The frequently asked question - why there is no state for the Palestinian people? - had its answer back in 1947. As a matter of fact there was a Palestinian State according to the UN Partition Plan of that year. The newly born United Nations inherited British Mandated Territory of Palestine with an estimated mixed population of two million.

The Special UN Commission recommended for the creation of two separate States: [1] A Jewish State which would include 52 per cent of the land with population 4, 98,000 Jews and 4, 97,000 Arabs. [2] An Arab State which would include the remaining 48 per cent of the land with 7, 25,000 Arabs and 10,000 Jews. [3] Jerusalem and the area surrounding it would become an International Zone. Britain and the US threw full weight behind the Partition Plan. The UN Resolution 181 was passed with overwhelming majority vote in the General Assembly on 29 November 1947 because of the Anglo-US heavyweight prodding. Israel was born under cover of the United Nations.

The Jewish dream of a homeland for a thousand years was fulfilled in the Partition Plan. In a pre-mediated manner Britain ended her Mandate on Palestine on 14 May 1948. Few hours after the same day Jewish icon Dr Carl Weizmann, himself a Russian Jew, raised the flag of David and proclaimed the State of Israel.

Jewish in Diaspora began to flow into Israel to consolidate their first independent state at the heart of historic Palestinian land. Jewish terrorist organisations Irgun and Haganah let loose indiscriminate massacre on the Arabs to leave the Jewish areas which they would like to take over for strategic or demographic reasons. The terrorists aimed at making Israel as much free of Arabs as possible. The Irgun butchery was the beginning to send the settled people of Palestine into refugee camps, which eventually dotted the West Bank and spilled into neighbouring Arab countries.

Israeli state squarely fulfilled British machination to avoid influx of Jewish immigrants into UK from Europe and USSR as well as to protect her interest in the Middle East including the strategic Suez Canal by proxy. For the US President Truman was candid in admitting, "I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism, I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents."

Quite oblivious of sea change in the international scene in the wake of the Second World War, Arab leaders thought the UN Plan was Anglo-US betrayal of their cause and interest. They rejected the two-state solution outright and opted to liberate the territory through armed struggle. Better organised, imbued with spirit of new statehood and backed with Western arms and support the Jewish state humbled the numerically majority Arabs and captured 77 per cent of the territory including West Jerusalem at the ceasefire in January 1949.

Through turn of events in the Middle East came 1967 when the Six Day War in June enabled Israel to occupy West Bank including the holy places in East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, Sinai Desert and Syrian Golan Heights. Suez Canal fell under the guns of the Jewish State. Arabs lost the 48 per cent of the land that was to become the Palestinian State in 1948.

The Security Council in its Resolution 242 of 22 November 1967 called on Israel to withdraw from territories occupied in the Six-Day War. Tel Aviv refused compliance and instead went in full swing to build settlements for the Jews who were flocking into Israel from all corners of the world. Much of the fund came from the United States and the prosperous Jewish community aboard. In 1970 Nasser, who had led Arabs for so long, died a broken man leaving the Middle East at the mercy of Israel. His successor Anwar Sadat, though no match to his charisma and popularity, in a surprise attack on 6 October 1973 led the Egyptian army to cross the Suez Canal and reached Bar Lev line deep into Sinai Desert. Although the regrouped Israeli Army encircled part of the Egyptian army, yet it had the capability to penetrate further into striking distance of mainland Israel.

The Jewish State's principal backer imposed ceasefire on 24 October. War had two lessons - for Israel that it was no longer invincible, and for Egypt the psychological euphoria of initial victory and realisation that the power behind the enemy was too formidable for any further adventure. Egypt opted for negotiation. Sadat went to Jerusalem in 1977. Egypt signed the Peace Treaty with Israel, Jimmy Carter witnessing at the Camp David accord in 1979. Anwar Sadat regained the territory, Nasser lost in war. With Egypt gone the other way there was no credible Arab force which could take on Israel.

President Yasser Arafat and several of his confidants became ready to settle for a Palestinian State on 22 per cent of land consisting of West Bank, Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as capital and just compensation to the Palestinians who were displaced in 1948. Israeli Labour Party continued to profess extreme scepticism to the proposition and was very reluctant to enter into meaningful negotiation.

