Talks and negotiations

Under the realm of the U.S Foreign Policy, media in the U.S generally portrays the country as a 'peacemaker' and 'army of goodwill'. U.S always seems to be trying to promote talks amongst parties. Trying to promote talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and trying to talk to the Taliban, but they refuse. Unfortunately, when the U.S says 'talks' it does not mean talks at all.

'Talks' mean 'negotiations'.

Let us look at talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Now, the Palestinians have been talking to Israel for the past 43 years and the occupation has not ended. They are in a period of negotiations with Israel. Jerusalem is under negotiations, when it is very clear under international law that East Jerusalem is occupied by Israel and West Jerusalem is under the sovereignty of Israel. Similarly, the creation of a Palestinian state is under negotiations brokered by the White House when it is very clear under international law and U.N resolutions that the territories occupied by Israel after 1967 cannot be kept by Israel and needs to be returned to their rightful owners. Despite all this Israel and Palestinians are 'talking' which actually means 'negotiating'. Talking needs to take place only after the occupation ends otherwise it won't lead to anything.

Similarly, media portrays the U.S as ready to talk to the Taliban and the Taliban refuse. Firstly, you cannot talk to the Taliban while bombing them everyday. Second, the Taliban however brutal they might be do represent a significant portion of Afghanistan and currently Pakistan. The Taliban, are ready for talks, but not ready for negotiations. They want negotiations under a pre-condition that U.S must first end the occupation and leave Afghanistan, which might just be fair!

Caravan from India to Gaza

India established diplomatic and military relations with Israel ever since 1993 when the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The main premise of the Oslo Accords was the creation of a Palestinian state, which was assumed would be carried out by Israel after a few years. Instead, Israel began building more settlements in the occupied territories and expanding existing ones. This along with an added advantage was that Isreal need not bother too much about uprisings and militancy in Palestinian areas in the West Bank and the Gaza strip as they would be taken care of by the so called Palestinian Security Forces. Its literally asking the occupied people to provide security to the occupier, one of the oldest forms of colonialism. However due to Israeli underestimation, Palestinians rose up violently in 2000-2004 killing 2000 Israelis and 5000 Palestinians. After this, life became worse for the Palestinians.

Despite all this, India did not show any sympathy towards the Palestinians. Ties, especially military ties grew stronger after both nations claimed to be fighting the so-called 'War on terror'. Looking at the recent attack by Israel of an aid flotilla heading towards Gaza in international waters, one cannot tolerate the 43 year old occupation any more and people all around the world are waking up to the Palestinian cause.

India is sending a caravan to Palestine and people all over Asia are due to join mostly from Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

Those who would want to participate in the convoy are requested to send in their names, organization, socio-political background & passport details.

In Solidarity with the Intifada.

Brigadier Sudhir Sawant, Feroze Mithiborwala, Kishore Jagtap, Aslam Ghazi, Com. Vasudevan, Arif Kapadia, Varsha V V, Winnie Thomas, Chetna Birje, Reshma Jagtap, Yawar Ali Qazi, Mukta Srivastava, Asif Khan, Syed Iftikhar Ahed, Sayeed Khan, Munawwar Khan, Amol Madame, Vilas Gaikwad, agdish Nagarkar, Mulniwasi Mala, Shyam Sonar, Sudhir Dhawale, Bajrang Sonawane, Sheikh Muhammad Hussain, Ghazala Azad, Munawwar Azad, Ihtishaam Ansari, Sanjay Shinde, & others

India Palestine People's Solidarity Forum

0091-9820897517 / feroze.moses777@gmail.com

http://www.asiatogaza.org

Its too complicated!

Whenever I've spoken to many people in India about the Israeli Palestinian conflict, the first thing I hear "Its too complicated".

Well, I don't know where this complication arises from, but it just takes a little bit of reading to know that the Palestinians have accepted 78% of historic Palestine to be a part of the State Of Israel.

What the Palestinians want is clear, the whole of West Bank and Gaza Strip to be a part of their future sovereign state and East Jerusalem as their capital.

They also want their refugees before 1948 to return back to wherever they lived.

Basically, a two state solution and the implementation of international law as a solution to the conflict.

What do Israelis want? A complication of the situation, it seems to be in their interests to portray the situation to be very complicated and they need to act beyond international law in order to 'survive'.

Israel's 'survival' is at stake. I disagree.

Israel's 'survival' as a Jewish state is at stake. I agree. Building an exclusively 'Jewish' state on a land where Christians, Jews and Muslims have flourished and co-existed for many centuries is neither moral nor ethical

Palesrael

This game, Palesrael is a beta version which looks at creative ways of ending the hostility, aggression and violence between Israel and Palestine. This has been going on for over a century. Not only Israel and Palestine, but many other nations also have a stake in the conflict and can determine the fate of Israel or Palestine.

For example, the United States aids Israel $3 billion every year. This goes into building large scale military infrastructure as well as settlements in the occupied territories which creates a huge obstacle towards peace and Palestinian statehood.

Similarly, the Arab States participate in an economic boycott of Israel and Iran is very supportive towards the Palestinian cause and has declared death threats to Israel.

In this game, you get to play either as the Prime Minister of Israel or the President of Palestine and your task is to get the Israelis and the Palestinians to co-exist through the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.

When you play as Israel, you may personally want to end the occupation but your people may not be willing to. Zionism has not only claimed lands in the middle east from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, but even from the Nile to the Euphrates. You must end this extreme ideology.

Playing as Palestine, you may not have enough military to threaten Israel but you have ways to resist non-violently, you can grab support from the International Community or learn a lesson or two from Gandhiji, Nelson Mandela or probably Martin Luther King.

Here's a link to the game:

http://www.mediafire.com/?tldjtyyddzm

Extract Palesrael.zip

Open the folder 'Compiled'

Open game.exe

Looking hard at the conflict between Israel and Palestine which can be traced down to the beginning of the 20th century, I would say the best way to solve the problem would be to create one single state for Arabs and Jews from the Mediterranean sea to the Jordan river called Palesrael. This would require an end to extremist ideologies from both the sides. Well then, how does one go about tackling the core issues? Here's my perspective:

Firstly the borders of this holy land would include Israel proper, West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel would have to end the occupation of the Golan Heights though.

A united Jerusalem would constitute an undivided capital of Palesrael. The Western Wall being the holy site for Jews and Al Aqsa for Muslims.

Citizenship for Palestinian refugees from Gaza and the West Bank. Refugees in other states must be given citizenship in their respective nations. This would justify Israel's absorption of 2.5 million Jews from Arab lands.

Equal access of water to all and equal rights to vote in the secular state of Palesrael.