Two nations, two states: Israel out of the occupied territories!
by Sasha
The right-wing Israeli government led by Ariel Sharon recently invaded several Palestinian towns and refugee camps in the West Bank. Hundreds of Palestians were killed - most notoriously at the Jenin refugee camp - and many hundreds detained and arrested;
on the Israeli side dozens of soldiers (many were irregular troops called up for the operation) died.
This is another terrible, tragin round in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Palestinian-majority areas in the West Bank, Gaza Strup and East Jerusalem have been under Israeli occupation since the Arab-Israeli war in 1967.
The occupied Terrorities rose up against Israeli rule (their 'Intifada' means 'shaking off') from 1987 until a peace deal was signed in 1993 (the Oslo agreement named after the Norwegian town where the deal was negotiated).
Under the Oslo agreement Israel allowed the creation of a Palestinian Authority in some areas of Gaza and the West Bank (while maintaining control of other parts). The main Palestinian organisaton, the PLO, areed to recognise Israel's right to exist. A final Palestinian-Israeli agreement was put off to the future.
However, the Oslo agreement has not led to a fully independent state in the Occupied Territories. Instead, Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank area continued. The Palestinians were frustrated. Talks in summer 2000 between the Labour Israeli PM, Ehud Barak, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, and the US President, Bill Clinton, broke down. At the end o fSeptember 2000 the second intifada began as the Palestinians attempted to force the Israelis to settle.
Further negotiations took place but were interrupted by an Israeli election and the coming to power of Sharon. Sharon did not support the Oslo deal when it was signed, and his policy has been to try and wreck it, and the embryo Palestinian state, the PA.
Sharon came to power because the Israeli people began to be frightened of the Palestinian intifada. Over the past year Sharon has maintained support for his policy because the Islamist groups - Hamas and Islamic Jihad - have used suicide bombers to kill Israeli civilians, and further terrorised Israeli citizens. Many israelis are now prepared to sanction the use of great force against the Palestinians because they want to see the suicide bombings end.
At the same time there is an increatingly active peace movement in Israel and a movement of army reservists who are refusing to fight in the Occupied Territories.
The Islamists are bigots who hate Jews and want to see Israel destroyed and replaced by an Islamic state across the whole area.
WHAT SHOULD THE LEFT SAY?
Unfortunately much of the far left wants to see a single (Arab) state in the area (a "democratic secular state") i.e. they want to see Israel destroyed.
Such a state could only be created against the wishes of the Israeli people (i.e. forced on the Israelis,and so not democratic at all).
We want to see Arab and Jewish workers' unity and so we advocate compromise and reconciliatation. We demand Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories and the creation of a fully independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Such a settlement is called a "two states solution".
