Fatah vs Hamas debate

NB:

Israeli diplomat over the killing of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

Part 01: Britain expels Israeli diplomat in passport row



Part 02: Press TV -News Analysis- Israeli Assassination -01-31-2010    (Part 01)



Part 03: News Analysis: Mossad Dubai Assassination (Part 02)



Part 04: TV discussion: UK expels Israeli diplomat over Dubai assasination



Ends/

Lessons from the Tragedy of Gaza

Part 01;



Part 02;



Lessons from the Tragedy of Gaza

As the Ummah emerges from the Gaza Masacre, we must recognize that the root cause of the problem is the Capitalist foreign policy. It is this policy that established the state of Israel and by which the West supports the treacherous Muslim rulers as a way to ensure that the Ummah remains dominated by Capitalism. Only through the re-establishment of the Khilafah Rashidah in the Muslim lands can Islamic rule be restored and the people of the region return to living in peace, justice, and security.

The Israeli massacre in Gaza has resulted in the deaths of over 1,300 people and injuring over 5,000. Amongst the dead are over 300 children. The damage caused by the 22-day bombardment is estimated to be $2 billion. As the ruins in Gaza turn to smolder, stories of atrocities continue to emerge. According to IslamOnline, Israel killed a 4-year girl, Shahd, and then kept firing at the family to prevent them from retrieving her body, which was eaten by dogs. When her brother, Matar, and cousin, Mohamed attempted to stop the dogs from eating her, they too were killed by the Israelis. (May Allah (swt) grant them Jannah.). The horror of this incident captures the essence of the tragedy in Palestine.

Palestine: An Ongoing Tragedy

The latest events of Gaza highlight the importance of resolving the issue of Palestine. The recent slaughter serves as a painful reminder of the many other massacres that have occurred at the hands of Israel. For example, Israel killed over 20,000 people in the span of 4 months when they bombed Lebanon in 1982. This compares to 21,182 Jews that died in creating the criminal state of Israel over a 120 year period (i.e. from 1882 to 2002)1. This only gives us an idea of the death toll, but in no way begins to describe the daily torture of living under Israeli occupation, such as facing humiliating checkpoints and severe economic hardship. With great sadness, we realize that this situation has persisted for over 60 years. As a result, we must examine the roots of the conflict and advocate only those solutions prescribed by the revelation of Allah (swt).

Islam: The Correct Basis of Examining the Issue

Firstly, we must recognize that Palestine is an Islamic issue. Palestine became a jewel in Muslims’ history since the time Allah (swt) linked it with His Holy Mosque (in Makkah), when He (swt) carried His Messenger (saw) by night from the Holy Mosque to Al-Masjid Al-Aqssaa. Allah (swt) revealed:
“Glorified be He Who carried His servant by night from the Holy Mosque (al-masjid al-haraam) to the Far Distant Place of Worship (al-masjid al-aqssaa) the neighbourhood of which We have blessed.” [TMQ 17:1]

Allah (swt) has made Palestine a blessed land. He (swt) connected Muslims’ hearts to Bayt ul-Maqdis by making it our first qiblah (direction) of prayer.

As a result, the only way for the Ummah to view Palestine is from an Islamic perspective. We must work with the Ummah to refute calls from the Muslim and Arab rulers who first attempted to reframe the issue as an Arab one, then as a Palestinian issue, and now as Gazan issue! Nationalism is an evil idea that has been a source of destruction within the Ummah. Prophet Muhammad (saw) said the following about nationalism:

"Leave it. It is Rotten." [Bukhari & Muslim]

The disbelieving colonial powers, such as Britian and France, relied heavily on nationalism to destroy the Khilafah. They first incited the Greeks, Serbs, and other Christians living in the Khilafah to rebel against the Uthmani Khilafah. Then they used the same tool to drive a wedge between the Arabs and the Turks. This was one of the primary tools to destroy the Khilafah, which paved the way for the establishment of Israel.

Israel: A Capitalist State or a Jewish State?

