It is time for the Israelis to recognise Israel.
Today is Memorial Day in Israel and tomorrow Israel will celebrate her 58th anniversary as a modern state.
Happy birthday, Israel.
However, with the present pain being inflicted upon the people of Palestine, for daring to elect Hamas as their leaders, isn't it about time that Israel took the same step that she is demanding from the Palestinians?
The US and Israel demand that Hamas recognise Israel's right to exist. But surely, in order to ask anyone to do this, Israel should first define the area over which she is claiming sovereignty.
It is impossible for anyone to recognise Israel whilst she refuses to recognise herself by failing to define what she claims to be her borders.
Israel is the only country in the world to hold such a position.
Surely now, as she approaches middle age, it is time to end such coyness and for Israel to state, once and for all, what land she thinks is hers.
Only then could the Arab states give an honest answer as to whether or not they agree with Israel's definition of what land Israel claims to be Israel's.
How can anyone recognise a country when they don't know where it is? Or, more importantly, where it ends?
From 1967 onwards the US has been complicit with Israel in maintaining this international abnormality. Indeed, they have often used it as a club with which to beat the Arab nations for "failing to recognise" a country that fails to recognise itself.
Nor are the reasons for this failing hard to understand.
Israel refuses to define her borders because she is unwilling to state how much of the land that belonged to the Palestinians before the 1967 war that she now wishes to claim as her own.
This is because, under law, the amount of land that Israel is allowed to retain is nil.
International law is very clear on this issue. Resolution 242 begins by, "Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war".
Resolution 446, "Determines that the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity".
Resolution 446 states this because Article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention says, "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."
So this ambiguity exists only because the US and Israel seek to contravene international law.
It is time for this ambiguity to end.
I am genuine in wishing Israel a happy birthday. I also wish her peace on this historic day. But she will only know true peace when she obeys the same international laws that she, and the US, demand that the rest of the world comply with.
Those same international laws demand that Israel give up the occupied territories and return to her 1967 borders.
As she approaches her sixtieth year, it is time for Israel to recognise herself and, more importantly, the limitations of her borders.
Tags:
No comments:
Post a Comment