Today, Israel’s right wing coalition government voted 12 to 7 (with 4 abstentions) for adopting the US-backed ‘roadmap’ for peace, through which the Palestinian people may be “granted” a fragmented state over some parts of 22% of historical Palestine by 2005, with a complete negation of the legitimate Palestinian refugees right of return.

Today, 55 years and 10 days after Al-Nakba, Israel is formally adopting the decision to allow the creation of a quasi Palestinian state within 2 years, at the expense of abolishing the core essence of the Palestinian struggle for justice and liberation; namely a real/complete end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land captured in 1967 and a reversal of the 1948 Zionist genocide against the Palestinians, in which 800,000 people were systematically terrorised, uprooted, and displaced in order to facilitate the creation of the state of Israel.

Meanwhile, Israel’s “generous” decision to accept the ‘roadmap’ is already pre-conditioned by 14 reservations regarding the provisions of the proposed solution. Israel’s acceptance also follows a loudly-declared policy by Sharon earlier this month guaranteeing the continuation of Israel’s illegal Jewish settlement in the Palestinian territories. Any Israeli cessation of settlement activity will be based on what Israel itself deems illegal. This will only incorporate small scale settlement outposts in the West Bank and will certainly exclude the monstrous city-settlements that dissect Palestinian cities, villages and towns, and directly paralyse Palestinian economic and social life.

Ironically, Israel’s narrow acceptance of the ‘roadmap’ is echoing throughout the western world as an unprecedented formal Israeli endorsement of a Palestinian state. The move is conveyed with a sense of optimism, as a momentous step forward that Israel is taking to put an end to the conflict.

There is a striking resemblance between the situation in which we find ourselves today, and the pre-Camp David 2 circumstances, whereby Palestinian-Israeli dialogue was characterised by Israeli conditions, procrastinations, double standards, and a blatant Israeli policy of expansionism alongside the alleged ”territorial concessions.”

Apparently, Israel still lacks the political will to accept a real Palestinian state, with full territorial and sovereign rights. It will only go as far as accepting Palestinian Bantustans governed by the laws of its own apartheid system.