The plan to implant a “foreign body” into the heartland of Islam was envisioned in 1907 by the British in the Campbell-Bannerman Report, which stated:

“There are people (the Muslims) who control spacious territories teeming with manifest and hidden resources. They dominate the intersections of world routes. Their lands were the cradles of human civilizations and religions. These people have one faith, one language, one history and the same aspirations. No natural barriers can isolate these people from one another ... if, per chance, this nation were to be unified into one state, it would then take the fate of the world into its hands and would separate Europe from the rest of the world. Taking these considerations seriously, a foreign body should be planted in the heart of this nation to prevent the convergence of its wings in such a way that it could exhaust its powers in never-ending wars. It could also serve as a springboard for the West to gain its coveted objects."

After World War II, America displaced Britain as the Capitalist superpower and worked to dominate the world. They, just as the British before them, saw the Middle East as an area to colonize. In 1944, the US State Department openly declared that the Middle East was "a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history". Their policy to acquire this “prize” (which does not belong to them!) includes both the support of the treacherous rulers and Israel. During the 2008 presidential race, Obama made it clear to all that his administration would continue to unequivocally support the criminal state of Israel. In his speech before AIPAC he said: “As President I will implement a memorandum of understanding that provides $30 billion in assistance to Israel over the next decade, investments to Israel’s security that will not be tied to any other nation.”

Realizing that the creation of Israel is a product of Capitalist policy is a critical matter for the Ummah. With this understanding, we realize that the overall objective of such a policy is to steal our resources, prevent our unity, and ensure that our Ummah remains subservient to Western domination. Conversely, failure to make such a realization will result in some to rely on the US, UN, Britain, or Canada for solutions – instead of recognizing that the ideology that these nations carry is the very source of the problems!

Attaining this perspective also helps us to understand exactly why the Muslim and Arab rulers were dithering around calling for summits and failing to lift a finger to help the Muslims of Gaza. America and Britain have purchased these rulers to implement their policies. They recognize that such puppets are the key to implementing their policies within the region. As US assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East Edward Walker testified before the House of Representatives committee on March 29, 2001:

“…Mubarak plays a core role among those who call for peace in the region and he condemns openly the calls for violence against Israel-calls to fight the Jews-and to use oil as a weapon. He spoke opposing the economic boycott of American goods and recently he supported our efforts to preserve balance in the Security Council…”

Therefore, the US and European policy of assisting Israel is only one of the many means to ensure that the Ummah does not implement Islam and challenge the hegemony of the disbelieving colonial powers.

Khilafah: The Key to Liberating Palestine

The issue of Palestine is something that is close to the heart of the believers all over the world. Muslims yearn to see the area liberated from the tyrannical rule of Israel. In order for that to happen, the Muslim Ummah must remove the corrupt rulers and replace the current regimes with the Khilafah Rashidah. As Rasul’Allah (saw) said:

“Indeed, the Imam is a shield, behind whom the Muslims fight and protect themselves.”
[Muslim]

This requires us to work on the Prophet’s (saw) method to re-establish the Khilafah. We must work within a party structure, as Allah (swt) revealed:

“Let there be from amongst you a group that call for goodness.” [TMQ 3:104]

Within this structure, we must work to culture ourselves as the Sahabah were cultured by Rasul’Allah (saw) in the house of al-Arqam ibn Abi al-Arqam. The goal of this effort is to ensure that our hearts and minds become filled with nothing but Islamic concepts. That is, we must evaluate all ideas and actions based on the hukm of Allah (swt).

We must then interact with the Ummah with the goal of changing her thoughts and emotions in order to make the Islamic Aqeedah her sole reference point. For example, we should challenge and debate those that call the Ummah to adopt international law (i.e. based on secularism or the UN) when seeking a resolution to Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, Somalia or any other affair of the Ummah.

We must also seek nusrah – the support from the people of power and influence in the Muslim lands. These people may currently be stuck in the Capitalist mindset, but we should remember that the Islamic Aqeedah has the power to change the hearts of the likes of Umar bin Al-Khattab (ra) and the leaders of Al-Aws and Al-Khazaraj (i.e.the 2 tribes living in Medina that gave nusrah to the Prophet (saw)). We should remember that Umar (ra) was on the way to kill the Prophet (saw) when he accepted Islam and that Sa’d ibn Mu’adh (ra) and Usayd ibn Hudayr (ra) were planning to expel the Muslims from their land. In fact, Usayd (ra) when he approached Musab (ra) threatened him with death if the Muslims did not leave. However, when Musab (ra) explained Islam to him, it is narrated that the peaceful glow of Islam could be seen on Usayd’s (ra) face! Therefore, we must work as Musab (ra) worked and call the current people of power to Islam with full knowledge that Allah (swt) does indeed have the power to guide them, if He (swt) so Wills.

