Reply #19: That's not a problem.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

Jews from outside Israel (which, before the Nakba, was nearly all of us) didn't have a legitimate claim to Israel. They had a desire for it, but no more right to live there than any other group of foreigners.

Nowadays, a small majority of Jews are native Israel, and those do have a right to continue to live there - as do the Palestinians who were driven out in the Nakba.


The problem is that zionist Jews do not want to live as equal neighbours, they want a Jewish state. Zionism *is* evil, and *is* - like all racist and colonialist philosophies - illegitimate but pointing this out is not "dehumanising".

There is no hope of a consensual peace between the Palestinians and Israel - most zionists simply aren't interested in ending the occupation; the division in Israel is between those who are proud of not wanting peace (like the current government) and those who have vague visions of a peace which involves them continuing the occupation and the Palestinians stopping opposing it (like Livni). The only hope is for an externally-imposed peace, brought about by the threat of economic sanctions which make Israel choose between its living conditions and the settlements.

Ending the occupation won't make zionism a legimitate philosophy, and it won't stop me pointing that out, but it will be enough to make peace. Nothing else will.