Hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the creation of a demilitarised Palestinian state for the first time, in a speech on Sunday that Arab analysts said "torpedoes all peace initiatives in the region". The United States and the European Union have offered a cautious welcome to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's propositions for the creation of a demilitarised Palestinian state. Arab leaders and analysts, however, said Netanyahu's propositions were unacceptable, especially in the light of his refusal to back down on the issues of settlements, the insistance that Jerusalem be the unified capital of the Jewish state and that Palestinians must recognise the Jewish character of Israel, a condition Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has long rejected. The Palestinians recognised Israel as a state in 1993 as part of the Oslo accords but have refused to recognise it as "Jewish" because doing so would effectively mean giving up the right of return for Palestinian refugees, a key Palestinian demand since Israel was created in 1948.
The United States and the European Union have offered a cautious welcome to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's propositions for the creation of a demilitarised Palestinian state.
Arab leaders and analysts, however, said Netanyahu's propositions were unacceptable, especially in the light of his refusal to back down on the issues of settlements, the insistance that Jerusalem be the unified capital of the Jewish state and that Palestinians must recognise the Jewish character of Israel, a condition Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has long rejected.
The Palestinians recognised Israel as a state in 1993 as part of the Oslo accords but have refused to recognise it as "Jewish" because doing so would effectively mean giving up the right of return for Palestinian refugees, a key Palestinian demand since Israel was created in 1948.
The term was first used in the late 1940s, and was coined from 'Bantu' (meaning 'people' in the Bantu languages) and '-stan' (meaning 'land of' in the Persian, Urdu, and Armenian languages). It was regarded as a disparaging term by some critics of the apartheid-era government's 'homelands' (from Afrikaans tuisland). The word 'bantustan', today, is often used in a pejorative sense when describing a country or region that lacks any real legitimacy or power, consists of several unconnected enclaves, and/or emerges from national or international gerrymandering.
The word 'bantustan', today, is often used in a pejorative sense when describing a country or region that lacks any real legitimacy or power, consists of several unconnected enclaves, and/or emerges from national or international gerrymandering.
