What if you fled a war and were prohibited from returning to your home? What would you do if you were told to vacate your home or be forced to leave? What would you do if your family didn’t leave their home and was massacred so settlers could occupy your land?
Frustrated, the displaced Palestinians desperately want to go home — their “right of return” is mandated under international law. This right is the crux of the Palestinian issue. Israel refuses to allow Palestinians to return to their homes in what was Palestine.
How can one expect displaced Palestinians to compromise on their desire to simply return home? The displaced Palestinians have lived in squalid refugee camps since the creation of Israel in 1948, with no hope of returning home and a justified feeling of international abandonment. Unlike what some call the Palestinians, they consider themselves freedom fighters, resisting the Israeli occupation and fighting to return to what is legally theirs. What would you do if you were in their situation?
Since numerous peace initiatives have failed and cease-fires only postpone the next war, the solution lies with those who created the problem. The international community not only has a moral obligation to enforce international law since it created Palestinian displacement by allowing the creation of Israel in Palestine, but they also have an obligation to resolve Palestinian displacement.
The international community should impose a just solution upon both parties, as was unjustly imposed upon the Palestinians in 1948.
I believe Jerusalem should become an international city with shared ownership by Jews, Muslims and Christians.