This is with reference to the report “Israel livid at end of Palestinian rift” (June 3). The picture with the report showing Hamas and Fatah top leaders must have pleased almost everyone in the world except Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
We know very well this anger is cosmetic because this union has given him a reason to stay away from the negotiating table. Now Netanyahu has got an excuse not to hold peace talks with the Palestinians. Earlier, he had to succumb to international pressure to hold those futile talks.
As a natural consequence, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, Palestine should have emerged as an independent country and should have been given a chance to prosper as a nation. Unfortunately that did not happen and it was put under the British Mandate and as a result of the infamous Balfour Declaration, a Zionist Jewish state was thrust upon the Palestinians. Ironically, Palestinians were not even consulted as if they did not exist. This state received implicit support from the United States and in 1948 the State of Israel emerged on the world map.
Since then around 750,000 Palestinians have been dislodged from their ancestral lands to make way for settlements for Jews pouring in from all across the world. Nearly 90 percent of the Palestinian land has been annexed by Israel and Palestinians are forced to live under occupation deprived of any civil rights.
The annexation of Palestinian land continues till today with impunity. It is sad that global powers, which are capable of resolving this lingering issue don’t appear serious in their efforts to this end.
Ironically, those powers were quick in invading Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. They did not think twice before bifurcating Sudan into two separate states. — S.H. Moulana, Riyadh
Palestinian unity and Netanyahu
