I wonder where you'll stand when trade sanctions start being applied to Australia's $2 Billion worth of livestock trade with Mid Eastern partners?

Are you going to call on Israel to compensate our farmers? Or do you expect them to carry all the stench Israel's disgrace earns?

You have conflicted interests David. How are you to address that or are you going to just continue with your fantasy and pretend there is no conflict between our interests or Israeli interests?

You know David the Jewish people are insane, according to the logic of the 20th century.
'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.'

How many times have the Hebrew/Jewish people suffered genocides, pogroms, military annihilation, evictions, wars, oppressions and general hatred and mistrust simply because of beliefs written in a 3000 year old book.

Sane people would recognise the root cause of their problems and would stage an enlightenment or a reformation.

Believe me when I say all the backward focused religions of the mid east region should do the same.

What the heck do you think is likely to occur in that region once the world tires of all the propaganda and decides to support no side? Do you think your neighbours will give a hoot if you use nukes? The fallout will infect all the mid east and what do you think the rest of the world will do to those who support such an action?

Take off the blinkers David, your blind belief in the dictates of a 3000 year old book, based in vengeance, most of which was rejected by Christ and is rejected by generations of Christians in favour of equality, forgiveness and peacefulness will simply lead to the Jewish people suffering a repetition of their past.

It will be laid at your feet as much as at the feet of those others who also believe in vengeance. The cycle will merely repeat.

Why can't you, as someone who has received a western democratic education, see that? Surely you are not stupid?

If they are not "occupied territories" and the people who live there "arent palestinians" then it must be isreali territory and israel is practicing apartheid against its Arab inhabitants.

SANCTIONS NOW!

Much the same kind of rationale used by Joseph Goebbels when the Nazis invaded the Sudetenland.

The menace of Israel will go on festering as long as the world goes on accepting the ridiculous notion that any ethnic group - ANY - is entitled to be treated as any more “special” than the rest of the earth’s 7 billion human beings including the vast majority of Australians. No state based on this notion has any moral legitimacy and all damage it creates in the effort to maintain and consolidate its existence is a direct criminal assault on all humanity including those sharing its “chosen” ancestry. This or that atrocity and land grab isn’t the core problem, it’s racism in its Zionist form that has thrown down a gauntlet that has to be picked up globally. This means that the response to whining Zionist pressure groups and hasbarist propagandists can only be “You are not special. We owe you nothing but contempt for your pretensions”.

There are many people like Singer in our world. To be like Singer you need to be infinitely gullible, one-eyed, have no conscience, believe that racism is a gift from a non-existent god, and that fairies live at the bottom of your garden.

Jews, Christians, worshiping Buddhists, Hellfire Hindus, Sincere Muslims, Flat Earthers, callow Catholics, all are grist for the mind-numbing mill of religion.

Singer has conclusively shown us that religion overcomes intelligence, that it totally stifles morality and conscience.

We need his false preaching no more!

As I understand it, the Territory of the Judean hills and Samaria were owned and occupied by the Ottoman Empire and recognised by international law as such. Sovereignty was then transferred to the British under mandate at the end of the 1914/18 war, again recognised by international law. The territory was then under Jordanian sovereignty untill 'occupied' by Israel.
Jordan has since relinquished sovereignty and, from that time, the sovereign status of the region has been subject to negotiation and or 'dispute. The term 'occupatied territory' is therefore incorrect.

Very simple people. Delighted that our government prefers an accurate use of language in this regard, as it can only serve to assist in the resolution of this dispute.

I am sure the 'anti live export' people will be quite delighted with this development as well.

What about the Caanites who lived in the region before the Hebrew god awarded title to the Hebrews.
I think I am descended from them.
I want to assert my ownership.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha

So pete what about our farmers. How are you going to compensate them?

A query for Prompete: Are there any references to the input the Palestinians had into adopting the international laws that

* gave their homeland to the Ottoman Empire to own and occupy
* recognised Ottoman ownership
* placed the territory under British mandate
* transferred the territory to Jordanian ownership
* accepted Jordan relinquishing ownership and allowing Israel to occupy the territory
* disallowed the territory thus occupied being described as occupied territory ?

Cannot find any reference to 'Palestinians' having input to any of the above machinations. Also, cannot find any reference to a 'Palestinian people' (pre 1948) at all. I stand to be corrected on that tho. I inderstand the 'Palestinian People' as such, were, untill very recently, groups of tribal/nomadic Arabs with diverse affiliations primarily associated with tribes and families. As I say, I am open to reference to any literature documenting a delineation of the 'Palestinian People'. Are those Arab peoples who fled war and upheaval in 1948 and now resident in other Nation States Palestinians or Jordanian, Syrians, Lebanese etc?

