There is a solution here, and not only on the issue of Al-Aqsa and the metal detectors, which if reached with the Waqf and Jordanian authorities could calm things down very quickly. But that is only the beginning.The Israeli Right continues to make the argument that the occupation is something we can live with. (A situation in which two peoples share this land but one of them is superior and enjoys sovereignty and full civil and human rights, and the other is eternally subjugated and without full rights.) That is not a possibility.We cannot keep nearly two million people in Gaza under siege without water, electricity, or a functioning health system. We cannot keep more than two million people in the West Bank locked behind concrete walls and hi-tech fences while Israel continues to control every aspect of their daily lives — arresting elected officials and activists, deciding who can leave the country, which goods can be imported and exported, who can travel to work or to the hospital within the West Bank, which plots of land can be seized for settlement construction, and more.We cannot continue to insist on a united Jerusalem, which is actually divided between Jewish “citizens” and Palestinian “residents” (a status that can be revoked at any time), between those for whom authorities build homes and invest in education and infrastructure and social services, and those sentenced to poverty. We cannot allow a future in which discrimination between Jews and Arabs is an unquestioned characteristic of our country.None of that is sustainable. Or, to be more precise, we can’t expect a pastoral, quiet and peaceful future while those oppressive and discriminatory systems remain in place. We learn that painful lesson again and again, and yet — we refuse to learn it at all. There is another way. We can instead end the occupation and walk down a path of peace and full equality. Without that, our lives will be filled with the endless repetition akin to the terrifying reality of the past few days. Any discussion of the events of the past week that doesn’t address the broader context is disconnected from reality.
Source: Inoreader – Six things that must be said about the violence in Jerusalem and West Bank
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