Unjust partition at root of the conflict
While it is true that the UN voted for partition in1947, maybe Ms Smith would care to comment on the following facts:
1. The UN vote was corrupt (votes were bought or obtained by arm-twisting) as most UN votes tend to be.
2. The proposed partition into two interlocking countries (consisting of three linked parts each) gave 50% of the whole of Palestine to 8% of the then Jewish population of Palestine. Even the British, who in many ways are responsible for the Arab-Israeli mess, recognised the injustice of the plan.
3. Jerusalem was to be under UN control under the 1947 plan.
4. In 1948, 50,000 Palestinians in Lydda (Palestinian territory under the plan) were forced to leave at gunpoint, never to return despite a still-standing UN resolution that all Palestinians expelled are entitled to return home.
5. About 750,000 Palestinians had been driven out of their homes before the armistice in 1949.
6. Despite UN resolutions, Israel continues to occupy and settle land that even under the unjust 1947 partition plan was supposed to be Palestinian.
Con Hayes,
Kerry Road,
Tower,
Blarney,
Co. Cork.
