Scottish Friends of Palestine أصدقاء فلسطين الأسكتلنديين

Press Release 29 March 2006

Scottish Friends of Palestine welcomes the conclusion of the democratic process in Israel. As always, the result is a victory for the myopic and for those who are blind to the requirements for a just and lasting peace in the land of Palestine.

As Kadima marches forward into the past it is worth recording the various milestones indicative of the failures to come:

• concrete walls and razor wire fences do not make for secure, legitimate and internationally recognised borders
• penning a nation behind the same walls and fences is no recipe for peace
• starving a nation, attacking and killing its people, stealing its resources is not a recipe for peace
• unilateral decisions, the relocation of the infrastructure of the occupation, fools no one – real peace is not part of such an agenda

These milestones are largely ignored by a media, most of whom clutch at straws in an attempt to gloss over realities.

The pity is that, in the search for straws, they fail to see the anchor on which peace will always depend.

International law, including the relevant Security Council resolutions, adequately pave the way to peace. Forget the much over-hyped road map and other such initiatives. These are mere digressions inevitably ignored by all.

The rights of all Palestinians are embedded in international law and cannot be ignored at the whim of the occupier. Millions of Palestinians have the right to return to their land, to restitution and compensation for their losses. Keep in mind that when Israel was created less than 10% of the land and property was Jewish owned.

The mainstream political establishment of Israel, many Israelis themselves, simply wish that the Palestinian people would disappear or, to borrow a phrase, be swept into the sea. Their presence, their legitimate rights have never had a place in the grand design of Israel’s political architects. Kadima is no different.