IN the first part of my story, it has been noted that there is grave disconnect between the Borneo Territories and Malay in Malaya on the Middle East.
In terms of comparison, Putrajaya may be closer to the Hamas position which allegedly wants to ‘drive all Jew into the sea’.
Malaysia should call for elections, freely and fairly held and observed by international observers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
That will help pave the way for peace talks between Israel and the West Bank to end the Israeli military administration.
At present, the leaders in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip don’t have legitimacy.
There is no consent of the governed. The people have lost their sovereignty to a handful of unelected leaders.
The last election in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was held decades ago.
Shortly after the last one and only election, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Fatah in the West Bank parted company violently.
There were political differences on talks with Israel.
Fatah runs the Palestine Authority (PA).
It has been said that if elections were held today, Hamas will sweep the West Bank as well.
That may explain why Fatah has resisted the idea of election anytime soon.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas has self-servingly urged an end to ‘Israeli Occupation’ of the West Bank before elections can be held.
Political wilderness
The Fatah stand may not explain Hamas resisting the idea of elections in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas probably wants to contest elections, held simultaneously in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and drive Fatah into the political wilderness, if not oblivion.
It is misleading to say Palestinian in reference solely to the Arab in the three territories.
Before Israel in 1948, both Jew and Arab were known as Palestinian, a term created during occupation by the Roman Empire.
There is no Palestinian language.
Jew speak Hebrew.
Jesus spoke Aramaic, the language of Syria.
The Arab speak a local variety of the Arabic language, not the classical version in the Quran.
They include ‘immigrants’ as well who flooded in after Israel created an economic boom after its establishment.
Many Arab subsequently ‘fled’ the three Territories for various reasons and are in UN refugee camps in neighbouring Jordan which the British separated from the three Territories in 1921 and recognised as a Hashemite Kingdom.
The majority in Jordan consider themselves Palestinian.
Queen Rania, born in Kuwait and raised in Tulkarm in the West Bank, is Palestinian.
Incidentally, the mother of the present King of Jordan, Abdullah, was the daughter of a British sergeant. She was born in Kuala Lumpur.
The Palestinian Special Constables and Guards for example, attached to the British Army in Malaya during the Emergency (1948 to 1960), were Jewish.
I remember being escorted by Palestinian Special Constables as a toddler in communist-infested country. My father was a planter in Perak.
Mini Palestine
An extreme minority in Israel favours the idea of declaring the Gaza Strip as ‘mini Palestine’ and annexing the West Bank.
However, the Tel Aviv government remains wary of Arabs tipping the delicate demographic balance in Israel.
Fatah favours the idea of a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine, with Arab-populated east Jerusalem as the capital of the latter.
History tells us that Jerusalem has always had a Jewish majority since being founded by King David 3K years ago.
According to Vatican sources, over 90% of the land in Jerusalem belongs to various Churches.
Therein lies the difficulties in partitioning Jerusalem.
The Ottomon Empire based in Turkey never interfered in the affairs of the Churches in the Biblical Holy Lands during its rule.
The Ottomon also refused to accept the land claims of the Arab in the Biblical Holy Lands.
Hence, Arab to this day occupy untitled land.
Unless the Supreme Court of Israel steps in when petitioned, the Tel Aviv government may take over such land at will, ostensibly for public purposes, but in the past for ‘legal’ Jewish settlements as well.
The Supreme Court of Israel has returned many lands, seized by the Israeli government and ‘illegal’ Jewish settlers, to Arab farmers based on the ‘right to life’, equality under the law and no discrimination, and property rights under international and Israeli law.
Still, there is continuing conflict between Arab farmers squatting on untitled land and Jewish settlers, legal and illegal.
Besides land, water rights remain a burning issue in a desert land where the scarce resource has remained a precious commodity for thousands of years and has cost countless lives. – Oct 4, 2021.
Joe Fernandez is a longtime Borneo watcher and a regular FocusM contributor.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Pic credit: Council of Foreign Relations
