Hi Ifor

Re your comment: The manifesto also promotes a two state solution for the people of Palestine which effectively means the formalising of a sectarian bantustan for the Palestinians on one side and fortress Israel with one of the most powerful armies in the world expanding into the West Bank, building its apartheid wall and further oppressing   palestinians on the other."

The relevant part of the Manifesto here is:

"We reject the double standards with which much self-proclaimed progressive opinion now operates, finding lesser (though all too real) violations of human rights which are closer to home, or are the responsibility of certain disfavoured governments, more deplorable than other violations that are flagrantly worse."

One of the problems with this manifesto is seeking to establish moral superiority (ie in that comment "more deplorable than other violations that are flagrantly worse.") And that is one of the problems that prevent conciliation between warring peoples. There is no moral superiority between nations committing atrocities on both sides.

The view that the Palestinian people were unjustly displaced by the Jewish invasion of Palestine in 1917 has been stated in the 1966 Palestinian Covenant.

It is worth noting that in modern times Jews have always exceeded Arabs in Jerusalem. Census data shows that in 1844 there were 7,000 Jews to 5,000 Moslems; in 1910, 47,000 Jews to 9,800 Moslems; in 1931, 51,222 Jews to 19,894 Moslems; in 1948, 100,000 Jews to 40,000 Moslems, and in 1967 200,000 Jews to 54,902 Moslems.

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leaders have frankly disavowed distinct Palestine identity. On March 3, 1977, for example, the head of the PLO Military Operations Department, Zuhair Muhsin, told the Netherlands paper Trouw that there are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese:

"We are one people. Only for political reasons do we carefully underline our Palestinian identity. For it is of national interest for the Arabs to encourage the existence of the Palestinians against Zionism. Yes, the existence of a separate Palestine identity is there only for tactical reasons. The establishment of a Palestinian State is a new expedient to continue the fight against Zionism and
for Arab unity."… International Law and the Arab Israel Conflict

The problem can't be resolved if both parties historical claims to territory aren't recognised, and if both parties'culpability for atrocities aren't recognised.

freda