LETTER: Palestinians refused a ‘two-states' solution

SIR – Bob Storey (‘Subsidisation of Jewish immigrant colonisers,’ letters, May 25^th) may be well-intentioned but perhaps not well-informed.

 It was the Palestinians who refused a ‘two-states’ solution in 1937 (Peel Commission) and in 1947 (UN Partition plan), not the reverse. It was they who (together with the surrounding Arab countries) declared war on and invaded the tiny Jewish state on the day of its birth in 1948 and it is they who have waged that war ever since and in every forum.

It was the Arab states who imposed the naval blockade and the subsequent wars of 1956 and 1967 and it was the Palestinians and Arabs who - at their famous conference in Khartoum in 1968 - refused the return of the captured territories in exchange for peace. It is the Palestinians of Gaza whose charter still calls for the annihilation of Israel and it is they who fire rockets at Israel (after Israel fully withdrew from Gaza). It is the Palestinians who educate their children in belligerence and hatred, not the reverse and it is they who celebrate terror and turn their killers into martyrs.  

If we ‘believe in democracy and human rights’ (as suggested by Bob Storey) then we ought to pressurise the Palestinians (not Israel) to do the one thing they have never done, namely, to declare and end to their hatred and belligerence and declare genuine peace. 

When they do that, they will have a state, peace and prosperity. Or, is that asking too much? 

Sincerely,

Joshua Rowe

17-21 Chorlton Street

Manchester M1 3HY.