"Recognizing a Palestinian state is a limited but welcome step that addresses an enduring blind spot: Palestinian rights cannot be conditioned on Israeli interests" Noam Sheizaf in The Guardian

 "... Since the Oslo process in the 1990s, much of the world has accepted the Israeli framing: Palestinian rights would be recognized only after a peace process was completed. In other words, rights were treated as conditional on Israeli interests – a prize to be granted at the end rather than a foundation to guide negotiations. This is the root of past failures. But if rights become the starting point, then the two peoples could finally choose their political future: one state, two, or some in-between like a federation. No choice would need to be final; states can divide or unite, agreements can evolve. The very idea of a definite end point is an illusion.

Recently, there are signs that the west is opening its eyes to the horror in Gaza, mainly due to sustained civil society activism. It is not surprising that the United States is mounting unprecedented opposition to the countries deciding to recognize Palestine, including by withholding visas from Palestinian officials seeking to travel to the UN. For Washington too, Palestinians exist only on Israel’s terms. So far, the countries leading the recognition effort are not deterred; pushing against American hegemony over diplomacy is another positive byproduct of recognition.

As limited as the recognition of Palestine – a state with no territory or sovereignty – is, it is a step in the right direction, because it re-establishes the existence and the rights of Palestinians as individuals and as a collective. It finally moves up the end goal, which should have been a precondition to the talks all along. More urgently, it strengthens the Palestinian case in international institutions and further justifies the demand for sanctions that could end the war.

Steps against Israeli ministers who advocate ethnic cleansing and genocide, as some countries are considering, are another positive development. More should follow, and more rapidly; as the destruction of Gaza is happening now...."  ... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/sep/14/how-to-burst-the-israeli-bubble

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How to burst the Israeli bubble

Noam Sheizaf

Recognizing a Palestinian state is a limited but welcome step that addresses an enduring blind spot: Palestinian rights cannot be conditioned on Israeli interests

Sun 14 Sep 2025 09.00 EDT

Jonathan Cook: Thirty years of Middle East lies just keep coming back to haunt us- The West’s ‘war on terror’ was built on a series of deceptions to persuade us that our leaders were crushing Islamist extremism. In truth, they were nourishing it

Gaza- Palestinian refugees

January 30 2025

The story: Did you believe it 30 years ago when they told you that the Oslo Accords would bring peace to the Middle East? That Israel would finally withdraw from the Palestinian territories it had illegally occupied for decades, end its brutal repression of the Palestinian people, and allow a Palestinian state to be created there? That the longest runing sore for the Arab and Muslim worlds would finally be brought to an end?

The reality: In fact, during the Oslo period, Israel stole more Palestinian land and expanded the building of illegal Jewish settlements at the fastest rate ever. Israel became even more repressive, building prison walls around Gaza and the West Bank while continuing to aggressively occupy both. Ehud Barak, Israeli prime minister of the time, “blew up” – in the words of one of his own main advisers – the US-backed negotiations at Camp David in 2000.

Weeks later, with the occupied Palestinian territories seething, opposition leader Ariel Sharon, backed by 1,000 armed Israeli troops, invaded occupied Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque – one of the holiest places for Muslims in the world. It was the final straw, triggering an uprising by Palestinians that Israel would crush with devastating military force and thereby tip the scales of popular support from the secular Fatah leadership to the Islamic resistance group Hamas.

Further afield, Israel’s ever-more abusive treatment of the Palestinians and its gradual takeover of al-Aqsa – backed by the West – served only to further radicalise the jihadist group al-Qaeda, providing the public rationale for attacking New York’s Twin Towers in 2001.... READ MORE  https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2025-01-30/gaza-middle-east-lies/

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What 20 years of the "Peace Process" has meant for Palestinians... September 1993- September 2013

SOURCES:
Amnesty International
B'Tselem
ICAHD
UN agencies

The United Nations: An Introduction for Students


The UN emblem shows the world held in the “olive branches of peace”.


The United Nations officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, when the UN Charter had been ratified by a majority of the original 51 Member States. The day is now celebrated each year around the world as United Nations Day.

The purpose of the United Nations is to bring all nations of the world together to work for peace and development, based on the principles of justice, human dignity and the well-being of all people. It affords the opportunity for countries to balance global interdependence and national interests when addressing international problems. There are currently 192 Members of the United Nations. They meet in the General Assembly, which is the closest thing to a world parliament. Each country, large or small, rich or poor, has a single vote, however, none of the decisions taken by the Assembly are binding. Nevertheless, the Assembly's decisions become resolutions that carry the weight of world governmental opinion....READ MORE

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UN chief urges journalists to increase dialogue in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts

8 October 2013 – Hailing a time of renewed hope for the Middle East peace efforts, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged participants in a United Nations-backed seminar to keep up their efforts to increase dialogue and understanding in the region.

“Many of you, as journalists, activists, policy-makers and representatives of civil society, have played a vital role in promoting transparency, accountability and democracy,” Mr. Ban told the International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East Peace that began today in Istanbul, Turkey.

“I urge you to continue to advance peace and increase mutual understanding between communities, especially Palestinians and Israelis,” the UN chief added in a message delivered by Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, head of the world body’s Department of Public Information (DPI).

