Rev. Father Smith and Stan1,

Before inciting a witch-hunt, look at the facts and see the damage a BDS would do to the Palestinian people.

Thousands of Palestinians enter daily to work in Israel. Those who do receive equitable wages, social (including medical) benefits, enjoyed by Israelis. What you propose would see them losing their income and benefits ... their jobs.

Then there are the Israeli and Palestinian businesses mutually dependent upon each other.

As to Palestinian opinion, read the following:

Jerusalem Palestinians Would Prefer to Remain in Israel
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/14/jerusalem-palestinians_n_809374.html

Pechter Polls
http://www.pechterpolls.com/

Thousands of Palestinians apply for Israeli citizenship
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3468672,00.html

"Intensive talks over division of Jerusalem has prompted its Palestinian residents to make a move once considered the ultimate treason ...

... As accepting Israeli citizenship was viewed by many within the community as tantamount to treason, most Palestinians opted to remain permanent residents and enjoy the benefits of living under Israeli sovereignty – full welfare rights, municipal voting rights and unrestricted movement - without putting their loyalty to the Palestinian Authority into question. The average Palestinian family in East Jerusalem currently receives a $770 monthly stipend from Israel."

Quite nice really ...

Palestinians have a better idea of their situation than those pontificating and making decisions for them thousands of miles away.

More to the point, would be a concerted effort to bring about Palestinian recognition of the State of Israel, and an agreement to a state of their own. Until this occurs, no border can be decided upon.

The result could well see settlers being forceably removed by Israel, or finding themselves within a Palestinian state. Israel has stated that there would be a land-for-land exchange.

How long is the world to wait for the Palestinians to make a decision as to their statehood? We have already passed the 60 year mark; another 60 years ... a 100 years?

Perhaps Palestinians, overall, see the building of settlements of less concern than the Israeli benefits that accrue to them.

Stan1,

You would do well to view Wikipedia with some reserve. Having once questioned what I read on this site, I was informed that as Wikipedia is an open source, it is open to abuse. Anyone can contribute to it, change/invent facts. Wikipedia do not guarantee that facts are accurate.

Any information obtained from Wikipedia needs to be confirmed from a number of sources.

Stan,

South Africa, a single state and always recognised as such, had LAWS which specifically and deliberately targeted its non-white citizens. The regime divided people strictly along racial lines and amended its constitution to reflect its fundamental belief in the racial superiority of white people. It created fictional Bantustans to which it shipped blacks, allowing the regime to strip its blacks of their citizenship.

As we have already heard from Danielle, the Israeli constitution guarantees equal rights under the law to all Israeli citizens and Israeli Arabs have fredoms and legal protections that black South Africans probably still don’t have.

Those parts of the west bank under Israel control are NOT Israeli territory. But there has been no agreement, as yet, on the makeup of a future Palestinian state, and therefore, who’s territory it is. Israel occupies some of the west bank to secure its own borders. The land it occupies could be considered a failed state, but even that would be wrong because Palestine has never been a state. The Palestinians in the west bank are not Israeli citizens, and are thus not entitled to expect the rights and protections of Israeli citizenship. The Palestinians are effectively refugees, hostage to their own corrupt leadership, and that of their Arab neighbours, who have cruelly used the Palestinian people for their own ends.

No-one in Israel seriously expects that the areas of the west bank it occupies will remain Israeli once peace is negotiated. There are some settlements close to the border which some in Israel are determined to hold on to, but the vast majority of the land is FULLY expected to return to the Palestinians. The last serious offer had approximately 97% of the west bank reverting to a Palestinian State and all of the Gaza strip, plus some of east Jerusalem.

Israel's wall is not about race, Arab Israelis are inside the wall. Israel’s wall, and its policies more broadly, are about security, not skin colour, and it’s absurd to even pretend otherwise.

Stan1,

Those who throw “apartheid” around so glibbly need to understand what it means. Apartheid is forensically determined and enforced. In Africa, apartheid was a separation of space - physical, social, educational, political, mental, scientific, economic, philosophical, anthropological etc. etc. between black and white.

Blacks could not walk on the same side of the streets as whites in major cities, nor attend schools with whites, not bathe on the same beaches, nor hold down comparable jobs with whites, not access toilets used by whites, nor hold positions in parliament ... nor attend university, on transport ... the list goes on and on ... in every area of life. For a black and a white to marry was a criminal activity.

This is not the situation in Israel.

Billions of dollars have been poured into the Palestinian black hole. What have they to show for it?

They have universities, other tertiary bodies, and hospitals (albeit Palestinians prefer to eschew the latter for Israeli facilities), yet the Palestinian territory still emerges as a god-forsaken wasteland. Why?

Indeed, Palestinians would not be interested in Israel if it were a similar wasteland.

Transjordan’s King Abdullah's response to the Peel Commission/Simpson Commission report of seventy five years ago:

“.. the Arabs (aka Palestinians) are as prodigal ... as they are in useless wailing and weeping”

(King Abdullah, My Memoirs Completed (London, Longman Group Ltd., 1978)

Nothing seems to have changed.

Instead of OLO contributors offering the Palestinians cups of tea, Bex, and suggestions of long lie downs, they should be strongly encouraging them to stand on their own feet.

Isn’t it about time they stood straight, shook off their cloak of victimhood, and accepted accountability. How long must the world wait for Palestinians to recognise the right of Israel to exist (is it so hard), and decide on a Palestinian state - and borders. Sincerity would see the Israeli military presence withdraw.

If they had accepted this sixty years ago, the Palestinian state, alongside Israel, would be the gem of Arab states in the Middle East.

cont ...

Stan1,

You damn the settlers on Palestinian territory, but with breathtaking lack of logic, state you believe in a one-state solution.

A one state solution? Under the current Palestinian ennui, how long do you think it would be before Israel was subsumed into a common wasteland; or do you hope that Israel’s progress and achievements would be overtaken by Palestinians.

An aside, Palestinians have warned that they would not permit Jews to live in their “state.” Again ... do you really see a stampede of Israeli Arabs exiting Israel into a Palestinian state.

Resolution 242 recognised Israel’s security needs and imbedded within it is the right of Israel's military to hold positions to ensure this, and ... considering the constant siege of Israel - the Six Day War of 1967, the War of Attrition between 1968 and 70, the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Lebanese wars of 1982 and 2006 ... and ongoing skirmishes ...

Under the circumstances, Israel’s current military presence on the West Bank, upheld by Resolution 242, is sound ... and legal. The Green Line is not a border, but an armistice line.

As any country, Israel's prime responsibility is to secure the safety of its people - including Arab and other minorities.

Israel would much prefer not have the burdensome expense of keeping soliders on the West Bank; prefering them safely back in Israel.

Despite Israel’s complete withdrawl for Gaza, Gaza increased its attacks on Israel. Rockets are fired into Israel this day.

Then there is constant threat of terror attacks within Israel.

The ball is in the Palestinian court.

Danielle and PaulL

I am tempted to respond to each of your barrage of assertions. It seems clear however that you actually believe your own propaganda and are not prepared to accept the obvious daily injustices perpetrated by Israelis in the occupied territories. I have other priorities like preparing for the 29th consecutive weekly demonstration outside the Israili cosmetic company, Seacret, stall with an ever growing group of people promoting BDS against Israel and its apartheid policies.

However, allow me two comments before I go.

"Supreme Court backs Jews-only housing in Jaffa" (Haaretz.com Nov 09 2010)

"War crimes: Israeli government documents show deliberate policy to keep Gazans at near-starvation levels." (GlobalResearch.ca Nov 08 2010.

We have had similar air time. I will not be responding further.

Goodbye.