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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| 'Once Upon a Country': An Interview With Sari Nusseibeh |
| 2008-06-18 |
| Sari Nusseibeh has been president of Al Quds University in Jerusalem, Israel, since 1995 and also teaches philosophy there. Nusseibeh has long been committed to peace in the Middle East. His book Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life has recently been published in paperback by Picador. [..] What mistakes have the Palestinian and Arab leaders made during the last 60 years? Has the Palestinian leadership really let chances for peace slip by, as is always claimed? Certainly it has. For example, when the British Foreign Minister Lord Balfour promised the Jews a homeland in Palestine in 1917, our grandfathers demonstrated and protested. The community leaders should rather have hired a plane and flown to London to speak to the foreign minister. They should have discussed things and created a Palestinian diplomacy. If they'd done that, they would have been in a position to control things much better. In the thirties there was a blueprint for the establishment of a state on the whole of Palestine in which Muslims, Christians, and Jews would each control a third. The Arabs would have had two-thirds. The Arabs rejected this too. If they'd accepted it, they would now be in a better position. And so on. Every time, their situation has got even worse as a result of the innumerable mistakes of their leadership. It's true that half the problem stems from the occupation, but the other half is historically the responsibility of our leadership. [..] |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #1 Lord Balfour promised the Jews a homeland in Palestine in 1917, our grandfathers demonstrated and protested. The community leaders should rather have hired a plane and flown to London A firm grasp of history thar. Have SPAD will travel. |
| Posted by: GorbsDawg 2008-06-18 10:25 |