Madam, – Denis Staunton’s article (“Is oath a step towards the transfer of Arabs?” Opinion, October 18th) refers to the suggestion of Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman that both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, under mutual agreement, engage in solving border disputes as part of a final peace settlement.
The headline appears to suggest this could involve a forcible movement of people. Mr Lieberman’s speech to the UN General Assembly on September 28th makes it clear he is referring to a correction of borders (to reflect demographic realities) not the movement of people: “Let me be very clear: I am not speaking about moving populations, but rather about moving borders to better reflect demographic realities.”
Mr Staunton’s piece is critical of the newly proposed loyalty oath which will oblige new foreign-born citizens to recognise Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, writing that “others” condemn this as reflecting “a rising tide of racism” in Israel.
It is nothing of the sort! First, it does not apply to people already citizens of Israel (almost 20 per cent of the Israeli population are Arabs). Second, many states in the Western World require an oath of allegiance upon receiving nationality.
Further, the term “Jewish state” is hardly new – it goes right back to the Balfour Declaration and the Israeli declaration of independence.
Moreover, the call for Israel to be recognised as a Jewish state is a test of the willingness of the Palestinians, and the wider Arab World, to accept Israel’s permanency. When the UN was due to vote on the decision to partition the land between the Jews and Arabs in 1947, Israelis offered to recognise a Palestinian state for the Arab inhabitants if they and the Arab world recognised Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The Palestinians and the Arab world rejected the offer at the time – hence 60 years of bloodshed in the region. Israel has again recognised the right for self-rule by the Palestinians at the Oslo Peace Process that began in 1993. Is it not fair, then, to ask the Palestinians, and the wider Arab World for that matter, in the spirit of reciprocity, to recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people?
Perhaps the real opposition by Palestinians and other Arabs to recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people is because of a deep-seated reluctance to recognise the ancient Jewish people as indigenous to the region and endowed with the right to self-government and the right to identify the state with its people. – Yours, etc,