Yousef Jabareen shared his unique perspective of the Middle East conflict as a Palestinian living in Israel in a lecture April 22 at Tusculum College.

"I am a Palestinian who lives in Israel. We are a group that is not well known internationally or among the American people," he told the students, faculty members, and interested community members in attendance at the lecture, which was sponsored by the Andrew Johnson Society, the student social sciences organization at Tusculum, Campus Life, and Arts Outreach.

Jabareen, a civil rights attorney who is currently studying for a doctoral degree at Georgetown University, said there are about a million Palestinians living in Israel, making up about 26 percent of that nation's total population. However, he said, the Palestinians inside Israel are treated as "second class citizens and face discrimination" in that nation.

"A major part of my study at Georgetown is a comparative study of the experience of the African-Americans in the U.S. and the Palestinians in Israel," he continued. "I have come to the conclusion that Palestinians are living in Israel now as the African-Americans lived here in the 1950s and '60s before the civil rights advances."

Palestinians are not significantly represented in the government of Israel and also lack significant representation in the economic, cultural and other powerful institutions of that nation, Jabareen said.

His family and other Palestinians who are Israelis became citizens of Israel when it became a nation in 1948, Jabareen explained.

Current Conflict

The current conflict in the West Bank between the Palestinians and Israelis has its basis in two of the long-standing issues between the two sides - the creation of an independent Palestinian state, which would include the withdrawal of Israel from occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza and the dismantling of Jewish settlements in those two areas, Jabareen said.

The first step toward creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza had been taken following a peace agreement signed in 1993 by Israel and the Palestinians. That step was the withdrawal of Israel from the major Palestinian cities in the West Bank. These cities are not geographically connected, Jabareen noted, and Palestinians have to have permission from the Israeli army to travel between them. However, political changes within the Israeli government have meant no further steps have been taken, Jabareen said.

"For Palestinians, the proposal for an independent state is a compromise," he said. "In view of the history of Palestine, the independent state in the West Bank and Gaza would be 22 percent of the size of Palestine before the creation of Israel. That is the maximum compromise the Palestinians are willing to make. They are willing to negotiate about the refugees, but not the West Bank and Gaza."

However, Jabareen continued, the current Israeli government it is not ready to give up the Jewish settlements, particularly in the West Bank. After the war of 1967, Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza. It provided economic incentives for Jewish citizens to move to settlements in these areas. The West Bank has been kept under military occupation by Israel, which decided to not annex it into the country. If the West Bank was annexed, the addition of the Palestinians living there would result in Israel no longer being a predominantly Jewish nation, Jabareen explained. Inside the West Bank and Gaza, there are 300,000 Jewish settlers and about 3 million Palestinians, he said.

Security concern

The primary concern of most Israelis is security for the nation of Israel, Jabareen said. The right-wing party now in power in Israel sees the occupation of the West Bank as a way to provide that security, he added.

That party is backed by the settlers in the West Bank, Jabareen said, and the Jewish religious right who believe that Israel should control the area because it is part of the Biblical "Promised Land" that God gave the Jewish people.

However, occupying the West Bank is problematic for Israel, Jabareen continued. The recent withdrawal of Israeli forces from West Bank cities could be foreseen because Israel does not have enough military resources for a full occupation of the West Bank while protecting its other borders, he said.

"There is no military solution for this problem," Jabareen continued. "Obeying international law and even moral arguments support Palestine having an independent state."

It would be in Israel's long-term interests of security to accept the Palestinian state because of the proposal made recently at the summit of the Arab nations, he said. That proposal calls for the creation of the Palestinian independent state and, in turn, the Arab nations would recognize the sovereignty of Israel's 1948 borders, the first time the Arabic nations have officially recognized Israel as a nation, Jabareen said.

"The ultimate security for Israel would be long-term peace with the Arab world," he said.

International pressure needed

The creation of the Palestinian state and the withdrawal of Israel from the West Bank have been supported by the international community, the United Nations and the United States, he said.

However, he continued, it will take the international community enforcing this solution on the current Israeli government for it to be implemented.

"The question is whether the U.S. administration would be willing to go that far," he said. "The Israeli lobby in Congress is powerful. It would be difficult to see the White House doing it because of the Israeli lobby."

However, Jabareen said, he is hopeful that after what has happened in the West Bank, there will be strong pressure from the U.S. and the international community for Israeli withdrawal.

"If the U.S. was very clear to Israel with a message that 'enough is enough' and be serious, there would be enough of a majority of the Israeli people . . . to elect someone with whom the Palestinians could negotiate," he said.

The United States has the power to pressure Israel since a third of the foreign aid the U.S. provides to other countries goes to Israel, Jabareen added.

Asked about political groups within the Palestinians, Jabareen said, that Yasser Arafat is the elected representative of the Palestinian people, and the main opposition to Arafat's PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) is the Hamas Islamic militant group.

Some have warned that as Israel fights against the PLO, it could end up with a more extreme group in power instead, he said. When people suffer, extremist political groups can become an outlet for frustration, and as a result, become a powerful force, Jabareen added.

Desperation among the Palestinians in not being able to see an end to the current situation is one of the root causes of the suicide bombings, he said.