All you need to know about the Israel/Palestine situation (as I say often on this blog) is that in 1947, four groups were promised states in Asia: Indians, Pakistanis, Jews and Arabs in Palestine. Three of these groups got a state. One hasn't. For 61 years the Palestinians have been disqualified on one basis or another. That's all you need to know. It's not fair. Today the President of the General Assembly Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, a Catholic priest from Nicaragua, said just what I say on this point:
Today we recall that, 61 years
ago this month, the General Assembly adopted the historic resolution
181, calling for the creation of a Jewish State and an Arab State. The
State of Israel, founded a year later in 1948, now celebrates 60 years
of its existence. Shamefully, there is still no Palestinian State to
celebrate.
… As I stated in my first address to the General Assembly last September,
I believe that the failure to create a Palestinian State as promised is
the single greatest failure in the history of the United Nations. It
has been 60 years since some 800,000 Palestinians were driven out of
their homes and property, becoming refugees and an uprooted and
marginalized people.
…We cannot avoid the bitter irony that next month we mark the 60th
anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, which enshrines the right to self- determination of these very
same people. We are witness to decades of the terrible conditions
endured throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, yet the promise
– the right — of the Palestinian people to a homeland remains as
elusive as ever.
ago this month, the General Assembly adopted the historic resolution
181, calling for the creation of a Jewish State and an Arab State. The
State of Israel, founded a year later in 1948, now celebrates 60 years
of its existence. Shamefully, there is still no Palestinian State to
celebrate.
… As I stated in my first address to the General Assembly last September,
I believe that the failure to create a Palestinian State as promised is
the single greatest failure in the history of the United Nations. It
has been 60 years since some 800,000 Palestinians were driven out of
their homes and property, becoming refugees and an uprooted and
marginalized people.
…We cannot avoid the bitter irony that next month we mark the 60th
anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, which enshrines the right to self- determination of these very
same people. We are witness to decades of the terrible conditions
endured throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, yet the promise
– the right — of the Palestinian people to a homeland remains as
elusive as ever.
What's the lobby's answer to this: The U.N. is morally bankrupt.
