Posted
November 15, 2013
How
can you have a national day when you don't have a nation?
One
of the sad things about the world is that there are times when it
doesn't seem that there is a really good win-win solution to a
problem. When the nation of Israel was created in 1947, there were
some very good motivations for creating a Jewish-majority country.
Unfortunately, the United Nation's plan for Israel affected the
then-British-ruled Palestine. This region had a lot of Jewish people
agitating for independence from Britain and self-rule, and it also
had a lot of Arabs (who practiced Islam) agitating for independence
from Britain and self-rule. When the U.N. pretty much handed the
contested area over to the Jews, a lot of Arabs were angry.
There
was violence. Wars, civil wars, bombings, terrorism, attacks,
counter-attacks, threats. All of it horrifying. However, even the
best ideas for peace are compromises that will likely leave all
parties unhappy.
At
any rate, even though there isn't a “State of Palestine” on the
map, such a nation was declared by the Palestine Liberation
Organization on this date in 1988. Last year the United Nations
granted Palestine observer status—as a “non-state entity,”
which means that delegates from Palestine can now speak in the U.N.'s
General Assembly, but they cannot vote.
When
doing the research for this post, I found Palestine's “Official Tourism Website.” It is billed at the place where “West meets East, North meets
South, and where Judaism, Christianity, and Islam took form.”
Also
on this date:
Plan
Ahead:
Check out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
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