Once the Khilafah Rashidah is re-established in the Muslim lands we can work to reverse the occupation initiated by the disbelieving colonial powers and carried on by the Zionists. Only when the Islamic State is established can the Muslims, Jews, Christians, and others return to living in peace, justice, and tranquility – just as we did before the West invaded and implanted the foreign entity in our lands.

A Call From Gaza

The following excerpt is from a letter sent by our sister Umm Taqi from Gaza during the bombing:

“In all this there is no one but Allah (swt) that can save us. Don't forget us because you are all that we have now. Your sadaqaat is not reaching us, and when they open borders it only reaches a few who can do nothing with it because we risk our lives just to buy food. They will kill anyone, anyone even if he is a five year old child carrying food for his family. We want to live from the sweat of our men, not from the sweat of others because we are dying.

Keep up the work of Allah and pray and work for the victory that will come soon and rescue our ummah everywhere inshAllah.

May Allah (swt) make us steadfast in our deen, during struggle and during ease. Ya Allah bring us the victory soon and re-establish Islam as the authority by which we live, Ya Allah send us the sons of Salahudeen, the army of Islam to rescue Mohammed's (saw) ummah from the oppression under which we live. Ya Allah protect our children and remove the zionists from our land. Ya Allah witness today that we account our rulers, we pray that you return our true leader the Khaleefah soon. Ameen.”

“Verily, in this there is a plain Message for people who worship Allah” [TMQ 21:106]

Source: The Politically Aware Muslim

UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza

Gaza (shame on muslims)wake up 2009.muslims unite

Palestinian People & their Problems

The Situation Today:
 

 Palestinian people

The Palestinian people, (Arabic: الشعب الفلسطيني‎, ash-sha`b al-filasTīni) also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs (Arabic: الفلسطينيون‎, al-filasTīnīyyūn; Arabic: العرب الفلسطينيون‎, al-`Arab al-filasTīnīyyūn), are an Arabic-speaking people with family origins in Palestine. The total Palestinian population, including descendants, is estimated at approximately 12 million, roughly less than half continuing to live within the boundaries of what was Mandate Palestine, an area encompassing Israel proper, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. In this combined area, as of 2009, they constitute a majority of 49% of all inhabitants,[10] some of whom are internally displaced persons. The remainder, over half of all Palestinians, comprise what is known as the Palestinian diaspora. It is estimated that more than half of the displaced Palestinians are stateless refugees, either lacking citizenship in any country, or having limited citizenship rights in Jordan[11] Of the diaspora, more than 4 million live in neighboring Jordan in which the population is over 70% Palestinian and the rest 25% Jordanian,[12] one and a half million is shared between Syria and Lebanon, a quarter million in Saudi Arabia, while Chile's half a million is the largest concentration outside the Arab world.


By religious affiliation, most Palestinians are Muslim, particularly of the Sunni branch of Islam, and there is a significant Palestinian Christian minority of various Christian denominations. As the commonly applied "Palestinian Arab" ethnonym implies, the current traditional vernacular of Palestinians, irrespective of religion, is the Palestinian dialect of Arabic. For those who are Arab citizens of Israel, many are now also bilingual in Modern Hebrew. Recent genetic evidence has demonstrated that Palestinians as an ethnic group are closely related to Jews and represent modern "descendants of a core population that lived in the area since prehistoric times,"[13][14] largely predating the Arabian Muslim conquest that resulted in their acculturation, established Arabic as their sole vernacular, and over time also Islamized most of them from various prior faiths.

