Bhupinder S. Liddar: A Palestinian State — Reality or Mirage?

Bhupinder S. Liddar is a former Canadian diplomat and former publisher/editor of Diplomat & International Canada magazine.

“What wrong have these people done not to have a Palestinian passport — one of their country of birth, but are carrying passports of different countries?” the late Yasser Arafat asked Heath MacQuarrie and me, pointing to a room full of people next door.

MacQuarrie, a Progressive Conservative senator, and I had just walked past a room full of Palestinians to meet Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in Beirut in 1978. One is tempted to ask the same question today as the Palestinian Authority (PA) tries to secure statehood status for the land of Palestine, which existed as an entity from the end of World War I until 1947 under British mandate.

In 1947 Israel got what Palestine is seeking now. On Nov. 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a Resolution 181 outlining a partition plan for the creation of two states — one Jewish, one Arab, with Jerusalem-Bethlehem to remain under special international protection administered by United Nations. The UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), which recommended the partition, was led by none other than own very own Lester Pearson. He was awarded a medallion of valour by the newly created state of Israel. However, the Arab (Palestinian) state was never to be.

Therefore, it is timely and wise for the world community to undo the wrong and invite Palestine into its fold…