Palestine: a new international mandate?

Palestine has need a UN protectorate before. Only that point Palestinian meant Jew and Arab meant what we today call Palestinian. Having past the 2005 deadline and with the Palestinian Authority possibly set to break into civil war, the international community needs to reconsider it's options. What ever comes, the Palestinian people should be protected and basic services such as food, water and electricity need to be kept running. An International Mandate would not only protect Palestinians from Israeli soldiers (by removing the need for such soldiers), it would also protect both Palestinian and Israeli children from Hamas and Islamic Jihad suicide bombers.

Was the EU Parliament’s formula so far fetched? It seems odd that the EU would know the needs of the Palestinians better than their own leadership, but with Politicians and infighting it may just be that the international community is listening to the real voice of Palestinians, the family that wants peace and an end to the conflict. With the Gaza pull out fading into history and the Israeli Prime Minister pushing for more disengagements (negotiated or unilateral) the Palestinian people will have their chance... if only their Politicians would grasp it.

- 25/6/06 ZOTW

FM Sha’ath: We Demand International Forces not Custody

By Palestinian International Press Center and Agencies, October 26, 2003

Palestinain Foreign Minister, Nabil Sha’ath said Saturday that the Palestinian people do not want an international custody but rather need international forces to be dispatched to their territories to keep the Israeli occupation forces away from them.

Sha’ath was commenting on the European Parliament’s final communiqué last Thursday, which pointed out the Palestinain people’s right to return to their homeland and installing an international custodian system in the Occupied Palestinain Territories.

Sha’ath told reporters that the Palestinians will not accept less than what the Arab states initiative for peace has already offered regarding the Palestinain refugee problem based on United Nations General Assembly resolution 191.

He considered the EU Parliament’s formula for the solution of the return of Palestinain refugees only to the boundaries of the future Palestinain state, as unaccepted by the Palestinain people, stressing that the Palestinians won’t give more concessions.

In Strasbourg, the European Union Parliament voted last Thursday on a draft resolution recommending that Palestine be put under international mandate in case the Road Map peace plan fails to establish an independent Palestinain state by 2005.

Other featured articles on Palestinian self determination

Palestine: Fatah, Hamas and Civil War - Will There Be a Palestinian Civil War? - Pinhas Inbari, 25 June 2006
Is Hamas in the Iranian-Syrian orbit or the Palestinian one? Do they know?

Palestine: Fatah Vs Hamas - Barry Rubin, May 23, 2006

Drop the guns, live and let live - Andre Oboler, November 07, 2005

Growing up Palestinian in the Israeli "Occupation" - Sarah El-Shazly, December 18, 2004

The Twilight Zone - Sarah El-Shazly, January 8, 2005