What was this project? During this project in humanities, we learned about the United Nations, which makes most big decisions around the world. Each student was given a country. I was Pakistan. We first learned about the North Korean Nuclear Weapon conflict, and then the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. This project had a big impact on everything that I knew about the world and gave me a lot of perspective. RESOLVING THE PALESTINIAN/ISRAELI CONFLICT (Resolution)
The General Assembly and Security Council,
Pakistan (Dana Stahl)
Considering that past solutions made by the UN and Israel have failed to made a difference in the issue of Palestinians not having a specific home,
Keeping in mind that Israel has offered over 80% of its land to Palestinians for the Right of Return only to be turned down by Palestinian officials,
Recognizing that numerous resolutions have been passed trying to make a change in this conflict and have not shown to be successful, with over 131 resolutions that haven’t changed anything major considering the two peoples, “I think those who believe that two years ago, or three years ago, there was some swift resolution to this thing had we acted more forcefully, fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the conflict in Syria and the conditions on the ground there.” (Obama, Barack),
Seeking that an extremely successful and promising solution be created in to be certain that both peoples have a permanent home and homeland,
Deeply convinced that the United Nations needs to do something that will insure that both peoples are allowed to obtain the certain areas of the West Bank and other settlements like it that they wish and need to,
Emphasizing that the two nations living among each other for the past 60 decades has been very laborious with nothing but bad results including beatings, homicide, etc…,
1. Calls upon the United Nations to take action in a plan to create peace, involving a two state solution and numerous peace treaties;
2. Authorizes that the areas in which Israel requests be reserved, with the remaining going to Palestinians, securing a peaceful and successful two state solution;
3. Accepts this plan to be very time consuming with exceeding efforts toward keeping a healthy and kind state of mind considering the two peoples of Israel and of Refugee Camps;
4. Takes note of how Israel has offered up to 80% of the desired land to Palestinians from refugee camps and have only been denied multiple times;
5. Urges the United Nations to resolve which areas of land Palestinians would request to obtain and the same for all Israelis, decide on a good compromise to ensure that both parties have enough room for the whole population which desires to live there, and ensure peace in any way needed;
6. Encourages the UN to pass additional sanctions to Israel, Palestine, and the countries in which have refugee camps including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, etc...if this resolution shall fail to succeed;
7. Further proclaims that the two state solution be attempted by allies of the two peoples,
a.) Allies of Palestinians negotiate an area in which would be suitable for them in which to live
(Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, etc…)
b.) Allies of Israel negotiate an area in which would be suitable for them in which to live
(United States of America, India, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Germany, etc…)
8. Strongly supports that both Israel and Palestine be independant regarding the future of this area of land, including all housing developments in the West Bank will go to whoever occupies more of the territory, and the Gaza Strip shall be divided up the same leaving the amount of land that Palestinians need;
9. Further requests that the United Nations take a further step in advance involving this conflict;
10. Solemnly affirms that the allies of Israel and Palestine have 60 days after this resolution is passed to know which areas will be divided up for both peoples and to indicate a plan of reassignments for living for both the Palestinians and Israelis living in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and Refugee camps.
Palestinian Right of Return Policy Paper
Pakistan and Palestine have always remained close allies, however Pakistan's relations with Israel have never been considered to be even close to friendly and that is why the Palestine /Israel issue definitely has Pakistanis voting for the Right of Return. Ever since Israel established a community in 1948, being of muslim faith, Pakistan never created diplomatic or economic relations with Israel. A possible solution that Pakistan supports, would be to create two separate states, one Israeli and one Palestinian state. Pakistan doesn't want to be a part of Israel, by creating two separate states, Pakistan and Israel wouldn't have to have any negotiations. “While appreciating the leadership role played by his Palestinian counterpart in his struggle for freedom for the last 60 years, Zardari said that Pakistan greatly admired and deeply respected his dedication to the cause of the Palestinian people and expressed his confidence that under his leadership, the people of Palestine would bravely confront the challenges faced by them today.” (Dawn.com, author not given) Zardari happens to be the president of Pakistan and he isn’t afraid to voice how they feel about this situation.
Clearly, a peaceful resolution is hard to find, considering that Israel has offered over 80% of the land to Palestinians and they still won’t accept. An action plan for this problem is to ask for the exact areas that Palestine would like to occupy and still leave some for Israelis. From Pakistan's perspective, this would be a brilliant solution, considering their relationships with the two states. As of now, Pakistan is having to communicate through Israel, if they want to trade with Palestinians. This solution wouldn’t just make it easier for Pakistanis and their trade relationships, but also for Palestinians and Israelis. Life has been especially hard for the Palestinian Refugees living among Israelis. The story of Rafat, is a sad example of this. He is a Palestinian Refugee who has been beaten numerous times by Israeli soldiers for reasons that are unknown. “When I started talking to him, a soldier slammed me, causing the phone to fall from my hand. When I tried to pick it up, many soldiers started beating me and ordered me to get inside their armed vehicle. At that point I refused to do so because I was afraid of them taking me to a rural area and killing me or at least breaking my bones (since it happens many times with other people) They kept beating me over and over until I lost consciousness and I woke up in the hospital. I experienced many examples of suffering on almost a daily basis and what I mentioned here is just a briefing of a number of examples.” “The Story of Rafat, a Palestinian from a refugee camp in Occupied Palestine” (Refugees.resist.ca, page 4). With two separate states, going through checkpoints, like the ones Rafat was beaten at, wouldn’t be such a big problem. Having two different states would mean that the Palestinians and Israelis wouldn’t have to interact as often as they are forced to, now that some are living among each other. Pakistan would be overjoyed and their trading relationships and overall diplomatic relations with Palestine would rapidly improve, and maybe even with Israel. With this solution, the two kinds of people would be able to hopefully live in peace and harmony with each other and build important diplomatic and economic relations.
Project Reflection:
1. Although I felt as though I didn’t need to know about any of the conflict issues that came a long with this project at first, learning about them gave me a better understanding on what is going on throughout the world. For me, this project taught me about many different kinds of people, and their views for many conflicts. I feel as though this project was important because it gave me a different perspective on each conflict. Even though I was forced to have a certain view, as I was Pakistan, this really gave me a lot of perspective.
2. Again, I would have to say that perspective is what I used most during this project. But this project also had me advocating for myself and my different opinions. During my speech I had to advocate for a certain resolution and state why it should be chosen. Advocacy is very important at Animas, and this project showed me more in depth, the best and most effective ways to do so.
3. The greatest challenge I faced during this project was in the beginning of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict research. I didn’t understand at first why we were starting a new conflict (since we just finished researching the North Korean Nuclear Weapon Conflict). But after I started the research, I began really interested in all of this with the Palestinians, because I had never even heard of them or their story. I was able to see a bias in each research document that had chosen a side. Another challenge that I had during this project, was finding documents that didn’t choose sides. It is hard to understand what actually happened with that sort of research.
4. The most interesting speech, to me during the exhibition, was TJ’s. He was Israel, so he played a big part in this whole project. His views were different than most. In the end he didn’t vote for any of the resolutions. Being Israel you probably don’t want to change anything. To me, his point of view was very interesting and important.