The first widespread use of "Palestinian" as an endonym to refer to the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people by the local Arabic-speaking population of Palestine began prior to the outbreak of World War I,[15] and the first demand for national independence was issued by the Syrian-Palestinian Congress on 21 September 1921.[16] After the creation of Israel, the exodus of 1948, and more so after the exodus of 1967, the term came to signify not only a place of origin, but the sense of a shared past and future in the form of a Palestinian nation-state.[15] The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) represents the Palestinian people before the international community.[17] The Palestinian National Authority, officially established as a result of the Oslo Accords, is an interim administrative body nominally responsible for governance in Palestinian population centres in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Etymology

Historical Palestine as described by medieval Arab geographers showing the derived Arabic term Jund Filastin (meaning Division of Palestine) as was used by Umayad khilafat 7th centry ADThe Greek toponym Palestini (Παλαιστίνη), with which the Arabic Filastin (فلسطين) is cognate, first occurs in the work of the Greek historian Herodotus, active in the middle of the 5th century BCE, where it denotes generally[18] the coastal land from Phoenicia down to Egypt.[19][20] Herodotus also employs the term as an ethnonym, as when he speaks of the 'Syrians of Palestine' or 'Palestinian-Syrians',[21] an ethnically amorphous group he distinguishes from the Phoenicians referring to the Aramaeic Samaritans led by Sanbalat and appointed by the Persian kings and the Arabs in Jerusalem referred to also by Ezra (the Bible).[22] The word bears comparison to a congeries of ethnonyms in Semitic languages, Ancient Egyptian Plst or flst, Assyrian as Palastu, and the Hebraic as Plishtim, the latter term used in the Bible to signify the Philistines.[23]

Syria Palestina continued to be used by historians and geographers and others to refer to the area between the Mediterranean sea and the Jordan river, as in the writings of Philo, Josephus and Pliny the Elder. After the Romans adopted the term as the official administrative name for the region in the 2nd century CE, "Palestine" as a stand alone term came into widespread use, printed on coins, in inscriptions and even in rabbinic texts.[24] The Arabic word Filastin has been used to refer to the region since the time of the earliest medieval Arab geographers. It appears to have been used as an Arabic adjectival noun in the region since as early as the 7th century CE.[25]

During the British Mandate of Palestine, the term "Palestinian" was used to refer to all people residing there, regardless of religion or ethnicity, and those granted citizenship by the Mandatory authorities were granted "Palestinian citizenship".[26] To refer to as "Palestinians" both the native Palestinians of all faiths and the non-Palestinian Jewish settlers alike was consistent with an Orientalist view of all Jews as "eastern" people, also indigenous to that area.[27] Thus, figures such as Immanuel Kant could refer to European Jews as 'Palestinians living among us'.[28] Other examples include the use of the term Palestine Regiment to refer to the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group of the British Army during World War II, and the Palestinian Talmud, a section of the Jewish oral tradition originating from the biblical Land of Israel.

Following the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel, the use and application of the terms "Palestine" and "Palestinian" by and to Palestinian Jews largely dropped from use. For example, the English-language newspaper The Palestine Post, founded by Jews in 1932, changed its name in 1950 to The Jerusalem Post. Jews in Israel and the West Bank today generally identify as Israelis. Arab citizens of Israel identify themselves as Israeli and/or Palestinian and/or Arab.[29]

The Palestinian National Charter, as amended by the PLO's Palestine National Council in July 1968, defined "Palestinians" as "those Arab nationals who, until 1947, normally resided in Palestine regardless of whether they were evicted from it or stayed there. Anyone born, after that date, of a Palestinian father — whether in Palestine or outside it — is also a Palestinian."[30] Note that "Arab nationals" is not religious-specific, and it implicitly includes not only the Arabic-speaking Muslims of Palestine, but also the Arabic-speaking Christians of Palestine and other religious communities of Palestine who were at that time Arabic-speakers, such as the Samaritans and Druze. Thus, the Jews of Palestine were/are also included, although limited only to "the [Arabic-speaking] Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the [pre-state] Zionist invasion." The Charter also states that "Palestine with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit."[30}

History of the Palestinian people

The timing and causes behind the emergence of a distinctively Palestinian national consciousness among the Arabs of Palestine are matters of scholarly disagreement.

