Long Past Time for Action on Palestine

Netanyahu has dropped his facade. This should be a watershed moment for the international community, writes GRAHAME MORRIS

BENJAMIN Netanyahu’s Likud party emerged as the winners of Tuesday’s Israeli election, but the clear losers were the Palestinian people and all of those who value peace, human rights and international law.

As Israelis were preparing to head to the polls, Prime Minister Netanyahu took off his gloves and let his mask slip.

For years the Israeli premier has paid lip service to the two-state solution while simultaneously entrenching the occupation and expanding Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. This week even the rhetorical figleaf was stripped away.

Fearing electoral defeat, Netanyahu made a promise to the Israeli electorate: there will never be a Palestinian state while he is in control.

What is remarkable is that any diplomat or politician could have believed Netanyahu supported a Palestinian state to begin with.

This is a man who has spent his entire political life resisting a settlement with the Palestinians.

He opposed the Oslo accords, the disengagement from Gaza and has continually supported the expansion of the illegal settlements.

In a last-ditch attempt to hold on to power Netanyahu warned on his Facebook page: “The right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls. Left-wing organisations are bussing them out.”

Increased Arab participation should have been celebrated, especially in a nation that so frequently asserts its moral superiority as a democracy. Instead it was exploited for racial incitement to secure an electoral victory.

Proving what Palestinians and much of the international community have known for a long time, Netanyahu made clear he has no intention of negotiating a fair peace based on two free, sovereign democratic states.

He wants to keep the Palestinians powerless and in poverty while he robs them of their land, natural resources and dignity.

For too long pro-Israel advocates, including many parliamentarians, have buried their heads in the sand in regards to Israel’s conduct and have instead defended its protestations.

Even when new settlements are announced there are those who still maintain that the Israeli government is committed to a two-state solution.

Now the rhetorical facade has finally been discarded, this ought to be a watershed moment.

The British government must take the lead in ensuring that the EU immediately makes a stand against a government which has disavowed the peace process and a two-state solution.

At a time when the Israeli prime minister pledges to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, vowing to deny millions their rights, peace and justice, it is our moral responsibility to act

On October 13 the British Parliament, with the support of the Labour Party, voted overwhelmingly to call on the government to recognise the state of Palestine.

William Hague said the government reserves the right to recognise Palestine at time of its choosing. Surely now is that time.

When an Israeli PM declares in 2015, 23 years after the Oslo agreement, that there will never be a Palestine state, the international community must respond with one voice and declare — yes there will.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-2bdb-Long-past-time-for-action-on-Palestine#.VRCPROFBtKp