Our farmers are a resilient lot, exports are likely to resume and increase to Indonesia in the near future. Droughts, floods and fire they negotiate, a tantrum from a few middle eastern despots are not going to drive them to the wall I think. Anyway, think of the up side for the 'ban live export' crowd.

With respect to Brian Wimborne of Quadrant 7th Jun 2014:

"The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a “distinct Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism."

Cont.

The above statement made in 1977 by Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive committee member, during an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw:

Hey pete lets see you reduce your income by 5% just to appease a bunch of lying land thieves. And then listen to your country men hide the real cause by repeating a load of foreign propaganda..

See if you don't feel some pain. Your attitude undermines your countrymen's lifestyles at no expense to you or the foreigners you support. Are you happy with that?

#Prompete

You omit some important facts:

1. Jordan's occupied Judea and Samaria (the West Bank)and East Jerusalem between 1948-1967 and purported to annex these areas in 1950 but this annexation was never recognised as being legal except by Great Britain and Pakistan.

2. Jordan drove out all the Jews living there.

3. The Palestinian Arabs and the Arab League never sought to establish a State in this Jew free area at any time between 1948-1967 when such a State could have been created overnight.

4. Israel claims sovereignty in Judea and Samaria pursuant to the rights vested in the Jewish People under the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter.

You are 100% correct - given the above facts these territories can only on any reasonable and fair minded interpretation be described as "disputed".

The use of the term "occupied" is deliberately intended to convey that these territories legally belong to someone else - but Jordan never secured international legal recognition of its annexation and it ceded any claims to such land in 1988

Judea and Samaria are currently "no man's land"

The Australian Government is 100% correct in rejecting this false and unsubstantiated assertion of the use of the term "occupied" as an unnecessary impediment in resolving where sovereignty should finally be allocated between the disputing parties.

Terra nullius - the lie parroted by land thieves wherever they have shot their way into territory they wished to occupy and plunder. I don't think the British used it against the Africans but they certainly used it in Palestine, America, Canada and Australia. But whether the land thieves admitted the reality of existing populations or not they invaded by armed violence and ruled with the aid of corrupt local compradores who would echo their claims of entitlement to rule and plunder. Happened in France too, when the Krauts arrogated to themselves the right to rule the country with the connivance of traitors.

The enlistment of traitors explains statements of Arab compradores which Prompete quotes in apparent defence of the British/Zionist "born to rule" pretensions and racist denigration of Palestinians as mere nomads wandering through terra nullius. Wikipedia has a good summary of the reality of the Palestinian people - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Palestinian_people and included references. To learn more, try a book like "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" by Ilan Pappe.

Without searching very hard, I could find no documented reference to any referenda in which the Palestinians voted to accept the "international law" mandating the takeover of their country by Ottomans, British or Zionists. Sounds a bit like the "international law" forbidding self-determination referenda in the captive territories of Ukraine. The "law" of the gun.

#Emperor Julian

The link you suggested - on “the reality of the Palestinian people” – states:

“The Palestinian people (are an Arabic-speaking people with family origins in the region of Palestine. Since 1964, they have been referred to as Palestinians but before that they were usually referred to as Palestinian Arabs. During the period of the British Mandate, the term Palestinian was also used to describe the Jewish community living in Palestine. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was founded as the Palestine Orchestra, and The Jerusalem Post newspaper was founded as the Palestine Post.”

This corresponds exactly to the change recommended in my article:

“Substituting "Palestinian Arabs" for "Palestinians" and "Palestinian people" - terms first appearing in the 1964 PLO Charter that excluded former Jewish and other non-Arab residents and their descendants having any rights”.

Your link rebuffs your own argument and indicates how you have swallowed the false Arab narrative hook line and sinker.

The Palestinian people is the product of a fictitious claim made by the PLO in 1964 that only Arabs comprise the Palestinian people whilst Jews and non-Arab Christians who lived there were non-entities.

Very arrogant and racist don’t you think?

Furthermore Palestine was not “their country” as you allege.

Palestine had formed part of the Ottoman Empire for 400 years prior to the loss of vast tracts in World War 1.

Jews Christians and Arabs were Ottoman subjects.

These conquered lands were allocated 99.99% for Arab self -determination and 0.01% for Jewish self- determination.

Syria, Lebanon and Iraq resulted from that decision.

The Arabs however have always wanted 100% and have never been prepared to recognise the Jewish people having their own national home in that tiny 0.01% - comprising an area that would fit into Tasmania three times.

People like you have been hoodwinked to support the Arab claim based on misleading and deceptive language - like “reality of the Palestinian people” and “their land”.