The two-day seminar, organized by DPI and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, is part of an annual project established by the General Assembly in 1991 to look at the role of the media in advancing the peace efforts...READ MORE

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"I welcome the re-engagement of Israelis and Palestinians in direct negotiations, and the bold diplomacy that made this possible. If we are serious about achieving a two-state solution, then we must recognize that the window is closing fast." Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in address to General Assembly, New York, 24 Sept 2013

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• UN and Middle East partners reaffirm support for resumed Israeli-Palestinian talks

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Statement by the Middle East Quartet - 27 September 2013

Question of Palestine

• UN's General Assembly votes to accord Palestine non-member observer State status
  News story | Meeting coverage | Text of resolution

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From handshake of peace to handcuffs of subjugation

Two decades after the Arafat-Rabin meeting kicked off the peace process, Israel continues to oppress Palestinians and usurp their land under the cover of negotiations

• By Diana Buttu, Special to Gulf News
• Published: 18:56 September 15, 2013

Diana Buttu is a former legal adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

 

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http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/from-handshake-of-peace-to-handcuffs-of-subjugation-1.1231419

Image Credit: Ramachandra Babu/©Gulf News

Twenty years ago this week, the late Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the late Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli prime minister, shook hands on the White House lawn, launching the ‘peace process’ and purportedly marking a new era in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Many Palestinians believed that this handshake would result in an end to Israel’s rule over them; that Palestinian rights would be recognised and upheld (including the right of refugees to return to their homeland) and that Palestinians would finally be free.

We had good reason to be optimistic: The handshake marked the beginning of a series of Israeli and international promises to the Palestinians that within five years Israel would end its military occupation, evacuate its illegal colonies and finally allow Palestinians to live in freedom.

For Israelis, the ‘peace process’ yielded positive results. Between 1993 and 1999, 45 countries established diplomatic ties with Israel; more than in the four preceding decades combined.

The Israeli economy flourished in part due to the financial support provided by the international community to the Palestinian people; funds that would have otherwise been paid by Israel. Israelis benefited from the new security arrangements (leading to the most secure years in Israel’s history to that point) as Palestinians were now absurdly responsible for providing security to their oppressor and occupier.

Finally, the PLO now recognised Israel’s ‘right to exist’ without securing any Israeli recognition of Palestine’s ‘right to exist’. Most importantly, it was business as usual for Israel’s colonies: Between 1993 and 2000, the colonist population in Palestine nearly doubled — from 190,000 in 1993 to 370,000 in 2000, marking the fastest rate of growth of colonies in Israel’s history.

Yet, for Palestinians, the peace process was a disaster. Palestinians were assured that Israeli checkpoints preventing their free movement, that the repeatedly missed deadlines for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the failure to release all political prisoners from Israeli jails were necessary “pains” along the path to achieving independence from Israeli rule.

They simply needed to be patient. However, 20 years later, they are no closer to being free: Due to Israel’s military rule, their children can only dream of visiting occupied Jerusalem or the sea; they live surrounded by checkpoints, walls and colonies and they live under a blockade, deprived of their basic rights. The Palestinian economy is worse now than it was 20 years ago.

It is therefore unsurprising that the Israeli government continues to demand a return to negotiations: The kind that improved Israel’s economy, improved Israel’s diplomatic status and simultaneously allowed Israel to continue to steal Palestinian land.

Today, even as the Israeli government demands a return to peace talks, it continues – like all of the governments preceding it, including Rabin’s – to build new colonies and expand existing ones. The colonist population has tripled since 1993 and even with the resumption of negotiations, the Netanyahu government has announced more than 1,500 new colony housing units.

Thirteen years ago, I sceptically joined the Palestinian negotiating team’s legal unit. I was sceptical because I saw what the first seven years of the Oslo Accords had yielded yet I also naively believed that an agreement was attainable. I believed that the numerous accounts of a “changed” Israeli leadership and the various opinion polls indicating that Israelis “wanted peace”.

I quickly learned, after partaking in these negotiations, that while “Israelis wanted peace” they wanted it on their terms — by getting rid of the Palestinians whether by caging them into Bantustans or keeping them as refugees, stealing their land, and all the while being rewarded by the international community for talking to the Palestinian leadership.

These lessons were learned very early on during the negotiations. Israeli leaders refused to engage in any discussion about the fate of Palestinian refugees; they deemed occupied Jerusalem as “off the table” (meaning that Palestinians would never be able to control their holy sites again); Palestinians were told that they needed to “accommodate” Israel’s illegal colonies and on the most basic issue — the international border — Israel refused to recognise the 1967 border, stating instead that Palestinians needed to be “practical” and not demand their rights.

All of this was allowed to continue as the international community simply watched. There were no sanctions for Israel’s illegal behaviour and no ostracism for Israel flying in the face of international law. Even as the international court ruled Israel’s wall illegal, the international community simply stood by idly.

Much can be said about the ‘failures’ or ‘shortcomings’ of the peace process. Indeed, many have concluded that “if only X happened, there would be peace”. But, after two decades and ample opportunity to correct these shortcomings and failures, I can only conclude that the 1993 handshake was designed not to be a handshake of peace but a handcuff of subjugation. The international community, Israel and the Israelis cited in the opinion polls who “want peace” could have acted to assure Palestinian freedom.

Given their past experience with the peace process, it is little wonder that Palestinians remain highly sceptical that these new ‘talks’ will yield positive results. Israel is now demanding that it be recognised as a “Jewish state” (a euphemism for Palestinians acquiescing to racism), that it continue to hold on to Israeli colonies in the West Bank, that Palestinian refugees not be allowed to return to their homes (simply because they are not Jewish) and that occupied Jerusalem forever remain solely in Israel’s control.

Rather than push for a resumption of negotiations, as the US and the EU have done, the international community must now start holding Israel accountable. Rather than reward Israel for pursuing ‘talks’ with the Palestinians, the international community should sanction Israel for failing to evacuate its colonies; for continuing its blockade over the Gaza Strip, for denying Palestinians their rights (including the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel) and for continuing to maintain its military rule.

Anything short of this will simply continue to reward Israel’s illegal behaviour and send a message to Palestinians that the peace process was never designed to bring about peace — only their destruction.