Wadah Khanfar | This House Would Pressurise Israel to Exchange Land for Peace | Cambridge Union

Wadah Khanfar speaks as the Third Proposition speaker to the motion on 4th May 2023 at 7:30 in the Debating Chamber.
This debate will be examining Israel's military and settler presence since 1967 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In the wake of an especially violent year in the West Bank and the recent election of an Israeli government particularly committed to the retention and settlement of these territories, engaging with this enduring conflict is particularly vital. We will examine whether there should be more pressure on Israel to give up control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and if doing so now is a crucial step towards lasting peace.
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Thumbnail Photographer: William Blakesley-Herbert
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Wadah Khanfar is the President of the non-profit al Sharq Forum and former director general of Al Jazeera Network. He is a current member of the International Crisis Group's Board of Trustees and board member of the Global Editors Network. He has addressed leading think tanks including the Middle East Institute and Chatham House and been named Foreign Policy's top 100 global thinkers.
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[@ladiesman017]

Palestinians deserve freedom and human rights.

[@nabilh.6357]

Truth well said.

[@cheri238]

Excellent!! I saw these debates before. Unequivocally, one understand history on all sides is what is important. The powers of greed of governments are the problems and voices unite for peace to come 🙏 Let their be peace for all races and faiths in Israel and Palestine ❤

[@Tatiana-cp1fc]

There is no Illegal occupation of Palestine and that includes the settlements in the West Bank. · The fundamental default rule of international law which governs the formation of Estates Borders at the moment of independence is called, ‘Uti Possidetis Uris’. · Uti Possidetis Uris dictates that a new state inherits, as its international borders, the boundaries of the pre-existing administrative . · The fundamental rule is universally applied, it was applied in South America, Africa and in Asia at the disintegration of the former communist federations and it is applied to states emerging from mandates i.e. Syria, Iraq, Jordan. · It is also applied to Israel at its Declaration of Independence in 1948. · Another fundamental rule of principle of international law is its ‘equal application’. You cannot have a general rule and an exemption for a country that you don't like or you have some political or ideological opposition to. · The equal application of this rule tells us that in 1948 Israel's border ran along the eastern boundary of the Mandate. It included East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, later called the West Bank. · In 1948 in a war of annihilation that was waged on Israel by Jordan occupied that territory and ethnically cleansed it of its Jews. · In 1967, in another war of attempted annihilation waged on the Jewish State, Israel recovered that territory. · Another parallel example: Ukraine's borders were formed under the rule of ‘Uti Possidetis Uris’ · There is international consensus that Russia has occupied Crimea from Ukraine. · If Ukraine were to recover Crimea in the same way that Israel recovered the West Bank from Jordan in 1967, would anyone accuse Ukraine of occupying Crimea? · Why the double standard? · The fact is that there is no occupation under international law-it is only a political term with no legal basis. · likewise, the claim of ‘illegal Settlements’ a term which seeks to justify the ethnic cleansing of Jews by implying that they should be excluded from certain areas just because they are Jews, while Arab citizens of Israel enjoy every freedom in the Jewish State. · While Arab citizens of Israel enjoy those privileges not a single Jew is permitted in Palestinian-controlled land because of the racist policy that it must be free from Jews. · Immediately after the 6-day war, seeking peace with its neighbors Israel sought to return the Sinai and the Golan Heights to Egypt and Syria. · The Arabs responded by the infamous three NO’s. · Some of Israel's neighbors came to accept the reality of its existence. · Israel has been willing and able to make peace where it had a serious partner-with Egypt in 1979, with Jordan in 1994 and the Abraham Accords normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. · Some in the Middle East have not given up the goal of annihilating Israel and that hasn't changed for 75 years. · Don't be deceived, calls for one state solution or the so-called the call for the ‘right of return’ are both synonymous with the destruction of the Jewish State. · Calls for surrender for more land are also synonymous with the destruction of Israel. · Since the withdrawal from Gaza Palestinians have autonomies in the West Bank and Gaza and both have become enclaves for Terror.

[@merfymac]

This video has PRESSURISE in the title. Pressure, yes, but how can it be pressurised?

[@IpsissimusPrime]

It seems like it's really hard for some of these British Oxford students to let this man speak. I thought this was a debate and he only has a certain amount of time for his rebuttal. Or am I missing some nuanced procedural thing with respect to questions during a debate? Would he get the time to completely finish his comments? Otherwise, sit and listen. This is your ancestral past. Listen. Learn. Deal with it. And perhaps your behavior will be different in the future.

[@mnstrings]

Powerful speaker

[@lidiagoldfeld9681]

Ukraine became a military ‘laboratory’ - senior Pentagon official Dr. Mara Karlin, is Performing the Duties of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, 9/20/23 Reagan Foundation

[@ezzeldien5692]

Great honest speech

[@BerraLilltroll]

"No palestinian wants to exterminate any jew." This has aged very badly.

