Free Palestine!

On the day I write this, early in the morning of 21st. September 2025, a European State, Portugal, has declared that it is going formally to recognise ”a Palestinian State”.

Now there is much one could say to Portugal and its history, its colonialist past in southern Africa, southern America and Asia, the massacres and exploitations carried out there by its colonists and its missionaries, the civil war of the 1820s, the regicide and revolution of 1908-10, the military coup and the forty-plus years of brutal authoritarian and Catholic dictatorship under Antonio Salazar until 1970 who played a neutral role during the Second World War, keeping Spain at bay, serving as a home for Nazi espionage, and its immigration policies and its often strained relations with Spain and its relationship to its Jewish population and the Inquisition from 1536 to 1821 – but this, as one says, is History. (I am always curious about the histories of those who now claim the moral high ground in any field.)

What I find interesting is that – unless I have missed it somewhere – none of the various States which have announced that they intend to recognise a State of Palestine – or have voted for such in the UN – seem to have defined what sort of State it should be. A Monarchy, like Jordan or Saudi Arabia or Bahrain or Morocco? A dynastic Emirate, like Qatar and Kuwait or a Sultanate or a Sheikhdom like several others along the Persian Gulf? An Islamic Republic, like Iraq or Pakistan or Mauretania or Afghanistan? I have heard no demands – again, it may simply be that I am not adequately informed – that they say ”We shall recognise a Palestinian State so long as it commits itself to early elections, to human rights for all, to freedom of religion, etc.” I did ask one protestor recently what sort of state he envisaged and his answer was ”The Palestinians should decide that.” I wanted to point out that the Palestinians had elected Mr. Abbas in 2005 and the PA in one of their autonomous territories and had elected Hamas in another in 2006…. Who are these ”Palestinians”? What do the Christians think or the Druze or the Beduin?

It is a vital question. In Syria a former Jihadist whose forces recently overthrew a long-standing brutal dictatorial dynasty is now, it seems, attempting to create a pragmatic and more pluralist regime but so far this has involved massacring Alawites and Druze and he faces pressures from Turkey which is intervening on the Islamist side and suppressing the Kurds with the aim, it seems, of restoring the former Ottoman Empire. It is, frankly, a mess.

Lebanon is not much better, a country that gained its independence in 1946 based on a compromise between Moslem and Christian populations whereby power would be shared, which worked after a fashion for some decades then sank into civil war and chaos from 1975 to 1990 (mainly because Jordan expelled the PLO in 1970 and they sought to establish a new base in Lebanon) and only now (with the tacit acknowledgement that Israel had had to intervene against the Moslem paramilitary side already in 1978 and 1982– the last time this happened, in 1982, when Israel reacted to missiles being sent by elements of the Moslem population, the Christians took the opportunity to massacre Moslems at the Sabra and Shatilla camps – this was also, to put it mildly, a mess and Israel eventually withdrew….. but this time Hizbollah has been weakened and technology has changed and Hizbollah has learned that missiles can fly in both directions….and the Government may just be able to seize this chance not to start new massacres but to enforce the old agreements….)

On 6 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, who led the Provisional Government of the Jewish Palestinians (the ”Yishuv”) made an announcement, a Declaration of Independence, in Tel Aviv and from now on the Jewish Palestinians would be known as Israelis. It is worth remembering this oft-forgotten fact. The wars of 1947-48 were not colonialist invasions but a civil war between two groups of inhabitants within one country, whereby one group had agreed – reluctantly – to accept a compromise and a division of the territory and the other group had refused this. The Mandatory Territory known as ‘Palestine’ was to be divided, partitioned by a UN decision of 29 November 1947 into THREE sections – one mainly for Jews, one mainly for Arab Moslems and Christians, and one for the whole world to have access to a neutral zone for their own religious purposes. (People often forget the third section, whereby Jerusalem and Bethlehem would be held as this neutral Zone under UN supervision.) The Trans-Jordanian, Syrian, Egyptian and even Iraqi forces of the time (Iraq had no land border with Palestine) invaded and were largely beaten back and the Rhodes Armistice agreements of 1949 formalised a cease-fire line which only became a ”border” after, in 1967, Israel under threat of invasion crossed it and ended up taking control of sections of land that had become over the previous twenty years sections of Jordan, Syria and Egypt, but populated largely by the former Palestinians who had NOT been absorbed into these countries. But now the myth-making began in earnest and those who had been attacking Israel or two decades with guerilla ”fedayeen” raids suddenly became the ”innocent victims of colonialist Zionist oppression”. Numerous attempts to create some form of pragmatic compromise, granting autonomy without full independence, retaining military control of some strategic points, finding arrangements for water and power supplies and road access, etc., have led to the current uneasy situation.

