Every Day Is Special: November 15 – Palestine's “National Day”

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.”