Should Israel be Recognized?

The reasons for opposing recognition of Israel and diplomatic relations with it are varied:

❶ For example, the main reason is that the settlement of Jews in Palestine did not take place with the consent of the population that has been there for centuries, that is, the Palestinians. Rather, the British occupied this region in 1917 and settled the Jews in Palestine on the basis of military force.

And now the United States and its allies are using full military force to force the Palestinians to accept this forced settlement of Jews. The Palestinians do not agree to this because it is a way of tyranny and oppression that no civilized nation in the world can accept. 

I think that as we have a principled stand on Kashmir, the Indian army should leave from there, and the Kashmiris should be given the opportunity to decide their future under the UN order without any pressure. Similarly, our principled position regarding Palestine and the entire Middle East should be that the United States withdraw its troops from the region, and free not only Palestine but also other countries of the Gulf from military pressure and give the people a free opportunity to decide their own future.

This is certainly the requirement of justice, and if the superior forces do not come to this in the drunkenness of power, it does not mean that we give up our position and  accept injustice and tyranny as principles and laws.

❷ Then there is a practical obstacle to recognizing Israel, which without removing it would be absolutely unjust. That is, what are the borders of Israel? This has not been decided yet. Many Arab countries and the majority of the Palestinian people do not accept the partition of Palestine at all. Israel does not recognize the UN resolutions that define the borders between Israel and Palestine:

• Israel's UN-defined borders are different.
• At present, the borders of the territory occupied by Israel are different.
• Intruding all over Palestine without regard to any rule or law makes the map of its borders look completely different.
• And then, according to the ambitions of the Israeli rulers, the map of "greater Israel" that exists on record is different from all of the above.
• Along with this, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon has repeatedly announced that he will recognize the proposed state of Palestine only on the condition that its borders will not be determined and it will not have a separate army. What does this mean except that Israel is declaring its right to rule over all of Palestine and is not prepared to give the Palestinians even a small nominal state with demarcated borders?

❸ Also, before recognizing Israel, you have to reconsider your position on Jerusalem, and there are only two ways to do this: either persuade Israel to withdraw from Jerusalem, or take a U-turn yourself and decide to withdraw from Bait al-Maqdis.

All three obstacles I have mentioned are practical and obvious. If we come up with a dignified and workable solution to them, surely we should recognize Israel as a Jewish state in the same way we have been recognizing many Christian countries. In my opinion, the discussion in this regard should be on practical issues and should be on objective facts. This issue should not be further complicated by entanglement in ideological and religious debates.

(Monthly Al-Sharia, September 2003)