A “Press Release” was published by Kana’an (Vol. VII, issue 1209, dated July 9, 2007) on behalf of Palestinians participating in a Madrid conference, to create “peace” in Palestine, is wholly inaccurate and commands the reader to conclude that this is a new and independent thrust. We venture to say that the statement [below], as such, is intellectually dishonest, politically obtuse and myopic, and perhaps even deceitful. Moreover, the statement is U.S.-inspired, par excellence, and serves its regional objectives.
It is dishonest because it removes the actual context of this politically-driven effort in order to suggest an element of innocence. The “participants,” in their statement, decided to conceal the fact that they were in Madrid at the invitation and initiation of Universidad Complutense de Madrid’s Summer Program to debate the issue of Palestine. The signatories include at least five university professors, most distinguished are: Joseph Masad, George Bisharat, Ilan Pappe and Virginia Tilley. Could this Madrid venue be heralding a renewed effort to complement the sellout of the Palestinians’ Right-of-Return. It is certainly not an isolated incident considering the momentum to consolidate the colonial grip on Palestine.
As university professors, the signatories certainly understand that omission, or concealment, of fact is a dishonest behavior, to say the least. Then, why would the official statement not identify the “University of Madrid” as such.
Furthermore, the nearby Spanish city of Barcelona earlier that month hosted Farouk Qadoumi in his quest to claim leadership and imminence of the moribund PLO. Are there any parallels and significance for those seemingly isolated gatherings. Let us consider the facts below why it is inspired by the U.S.:
On July 11, 2007, the Zionist organization “Americans for Peace Now,” APN, issued a call to its members urging them to support the “… updated version of S[enate]. Res. 224, also known as the Feinstein-Lugar resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” The resolution was introduced earlier by the rabid anti-Arab California Senator Dianne Feinstein and her effort was described by APN as “signaling strong support for U.S. engagement to achieve progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace.”
The Senate resolution calls, in part, for:
# “reaffirms the Senate’s commitment to a “true and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the establishment of 2 states, the State of Israel and Palestine , living side by side in peace and security, with recognized borders;
# calls on moderate Arab states in the region “to intensify their diplomatic efforts toward a 2-state solution” and “welcomes the Arab League Peace Initiative;
# calls on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to “embrace efforts to achieve peace and refrain from taking any actions that would prejudice the outcome of final status negotiations.” [Quotations are from APN].
While the Madrid attendees discussed the historical plight of the Palestinians, they did not fail to address the “Israeli” claims to Palestine. The statement says that the participants debated the “post-conflict society so that it provides a secure and dignified life to Palestinians and Israeli Jews.” And “It was argued that the two-state approach encourages separation where equality and coexistence are imperative.” What “dignified” life do the participants refer to the invading European colonialists of the Jewish faith. Certainly, Joseph Masad, for one, is not at all ignorant of the fallacy of any European claims to Palestine – beginning with Napoleon’s onslaught, the Sykes-Picot “arrangements,” and through the infamous Balfour Declaration and the aftermath of the devastating Oslo Accords.
The reader is encouraged to draw the appropriate conclusions from the Madrid text which seeks to justify Palestine’s colonization, eradication of its Arab character and to conceal it in a call for a bi-national state – except it does not call it as such, but claims to argue for a one democratic state. Again, omissions of facts are not only undignified and cruel but a sin of historical proportions and a serious intellectual offense.
To the unsuspecting eye, the argument over the “two” options may be inconsequential: the U.S. calls for a “two-state” solution, while the Madrid signatories call for a “one democratic state.” It is most significant, however, to view the thrust of these multiple efforts in an historical continuum to take away Palestine from its rightful owners and relocate them anywhere but Palestine – pure and simple. Most importantly, the Palestinians objective has been to liberate Palestine and insure its people's return - establishing a governing structure is the least of their worries before achieving both objectives.
Moreover, only recently, a concerted effort by the British Government disguised as an intellectual exercise born at Oxford University and led by a "sole" Palestinian lecturer (who, by her own admission, does not speak Arabic), Karma Nabulsi, was defeated by the Palestinian refugees in the targeted camps. It was, in essence, an effort to by-pass the legal bounds the PLO structure constituted and sway the public in the direction of “final status negotiations,” and resettlement of the "refugees" in their host countries.