In his 1997 book, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, historian Rashid Khalidi notes that the archaeological strata that denote the history of Palestine — encompassing the Biblical, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Fatimid, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods — form part of the identity of the modern-day Palestinian people, as they have come to understand it over the last century.[32] Noting that Palestinian identity has never been an exclusive one, with "Arabism, religion, and local loyalties" playing an important role, Khalidi cautions against the efforts of some Palestinian nationalists to "anachronistically" read back into history a nationalist consciousness that is in fact "relatively modern".[33][34]

Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal consider the 1834 revolt of the Arabs in Palestine as constituting the first formative event of the Palestinian people. Under the Ottoman rule (1516-1917), Palestine's Arab population mostly saw themselves as Ottoman subjects. In the 1830s however, Palestine was occupied by the Egyptian vassal of the Ottomans – Muhammad Ali – and his son Ibrahim Pasha. The revolt was precipitated by popular resistance against heavy demands for conscripts, as peasants were well aware that conscription was little more than a death sentence. Starting in May 1834 the rebels took many cities, among them Jerusalem, Hebron and Nablus. In response, Ibrahim Pasha sent in an army, finally defeating the last rebels on 4 August in Hebron.[35] Nevertheless, Benny Morris argues that the Arabs in Palestine remained part of a larger Pan-Islamist or Pan-Arab national movement.[36] According to Walid Khalidi, Palestinians in Ottoman times were "[a]cutely aware of the distinctiveness of Palestinian history ..." and "[a]lthough proud of their Arab heritage and ancestry, the Palestinians considered themselves to be descended not only from Arab conquerors of the seventh century but also from indigenous peoples who had lived in the country since time immemorial, including the ancient Hebrews and the Canaanites before them."[37]

Rashid Khalidi argues that the modern national identity of Palestinians has its roots in nationalist discourses that emerged among the peoples of the Ottoman empire in the late 19th century, and which sharpened following the demarcation of modern nation-state boundaries in the Middle East after World War I.[33] Khalidi also states that although the challenge posed by Zionism played a role in shaping this identity, that "it is a serious mistake to suggest that Palestinian identity emerged mainly as a response to Zionism."[33]

Historian James L. Gelvin argues that Palestinian nationalism was a direct reaction to Zionism. In his book The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War he states that "Palestinian nationalism emerged during the interwar period in response to Zionist immigration and settlement."[38] Gelvin argues that this fact does not make the Palestinian identity any less legitimate:

"The fact that Palestinian nationalism developed later than Zionism and indeed in response to it does not in any way diminish the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or make it less valid than Zionism. All nationalisms arise in opposition to some "other." Why else would there be the need to specify who you are? And all nationalisms are defined by what they oppose."[38]

Bernard Lewis argues it was not as a Palestinian nation that the Arabs of Ottoman Palestine objected to Zionists, since the very concept of such a nation was unknown to the Arabs of the area at the time and did not come into being until very much later. Even the concept of Arab nationalism in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, "had not reached significant proportions before the outbreak of World War I."[39]

Tamir Sorek, a sociologist, submits that, "Although a distinct Palestinian identity can be traced back at least to the middle of the nineteenth century (Kimmerling and Migdal 1993; Khalidi 1997b), or even to the seventeenth century (Gerber 1998), it was not until after World War I that a broad range of optional political affiliations became relevant for the Arabs of Palestine."[40]

Israeli historian Efraim Karsh takes the view that the Palestinian identity did not develop until after the 1967 war because the Palestinian exodus had fractured society so greatly that it was impossible to piece together a national identity. Between 1948 and 1967, the Jordanians and other Arab countries hosting Arab refugees from Palestine/Israel silenced any expression of Palestinian identity and occupied their lands more brutally than the Israelis did after 1967. The formal annexation of the West Bank by Jordan in 1950, and the subsequent granting of its Palestinian Arab residents Jordanian citizenship, further stunted the growth of a Palestinian national identity by integrating them into Jordanian society.[41]

Whatever the differing viewpoints over the timing, causal mechanisms, and orientation of Palestinian nationalism, by the early 20th century strong opposition to Zionism and evidence of a burgeoning nationalistic Palestinian identity is found in the content of Arabic-language newspapers in Palestinian Territories, such as Al-Karmil (est. 1908) and Filasteen (est. 1911).[42] Filasteen, published in Jaffa by Issa and Yusef al-Issa, addressed its readers as "Palestinians",[43] first focusing its critique of Zionism around the failure of the Ottoman administration to control Jewish immigration and the large influx of foreigners, later exploring the impact of Zionist land-purchases on Palestinian peasants (Arabic: فلاحين‎, fellahin), expressing growing concern over land dispossession and its implications for the society at large.[42]