It should perhaps be added that in all probability, for ninety per cent or so of almost all populations it really doesn’t matter who is in the royal or presidential palace or who is in the next village, so long as the taps work, the rubbish is collected and their children can go safely to school. But unfortunately international politics does not work in this way.

Palestinians did become victims of international politics as played by the leaders of Lebanon, of Syria, of Jordan, of Egypt, of Iran and Libya and Iraq and of the Gulf States. They have indeed suffered economically and physically. Of this there is no question. The question is: How can things be improved? Would an independent ”State of Palestine” automatically make everything better? Who can control it, what checks and balances would there be, who would be responsible (we know the UN would wash its hand of the matter) if a fundamentalist group pushed out the elected government as in Yemen or a militia took over half the country as in Lebanon or Sudan or Eritrea or the whole country as in Syria or overthrew a monarchy as in Iran….. while in the background Turkey and Iran and China and Russia played their long-term strategic aims?

I have one typically-modest suggestion to make almost everyone happy. Israel should declare, as soon as possible (and before anyone else thinks of it) a ”Provisional Government of Free Palestine”. Together with this Declaration (similar to Ben-Gurion’s in 1948) can be coupled an appeal to neighbouring countries for peaceful relations, promises to hold elections, promises to respect the rights of believers in all religions, the human rights of inhabitants of any and all genders and directions, a multi-party system, an independent judiciary and a free press, and approaches to the International Postal authorities and even the UN. The new government of ”The Republic of Free Palestine” will announce that it will gratefully accept all the funds which have been promised by various countries for the rebuilding of the cities in the Gaza Strip and it will invest also in agriculture and water desalination and solar and wind energy generation. In the mountains west of the River Jordan it will establish a regime where Jews may build villages just as Christians and Moslems do and where all will be allowed access to various holy sites. It will establish an educational system where the children are not taught to hate their neighbours, in contrast to the current one (funded by the EU) which teaches them the opposite. The Shekel will be the standard currency.

The UN will be faced suddenly with two competing Palestinian governments but, as we have seen in Yemen or South Sudan this is nothing new. Nobody has actually defined what qualities any new Palestinian government should have, so all those on the streets of Europe or America demanding a ”Free Palestine” will find to their shock that there actually is one. One that even accepts Queers and Christians! That is concerned for the climate! The Israeli troops could be invited by the new government to maintain order and eliminate terrorists or even, by wearing green and red armbands, will now become de facto ”Palestinian security forces” attacking the Hamas. (How will the media handle that?) Israel will not annexe the country but will have ensured a stable and friendly neighbouring country, which is the main thing. There will be borders and joint control of who and what passes over them, joint trading agreements, joint military agreements. Just as the Netherlands handles Foreign Policy and Defence for the semi-autonomous Netherlands Antilles, Israel will assume responsibility – with the consent of the new ”Free Palestine Provisional Government” – for Defence matters.

I suspect, though I am no prophet, that the leaders of several Arab Moslem countries would be quite relieved by this solution, especially if it reduced the number of Palestinians seeking to flee or emigrate to their countries as the political situation stabilises and the economic one improves. There will of course be some who might denounce the new ”Free Palestine” as a ”puppet government” of the Israelis – but since when has that stopped nations accepting puppets of other major powers? For example, in Central Asia? Turkey, which still denies the massacre of the Armenians and which brutally drove out its Greek citizens from Anatolia in 1964 with pogroms and which conquered half of Cyprus in 1974 and is now seeking to take control of parts of Syria, may be a bit annoyed. What Qatar will think, nobody can tell. Mr. Trump will not be in power for ever and neither will Mr. Putin. One has to think strategically here. Saudi Arabia wants access from the south-east to a Mediterranean port just as Jordan wants one from the north-east. Egypt wants less disruption in the Red Sea affecting the Suez Canal. With no ”Palestinian issue” to raise the emotions and less fear of a spread of Iranian or Russian influence, things could calm down.

Much of Politics consists of smoke and mirrors, of name changes, of declaring the former Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany to be a ”Democratic Republic” just as other states call themselves an ”Islamic Republic” whereby Islamic and Republican values have almost no overlap, a Theocracy cannot also be a Democracy. Ben-Gurion’s Declaration had to be followed by a war because the neighbours would not accept the decision and the UN, which had supported the creation of a Jewish Palestine, did nothing to help it survive. (They only get involved when Israel has won.)

All it needs is for a commission to be established, a few local anti-Hamas leaders recruited and, with much behind-the-scenes discussion and a few winks and shoves, the declaration of a Free Palestine. Now. But one that will also be free of the hatreds and errors of the past…….