Now, here enters this “collective” effort by undefined “intellectuals,” to include both Palestinians and “Israelis,” in a bid to complement the sagging U.S. policy towards confronting those who maintain that armed struggle is the people’s option to return to Palestine.
Furthermore, the participants’ omission of the undeniable right of the Palestinians to return, in the context of their Arab characteristic and identity, is most suspicious and reeks of collusion with similar efforts to eradicate Palestine from consciousness and cleanse it from its Arabism. Earlier, in May 2007, Qadoumi was hosted in Barcelona to ostensibly “organize” the Palestinian communities in Europe. The final communiqué issued emphasized the classic UN resolution 194 as a precursor of the Palestinians “return.” Said resolution, however, pre-supposes that those who wish to return must be repatriated with the approval of the “state.” There should be no illusion as to what the reference implies - no Palestine but "Isr." While Qadoumi’s ongoing “shuttle diplomacy” to enforce the colonial creation in Palestine has become his trademark, this renewed intellectual effort must be viewed with a similar prism – being anti-Palestinian.
Most recently, France has been leading the imperial efforts to subjugate Sudan (Darfur) and Lebanon through “diplomacy.” Now, another European entity is quietly emerging to do the U.S. bidding, to further subjugate the Palestinians and consolidate their misery, by creating a new version of the “Madrid Peace Conference,” in the aftermath of the U.S. onslaught against Iraq and its imminent demise.
The fundamental question remains: is Kana’an complicit in this intellectual wholesale of Palestine?
Jafar Jafari
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[The press statement in question is reproduced here for reader review only, obviously without endorsing it - AN Weblog Editorial Committee]
كنعان النشرة الألكترونية
Kana’an – The e-Bulletin
Suggested Readings
Volume VII – Issue 1209 9 July 2007
(English) Palestine/Israel: One Country, One State
(Espanol) Palestina/Israel: Un pa?s, un Estado
El Escorial, 6 July 2007
Madrid
http://www.kanaanonline.org/articles/01209.pdf
Palestine/Israel: One Country, One State
El Escorial, 6 July 2007
Press Statement
For decades, efforts to create a just peace for Palestinians and Israeli Jews have failed. The current crisis has further set back hopes for a political solution to the conflict.
In this context, a group of scholars, journalists and activists met in Madrid for five days of intensive discussion on alternatives to this ongoing impasse, framed by their belief that a democratic state in all of historic Palestine provides the only moral and practical basis for a just, sustainable peace.
Presentations were informed by the understanding that the attempt to partition historic Palestine , regarded by the major powers as a solution to the conflict, has failed to bring about justice and peace or to offer a genuine process leading towards them. It was argued that the two-state approach encourages separation where equality and coexistence are imperative. Participants presented the two-state approach as failing to take into account physical and political realities on the ground and presuming false parity in power and moral claims between the two peoples.
Discussions ranged through many other issues including the forms of domination Israel exercises over the Palestinians and the racist practices this entails, such as ethnic cleansing, forms of apartheid, a legal system in Israel built on ethnic discrimination, and the denial of the Palestinian right of return, as well as how to define the rights of Israeli Jews. The discussions considered ways of reframing the question in terms of a struggle for equality and justice, equal citizenship for all the people in the land, and decolonization. Participants debated interpretations of international law, the nature of the conflict, Zionism, the role of religion, and re-imagining national identities.
Many issues for further discussion, action and research emerged, including forms of internal and international solidarity with Palestinians (such as boycott, divestment and sanctions), the lessons from other similarly structured conflicts including South Africa and Northern Ireland, rethinking the relationship between state and citizen, and how to organize a post-conflict society so that it provides a secure and dignified life to Palestinians and Israeli Jews.
The participants shared a commitment to engaging deeply with these issues, in the context of their commitment to a democratic solution that will offer an enduring and just peace in a single state, and invite the widest possible participation in this quest.
The participants in the conference were:
Ali Abunimah
Omar Barghouti
Oren Ben-Dor
George Bisharat
Haim Bresheeth
Pedro Chavez Giraldo
Jonathan Cook
Leila Farsakh
Steven Friedman
Islah Jad
Joseph Massad
Ilan Pappé
Carlos Prieto Del Campo
Nadim Rouhana
Michael Tarazi
Virginia Tilley
6 July 2007, El Escorial , Madrid , Spain .
* * *
[End of statement]
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