Labour victory will be a big step forward for Palestinians: Writer

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s victory against British Prime Minister Theresa May in the June 8 election will be a big step forward for the people of Palestine, says Stephen Lendman, a journalist and political analyst based in Chicago.

Lendman, an author and radio host, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Wednesday while commenting on the election manifesto of Labour revealed by Corbyn on Tuesday.

The opposition party announced in its manifesto that a Labour government will “immediately recognize” a state of Palestine if the party wins the upcoming election.

The Labour manifesto also called for an end to Israel’s blockade and occupation of Palestine as well as construction of illegal settlements on the occupied Palestinian lands.

“It’s good news to hear that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wishes to recognize Palestine, Palestinian self-determination, if in the upcoming UK election he turns out to be the victor,” Lendman said.

“Corbyn is on the right side of almost all the issues in Britain. The only problem is that he is outweighed and outnumbered and outgunned by the Conservative Party, the Tories, led by Theresa May, certainly by Washington and other EU states,” he stated.

‘Israel never negotiates, it demands’

“One thing I disagree with him on -- maybe he hasn’t been explicit enough in the comments he has made -- is he urges that the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to go on to resolve the long-standing conflict and [make] an effort achieve a conflict resolution which has been illusive for many years,” he said.

“The only problem with that is it will take a lot more than talks, because Israel never negotiates, Israel demands, Washington demands. So he will take international pressure for what Corbyn says he supports and I believe him. He’ll take real international pressure for anything to happen, to get Israel to yield enough so that the conflict resolution is possible, so that the Palestinian self-determination can follow an independent state within pre-June 1967 borders,” the analyst stated.  

“Although at this stage because of the expansion of Israeli settlements covering something like 60 percent of the West Bank, a good part of east Jerusalem [al-Quds], it seems in my opinion, and if I were on a program with Jeremy Corbyn I would say this to him: It seems to me the only solution now is one state for all its people,” he said.

‘Palestinians deserve liberation from Israel’

“The idea that the state should be a Jewish state discriminating against its non-Jewish population, well you could call that a police-state, you could call it a tyranny, you could call it despotism, and that’s the way Israel is today,” Lendman argued.

“Now if there was one state for all of its people, there would be no guarantee that the Palestinians would have equal rights, almost in certain they would not.  But it would be a lot better than the way things are today under oppressive occupation, no signs of it ending, settlements construction continuing, Palestinian land continuing to be stolen, and the world community, the Western community I should say, on the side of Israel and most Middle East states maybe passively supporting Israel,” he noted.  

“The long struggle for Palestinians to retain the liberation they deserve,” he emphasized.

“Corbyn is on the right side of this. He is way behind in the polls. I hope there will be a wonderful surprise in the UK election and he will defeat Theresa May. It will be a big step forward for the Palestinians,” the writer concluded. 

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