Following Brazil’s recent declaration, Argentina has now recognized a Palestinian state in the pre-67 borders. Like the Brazilian announcement, however, this may not have an immediate effect on the ground but it is significant nonetheless. As of now, the following Latin American countries recognize an independent Palestine: Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republican, Brazil, and Argentina. Mexico, Peru and Uruguay have announced their intent to increase Palestinian diplomatic representation. The important thing is that such announcements of recognition bolster Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts to rally international support against the continued illegal Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and maybe even UN recognition of Palestinian statehood. If 9 out of 15 UNSC members as well as 2/3 of the General Assembly vote to recognize a state, then legally speaking, Palestine will have legal sanction as a nation to sue Israel in international courts for the continued theft of Palestinian land (see image below).
At this juncture, the newly launched Israel-Palestine negotiations have predictably run into another deadlock as far-right Israeli premier Netanyahu refuses to freeze illegal settlement construction in the Palestinian West Bank. Mark Regev, Netanyahu’s spokesman, recently applauded Netanyahu’s willingness to come to the negotiating table without any pre-conditions (except that Israel be recognized as a “Jewish State”), while lambasting the Palestinians for demanding a halt to the settlement construction as a precursor to starting the negotiating process. It’s not unreasonable whatsoever for the Palestinians to make such a demand because to negotiate the status of their land while Israel is concurrently seizing and building on it is tantamount to negotiating peace with someone as they are slapping you across the face or discussing the splitting of a piece of pie while one is eating away at it. Additionally, it can be said that Netanyahu does indeed have a pre-condition to the negotiations. While his government claims that only the Palestinians have pre-conditions, the Israeli government’s refusal to freeze settlement construction effectively means, “We won’t come to the negotiating table to discuss the status of your land unless we can continue to build on your land at the same time.”
Furthermore, I believe that Israel’s insistence that it be recognized as a Jewish state is an indication of Israel’s long-term demographic strategy. 1/5 of Israel’s population are Palestinian citizens of Israel (or Israeli Arabs).  These Arabs are distinct from the 4-5 million Palestinian Arabs living under occupation in the West Bank and the open air prison known as the Gaza Strip. Far-right Israeli leaders have repeatedly referred to Israel’s Arab population as a “ticking time bomb” fearing that with their current birth rates, Israel’s Arab population will one day become the majority inside Israel. Thus, recognizing Israel as a Jewish state may be a precursor to either a land swap with the Palestinian Authority or a population transfer. After all, if Israel is officially recognized as a Jewish state, then what is to come of the state’s 1.3 million non-Jews? The theory is that Israeli lands where Israeli Arabs dominate will be transferred over to PA control in exchange for the large illegal Jewish-only settlement blocs that cut through the West Bank. Or, there will be a population exchange with the native Israeli Arabs transferring over to the West Bank in exchange for the return of the Jewish settlers to Israel proper. All this underscores the problem of having an exclusivist ethnic-religio state in a region where its indigenous population does not identify with that state’s self-proclaimed identity.
To learn more about the discrimination Israeli Arabs face at the hands of the Israeli state, see this short video titled ‘Israel’s unwanted citizens’.
Map Link: BBC
It’s unbelievable how much energy you put into trying to demonizing Israel. It is rooted in your deep hatred of this country as a Jewish state in what you consider as a Muslim land.
You talk about discrimination against Palestinians, yet you not a single time, in your whole entire blog have you ever written about anything about any other type of discrimination against any other type of people including and not limited discrimination against minorities in Iran, in which what you hold yourself to be an expert in Iranian affairs.
That goes to prove how irrelevant your opinion is and how hateful you are as a sub-human. Oh yeah, can’t wait to see how you would poison student’s minds as a professor.
Your personal attacks do NOT render anything written in the post as untrue. In fact, it affirms what was written. Your inability to cope with the content of the post and your resort to allegations and personal attacks simply show that you can’t challenge the veracity of the post, nor can you handle it, and that instead, you have to resort to childish attacks and a predictable yet completely futile smear campaign.
But unlike you, I have the ability to address what you have to say however silly it may be: You must have amnesia or something bc for a good 6 months, I didn’t blog about anything else except for what was going on in Iran. As a matter of fact, right-wing Iranians at that time could have made the same argument you just made: “Why are you only writing about abuses in Iran when Israel is ethnically cleansing the Palestinians?!”
Nooshe joonet!
Thanx for dropping by for your monthly pounding, though admittedly, this time it was short but sweet.
That’s it, tune in next month for another round.