[@mrbwatson8081]

how..? IDF killed the majority of Israeli civilians on oct 7 not Hamas. Hamas were taking prisoners IDF apache helicopter killed everyone in sight including the 300 CAR PILE UP all full of cremated bodies, also IDF tanks reduced Israeli homes to rubble with Hamas and Israelis inside. so I think you are wrong

[@_anon464]

@@mrbwatson8081 Do you have any evidence of this? The livestreams of the terrorists, along with the 'Bearing witness 2023' film and testimonies of those who lives through the massacres rather suggest otherwise. It's also nonsensical that IDF (Jewish citizens) would be massacring their own citizens (even if we buy into the absurd genocide narrative).

[@Martin-jd3oc]

”No Palestinian would like to anihilate any Jew”. Shame on you. Shame on you.

[@jamiesedgefield5476]

no shame on you

[@iinventedgoogle1287]

So dramatic comment! Why shame on him? It's a fact

[@mujahid2128]

Wadah khanfar is best Palestinian brain.i am great fan of Palestinian. I have work many Palestinian and they are professionally exceptional people.

[@Duarte_martins]

I’m sorry but these arguments are laughable and don’t represent the “steel man” of the Palestinian cause.

[@Martin-jd3oc]

"This is our land... It is is our land". It is such hogwash to claim that the land belonged to arab Palestinians prior to the UN-led establishment of Israel in 1948. Before the end of WW1 there was no state called Palestine. It was just the name of a part of the then Ottoman empire for several hundred years. It incorporated whole or parts of what today is Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. After WW1 Britain obtained a mandate from the League of Nations (the predessor to the UN) to administer the area and to guide the natives, encompassing both jews, christians and arabs, to self-governance and independence. The mandate also required Britain to put into effect the Balfour Declaration which stipulated that there should be a "national home for the Jewish people" alongside the other communities. The reason the name Palestine existed for the area in the first place was because the Romans under Hadrian had named it such to spite and humiliate the Jews they had chased out of the land upon defeating them in ~135 CE. Prior to this it had been known as Canaan/Eretz Israel/Judea. The name was derived from Philistia, a confederation of five main cities along an area slightly longer than the current Gaza strip that existed for a few hundred years up until 604 BC. This was mainly people of an Aegan background (the first distinctively Greek civilization). The Romans were well aware that the Jews and the Philistens had been bitter enemies and decided it would add insult to injury to name the land after the jew's nemesis. So the fact of the matter is that there has never been a Palestinian state or kingdom. The reason the opposite is claimed is entirely political. The man is a liar.

[@iinventedgoogle1287]

-The British mandate was a form of occupation. -Being assigned by the league of nation doesn't mean that the British mandate had any right to decide for the "Natives" as you call them. -Balfour declaration was "someone promising what wasn't his to someone who wasn't entitled". -The form of a state is not necessarily defined by the western definition,so the argument that there was no country called Palastine doesn't stand. It was inhabited ri Region with rules and laws and land ownerships and title deeds. - All what's above leads us to the points that we need to focus on today in the present: -The right to return of the Palestinian refugees which is supported by many UN Resolutions that Israel and USA aren't allowing to take place such as UN resolution 194,We are talking about seven million Palastinians,if they're back and surely they will be back the real Peace "and justice" will take place - The right of self determination of the Palastinians refugees,7 million refugees. -The cease of occupation of at least that lands before 1967 - restitutions for the refugees for the damages happened to them because the expulsion and for their properties,which will be a real load on the Israeli (and USA) budget! -so Peace iformula s: Right of return and self determination of all Palastinians including the now refugees on the free lands of Palestine plus restitution for the damages.

[@anatolyzeldin612]

I cannot steal anything that belong to no one. How Israel can occupy the land that hadn't belong to no one. NB: this "Palestinian" doesn't speak about peace.

[@otmanebani2095]

And the people of who call themselves Palestinians came from nowhere

[@bouzidayoub]

You stole it and you will give it back. and you will get back to where you came from. understood ?

[@jozefgrunmann7998]

Wadah. Yes Palestine is occupied by Arabs, 632-638 AD. Jews cannot be occupiers in the land of their ancestry. You are speaking nonsense.

[@youngeagle5953]

He did not say Jews cannot live in Palestine. He said exactly the opposite. He said Jews are integral part of the Arab world. The land of Palestine is for all indigenous people, Jews Christians and Muslims and other religions, NOT Zionist criminal from Europe.

[@yoservs]

you come from Europe and the americas to claim back 'your' land? SMH

[@madutemsamany7269]

It was never yours. Zionists are a bloodthirsty superior ideology who built up an Apartheid state. Muslims liberated the land and they will again and establish justice for all as done for centuries before your evil imperialism.

[@iinventedgoogle1287]

Arguments of the history of Palastine and drawing rights on who was here first is so silly and fits uneducated and ignorant individuals. Talk to me about international law and human rights law and UN resolutions and stop the time wasting arguments