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| Volume IX, March 2002, Number 1 |
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| EXCERPT: Declaration of Conscience on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by South Africans of Jewish Descent |
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The following statement, co-written by MP Ronnie Kasrils, minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, and Max Ozinsky, member of the Western Cape Legislature, was issued on October 23, 2001. Source: Not in My Name, South Africa.
We the undersigned are compelled to express ourselves on the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict as a matter of conscience and concern for the safety
and well-being of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and for world peace.
1. The Fundamental Causes of the Conflict
• We assert that the fundamental causes of the current conflict are Israel's suppression of the Palestinian struggle for national self-determination and its continued occupation of Palestinian lands.
• We do not dispute that certain sectors of the Palestinian population have resorted to terror, and we condemn indiscriminate killings of civilians from whatever quarter. Yet this is not the root cause of the problem.
• The state of Israel was founded as a homeland for the persecuted Jews of Europe. It came into being as a result of a war of independence. The action of the British, in assuming that Palestine was theirs by colonial mandate to dispose of, inflicted a great injustice on the Palestinian people. This was compounded by the subsequent Israeli rule of the Occupied Territories and the denial of the legitimate claims of the Palestinian refugees.
Recognition of the fundamental causes of the ongoing violence does not constitute anti-Semitism. Rather, it constitutes an urgent call on the Israeli government to redress injustice, uphold human rights, and satisfy legitimate claims, without which peace negotiations will fail. Nor does it amount to a denial of Israel's right to exist. It recognises that such negotiations require that the Western powers, the Arab states and the non-aligned states through the aegis of the United Nations guarantee the mutual security of the state of Israel and the state of Palestine.
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