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Palestine
Dr Mandy Turner
18th Feb 2010
Our
speaker, Dr Mandy Turner, is a lecturer in “Conflict Resolution” who if
she manages her subject successfully will be unique. Her subject today was the
conflict between
Israel
and
Palestine
. Since the Romans invaded Judea and renamed it
Palestine
, followed by the Arabs who conquered it and ruled for 1000 years and then the
Zionist movement was formed to restore it to the Jews there has been no
resolution to the conflict between the two races.
Many
have tried and failed. Today Dr Turner told us about the situation as it has
developed from the end of the Second World War.
The maps she used clearly showed the gradual progress of
Israel
’s expansion as it moved to occupy the majority of this 10,000 sq mile land.
After the 1947 Labour Government reneged on their promise to support the Jews
they were forced by terrorism to declare
Palestine
ungovernable and asked the UN to take the mandate. In 1947 the UN proposed
that Palestine should be divided into two states of approximately equal
proportions even though of the 2 million population only one third were
Jewish.
Israel
would not accept this proposal with the result that the Arabs invaded the
country in May 1948. This was followed by another war in 1967 which won the
Israelis more territory and changed the balance of power. The proposals
derived from discussions in
Oslo
1993 and Geneva 2003 do not seem to have lessened
the conflict and Israelis and Palestinians continue to kill each other.
Proportional representation in the Palestinian elections seems to have made
things worse with Hamas and Fatah
fighting each other as well as
Israel
although it is thought that the majority of Palestinians wish their government
to recognise
Israel
. Solutions are not apparent and stalled peace talks and ineffectual
US
diplomacy are forecast for 2010.
On
4th March we will be having our last talk at Otley Civic Centre
when Mr Jack Swindells will tell us about his
passion for Cricket as he takes his 2nd Innings at 10-00am.
It
will not be our last meeting at the Civic Centre; that will be our AGM on 18th
March.
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