How can Israel, Palestine return to a two-state solution? | | Gershon Baskin - Jerusalem Post - We need to change the vocabulary
and the paradigm of peace. Once again, Israeli leaders are speaking
about separation, divorce, disengagement, etc. We all remember “us
here and them there.” This has never been a paradigm for peace.
There will be no peace which is based on cement walls and barbed
wire fences that prevent or limit contact between the people on both
sides of the conflict. (...) There can be no Israeli-Palestinian
negotiations for any solution unless the Palestinians put their own
political house in order. Since its inception in 1994, I have never
seen Palestinian governance weaker, less popular and more broken.
The problem is not only the split between the West Bank and Gaza.
Also, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank seems to be falling
apart, and Hamas is certainly not yet prepared to negotiate directly
with Israel (nor Israel with Hamas).Once there is a strengthening of
legitimate leadership in Palestine, hopefully elected by the people,
the Palestinian side will need to come out strongly against the
popular calls for anti-normalization. Yes, I agree that Palestinians
should not normalize the occupation, they must resist occupation.
But they must now seek engagement with Israel and Israelis that is
aimed at building cross-border cooperation seeking peace, not
occupation and status quo. This requires a new definition of anti-
normalization. [ak] | 15/7/2021 |
Israel’s most racist law comes crumbling down — for now | | Edo Konrad - +972 Magazine - The Ban on Family Unification, that has
been extended on a yearly basis since 2003. The newly sworn-in
government, however, failed to extend the order, in a raucous
Knesset session that lasted well into the early morning hours. The
expiration will allow Palestinians who for years have been denied
one of their most basic human rights to restart the process of
seeking permanent residency with their loved ones in Israel. There
is something bittersweet about the fact that the demise of one of
Israel’s most discriminatory laws is primarily the result of
personal resentment between Israel’s Jewish parties. Netanyahu’s
Likud has never had a problem with extending the Citizenship Law
before going into opposition. The cracks in Bennett’s ramshackle
coalition, combined with a ruthless opposition whip who is fiercely
paving his path back to the Prime Minister’s Office, means that
Palestinians who have been rendered invisible subjects and left to
the whims of the Israeli regime could now breathe a little easier.
| 8/7/2021 |