Australia is 100% correct in exposing this kind of language as unhelpful to ending the conflict.

Fact - not fiction - is needed to resolve this conflict.

Get real.

The Wikipedia piece defines the Palestinian people as I would (and always do) define them: People born in Palestine (including the Zionist enclave) or DIRECTLY descended from people born in Palestine. They exist. All statements denying their existence or reducing them to mere nomads are racist lies. PLO or any other statements restricting Palestinian identity to Arabs are racist ploys, not facts.

Imported settlers born somewhere else are not Palestinians and are roughly comparable to the French “blackfeet” – ultras who stole Algerian land and had to be prised out of Algeria with a chisel. It is these Israeli settlers who form a freakery of ultras who are worse than the general run of Zionists, and with whom Abbott and Bishop are cosying up in obediently denying the occupation of Palestinian land.

Mr Singer is peddling the ultras’ cry that occupied territory is not occupied and illegal doesn’t mean illegal. This cry is part of a current offensive, centred on a bodgie report (Levy Report), which tries to reverse understandings that have long been simply part of the language. Writing for Yesh Din, Yossi Gurvitz shows that the Levy Report denying occupation is such a pig’s breakfast that Netanyahu has to tiptoe around it because of its unintended implications. Read it at http://972mag.com/a-flawed-legitimation-of-occupation/91092

History is a marvellous thing, for those prepared to think things through.
Population of Jerusalem from Turkish and British census data.
Year Jews Muslims Christians
1844 7,120 5,760 3,390 At his time Jerusalem was a neglected area.
1896 28.112 7,560 5,470 The Jews have started to arrive and bring prosperity.
1931 51,222 19,894 19,335 A thriving multi cultural city.
From this we see that prior to Jewish migration in the late 19th century, and the concomitant development of the area, the Arab population was struggling. In other words most of the "Palestinian" Arabs were draw to the area by Jewish industry which provided work for them.

This is also true of Gaza, captured from Egypt in 1967 and turned into a paradise offering employment, and a reasonable standard of living for all. Now a wasteland. The West Bank, Jordanian territory captured in 1948. In 1948 number of high schools nil, now four universities and countless high schools built by Israel.

We often hear of the glories of Muslim Spain, but that has never been replicated in the middle east. Because Muslim Spain was built by people ISIS would execute without mercy.

Just who are the occupiers ?
From long before 0 BC the area was Jewish.
Later it became both Christian and Jewish.
Around AD60 the Romans ejected most of the Jews from Jerusalem but it
appears the Christians remained. Some Jews did remain in the area.

Fast forward to the 7th century.
It was so until the Arabs from what is now Saudi Arabia under the flag
of Mohammed and Islam invaded and obeying the Koran they murdered the
the Christians and Jews living there in that area or forced them to
pay Jizaz to the Moslems under pain of death.

It was this occupation that caused the Crusades in an attempt to eject the Arabs.
The Crusades went on for a long time but eventually the Moslems prevailed.

Fast forward to the 20th century.

After the Holocaust the Jews returned with the imprimatur of the UN.
The Arabs understandably did not like this but their contention that
the Jews had no right to be there is somewhat hypocritical.

What we have now are the Jews saying we are back and these invaders
have no right to be here.
The Arabs say we have been here a long time and the Jews and
Christians have no right to be here.

If the Moslems insist on the "We were here first" principle they should leave.

#Bazz

One correction to your excellent summary.

The Jews started returning in numbers from about 1920 when The San Remo Conference and the Treaty of Sevres in 1920 unanimously endorsed the reconstitution of the Jewish National Home in Palestine.

Article 95 of the Treaty of Sevres provided:

"The High Contracting Parties agree to entrust, by application of the provisions of Article 22, the administration of Palestine, within such boundaries as may be determined by the Principal Allied Powers, to a Mandatory to be selected by the said Powers. The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2, 1917, by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

The Mandatory undertakes to appoint as soon as possible a special Commission to study and regulate all questions and claims relating to the different religious communities. In the composition of this Commission the religious interests concerned will be taken into account. The Chairman of the Commission will be appointed by the Council of the League of Nations."

It was in fact the imprimatur of the League of Nations in 1922 that gave rise to large numbers of Jews coming to live in Palestine.

There were already about 565000 Jews in Palestine by 1945 and only 65000 in 1919.

The UN ensured that such migration would not be ended with the demise of the League of Nations in 1945 by including article 80 in the UN Charter

The PLO has declared these decisions to be "null and void" as they seek to impose their own false and fictitious narrative claiming that Palestine is an indivisible part of the Arab Homeland.

Plenty of people have swallowed their propaganda hook line and sinker.