This September, the opening sessions of the United Nations in New York
are to host “Durban 3” and a Palestinian bid for statehood.
The United Nations seems to have forgotten that,
it voted on November 29, 1947 to partition the British Mandate of Palestine
into two states, one Jewish and one Arab.
Jewish people rolled up their sleeves, collected funds to buy land and built the land.
The Arab nations rejected the partition plan and attacked the new state of Israel.
In May 1948 the Jordanian legion captured and occupied Jerusalem,
the land to the east toward the Jordanian border became known as the West Bank.
Most of the land in the West Bank is hilly, rocky and until after 1967 was empty.
In 1964 when the Palestine Liberation Organization was founded,
there were no Jews allowed
to live in “East” Jerusalem,
which includes areas to the north, south and west of Jerusalem.
Mamilla was a no man’s land, needed to protect Israel from Jordanian snipers.
Today Mamilla is a shopping mall,
busy day and night
offering employment to many.
Under Jordanian occupation in 1948, all the Old City’s synagogues were destroyed
and all Jews were forced to flee their homes in the Jewish Quarter.
The recently restored Hurva Synagogue is no longer a hurva, a ruin,
and stands in the center of the re-established ancient Jewish neighborhood.
The Kotel, the Western Wall Plaza is now open to everyone.
Arab families make use of the new light rail, when trains are working,
or ride the bus which is usually faster.
An Arab woman can walk alone unafraid in the center of Jerusalem.
Young Arab women sit and eat in the center of a main street crowd.
While the Palestinian Authority prepares to go to the UN for a state
which insists that it will not allow Jews and homosexuals,
Arabs live and work freely in Israeli Jerusalem.
At this new UN conference on racism,
will Israel once again be singled out as a racist state ?
Does the UN care at all about the truth?
