Palestinian struggle not about race, religion

I am glad that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim refrained from using the race or religion card in explaining the basis of the Palestinians’ struggle - to regain their lost or stolen homes, land, and properties from the Jewish state of Israel.

Dispossession has been the hallmark of the righteous Palestinian struggle for 100 years. It is a struggle for human emancipation.

If I am not mistaken, this is the first time Anwar moved beyond the confines of race and religion to give a proper explanation of the Palestinian issue.

For too long, the Arab countries and those outside have sought to give a racial and religious interpretation to the Palestinian quest to reclaim their homeland.

By giving an ethnic or religious slant, the Palestinian issue was not fully appreciated.

In fact, the historical dispossession of the Palestinians is related to their systematic expulsion from their territory what is now the state of Israel.

It all started with the 1917 Balfour Declaration by the British that gave substance and legitimacy to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

While the colonial powers gave recognition to the creation of Israel, there was no room for the Palestinians. In fact, the Palestinian issue was submerged under the larger Arab World.

The wars before the independence of Israel and afterwards led to the expulsion of the Palestinians to places like the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and others.

It was the systematic and organised military expulsion of Palestinians supported by Britain and later the US and the divisive nature of Arab politics that entrapped the Palestinians.

The Palestinian quest is a humanitarian one, it cannot be otherwise.

Essentially, Palestinians want back their land, homes, and properties that were stolen from them in the name of the security and wellbeing of the settler Jewish community, the vast majority of whom were recent immigrants.

What choice do Palestinians have?

The Palestinian case is the most extreme case of how European Jewish settler colonies wreaked havoc on the indigenous Palestinians. They were systematically removed from the land of their ancestors.

If the Holocaust was the reason for Jewish immigration and settlement in the lands belonging to the Palestinians, were the Palestinians responsible for the Holocaust?

Biblical justification on the part of the Zionists to colonise the Palestinian land is just an excuse. If the Jews can invoke Biblical history, the same can be done by the Palestinians.

If ancient reasons are accepted for land claims, then the world might be a different place today.

While Anwar rightly gave the humanitarian reason as to why the Palestinians need to be supported, he, like other politicians, is not averse to supporting the struggle for domestic political reasons.

How can Palestinians or their representatives be accused of violence when they have not been given the choice of a decent negotiated political settlement?

Whatever happened to the two-state solution offered by the West?

When the Palestinians are not presented with a choice, what alternative do they have other than resorting to violence, the last remaining option?

In this, violence is used to get back their stolen land and homes whereas Israel uses unlimited violence to preserve and enlarge the territories that were stolen from the Palestinians.

It is not that violence should be condoned but whether the Palestinians have a choice.

Israel is armed to its teeth with its disproportionate military power. More than this, its attack on the Palestinians is supported by the US for geopolitical reasons.

What else can the Palestinians do, especially with fair-weather friends in the Arab world?

Forget about the ethnicity or religion of the Palestinians, let us look at them from a humanitarian angle - of a dispossessed community. - Mkini

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P RAMASAMY is former Penang deputy chief minister II.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.