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DAOUD KUTTAB:
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The War for a Palestinian Land
 I had many thoughts when I was asked to come up with a name for the latest chapter in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I wanted to call it the wasted time, or two lost years, or the conflict of the extremists. I even thought: the saga of two peoples, the crazy war, the unnecessary conflict, the war for the settlements.
But when I tried to analyze the various images and symbols of this struggle it became clear that the root cause of this conflict is land, and specifically Palestinian lands.
Sure, Israeli propagandists are spinning the case that because Palestinians are attacking Israelis inside the Green Line then somehow these Palestinians are calling into question Israelšs rights within internationally recognized borders of 1967.
It is sovereignty over the entire West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza that is the issue of contention here. Had Israel not violated the fourth Geneva Convention and moved its citizens to the occupied Palestinian territories, it would have easily closed its borders and saved the lives of those living within the recognized borders of the state of Israel.
It is the lust for Palestinian lands, therefore, that has made it difficult for the Israelis to be able to accept clearly and unequivocally Palestinians š rights to create their independent state on these lands alongside the state of Israel.
Daoud Kuttab is a prominent Palestinian journalist.
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