Do the Palestinians want a Palestinian State? Seems not.
1937 – Peel Commission. Rejected by Arab leadership because they opposed the idea of a Jewish state.
1947 – UN Partition Plan. Rejected by the Palestinians and Arab states.
1949–1950 – Armistice peace talks. Palestinians and Arab states insisted on reversing Israel’s creation rather than establishing a Palestinian state.
1948–1967 – No Palestinian state was created in the West Bank (ruled by Jordan) or Gaza (ruled by Egypt).
1978–1979 – Camp David Accords. The PLO rejected the proposal for limited Palestinian autonomy.
1993-1995 - Oslo Accords. Resulted in Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza.
2000 – Camp David Summit. Ehud Barak offered a Palestinian state; Yasser Arafat turned it down.
2001 – Taba Talks. The Israeli offer was expanded, but the Palestinians did not accept the terms.
2005 Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Instead of utilising this opportunity to create a full Palestinian state in Gaza the Palestinians elected Hamas as their governemnt and concentrated their efforts on attacking Israel with rockets and later a ground attack and building a network of offensive tunnels.
2007–2008 – Annapolis Process. Ehud Olmert offered Mahmoud Abbas a state; again not accepted.
2013–2014 – Kerry Negotiations. Proposals for a Palestinian state were discussed, but the Palestinians refused, especially over recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
The Palestinian refugee crisis was not an exceptional event in 20th-century history.
At the same time (the early or mid-20th century), millions of people were displaced in more than 10 incidents. All of them have been re-housed, received new citizenship, and have no claims on their previous places of inhabitance that they left generations ago. Except for the Palestinians who cling to the false hope of destroying Israel and returning to “Palestine”.
Armenian Genocide (1915–1917). Displacement: ~1–1.5 million. Caused by Ottoman persecution and genocide. Dispersed across the world, some live in the Middle East and some in Armenia.
Russian Civil War (1917–1923). Displacement: ~1.5–2 million. White Russians went abroad or were displaced internally.
Partition of India (1947). Displacement: ~15 million. Massive sectarian violence.
World War II – European refugees (1933–1945). Displacement: 10+ million. Caused by Nazi expansion, war destruction, Holocaust.
World War II – Expulsion of ethnic Germans from other countries in Europe (1944–1950). Displacement: ~12–14 million. All settled in Germany.
Palestinian exodus (1948 / 1967). Displacement: ~700,000 (1948), ~300,000 (1967). The result of Arab-Israeli conflicts.
Korean War (1950–1953). Displacement: ~5–10 million. Many went to the west, especially the USA.
Vietnam War & Indochina refugee crisis (1955–1975). Displacement: ~3 million.
Chinese Civil War (1927–1949). Displacement: ~2 million fled to Taiwan, many more displaced internally.
Jews from Arab countries (1948–1970s). Displacement: ~850,000–1 million. Caused by rising persecution after the creation of Israel. Mostly settled in Israel, some went to France, Canada and the USA.
Is Israel an Ethnostate?
Germany, France, Japan, Ireland and Israel (and a few other countries) will grant citizenship to their own ethnic groups. In 1945, and subsequently, millions of Germans “returned” to Germany, even though they hadn't set foot there ever. In Israel, the right to citizenship for someone who is Jewish is bound by legal requirements (not a religious definition).
Israel is not “reserved solely for the Jewish people”. 21% of Israelis are Arabs and a further 5-10% are not Jewish, usually the relatives including spouses of Israeli Jews and Arabs.
(Yes, there are restrictions on non Israelis purchasing land in Israel. Many countries have similar laws, including Palestine where the offence of buying or selling land to an Israeli is punishable by death! It is difficult for non Jews to start their own settlements in Israel but it has happened. Jews cannot purchase land in villages designated for Arabs (Bedouin villages), whereas non Jews can buy land anywhere. The Law of Return allows any Jew and their families to immigrate to Israel - that's the raison d’etre of the country. Others - including Palestinians - cannot get citizenship in the same way. Do Italians have a right to citizenship in Mexico? Of course not. The Palestinians want their own state, they mostly don't want to become Israeli.)
Every Arab country is an ethnocratic, religious apartheid state. Every Arab state has clauses in its constitution that are the same as or similar to these:
>“The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is an independent sovereign Arab State …. The Jordanian people is a part of the Arab Nation. … Islam is the religion of the State.”
>“Qatar is an Arab State, sovereign and independent. Its religion is Islam, and the Islamic Law is the main source of its legislations. … The people of Qatar are part of the Arab Nation.”
Just Google the rest — they are all very similar. So every single Arab country is openly an ethnic/religious state. Lebanon is an exception, but Lebanon is an apartheid state, it openly has an ethnic political system and is evil (there’s no better word) to the Palestinians living there. In fact, many Arab countries — with the possible exception of Jordan — are evil to the Palestinians, but that’s a different story, isn’t it?
Israel is a country that gives equal status to all its citizens. About 70% of Israelis are Jewish, but the 30% who are not Jewish are treated equally. There is definitely racism in Israel, but we cannot name a country or human society where there is no racism. Should I point out all the racism and discrimination in Arab countries against Bedouin, Christians, black people, Kurds? Remember Darfur, foreign workers in the Gulf, the Yazidi? What about the Druze and Alawite in Syria now? Apartheid systems exist openly in Bahrain, Iraq, and Lebanon.
Israel has no constitution; the Declaration of Independence of 1948 and the Basic Laws are the country's constituent documents. This is from the Declaration of Independence:
>“THE STATE OF ISRAEL … will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture”.
Next, an extract from the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty:
>“Fundamental human rights in Israel are founded upon recognition of the value of the human being, the sanctity of human life, and the principle that all persons are free; these rights shall be upheld in the spirit of the principles set forth in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel.”
Arab MKs in Israel are indeed spoken badly to by right wing Jewish politicians, but there are Arab MKs in a country you claim is racist/apartheid. In many Arab countries - Yemen, Libya, Lebanon, Syria - there aren't even functioning governments. In many Arab countries they don't even pretend to be democratic - KSA, Oman, UAE. Fundamentally Israel is the only country in the Middle East where a government can change peacefully or without the previous leader dying.