The first Palestinian nationalist organisations emerged at the end of the World War I.[44] Two political factions emerged. Al-Muntada al-Adabi, dominated by the Nashashibi family, militated for the promotion of the Arabic language and culture, for the defense of Islamic values and for an independent Syria and Palestine. In Damascus, al-Nadi al-Arabi , dominated by the Husayni family, defended the same values.[45]

The historical record continued to reveal an interplay between "Arab" and "Palestinian" identities and nationalism. The idea of a unique Palestinian state separated out from its Arab neighbors was at first rejected by some Palestinian representatives. The First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations (in Jerusalem, February 1919), which met for the purpose of selecting a Palestinian Arab representative for the Paris Peace Conference, adopted the following resolution: "We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds."[46]

After the Nabi Musa riots, the San Remo conference and the failure of Faisal to establish the Kingdom of Greater Syria, a distinctive form of Palestinian Arab nationalism took root between April and July 1920.[47][48] With the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the French conquest of Syria, the formerly pan-Syrianist mayor of Jerusalem, Musa Qasim Pasha al-Husayni, said "Now, after the recent events in Damascus, we have to effect a complete change in our plans here. Southern Syria no longer exists. We must defend Palestine".[49]

Conflict between Palestinian nationalists and various types of pan-Arabists continued during the British Mandate, but the latter became increasingly marginalized. Two prominent leaders of the Palestinian nationalists were Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,appointed by the British, and Izz ad-Din al-Qassam.[50]

Struggle for self-determination

Palestinians have never exercised full sovereignty over the land in which they have lived. Palestine was administered by the Ottoman Empire until World War I, and then by the British Mandatory authorities. Israel was established in parts of Palestine in 1948, and in the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the West Bank and East Jerusalem were occupied by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip by Egypt, with both countries continuing to administer these areas until Israel occupied them during the 1967 war. Avi Shlaim explains that the argument that "you never had sovereignty over this land, and therefore you have no rights," has been used by Israelis to deny Palestinian rights and attachment to the land.[51]

Only "peoples" are entitled to self-determination in contemporary international law.[52] The International Court of Justice said that Israel had recognized the existence of a "Palestinian people" and referred a number of times to the Palestinian people and its "legitimate rights" in international agreements. The Court said those rights include the right to self-determination.[53] Judge Koroma explained "The Court has also held that the right of self-determination as an established and recognized right under international law applies to the territory and to the Palestinian people. Accordingly, the exercise of such right entitles the Palestinian people to a State of their own as originally envisaged in resolution 181 (II) and subsequently confirmed." Judge Higgins also said "that the Palestinian people are entitled to their territory, to exercise self-determination, and to have their own State."[54] Paul De Waart said that the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice in 2004 "ascertained the present responsibility of the United Nations to protect Palestine’s statehood. It affirmed the applicability of the prohibition of acquisition of Palestinian territory by Israel and confirmed the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Moreover, the existence of the Palestinian people as the rightful claimant to the Occupied Palestinian Territory is no longer open to question.[55]

 In October 2007 the Japanese Justice Ministry decided to accept the Palestinian nationality. The decision followed a recommendation by a ruling party panel on nationality that Palestinians should no longer be treated as stateless.[56]

Today, the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination is generally recognized, having been affirmed by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the International Court of Justice and even by Israel itself.[57] About 100 nations recognize Palestine as a state,[58] with Costa Rica being the most recent country to do so, in February 2008.[59] However, Palestinian sovereignty over the areas claimed as part of the Palestinian state remains limited, and the boundaries of the state remain a point of contestation between Palestinians and Israelis.

