Sixty years ago today the United Nations General Assembly approved Resolution 181 calling for the partition of the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The vote was 33 votes in favor, 13 against, 10 abstentions and one absent (see list).
The resolution was accepted by the Jews in Palestine, yet rejected by the Arabs in Palestine and the Arab states. Today, the Jewish state is known as Israel. There is still no Arab state in a formal sense and most Arab and Muslim nations refuse to accept the 60 year old vote of the United Nations to this very day with tragic consequences for all people in the region.
Prof. David Navon who teaches psychology at the University of Haifa has written in Ha'aretz for those who have forgotten what a nation-state is and his message is worth remembering on this day in history.
The resolution was accepted by the Jews in Palestine, yet rejected by the Arabs in Palestine and the Arab states. Today, the Jewish state is known as Israel. There is still no Arab state in a formal sense and most Arab and Muslim nations refuse to accept the 60 year old vote of the United Nations to this very day with tragic consequences for all people in the region.
Prof. David Navon who teaches psychology at the University of Haifa has written in Ha'aretz for those who have forgotten what a nation-state is and his message is worth remembering on this day in history.
2 comments:
On this very day we have been treated to this atrocity in the letters section of the Age from Sol Salbe who marches in pro Hezbollah parades -
Shifting goalposts
SOME hardline supporters of Israel seem to have moved the goalposts, yet again. Alan Freedman (Letters, 28/11) tells us that the Arabs need to not only recognise Israel or even its right to exist, but its right to exist as a Jewish state no less. So presumably he supports the tearing up of the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. Neither country was required to do more than recognise Israel — the normal custom in such agreements. Those treaties have stopped the fighting for 30 and 10 years respectively.
This new demand is being pushed by those who want to ensure that the Palestinians get blamed for the failure of the next phase of negotiations. They know very well that few Palestinians can accept the implications of such a notion.
Sol Salbe, Maidstone
The so called "new demand" isn't new and the goalposts aren't shifting from the Israeli side. Salbe obviously hasn't read U.N. Resolution 181 which established a Jewish State in the region 60 years ago.
I suppose he also agrees with Hanan Ashrawi that the Israelis can't expect an end to violence and terrorism from the Palestinians as a pre condition to peace either.
In other words, in Salbe's world, the only party to make concessions i.e. lie down and die is Israel.
Salbe is an old left wanker with an axe to grind about Israel. I read his letter out yesterday at lunch where three non Jews were in attendance and they all saw through him in an instant.
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