Ten Simple Ways the Palestinians Can Help Bring Peace to the Region
Posted on: September 1, 2010

by Stephen McDonald, Communications Consultant, Canada-Israel Committee

A quick list of ten modest steps the Palestinian Authority can take to build trust, create an atmosphere of cooperation, and build the foundation for a future Palestinian state.

  1. Acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.
    Although Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has recognized Israel's right to exist, he has been steadfast in refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. This is in spite of the fact that a wide range of nations have officially enshrined national-religious status (including Christian nations such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Greece, Finland, and the Netherlands, let alone the conference of over 50 Islamic states). Recognizing Israel as a Jewish state would provide Israel with the assurance that its status as the national Jewish homeland would not be put at risk in peace negotiations.
     
  2. Commit to the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees to a future Palestinian state – not Israel. UNRWA estimates there are currently 4.7 million Palestinian refugees (the only refugee group which counts descendants as refugees). The resettlement of millions of Palestinians in Israel, rather than a future Palestinian state, would mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state – and the concept of two states for two peoples.
     
  3. Renounce the use of violence as a solution to the region's problems.
    Just this month, Jibril Rajoub, a senior member of Fatah who sits on the party's Central Committee, told Palestinian Authority Television that "At the (Sixth Fatah) Conference (in 2009), we affirmed the struggle in all its forms, including resistance and the armed struggle… The (armed) struggle is a means, not an end. The (armed) struggle is related to our abilities… must cause pain to the occupation (Israel); it must be connected to a political platform."
     
  4. End the glorification of terrorists.
    In 2010 alone in the West Bank, officials glorified a number of infamous terrorists, including Abu Jihad and Dalal al-Mughrabi (both responsible for the Coastal Road Massacre in which 38 Israeli civilians were killed). In their honour were named educational camps, a research centre, a soccer tournament, a street, and a town square. In May, a soccer tournament in Bethlehem was similarly named in honour of Abu Daoud, one of terrorists who planned the infamous Munich Massacre in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered at the 1972 Olympics.
     
  5. Cease and condemn all efforts to ethnically cleanse the West Bank of Jews.
    In 2009, a military court of the Palestinian Authority sentenced an Arab resident of Hebron to death for selling property in the West Bank to Jews. The capital offense, introduced by the Palestinian Authority in 1996, intends to prevent Jews from living in a future Palestinian state – despite the fact that over one million Arabs currently live inside Israel's borders. A policy of "Judenrein" is incompatible with peace.

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