British Mandate 1917-1948

British Indian Soldiers search Arab sheikhs in the streets of Jerusalem during the 1920 Palestine riots
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, Sunni Islamic preacher and founder of the Black HandArticle 22 of The Covenant of the League of Nations conferred an international legal status upon the territories and people which had ceased to be under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire as part of a 'sacred trust of civilization'. Article 7 of the League of Nations Mandate required the establishment of a new, separate, Palestinian nationality for the inhabitants. This meant that Palestinians did not become British citizens, and that Palestine was not annexed into the British dominions.[60] After the British general, Louis Bols, declared the enforcement of the Balfour Declaration in February 1920, some 1,500 Palestinians demonstrated in the streets of Jerusalem.[50] A month later, during the 1920 Palestine riots, the protests against British rule and Jewish immigration became violent and Bols banned all demonstrations. In May 1921 however, further anti-Jewish riots broke out in Jaffa and dozens of Arabs and Jews were killed in the confrontations.[50]

The articles of the Mandate mentioned the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities in Palestine, but not their political status. At the San Remo conference it was decided to accept the text of those articles, while inserting in the minutes of the conference an undertaking by the Mandatory Power that this would not involve the surrender of any of the rights hitherto enjoyed by the non-Jewish communities in Palestine. In 1922, the British authorities over Mandate Palestine proposed a draft constitution that would have granted the Palestinian Arabs representation in a Legislative Council on condition that they accept the terms of the mandate. The Palestine Arab delegation rejected the proposal as "wholly unsatisfactory," noting that "the People of Palestine" could not accept the inclusion of the Balfour Declaration in the constitution's preamble as the basis for discussions. They further took issue with the designation of Palestine as a British "colony of the lowest order."[61] The Arabs tried to get the British to offer an Arab legal establishment again roughly ten years later, but to no avail.[62]

After the killing of Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam by the British in 1935, his followers initiated the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, which began with a general strike in Jaffa and attacks on Jewish and British installations in Nablus.[50] The Arab High Committee called for a nationwide general strike, non-payment of taxes, and the closure of municipal governments, and demanded an end to Jewish immigration and a ban of the sale of land to Jews. By the end of 1936, the movement had become a national revolt, and resistance grew during 1937 and 1938. In response, the British declared martial law, dissolved the Arab High Committee and arrested officials from the Supreme Muslim Council who were behind the revolt. By 1939, 5,000 Palestinians had been killed in British attempts to quash the revolt; more than 15,000 were wounded.[50]

Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni leader of the Army of the Holy War in 1948[edit] The "lost years" (1948 - 1967)
The establishment of the United Nations did not alter the sacred trust embodied in the mandates or the international legal status of the Palestinian people. Palestine was the sole remaining Class A mandate. Article 80 was introduced and incorporated into the UN Charter with the specific intention of protecting the interests of the Palestinian people.[63] Religious and minority rights had been declared matters of international concern and placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations. The General Assembly incorporated a religious and minority rights protection system into the partition plan, and placed it under the guarantee of the United Nations.[64][65]

The United Nations has established a subsidiary organ, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, to recommend a program of implementation to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their rights to self-determination without external interference, national independence and sovereignty, and to return to their homes and property.[66]

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the accompanying Palestinian exodus, known to Palestinians as Al Nakba (the "catastrophe"), there was a hiatus in Palestinian political activity which Khalidi partially attributes to "the fact that Palestinian society had been devastated between November 1947 and mid-May 1948 as a result of a series of overwhelming military defeats of the disorganized Palestinians by the armed forces of the Zionist movement."[67] Those parts of British Mandate Palestine which did not become part of the newly declared Israeli state were occupied by Egypt and Jordan. During what Khalidi terms the "lost years" that followed, Palestinians lacked a center of gravity, divided as they were between these countries and others such as Syria, Lebanon, and elsewhere.[68]

In the 1950s, a new generation of Palestinian nationalist groups and movements began to organize clandestinely, stepping out onto the public stage in the 1960s.[69] The traditional Palestinian elite who had dominated negotiations with the British and the Zionists in the Mandate, and who were largely held responsible for the loss of Palestine, were replaced by these new movements whose recruits generally came from poor to middle class backgrounds and were often students or recent graduates of universities in Cairo, Beirut and Damascus.[69] The potency of the pan-Arabist ideology put forward by Gamel Abdel Nasser—popular among Palestinian for whom Arabism was already an important component of their identity[70]—tended to obscure the identities of the separate Arab nation-states it subsumed.[71]

