Will The Palestinians Ever Get State And Their Occupied Land Back?

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Mahmoud Abbas — tired of feeding his people empty promises

A resolution calling for the creation of a Palestinian State and for Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory by 2017 was recently defeated, short of one vote, in the United Nations Security Council.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas then applied on behalf of Palestine to join in International Criminal Court (ICC) which is of course within his right. He may be punished with sanctions by the United States and Israel that will cost the Palestinian Authority that he leads, hundreds of millions of dollars. Such punitive measures, without a doubt, would of course further sideline Abbas and give more prominence to more radical and militant Palestinians.

Will the Palestinians ever get their state and will Israel withdraw from the occupied territories?

Not so long as Israel can always count on blanket support from the United States.  Yet, if one thing in the world is certain: no political arrangement based on injustice lasts forever.

As recent as the 1980s, very few people would have believed it if told that there would be majority rule in South Africa within a few years from then and that we would see the election of an African American as president of the United States by 2008.

The unconditional U.S. support for Israel without consideration for the rights of the Palestinians for full statehood and withdrawal from occupied territories can’t last forever.

Attitudes change and eventually, as with most significant transformations that have occurred around the world, the youth will be at the forefront demanding for these changes.

The Palestinian tragedy and humiliation may not be resolved in Mahmoud Abbas’s lifetime, especially given the intransigence of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the rightward tilt in politics in Israel; but, it’s hard to imagine that the status quo will maintain, five, 10, or 15 years from now.

Perhaps that’s the only consolation the Palestinians can feel today.

 

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