It’s confusing why Mondoweiss editor Philip Weiss would post “Bernie Sanders links Hitler’s murder of his family to his fight against occupation of Palestinians”, a tribute to Bernie Sanders for supporting the bantustate solution for Palestinians. It’s confusing because Mondoweiss has long posted countless articles by many writers elaborating what a stinking fraud the two-state solution has always been, including a not very impressive 2012 debate between himself & Norman Finkelstein who supports the bantustate solution. Sanders, in his born-again concern for the Palestinian people, has the same position as Finkelstein & Chomsky, not only in supporting Israel’s right to a Jewish-only state but in supporting bantustates for Palestinians. The three of them follow the logic of supporting bantustates for Palestinians by aggressively opposing BDS & the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Actually, a bantustate solution, beside being completely unsustainable, would preclude the possibility that millions of Palestinian refugees could return to their homeland. The right of return, held sacred by Palestinians, is a central demand of the Great Return Marches. It is a right for which hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed & thousands injured, including with amputations & other disabilities.
If Sanders were truly committed to Palestinian justice, he would support the right of return for Palestinian refugees. He would end his opposition to BDS & start campaigning against the attempts to outlaw BDS that now prevail in several US states. Sanders should not be allowed to play both sides of the street & get called a champion of the Palestinians. Neither should Philip Weiss be allowed to water down self-determination for Palestinians because of his commitment to ‘lesser evil’ in US politics.
This 2014 photo of Palestinian children on the Jerusalem side of the apartheid wall near the village of Abu Dis is from a March 6, 2019 Mondoweiss article by Helena Cobban titled “The two-state solution is dead. Let’s start planning for the one state.”
(Photo by Saeed Qaq/APA Images)