Josef Joffe’s
“A World without Israel”
By Nara Mantravdi
Via e-mail
This is in response to the opinion piece “Josef
Joffe’s A World without Israel” by
Mr. Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry (Pakistan Link, February
18, 2005). I keep putting a question to Pakistanis
without getting a proper answer. In the year 1988,
Yasser Arafat declared that Palestine as a nation
was born. He was looking for Muslim countries
to accord recognition to his country and yes they
included Pakistan too. If Pakistan was so concerned
about the plight of the Palestinians why would
they not recognize and give diplomatic status
to Palestine first? Forget Israel. Incidentally,
it was the very same year in which Pakistan recognized
Taliban and gave them a diplomatic status.
***
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA
Nara Mantravdsi’s question is a very valid
one and warrants serious attention. It is true
that on November 15, 1988 Yasser Arafat announced
the birth of an independent state of Palestine,
and it is also true that the Proclamation was
hailed by the world community, which also included
a majority of the Muslim countries. However, there
was a sort of vagueness in the Proclamation. Yasser
Arafat did not define the specific boundaries
that were to form an independent state of Palestine.
His proclamation read, "Our Palestinian territory
with its capital Jerusalem... the State of Palestine
is the State of Palestinians wherever they may
be". The only thing that he made clear in
specific terms was that the new State was to be
an integral and indivisible part of the Arab nation.
The new State was accorded recognition by a majority
of States in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The
Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China
also issued strong declarations of support. In
the Arab world, Egypt resisted strong Zionist
and American pressure, and so did Jordan and recognized
it. The European Community hailed the announcement
but stopped short of recognizing the new State.
In a PLO Central Council meeting in Tunisia in
March-April, 1989, Yasser Arafat was unanimously
elected as President of the State of Palestine.
The state was recognized by more than a hundred
countries. The irony and tragedy that befell the
Palestinians was that though the state had been
recognized by a majority of member states of the
UN which had voted to partition the country, yet
a good number of them always appeared helpless
in restoring the territory which, according to
the UN's own Resolutions, belonged to the Palestinians,
and which was to form an Independent State of
Palestine. The later struggle had been, as every
body knows, a bloody chapter written in an attempt
to recover and secure its lost territory. Pakistan
had been overzealous in supporting the Palestinian
cause, though the Palestinian leadership had always
been lukewarm and rather reticent in supporting
Pakistan in the Kashmir cause. I hope this answers
the question.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
