75 years after the partition plan for Palestine: no two states, no peace [VIDEO]

With the wound of the Holocaust still unhealed, the United Nations, in diapers, approved on November 29, 1947, the Partition Plan for Palestine, which, six months later, gave rise to the creation of the State of Israel for the exodus of the Jews and opened an eternal conflict without peace and state for the Palestinians who inhabited these lands.

“This is an anniversary that no one else celebrates, no one cares what happened in 1947, because it is not interesting to remember that the creation of a Palestinian state has not yet been completed,” Israeli historian Meir Margalit told EFE.

General Assembly UN 75 years ago today gave the green light to Resolution 181, which provided for the creation of two states, one Israeli and one Palestinian, and that the city of Jerusalem would remain under international control, nurturing one of the most protracted conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries.

According to Margalit, the decision was “consistent” and “necessary” at the time because some 250,000 Jewish refugees survived the Holocaust and World War II, but it was poorly implemented because it drew an “inconsistent” and “indefensible” border. , leaving large communities of Arabs in Israeli territory and the Jewish population of the Galilee in Palestinian land.

Clashes arose quickly because of the anger of the Arab world, who considered it unfair that the Jews, who made up only a third of the population and owned 7% of the land, received almost half of the territory. They immediately began to occupy the Arab villages.

State Israel it was born six months later, on May 14, 1948, when David Ben-Gurion declared “independence” – or nakba (calamity) for the Palestinians – which sparked the first Arab-Israeli war.

This triggered an exodus of some 700,000 Palestinians and ended in a truce in 1949 that resulted in the drawing of the so-called Green Line, a new border along which Israel fortified its position and reached Jerusalem divided in two.

green Line

The Green Line has been an armored border for decades, with a strong military presence. In Jerusalem, both in the east and in the west, no one wanted to live near him, because snipers were lurking on both sides.

“No one crossed from one side to the other. Periodically, only police columns escorted by police crossed. UN to the two Israeli enclaves that remained in the east, the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus, which had to move its academic activities to the west, and the tomb of King David,” says Margalit.

But the panorama changed in 1967 when Israel it occupied the Golan, Sinai (returned to Egypt in 1979), Gaza, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, after the Six Day War. The eastern half of the city was annexed in 1980, which was not recognized even by the authorities. UN nor the international community, but effectively de facto.

Since then, the green line in Jerusalem has blurred “to the point where new generations don’t even know what it is,” says Margalit.

Israel controls and governs the east and west of the city, Jewish settlements proliferate in the eastern half, where some 300,000 Palestinians still live and are dominated by Arabs, and even a tram runs along this invisible border, which today is just another avenue in Jerusalem, although it used to be border made of barbed wire and bags.

The western neighborhoods adjacent to the Green Line, such as Musrara or Montefiori, were marginal until 1967, no one wanted to live there because they were in the line of fire, but today they are the most expensive and desirable in Jerusalem, as they are in the line of fire . heart of the city. “One City”, near the Old City, located in the eastern half occupied and annexed by Israel.

“As Palestinians, we have lost East Jerusalem. This is out of the question,” says Jerusalem-based analyst Ziad Hamouri, who considers it “impossible” to revive the two-state solution, created 75 years ago, with reality on the ground. .

Hamuri points out that the general situation in all Palestinian territories is worse than ever: “Gaza has been under blockade for 15 years, and in the West Bank, communication between villages and cities has been lost due to settlement expansion, which prevents many Palestinians from being able to freely go to work or school, and the roads built are for the settlers.”

The risk of annexing the entire West Bank is “greater than ever” given that a far-right government is about to be formed. Israelalthough in practice the Jewish country “already controls, militarily and administratively, the entire area C, which is 60% of this territory,” emphasizes Hamuri.

Today, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, also marks the 10th anniversary of Palestine was admitted as an observer state to the General Assembly UNsomething that “means nothing in places where there are more and more settlers, Israeli military posts and raids,” says the Palestinian.

However, Margalit believes that pressure from outside UN and the international community can still turn the tide.

“Strategy Mr. Israel it is worth waiting until the world gets tired of condemning his practice, annexation or colonization of territory, until it becomes an actual reality, as happened with East Jerusalem, ”the Israeli historian notes.

(As reported by EFE)

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