On October 17, 2008, liberal Arab thinker Lafif Lakhdar posted an article on the reformist e-journal www.elaph.com, in which he characterized Hamas as another link in the chain of Palestinian rejectionism, i.e., in their tendency to refuse all suggestions of compromise. This tendency, he said, is rooted in religious extremism and brings disaster upon the Palestinians. Lakhdar called on the Palestinians to take stock of their situation and start making realistic decisions based on pragmatic political considerations.
The Palestinian Leadership Is Not Realistic
"In 1937, the British Peel Commission suggested a partition of Palestine with 80% [of the territory] given to the Palestinians and 20% to the Jews. The [then] leader of Palestine, [Grand] Mufti Hajj Amin Al-Husseini, was quick to reject the proposal on religious grounds. [He argued that] Palestine was a Muslim waqf [i.e., religious endowment] for the Muslims of the world, and it was [therefore] forbidden to hand [even] an inch of it over to the Jews. Conversely, David Ben Gurion, leader of the [Palestine] Jews at the time, gave the following calculated response. The decision, [he said], is not what I hoped for, but I refuse to reject it. The Jewish religious law, just like the Muslim law… forbids to relinquish [even] an inch of the land to infidels. But Ben Gurion, having a modern mentality, considered this [law] obsolete. Read more ...
The Palestinian Leadership Is Not Realistic
"In 1937, the British Peel Commission suggested a partition of Palestine with 80% [of the territory] given to the Palestinians and 20% to the Jews. The [then] leader of Palestine, [Grand] Mufti Hajj Amin Al-Husseini, was quick to reject the proposal on religious grounds. [He argued that] Palestine was a Muslim waqf [i.e., religious endowment] for the Muslims of the world, and it was [therefore] forbidden to hand [even] an inch of it over to the Jews. Conversely, David Ben Gurion, leader of the [Palestine] Jews at the time, gave the following calculated response. The decision, [he said], is not what I hoped for, but I refuse to reject it. The Jewish religious law, just like the Muslim law… forbids to relinquish [even] an inch of the land to infidels. But Ben Gurion, having a modern mentality, considered this [law] obsolete. Read more ...
Source: MEMRI
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