The Holy Land, i.e. Israel and Palestine, is a land of about 27,000 km², and is the home of some 8,000,000 inhabitants, both Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, Christians and Muslims. In 1948 the state of Israel was proclaimed on 78%, and in 1967 Israel occupied the remaining 22% of the country, known since then as the Occupied Territories.

The State of Israel, on one hand, is a democratic state; 80% of its inhabitants are Jews and 20% are Muslim and Christian Palestinians. All citizens are declared equal before the law, enjoying same rights and duties. However, being a Jewish State, there has always been a big difference between those who are Jews and those who are not.

The Occupied Territories, on the other hand, the remaining 22% has not been annexed by Israel; it has always been administered by Israel as occupied Territory through a military regime.

In the aftermath of the Oslo agreement of 1993, a Palestinian Authority was established on a part of these Occupied Territories, under the supervision of the Israeli Authority. In 2002 with the outbreak of the second Intifada, Israel reoccupied most of the Territories, leaving the Palestinian Authority without any instrument of government. With this direct reoccupation, hard conditions prevailed on the daily life of Palestinians living in these occupied territories: Collective punishment measures inflicted upon them ranged from the general siege on towns and villages, to the demolition of access roads, to hundreds of military checkpoints, to curfews that are very frequently imposed impeding all movements inside the town, to the assassination of Palestinian leaders and activists, to the shelling and demolishing of houses and agricultural structures. This situation led to economic and social strangulation.

Both Israelis and Palestinians want peace and pray for it, despite the fact that the situation on the ground is far from being a situation of peace. It is rather a situation of cheer violence. Violence reigns everywhere you go in the Holy Land. Violent Israeli military occupation on one hand, and violent Palestinian resistance on the other hand, leading to terrorism in many cases. Meanwhile Israelis blame it on Palestinians and their terrorist attacks on civilians and non-civilians drawing the conclusion that they do not want peace, and hence it is impossible to live with. Palestinians, in their turn, blame it on Israelis and their protracted non-stop military occupation of the portion of land left for them, in addition to all the practices and collective punishment measures inflicted upon them indiscriminately by the Israeli troops. They too are reaching the conviction that Israel is not willing and do not in fact want to relinquish its military occupation and to give them back their freedom and independence.

In what consists the present-day conflict?

For the Israeli government it is a question of security and it is a fight against terrorism. This is how they explain the present-day violent situation and their on-going occupation of Palestine with all what this occupation means: collective punishment measures, assassinations, house demolitions…. For Palestinians it is a question of military occupation that is depriving them from their internationally recognized inalienable right to self-determination. This is how they justify their resistance and their attacks on Israelis.

As the facts on the ground demonstrate, there is an impasse at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian problem which is making it insuperably difficult to deal with. It is this utter incompatibility of their respective positions.

Palestinians, I believe, just like every people and nation on God's earth, have the inalienable right to self-determination, a right – everybody is aware of - that has been repeatedly recognized by the international community. They have the fundamental human right to be free and independent on their own land. As for terrorism - that we all condemn and rebuke whether it comes from the Israelis or the Palestinians - it should be known that it is military occupation that generates it. Occupation is the fertile soil for terrorism.