Ultra rightist Likud which ruled Tel Aviv most of the years, maintained that PLO members are unreformed terrorists hell-bent on Israel's destruction. To Likuds the Holy City 'could never be subject to international negotiation, not to speak of partition.' They held the border of Israel from Golan in the north to Eliat in the south, in Judea and Samaria, that is, West Bank and Gaza in the east and the Mediterranean in the west. Once this is achieved Palestinians would be driven out by force to other Arab countries or compensated out of Israeli territory.

In his article "Zionism - more than traditional colonialism and apartheid" Lasse Wilhelmson observes that the Jewish colonisation of Palestine under the Zionist slogan "the land without people to the people without a land" started almost a hundred years ago and reached its first climax with the proclamation of The Jewish State of Israel in 1948. A second climax is now in the offing through the ongoing colonisation of the West Bank and Gaza.

A Jewish state needs a substantial majority of Jews in the population. This has been insured by means of immigration, terror and expulsion of the native Palestine population. Jewish hegemony in Israel today is secured through a system of apartheid inherent in all aspects of Society, be it law, administration or religion. Israel lacks a constitution and fixed boarders, which is fully consistent with Zionism's call for continual expansion.

Israel is not a democracy for Jews. There is a law in Israel, passed in 1985, which forbids political parties to openly oppose the principle of a Jewish state. Neither are they allowed to work for a change of this principle through democratic means. A party so doing will be banned from elections to the Knesset. Democracy is thus denied to those citizens - even Jews - who wish to work within the parliamentary system towards replacing the Jewish state with a secular state which represents all its citizens' equal rights regardless of religion or ethnic origin. This law alone prevents Israel from being seen as a liberal democracy of Western type.

All Jews living outside Israel are entitled by law to immigrate and become citizens immediately, while the Palestinian refugees who were expelled from their homes are prohibited from returning. This is a violation of international law. Israel is the only country in the world that defines its land as belonging to just one group of its citizens, namely Jews. This law works as a fundamental national apartheid law and turns all Jews into potential enemies of the Palestinians.

The use of terrorism by the Zionists, is not a reactionary policy, nor is it used casually, rather it is an integral element of the Zionist State. This is the view of Dr. M. N. Al-Khawaldeh as expressed in his areticle "Terrorism is the core of Zionism." The State sees it as being essential to develop and preserve this element of terrorism. The strong relationship between Zionism and terrorism could be linked to the imperialist nature of both the ideological and political parties, which supported the Zionist movement.

With a view to establishing a Jewish State, it was basic to carry out a policy of constant persecution and terrorism against the natives of land, the Palestinians. It was impossible for the Zionists to achieve their goals without carrying out a policy of racial discrimination against the Arabs. Thus, with regards to this policy at least, it became irrelevant who the political allies of the State were, as this policy was deemed essential to the existence of the State and was not a negotiable aspect of any alliance. The racist nature of Zionism, is an innate characteristic of this political movement, whose basis is the belief that the Jews are "God's chosen people."

Against Likud's extreme policy, Labour for demographic reasons, favours an Autonomous Palestinian entity but is in the same boat with its rivals that a full independent mini-state side by side Israel under a radical hand in future would turn into Arab revanchism against the Jewish State. What then is in store for the Palestinians in occupied land and in Diaspora for 55 years? Bush, Blair and Sharon found Arafat an obstacle to Palestinian statehood. Israeli state terrorism was let loose on the Palestinians in refugee camps, at homes and streets. Desperate youths sporadically resorted to retaliate by turning their bodies into weapons. Arafat was held responsible for spontaneous resistance. Sharon threatened to kill the undisputed leader. Arafat foiled their attempt to send him to exile; instead he went to the Realm of the Lord. There is no reason now to hold back the statehood.

Malay Federation forced independence on the Singaporean mini state for reasons of ethnicity, religion, language and culture, economy and political considerations. Had the two been one state, ethnic Chinese would ultimately have swamped Malay population, causing both to turning against each other. Separately, both prospered. Bush-Blair-Sharon, if sincere and wise, will find in a Palestinian state the answer from the example of Singapore.