1967 to the present

Palestinian girl with the Palestinian FlagSince 1967, pan-Arabism has diminished as an aspect of Palestinian identity. The Israeli capture of the Gaza Strip and West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War prompted fractured Palestinian political and militant groups to give up any remaining hope they had placed in pan-Arabism. Instead, they rallied around the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), founded in 1964, and its nationalistic orientation under the leadership of Yasser Arafat.[72] Mainstream secular Palestinian nationalism was grouped together under the umbrella of the PLO whose constituent organizations include Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, among others.[34] These groups gave voice to a tradition that emerged in 1960s that argues Palestinian nationalism has deep historical roots, with extreme advocates reading a Palestinian nationalist consciousness and identity back into the history of Palestine over the past few centuries, and even millennia, when such a consciousness is in fact relatively modern.[73]

The Battle of Karameh and the events of Black September in Jordan contributed to growing Palestinian support for these groups, particularly among Palestinians in exile. Concurrently, among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a new ideological theme, known as sumud, represented the Palestinian political strategy popularly adopted from 1967 onward. As a concept closely related to the land, agriculture and indigenousness, the ideal image of the Palestinian put forward at this time was that of the peasant (in Arabic, fellah) who stayed put on his land, refusing to leave. A strategy more passive than that adopted by the Palestinian fedayeen, sumud provided an important subtext to the narrative of the fighters, "in symbolising continuity and connections with the land, with peasantry and a rural way of life."[74]

Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO, in a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, 1978In 1974, the PLO was recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by the Arab states and was granted observer status as a national liberation movement by the United Nations that same year.[17][75] Israel rejected the resolution, calling it "shameful".[76] In a speech to the Knesset, Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Yigal Allon outlined the government's view that: 'No one can expect us to recognize the terrorist organization called the PLO as representing the Palestinians—because it does not. No one can expect us to negotiate with the heads of terror-gangs, who through their ideology and actions, endeavour to liquidate the State of Israel.'[76]

The British historian Eric Hobsbawn says there is some justness in the outsider view that is sceptical and dismissive of the propriety of using the term 'nation' for peoples like the Palestinians: such language arises often as the rhetoric of an evolved minority out of touch with the larger community that lacks this modern sense of national belonging. But at the same time, he argues, this outsider perspective has tended to "overlook the rise of mass national identification when it did occur, as Zionist and Israeli Jews notably did in the case of the Palestinian Arabs."[77]

From 1948 through until the 1980’s, according to Eli Podeh, professor at Hebrew University, the textbooks used in Israeli schools tried to disavow a unique Palestinian identity, referring to 'the Arabs of the land of Israel' instead of 'Palestinians.' Israeli textbooks now widely use the term 'Palestinians.' Podeh believes that Palestinian textbooks of today resemble those from the early years of the Israeli state.[78]

UN commemorating Palestinians rightsThe First Intifada (1987-1993) was the first popular uprising against the Israeli occupation of 1967. Followed by the PLO's 1988 proclamation of a State of Palestine, these developments served to further reinforce the Palestinian national identity. After the signing of the Oslo Accords failed to bring about a Palestinian state, a Second Intifada (2000-) began, more deadly than the first. The International Court of Justice observed that since the government of Israel had decided to recognize the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people, their existence was no longer an issue. The court noted that the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of 28 September 1995 also referred a number of times to the Palestinian people and its "legitimate rights".[79] The right of self-determination gives the Palestinians collectively an inalienable right to freely choose their political status, including the establishment of a sovereign and independent state. Israel, having recognized the Palestinians as a separate people, is obliged to promote and respect this right in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.[80]

Today, most Palestinian organizations conceive of their struggle as either Palestinian-nationalist or Islamic in nature, and these themes predominate even more today. Within Israel itself, there are political movements, such as Abnaa el-Balad that assert their Palestinian identity, to the exclusion of their Israeli one.

Palestinian ethnic identity is based primarily on two elements: the village of origin and family networks. The village of origin holds a privileged place in Palestinian memory because of its historically important role as a center for religious and political power throughout Palestine's administration by various empires. The village of origin also represents "the very expression of their Arabic Palestinian culture and identity," and is a site central to kinship and familial ties. The progressive deterritorialization experienced by Palestinians has rendered the village of origin a symbol of lost territory, and it forms a central part of a diasporic consciousness among Palestinians.[81]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_people

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