Palestinian State?
Abul Mohsin, Siddheswari, Dhaka
As the years go by, the Palestinian state as envisaged by the US President George Bush to materialise by 2005 appears to be still farther off, even after a lapse of another two years! In the meantime, elections were held in occupied Palestinian areas and Hamas supporters gained majority but this is not acceptable to the Israelis and, therefore, to the US government. Everything including election results have to be according to the liking of the Israelis! They won't talk to the Hamas leaders. But the Palestinians cannot have any such choice; they have to deal with any party that wins elections in Israel, Labour, Likud or any coalition of parties.Israelis blame the Hamas for being a terrorist party although it has not organised any terrorist activities against Israel after the election. Sporadic attacks that sometimes take place are in retaliation of Israeli targeted attacks, which had been going on for the last ten years or so. Such attacks cannot be ruled out as long as Israel continues to keep the settlements and build concrete barriers around Palestinian lands confining them in small areas thereby making it almost impossible to have a separate state of their own. Besides, the US and Israel are demanding that Hamas recognise Israel and renounce violence. Now is it fair that Israel should demand this from the stateless people that Palestinians are at the moment! Of course they can demand it as a condition for agreeing to a Palestinian state in the future but not before. Right now with the US preoccupied with Iraq and the Iranian nuclear activities, it looks like the hapless Palestinians would have to live with their uncertain future for many more days!
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