One method is to ask people on each side to summarize the point of view of the other, in terms that are acceptable to the other. This can help them to understand where the other side is “coming from”. It also means focusing on “where do we go from here”, instead of on the mistakes, harassment and killing which both sides have done in the past.

Would people on both sides of this debate like to have a go?

Thank you. You have shown your true colours. This is nothing to do with a so-called “occupation”, and everything to do with Israel itself.

By mentioning the Balfour Declaration, and indeed the League of Nations, you are disputing the existence of a Jewish state at all.

You clearly have no idea what hasbara means.

I note you make no mention of Palestinian apartheid against Jewish land rights, nor Palestinian laws which are discriminatory on racial grounds.

That aside, you have not dealt with the substantive issues put to you. Instead, you cite other international bodies’ opinions (and they are opinions, not legally binding in any way) as “proof” of illegality, without entering into any details of law.

Israel is not in breach of international law. It may be in breach of international opinion, but that is an entirely different matter. The security fence which you mention has saved the lives of thousands since it was put up – simply examine both Israeli and Palestinian casualties before, and after it was established.

The “court” of which you speak so admiringly was chaired by a Chinese judge (i.e. a man who advanced in a legal system which executes more people than the rest of the world combined), with prosecutors from Cuba (a judicial system which imprisons people for the “wrong” political views). So please forgive me if I’m not in thrall of such an objective, morally grounded group of legal “experts” from despotic nations.

Then you cite the UN, without naming which resolutions, nor which chapters they appear in. Indeed, UN resolution 242 makes it clear that there are Jewish land rights in Judea and Samaria (as do previous UN resolutions). There is no requirement to withdraw from all territoey, and any territorial concessions are to be part of a peace settlement. Israel did indeed withdraw from Gaza, and got Hamas in power and thousands of rockets in return – hardly a winning formula. Your “solution” is more of the same.

You mindlessly repeat mantras which you have simply heard elsewhere. Please examine these issues in greater depth.

Incidentally, the UN is comprised of a majority of tyrannical, non-democratic governments, and Israel has conveniently become their whipping boy. This is an organization which put Zimabwe in charge of economic development and placed Libya as chair of human rights. Again, sorry not to share your enthusiasm for such a basket case organization.

The “occupation” is not illegal.

A commission led last year by the respected former Israeli Supreme Court justice Edmund Levy concluded that “Israeli settlements are legal under international law.”

“The oft-used term ‘occupied Palestinian territories’ has no basis whatsoever in law or fact,” Alan Baker, director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a member of Levy’s commission, wrote recently in USA Today.

“The territories are neither occupied nor are they Palestinian. No legal determination has ever been made as to their sovereignty, and by agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, they are no more than ‘disputed’ pending a negotiated solution, with both sides claiming rights to the territory.”

Baker adds that Israel has “solid legal rights” to the territory, including “the rights granted to the Jewish people by the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the 1923 San Remo Declaration, the League of Nations Mandate instrument and the United Nations Charter,” and that the Oslo agreements “contain no prohibition whatsoever on building settlements in those parts of the territory agreed upon as remaining under Israel’s control.”

Consequently, the 4th Geneva Convention is not being contravened, and you need to learn the difference between Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 resolutions.

Your disgusting claim that only Jewish citizens are afforded equal rights is a lie. Equal rights are guaranteed by law, and Israel is a democratic land of law.

You may wish to investigate the blatant apartheid of the Palestinian Authority (let alone Hamas), which has, as a matter of policy, forbidden any Jew the right to live anywhere in territory it administers. (20% of Israel is Palestinian Arab – 0% of Palestinian administered areas are Jewish).