Editor,

Refer to the story, "Mushikiwabo: Rwanda’s abstention from Palestinian statehood vote due to flawed process” (The New Times, January 1). I support the decision of Rwanda to abstain from the vote. War is what is to be avoided and this resolution would have caused more suffering to the Palestinians.

The Palestinians should accept the existence of Israel as a "Jewish State”, and, in return, the Jews must accept the coexistence of an independent Palestinian nation. Then the whole world can help negotiate the boundaries, not based on history but on today’s realities.

It should be a give-and-take situation on either side. No one should win it all, either by force or politically. At the end of it all, both sides should be happy and live in peace thereafter.

Justice Gipindi

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I am not satisfied with Rwanda’s stance on the Palestinian statehood. It makes me wonder what happened for a previously oppressed/suppressed nation to support an oppressor like Israel.

Rwanda is sorely mistaken if it thinks that there will be any fruitful peace talks or successful initiatives from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet.

Anne

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It is not true that Palestinians are being more oppressed than Jews have been. Remember Israel is being surrounded by so many Arab states and most of them are very hostile to the existence of Israel, and have sought to exterminate the nation of Israel on several occasions.

In my opinion, Israel is more vulnerable than Palestinians are, and it needs to be protected. In most confrontations, Israel happens to be stronger, but in my opinion, they’re never the aggressors.

I share the view that a peaceful settlement is the only viable solution rather than an imposed solution from the UN. For instance, the issue of Jerusalem; how on earth can one city belong to more than one nation?

If people share a capital they should as well share the entire nation, and probably that is the most workable solution that could be considered in any settlement efforts. After all, we understand the Israelis and Palestinians are cousins, both are descendants of Abraham. Why can’t they coexist?

Having lived a life of a refugee I can understand the frustrations of both the Palestinian and Israelis. I know that most of the contested areas that are currently under the Israeli occupation were, until recently, being occupied by Palestinian villages, but they had been occupied by Jewish villages earlier on.

It’s a dual claim over the same piece of land (some information is derived from the Holy Bible, which covers a lot of the history of that region).

My question has always been: why is it impossible for the two peoples to live peacefully on that piece land? Otherwise, I feel a latter occupant cannot claim more ownership than the former because in both cases none voluntarily forfeited ownership. Rather ownership was always lost in violent circumstances.

Donart