Recognise Palestine! (And the TRNC!)

On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. U.S. President Harry S. Truman recognized the new nation on the same day. Although the United States supported the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which favoured the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had assured the Arabs in 1945 that the United States would not intervene without consulting both the Jews and the Arabs in that region. The British, who held a colonial mandate for Palestine until May 1948, opposed both the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine as well as unlimited immigration of Jewish refugees to the region. Great Britain wanted to preserve good relations with the Arabs to protect its vital political and economic interests in Palestine.

Soon after President Truman took office, he appointed several experts to study the Palestinian issue. In the summer of 1946, Truman established a special cabinet committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Henry F Grady, an Assistant Secretary of State, who entered into negotiations with a parallel British committee to discuss the future of Palestine. In May 1946, Truman announced his approval of a recommendation to admit 100,000 displaced persons into Palestine and in October publicly declared his support for the creation of a Jewish state. Throughout 1947, the United Nations Special Commission on Palestine examined the Palestinian question and recommended the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. On November 29, 1947 the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 (also known as the Partition Resolution) that would divide Great Britain’s former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948 when the British mandate was scheduled to end. Under the resolution, the area of religious significance surrounding Jerusalem would remain a ‘corpus separatum’ under international control administered by the United Nations.

Although the United States backed Resolution 181, the U.S. Department of State recommended the creation of a United Nations trusteeship with limits on Jewish immigration and a division of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab provinces but not states. The State Department, concerned about the possibility of an increasing Soviet role in the Arab world and the potential for restriction by Arab oil producing nations of oil supplies to the United States, advised against U.S. intervention on behalf of the Jews. Later, as the date for British departure from Palestine drew near, the Department of State grew concerned about the possibility of an all-out war in Palestine as Arab states threatened to attack almost as soon as the UN passed the partition resolution.

Despite growing conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews and despite the Department of State’s endorsement of a trusteeship, Truman ultimately decided to recognize the state Israel.

During the ensuing decades, the United States and Europe continue to ignore the cries of the Palestinian people, who have suffered enormous hardship and deprivation in a manner entirely analogous to the treatment of Turkish Cypriots, due to incessant Greek/Greek Cypriot propaganda. Both have supported Israel’s own version of apartheid and have financed Israel’s quest for a single state ‘solution’. Even whilst in violation of international law, Israel has avoided international sanctions and enforcement as the ‘holocaust card’ is played by Tel Aviv at every opportunity.  In a recent statement John Kerry said Israel risks becoming an apartheid State if peace talks fail. By definition and by those who have lived to experience it, Israel is and always has been an ‘apartheid’ state.  

Recently, a group of people in Turkey have penned the following text in the form of a petition* with the intention of persuading the USA and the UN to recognise Palestine. 

* A link to the petition is at the foot of this article

 “We, the people are tired of politicians with special interest ties to Israel making decisions to benefit them and Israel. The United States and European government were elected to serve the people and to honour the mission statements of their government branch. We the people did not elect them to serve special interest groups and lobbies like AIPAC and ADL. International law has no merit if not applied equally to all parties involved! We demand our tax dollars not be used to support apartheid. Our tax dollars will not be used to build prisons, separation walls, settlements, and military equipment used on Palestinians. 

Inaction in Rwanda, Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Central Africa Republic proved to be costly! During Rwanda politicians debated the use of the term genocide while Rwandans were being massacred. Today we debate if Israel’s illegal occupation is classified as apartheid. Palestinians can’t afford to continue to live in oppression. If the United States and Europe believes Israel is not an apartheid state then we ask Israel to prove it. 

We ask that representatives from the State Department, State Department Human Rights, European Commission, and European External Action Service all send key representatives unannounced to Palestine and Gaza. Representatives will home stay with a family in Palestine and or Gaza for 1 week. These representatives will experience first hand the life of those living in Palestine and Gaza. The United States and Europe will not be able to use the “We didn’t know” excuse that was used in Rwanda.  

No one denies Israel’s right to exist but we deny it the right to violate human rights and international law. The United States and Europe must take immediately action to solve the growing travesty being committed in and against Palestine. “

The latter point is absolutely right for Israel have an inalienable right to exist, to live peaceably and peacefully without external threat. The Palestinian people too have exactly the same desires and human rights and these must be recognised. Turkish Cypriots have been subjected to similar inhumanities at the hands of the Greek Cypriots and mainland Greece since 1963. They have established a homeland out of the ashes of a bloody past. Decades of talks have never achieved anything other than stalemate. It is past high time that all sides agreed to settle upon the status quo and to finally recognise the sovereign nation state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Perhaps Palestine might recognise this too!