Wednesday, October 28, 2009

My letter to the Guardian RE Khalidi's badly flawed approach

Palestinians stand near a large embroidered dress as it is presented to the media at a stadium in the West Bank city of Hebron October 25, 2009. The dress, which took several months to sew, is expected to be officially measured next month in an attempt to be entered as a Guinness World Record. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK POLITICS SOCIETY)

RE: The Palestinian Authority's state-first mistake, The Palestinian Authority is intent on a kind of Zionism in reverse. The approach is badly flawed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/28/palestinian-authority-israel-state-first

Dear Sir,

Khalidi's dismissal of the Palestinian Authority (and the push to start building the institutions of Palestinian statehood) depends on the misguided belief that endorsing armed resistance will free Palestine. Indeed if "Israel only came into being as a state by using force" and you seriously don't like what Israel has become, why do you want to mimic the same process and outcome?

Furthermore, 1948 is not 2009. In 1948 many homes in Britain did not have telephones or indoor toilets... or electricity. In 1948 in America, Martin Luther King Jr. was just graduating from college. In 1955 King led the boycott of segregated Montgomery buses, gaining a national reputation at a time when only half of American households had TV sets... King's inspiring "I have a dream" speech was in 1963. The global information age was only dawning then, with telephones connecting people and film preserving the best speeches. Words won- not weapons: The non-violent tactics that convinced America to care about civil rights and a more real democracy made all the difference then- and now.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab


A Palestinian demonstrator uses a tennis racket to return an empty tear gas canister at Israeli soldiers during a protest against the controversial Israeli barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah October 23, 2009. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis (WEST BANK POLITICS CONFLICT IMAGES OF THE DAY)

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