THE signatories to the New York Declaration issued on July 30 following the “International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Palestinian Question and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” may be in a self-congratulatory mood. Not so fast, we tell them. We have studied the language of the 42-point declaration with a tooth comb and the inescapable conclusion is this: it is more about mollifying Israel than helping the Palestinian cause. Small wonder, Malaysia, one of the 122 at the conference, is uneasy with several of its preconditions, the secret work of seven or eight countries. Putrajaya hasn’t made public what all of those are, but here are several troubling things about the declaration. Firstly, the declaration states very early on its goal to see an end to the war in Gaza. This is good, but disappointingly, just as quickly, it goes on to talk about a ceasefire, meaning Israel would decide when the war ends. Judging from Benjamin Netanyahu’s expressed desire to fully occupy Gaza, Israel isn’t interested in “a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, to borrow the words of the declaration. Preconditions to a permanent ceasefire secretly drafted by a few only help further the dastardly aim of the Zionist regime.
Secondly, there are some disturbing usage of words, which again points to appeasing Israel. “War” is one. A nuclear-armed Israel, with a generous supply of bombers and bombs from its Western allies, at “war” with Palestinians fighting to free their land from the occupier? Hamas is condemned, but not Israel for its 77-year-old genocide of the Palestinians. Is this why the European Union signed onto it? If international law recognises Palestinians’ right to armed struggle against an occupying force, why can’t the EU? We tell the bloc, take the advice of your former diplomats who recently condemned Israel’s genocide in Gaza and urged the EU to end it now. The use of the word “terrorism” in this regard is most unfortunate, implying the word only applies to Palestinians. Why ignore the 1949 Geneva Convention that affords lawful combatant status to organised resistance movements against foreign occupiers? Why ignore, too, United Nations General Assembly resolutions 37/43 (1982) and 38/17 (1983) that reaffirm the legality of struggles for liberation from foreign occupation by armed struggle? Why this blatant unjust treatment of the Palestinians? Isn’t the infamy of the 1917 Balfour Declaration enough, we ask the West? The Palestinians deserve dignity, like the rest of us.
Do not get us wrong. We are not saying that the entire New York Declaration is against Palestinian interests. Not at all. Its aim of a two-state solution is one. But the language of the text is disturbing in parts. A homeland for the Palestinians is not possible if there isn’t a permanent ceasefire now, not when Israel decides. Hamas is asked to lay down its arms as a precondition, but there is no similar language asking Israel to immediately withdraw from all the Palestinian territories it is occupying, including illegal settlements. This cannot be just in a rules-based world order. Why let Israel get away with bloody murder, literally?
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
