by Leon Duveen
Why do the Lib Dems need another group focusing on the conflict between Palestinians & Israelis? Haven’t we already got Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine (LDFP) and Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel (LDFI)? What difference will a new group make?
All good questions and they deserve an answer.
The difference between both LDFP & LDFI and Liberal Democrat for Peace in the Middle East (LDfPME) is that our focus is on helping both sides achieve a just resolution to the decades old conflict that has blighted the sliver of land between the (Jordan) River and the (Mediterranean) Sea.
We are not pro one side or anti the other. We recognise both sides have a just claim to the land between the River & the Sea, both sides have suffered historical persecution and both sides have also committed atrocious crimes against the other.
LDfPME recognises that Israel, the homeland for the Jewish people exists and its 7 million citizens are not going to leave the area.
We also recognise that the Palestinian people exist and are just as deserving of their own homeland, self-determination, and independence as the Jewish people. The 7 million Palestinians in the Occupied Territories & in refugee camps in neighbouring countries are not going to disappear either.
Most of all we recognise that the ordinary people on both sides deserve a just & lasting peace, free from the never-ending rounds of violence, free from the need to kill each other, free to sit beneath olive trees and watch their children grow without the threat of being killed or killing each other.
While I hope all members of the Liberal Democrats would like to see a just peace settlement to the conflict, is it our role to dictate what that solution should be? We live over 2,000 miles from the area and do not live with the day-to-day reality of the situation, the misinformation on both sides, the ingrained distrust of the other side to the conflict, the treat of inter-community violence.
It is our belief that our role should be to educate members about what daily life is like for Palestinians & Israelis, help Lib Dems learn more about the groups on both sides who are committed to finding a just peace, help promote discussions between Palestinians & Israelis, be a catalyst to helping people and politicians on both sides work out how to achieve a settlement that both can accept. This is something neither LDFP or LDFI are set up to do and, in our opinion, are not capable of doing.
This is why we feel our party need a group like LDfPME and this is why we have created it. I hope many members will join us and help us work to bring peace, security and prosperity to both Palestine & Israel
3 replies on “Why Liberal Democrats for Peace in the Middle East?”
great idea. Count me in I am a longstanding LibDem friend of Israel, and I feel this new initiative will be only good.
I can welcome this piece by Leon with the enthusiasm I felt when I joined this as a facebook group at the start. Leon has written about this from a perspective in many ways we can learn from. While the group is equal in all things, with regard to taking sides, it is truly the individuals such as Leon, who, though from one side, can see the perspectrive, and feel the pain, of another. We who care, and are not from either community or any in the region, can add another aspect, our own independent thinking, and, do, as Liberals, democrats also, bring a wise balance and reflection. This group can do much and we must.
I love it whenever people come together and share ideas.
Great site, stick with it!