November 15 – Palestine's “National Day”

nPostednNovember 15, 2013

Howncan you have a national day when you don’t have a nation?

nOnenof the sad things about the world is that there are times when itndoesn’t seem that there is a really good win-win solution to anproblem. When the nation of Israel was created in 1947, there werensome very good motivations for creating a Jewish-majority country.nUnfortunately, the United Nation’s plan for Israel affected thenthen-British-ruled Palestine. This region had a lot of Jewish peoplenagitating for independence from Britain and self-rule, and it alsonhad a lot of Arabs (who practiced Islam) agitating for independencenfrom Britain and self-rule. When the U.N. pretty much handed thencontested area over to the Jews, a lot of Arabs were angry.

nTherenwas violence. Wars, civil wars, bombings, terrorism, attacks,ncounter-attacks, threats. All of it horrifying. However, even thenbest ideas for peace are compromises that will likely leave allnparties unhappy.

nAtnany rate, even though there isn’t a “State of Palestine” on thenmap, such a nation was declared by the Palestine LiberationnOrganization on this date in 1988. Last year the United Nationsngranted Palestine observer status—as a “non-state entity,”nwhich means that delegates from Palestine can now speak in the U.N.’snGeneral Assembly, but they cannot vote. n

nWhenndoing the research for this post, I found Palestine’s “Official Tourism Website.” It is billed at the place where “West meets East, North meetsnSouth, and where Judaism, Christianity, and Islam took form.”