Israel and the Palestinians: a reply to Charlotte Littlewood 

David Stone, in his two short articles entitled What has anyone ever done for the Palestinians?, presents arguments based on factual evidence. In his first piece he maintains that Israel has gone further than any other nation in seeking to help Palestinians achieve realistic goals. In his second he points out that Palestinians leaders and their supporters engage in campaigns that do nothing to advance peace. On the contrary, their actions actively reduce the likelihood of any progress occurring and, calamitously, further impoverish ordinary Palestinians.

In her response, Charlotte Littlewood makes many charges against Israel. She paints the Palestinians as the eternal victims of Israel’s brutal and deliberate oppression. That almost all of what she asserts is false, cries out for a point-by-point rebuttal. Fortunately for readers, I will not be doing so. Instead, I wish to select one of her more egregious accusations for a brief response that, I suggest, will illustrate the validity of Stone’s overall analysis.

Regarding refugees, Littlewood claims that in 1948, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194 “affirming the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes”. This is factually incorrect. It advocated that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date. Note that the resolution a) made no mention of Arab refugees but referred to refugees in general i.e. implying an intention to include the thousands of Jews who were expelled from the prospective Arab state (as envisioned by the UN partition plan of 1947 that had been accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs); b) made no mention of a legally binding “right of return” of refugees to their original homes (as there was and is none); and c) placed a solution to the refugee problem firmly in the context of an overall peace agreement between Israel and her neighbours. Because of its emphasis on peace, the resolution was unanimously rejected by the Arab states and accepted by Israel — a critical historical fact that Littlewood seems disinclined to share with readers.

Littlewood’s disregard for accuracy unwittingly reinforces Stone’s conclusions. Her diatribe demonstrates that the Palestinian people, far from being helped by their “supporters” along the path towards practical solutions to their longstanding problems, are actually being condemned to remain perpetually mired in them. Blaming all Palestinian misfortunes on Israel is not only demonstrably untrue but entirely counterproductive. It institutionalises a destructive culture of victimhood that does nothing to help the Palestinians achieve peace and prosperity. Promoting vile and unwarranted calumnies while legitimising extreme and unachievable demands renders peace ever more elusive.

The true enemies of the Palestinians are not Israelis but intransigent Palestinian leaders and their allies in the region along with their numerous overseas advocates, however well-intentioned. Littlewood’s uncritical recycling of the anti-Israeli narrative does nothing to offer Palestinians the hope of a more prosperous and peaceful future. In the process, she succeeds in eloquently (if unintentionally) making Stone’s case for him.

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