SIR – Israel’s colonial project in Palestine was never about a temporary Israeli presence. Fifty-three years ago it occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. At the end of that six-day war, Israel had expelled almost 400,000 Palestinians from their homes and, in the absence of accountability, Israel has been free to further displace and brutalise the Palestinian people.
Israel is in breach of the 1967 UN Security Council Resolution 242, which declares the ‘inadmissibility of acquiring land through the use of force’. The systematic violations of Palestinian national and human rights is a further testament to Israel`s commitment to colonial expansion.
Israel is now moving ahead with its de-facto annexation of several other integral parts of occupied Palestine following its annexation of occupied Jerusalem. Unfortunately, Trump’s Annexation Plan is a roadmap to imposing a reality of one state with two systems, a fully-fledged apartheid regime, violating the pillars of freedom, justice and equality.
The only way to end the Israeli occupation and suffering of the Palestinians and bring a lasting peace to the Holy Land is with a peacefully-negotiated two-state solution in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions along the 1967 borders.
Daniel Teegan,
Monkstown,
Co Cork.
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