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Kristen Ess: The Stage is Set for Ethnic CleansingWednesday 20 Aug 2003
author: Kristen Ess
summary
Originally published on July 26
Are you for truth and justice or for a solution?
A question to and peace lovers: Are you for truth and justice or for a solution?
On many Indy and progressive circles one can hear cry for justice.
One of the underlying assumptions is that justice is always on the side of the weak.
Everyone want their version of the truth or their version of justice.
There is no point to look for justice in the Middle East conflict. Too many emotions beliefs and historical misconceptions are clouding the issue beyond any ability to decide who is right and who is wrong.
Any observer who feel that only one side is wrong is either stupid, Ignorant or just playing in cheap propaganda. Both sides have done many things that they should not have done. The issue that will affect the lives of the 10,000,000 Palestinians and Israeli who live in what is now “Israel + the occupied territories” is how to find a solution to this problem.
A solution that will allow Palestinians – some of them refugees – to live normally and not be under occupation; a solution that would allow Israelis – some of them were refugees until they came to their homeland – to live normally and not be in daily danger of terrorism.
So this is the first question: Are you for justice or for a solution?
Justice exists on both sides and wrong exist on both sides. However, Solution is nowhere to be found.
Solution can be based on fostering understanding in both sides, understanding that a compromise is must: No one side will get all that is believed to be “theirs” in this conflict. No one side will have to loose everything – but each side will have to give up some of what is very dear to them and some of what maybe rightfully theirs.
On both sides of this conflict there are strong feeling and ample evidence that this or that stone or peace of land is “ours” – the question is should the Israelis and Palestinians continue to fight over these stones forever or until one side will completely disappear?
Neither the Palestinians people nor the Jewish/Hebrew people are going to just evaporate.
Solutions that call for transfer of population: Either Ethnically cleanse the Jewish people away from Israel or transfer the Palestinians to the Jordan are just harmful wishful thinking that just fuel the conflict.
The same goes for the constant demonization of both sides – portraying Palestine as all terror state or Israel as all occupation state is not going to help (unless of course the intent is propaganda)
So the bottom-line: I believe that justice is what we leave to our kids and this should guide what we do to resolve the conflict.
Any person or organization that calls itself “peace activist” and is only focusing on showing how poor and weak is un side and how evil is the other side is IMHO fostering hate and not solutions. I very much doubt if Gandhi and MLK would approve of the hate against Israel that is being spreading within Palestinians and in the world.
It is very sad to see progressives take part in what is a cheap propaganda campaign instead of working to foster peace and understanding between Arabs and Jews.
The people of this region have suffer greatly from outside intervention in the form of colonization and there are is now just one more link in the chain of foreigners who think they know better what the natives should be doing.
If you come to help the least you can do is listen to both sides and help both sides listen to each other.