Politics and the national struggle

Abstract

From their need to justify their own nationhood by denying that of Palestinians, Zionists volunteer Jordan as an equally valid home for Palestinians and point out that the concept of a Palestinian ‘nation’ is of recent origin. This is true, but it is irrelevant. Nation states are one of the basic political facts of twentieth-century life, and the Palestinian nation is not the only one to have been brought into the world by colonialism. To ask whether a particular nation state is right or wrong, does or does not have ‘the right to exist’, is a false question, ignoring the historical fact of the complex and expedient development of any nation. For at least twenty years Palestinians have identified themselves as a nation, and as such they demand the rights accepted in the twentieth century as belonging to nations. They also have rights as individuals, and these are violated by the Zionist claim to exclusive possession of the land of Palestine. Displacing or desiring to displace an entire population and expecting them all to emigrate and leave their beloved land ignores humanity and cannot easily be argued away.