Monday, April 16, 2007

Azmi Bishara: Agent Provocateur


A Good Article

By Haidar Eid

"......A serious comprehensive solution to the Palestinian question will not, therefore, neglect the 1948 Palestinians and those who were expelled and dispossessed of their lands in 1948, namely, refugees living in miserable camps. The mechanism by which such serious issues can be resolved is not a bantustanization in the style of South African apartheid as suggested by the signatories of the Oslo Accords. Rather, a secular democratic state where all citizens are treated equally regardless of their religion, sex or color, is the right solution that brings an end to the conflict. This is partly what Bishara’s programme is about; this is the reason behind the current campaign; and this is why the Palestinian national identity of Israeli-Palestinians is considered a threat to the Zionist establishment.

Azmi Bishara is what the official Palestinian leadership is NOT. Charisma combined with a political vision and a clear-cut ideological programme. Whereas the Palestinian leadership is prepared to recognize a "Jewish state" alongside a Palestinian state regardless of what this means, namely the discriminatory practices applied by Israel against its non-Jewish, i.e. mainly Palestinian citizens and residents since 1948, Bishara’s programme makes the necessary link between all Palestinian struggles against the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and against Israel's ethnically-based displacement, dispossession, discrimination and rights' violations of about 1.3 million Palestinian citizens, including some 250,000 internally displaced, as well as the 1948-externally displaced refugees, who are entitled to return, restitution and “Israeli citizenship” under international law."

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