of Palestinian citizens, Palestinians have seen the quest for statehood result in occasional pomp and circumstance while the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise deepens.

Indeed, even in the rosiest of scenarios discussed in negotiations, the Palestinian "state" would not be equal in sovereignty to the Israeli state, meaning the peace process was, at best, moving toward glorified occupation in a rump state or bantustan.

This ruse became ever clearer to Palestinians. And now, a day before Abbas is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, new polling data of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza highlight the contradiction in terms that is the "two-state solution."

For the first time in recent memory, a majority of Palestinian respondents, 51%, oppose a two-state solution, with 48% supporting it. This is because, as the same poll notes, 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion.

No one has a better understanding of what Israeli settlements mean for the prospects of Palestinian statehood than the very Palestinians living next to them. Yet what is most needed today is sorely lacking, namely a reframing of Palestinian strategy.

Somewhere along the way, statehood went from being a means to an end to being an end in itself. Now, with a right-wing Israeli government firmly in power and no serious engagement from the international community to rein in Israel's expansionist ambitions, Palestinians understand that the statehood project is at best a failure, and at worst a cover for continued Israeli colonialism in Palestinian territory.

With this reality in mind, the focus of Palestinian national strategy should not be statehood but rather on reclaiming rights. This means officially declaring the two-state solution dead, with the cause of death being asphyxiation because of settlement expansion. As part of a new direction, Palestinian leaders should support coexistence over nationalism, integration over exclusion and equality over separatism.

To some, the notion of focusing on rights might seem abstract. But who around the world cannot identify with the desire to be free, to move freely, to live on one's ancestral land and to be legally equal with their neighbors, regardless of faith or background?

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.​

If Palestinians shifted from separatist struggle to a rights-based struggle
, they would quickly garner sympathy and support from around the world and would force the Israel-Palestinian issue back into the forefront from where it has long since gone missing.
​

That is the power of BDS. It is based on equal rights and international law.

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

In the Geneva conventions as interpreted by the ICC/ICJ who have stated they cant bring charges against Israel under them

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

In the Geneva conventions as interpreted by the ICC/ICJ who have stated they cant bring charges against Israel under them.

It is not just one of the articles but many of them that have to be taken as a whole and not as individual aspects of the small parts that when manipulated agree with your POV. The major aspect is the one that says " if it is of military need" and stopping the firing of illegal weapons is of military need.



Or as in this article


Individual responsibility, collective penalties, pillage, reprisals

• 
  ARTICLE 33 [ Link ]
  
  No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
  Pillage is prohibited.
  Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.
  
  
  
  
  Which says that the occupied people are still subject to law and can be arrested, tried and put in prison for any breach of civil law.
  
  To which you then add this article
  
  ARTICLE 53 [ Link ]
  
  Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.
  
  
  Which makes it clear that reprisals are allowed if they are for military necessity, so negating part of asrticle 33

 

[Phoenall]

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

AGAIN after being given the same answer hundreds of times, deflection away from having to prove you are a liar.

So produce your international laws and date on implementation, remembering that UN resolutions are not International laws.

You need a new duck. This one is getting old.

No duck at all, just putting you in the spotlight and you dont like it, so do your usual duck, dive and deflection rather than answer the question.

So will you ever produce these fantasy international laws ?

No such internaqtional law as it was never entered as such. The islamic states vetoed this because they would have to take back all those they had evicted by force, and give them protection. You can push your islamonazi propaganda all you want you first need to find when it was accepted as a legal concept and not left up to individual states to introduce.

An example of why it is not legally binding would be if a first nations person came to your property and stated that you had to leave because he/she is invoking their legal right of return to what was their property prior to the invasion and colonisation by your forefathers. If you accept this as being valid then you will find yourself not only homeless but stateless as well

 

[MJB12741]

You keep bringing up international law yet never cite what international law and when it was enacted.
Remember that International law that is the Geneva conventions when applied in full says that the Israeli's are in the right.

Where does it say that?

Passage and link please.

AGAIN after being given the same answer hundreds of times, deflection away from having to prove you are a liar.

So produce your international laws and date on implementation, remembering that UN resolutions are not International laws.

You need a new duck. This one is getting old.

No duck at all, just putting you in the spotlight and you dont like it, so do your usual duck, dive and deflection rather than answer the question.

So will you ever produce these fantasy international laws ?

RIGHT ON! Tell it to the surrounding Arab countries.