Palestinians are the sons of the soil. It was their
land until the downfall of the Ottoman Empire as a consequence of Turkish
defeat in World War I. The region came under the mandate of the British who
planned to settle the Jews there. In 1948, a Jewish state named Israel was forced
upon Palestine. This started off armed conflict between the Arabs and the Jews.
Arab armies were defeated in 1967, and the region was occupied by Israel. The
UN resolution of 1949 clearly demarcated boundaries for Israel on the one hand
and Palestine on the other. But this Resolution has not been implemented so
far. The entire operation is being masterminded by the British and the Americans.
Arabs in their own homeland have been made to live as aliens. Their right to
statehood granted by the UN under the above resolution has been denied to them
till today.
The US has taken an open role to play godfather to
Israel and made it a bully boy of the Middle East. The cruelties and
barbarities perpetrated by Israel on the Arabs have no parallel on earth except
for the poor Kashmiris who are suffering under the yoke of India under similar
circumstances. Palestine has no army. Palestinians can only protest or at best
fling stones at the enemy in reply to their bullets, missiles, gunship
helicopter attacks. In desperation they sometimes indulge in an odd suicide
bomb attack in which they sacrifice their own lives. It is this kind of utter frustration
that led to the destruction of the World Trade Center arid the Pentagon.
Likewise, Kashmir problem too is the
handiwork of the British. At the time of Partition of Indian subcontinent, they
maneuvered to enable India to grab state of Jammu and Kashmir which otherwise
was to accede to Pakistan. This led to open conflict between India and
Pakistan. The matter was taken up by the UN, on India’s request, which passed a
Resolution to hold plebiscite there to ascertain the wishes of the people. Since
India knows what would be the result of any opinion poll, it has avoided
holding plebiscite on one pretext or the other. Kashmir has now become a
nuclear flash point. The state is in the grip of activities of the freedom
fighters but India is bent upon calling them terrorists and is itself indulging
in worst kind of state terrorism. In this case too India is backed by world
powers and the connivance of UN. It is the first and foremost duty of the world
body to get its Resolution implemented. Once that is done one major cause of
terrorism, i.e. state terrorism on the part of India and freedom struggle by
mujahedeen will come to an end.