ARAB PALESTINE: PHOENIX OR PHANTOM?

PALESTINIANS; ISRAEL-Arab Border Conflicts, 1949-; DIPLOMATIC negotiations in international disputes; INTERNATIONAL relations

PALESTINEReport Available; ISRAELReport Available; ARAB countries

The article examines the role of Palestinian Arabs in the complex international negotiations over the Middle East crisis. Because many Palestine Arabs are stateless under international law, their importance has frequently been overlooked in the numerous parleys and in the skein of complex international negotiations over the Middle East crisis. The Palestine dispute, as it is euphemistically labeled in the United Nations, has appeared on the annual agenda of the U.N. General Assembly for over twenty years, generally under the guise of assistance to refugees. Neither the principal antagonists nor the major powers officially acknowledge existence of the Palestinians as a nation-party to the dispute. Palestine Arabs are considered by the Government of Israel as little different from those of the surrounding Arab states. The reluctance of Israel and the major powers to recognize the Palestinians only inflames Palestine's already deep hostility toward the West.