It may be politically correct to conceive of the Palestinian conflict as an Arab-Israel conflict. Muslims are not ignorant of this, but Palestine evokes emotions and sentiments of Muslims as Muslims. This sentiment has sharpened after Sept 11 and the war against terrorism (at large).

Historical sources may date the conflict to the 1917 Balfour Declaration. The Declaration is actually a letter by Arthur James Balfour, then the British Foreign Secretary to Lord Rothschild. The letter, aimed at Jewish support of the Allies in the First World War, proposed the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Muslim sentiment would predate the conflict to the parcelling of the Ottoman Empire (the leading Muslim state since the 14th century), among mainly European powers before and at the end of the World War I as protectorates, mandated and trust territories. It was the beginning of the end of the Muslim Empire.

Jews and Christians were the bigger minority communities in the Ottomon lands. Traditionally, non-Muslims in the territory of Islam (dar al-Islam) are 'protected people', collectively called Dhimmis.

In the 19th century, the legal disabilities of the protected person were gradually removed beginning with the era of reform or Tanzimat. This came with the proclamation on Nov 3, 1839 of the Imperial Edict of the Rose Chamber (Hatti-Sherif). This decree was designed to establish equality before the law of all Ottomon subjects.

These rights were confirmed at the end of the Crimean War (1853-1856) by the Imperial Rescript (Hatti Humayun) of 1856: "The guarantees promised on our part by the Imperial Edict of the Rose Chamber and by the laws of the Tanzimat to all our subjects without distinction of classes or religion, for the security of their persons and property, and the preservation of their honour, are recalled and once more confirmed; efficacious measures shall be taken in order that they may have their full and entire effect."

New principle

A new principle had emerged with the Tanzimat, that of a national identity, replacing religious identity. A national identity is intended to supersede the lingering traditional inhibitions of the protected person as a full citizen of the state.

The control of Palestine changed hands from Damascus (661AD) to Baghdad (750 AD), to Cairo (1099 AD), to Istanbul (1516 AD), and to Cairo again (1916AD) before the 1917 Balfour Declaration. The Arabs rejected the Balfour Declaration in 1919.

British forces under General Allenby occupied Palestine (1918) during World War I and in July 1922 the League of Nations (the forerunner of the UN) placed Palestine under British Mandate. The census carried out in that year recorded 78 percent Muslim Arabs, 9.6 percent Christian Arabs and 11 percent Jews (Arab and non-Arab). The Jewish population was augmented by two main waves of migration from Eastern Europe between 1878-1903 and 1904-1914 before the 1922 census.

Majid Khadduri notes that European powers claimed the right of protection over religious minorities in the Ottomon Empire but "in reality they sought toassert their foreign capitulatory rights." The establishment of Israel as a sovereign state is problematic to the Arabs who are resolving the issue of religious minorities in their domain under the emerging notion of nationalism. The state of Israel was formed (1948) without Arab consent as both Jews and Arabs put forth competing national claims (The Islamic conception of justice, 1984).

Stumbling block

Locating Zionism as a form of racism is the major stumbling block to this year's UN World Conference against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other related intolerances (WCAR).

The Cairo NGO Declaration of groups meeting under the banner of "Together against the last Apartheid regimes", identifies the discrimination against Arab Palestinians and non-Jews in Palestine as policies of apartheid similar to that of South Africa before independence in 1994.

The General Assembly of the UN in Nov 1975 passed Resolution 3379 (G.A.Res.3379) condemning Zionism as racism and racial discrimination. The resolution confirms its earlier resolution (3151 of 1973) which condemns the unholy alliance between South African racism (apartheid) and Zionism. It also condemns Zionism as a threat to world peace and security and calls upon all countries to oppose Zionism as a racist and imperialist ideology.

In an unprecedented move, G.A.Res.3379 was rescinded in 1991 under pressure from the US government under the presidency of George Bush (Sr). Washington takes for granted that the charge that Zionism is racism is absurd and the only issue is the invidious motive of the sponsors and those who supported it. There was scant attempt to evaluate the content of the resolution.

Racist policies

The racist policies of Zionist Israel are similar to Apartheid South Africa. There were 1.6 million disenfranchised Arab Palestinians (Muslims and Christians) in the Occupied Territories between 1967-1995, which Israel annexed in the 1967 war. By law, Arabs had separate schools, mass media, departments in government offices and residential areas.

There are three fundamental parent laws which promote apartheid in Israel. Under the 1950 Law of Return, all Jews had the inalienable right to immigrate to Israel. Arab (non-Jew) immigration was prohibited (consequently Arab Palestinians refugees/in exile had no right of return). The 1952 Law of Nationality gave persons of Jewish nationality in the 1950 Law of Return the right to claim Israeli nationality by return automatically. The 1952 World Zionist Organisation/Jewish Agency (Status) Law imposed legal, economic, political and social discrimination against Arab non-Jew by delegating a wide range of national services to Zionist institutions which were exclusively for Jews only.

There are consequent laws allowing the confiscation of properties of absent Palestinians. Pillaged properties are considered state properties and jointly owned by the 'Jewish People'. Under these laws 93 percent of Arab-owned lands inside Israel were appropriated by the state. Roads in the Occupied Territories may be restricted to Jewish 'settlers' and Israel armed forces. Water including groundwater in the Occupied Territories is controlled by Israel.

Peace settlement

The onslaught against the Palestinian people was intensified with the Second Intifada (uprising) in Sept 28, 2000.

We have not seen the final UN document to the WCAR which ended in early September 2001. The last date was extended from Sept 7 and negotiations in Durban, South Africa ended only on Sept 8, 2001.

The Cairo NGO Declaration to WCAR specifically requested three things for Palestine in a peace settlement to the conflict: safeguarding the Palestinian's people's right to self-determination and to the establishment of its independent state on its national soil; full and unconditional Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Palestinian territories in 1967 including Jerusalem and removing colonist settlements inside these territories; and the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland and original houses as per resolution 194.

The UN has certainly not played a very assertive role in the Palestine question post the League of Nations' approval of the British Mandate over Palestine. It would take more than the Nobel Peace Prize to move the cause for the Palestinian struggle.