Page 27 - Issue 20

their national identity. Socialism, as already
stressed, believes in equal opportunity of all
members of a society for the maximum expression
of their total being. If socialism believes in equal
individual opportunity and in cultural pluralism
then the same principle must apply to nations i.e.
that there should be equal opportunities for all
national groupings and that they am morally
bound to assist each other. In short,
however valid the Jewish claim to
national self-expression and the
desire to express it at this stage
by means of a political state, that
claim cannot vitiate the claim of
others to do the same, nor can its
implementation be achieved at the
expense of others.

Wider Responsibilities

In particular this refers, of course, to Israel's
relations with the Palestinians. This is not the place
to indulge in historical accusations or mea culpas.
However, if the foregoing is valid then it follows
that the Palestinians have as much claim to a
national state as the Jews. All the arguments
waged against this - the Palestinians are not a
nation, they already have a country (Jordan),
they’ve never had it so good as they do under the
Israelis, etc. are irrelevant, even if they were true.
Palestinians see themselves as a nation, they
identify with a particular piece of land and want to
create their own state. They are claiming for
themselves the rights already achieved by others.