[nukkad] Palestine - Myths/Claims and Reality

[Net Geek <>]

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  Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company. 
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Dear Nukkies
            Palestine now being a hot topic on the list, this is my humble attempt
to expose some well propagated myths. Not all of my conclusions may be correct but I
sincerely believe that most of it is rational,logical and fits correctly into
credible documented historical events. I'm ready to stand corrected if proved
otherwise citing credible sources.

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>>Claim: Aliya or Jewish migration to Palestine was a Zionist conspiracy to displace
native Arabs.

##Truth: The first Jewish Aliya took place during 1882 under Ottoman rule, 15 years
prior to the time when the term "Zionism" was first coined. Migrants were Russian
Jews or Jews of Pale escaping the anti-Semitic pogroms under Czarist Russia. Zionist
movement only started in 1897 by Theodore Herzl , the motive being the arrest and
imprisonment of French Jew Alfred Dreyfuss in Paris, charged with treason. So any
claim that Jewish Aliya was a Zionist conspiracy is nothing but travesty of facts.

>>Claim: The Jews upon declaration of the formation of Jewish state drove the native
Arabs out of their homeland and are forced to live as refugees. 

##Truth: In 1948, when the combined Arab armies invaded the Jewish state in order to
destroy it on the very day of its birth, broadcasts by the advancing Arab armies
appealed to the resident Arabs to leave their homes so as not to be in the way of
the invaders. As soon as the "quick victory" was won, they could return to their
homes and would also enjoy the loot from the Jews, who would have been driven into
the sea. It didn't turn out quite that way. Those Arabs who, despite the urgings of
the Jews to stay and to remain calm, foolishly left, became refugees. Those who
decided not to yield to those blandishments are now, and have been for over 50
years, citizens of Israel, with all the same rights and privileges as their Jewish
fellows. 

>>Claim: Palestine is the ancestral homeland of the Arab refugees.

##Truth: The term Palestine was first coined by the British after first world war
based on the biblical race "Phillistine" and not the Arabs. Most of the area now
called the Middle East was part of the Ottoman empire before first world war. Turkey
lost the war along with its ally Germany and the Ottoman empire ceased to exist. The
League of Nations assigned Britain and France as the mandatory powers. France
assumed mandatory control over what is now Syria and Lebanon. Britain assumed
mandatory control over all the rest, including "Palestine," which comprised all that
is now Jordan and Israel, including the "West Bank." The Golan Heights, which Syria
now claims as its age-old patrimony, was originally part of Palestine. Many sources
including the book "O Jerusalem" by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins state that
what is now Israel was originally swamp infested land with virtually no human
inhabitation. The transformation of this wasteland was made possible by Jewish
arriving from Eastern Europe to escape the anti-Semitic pogrom there. The Arabs who
claim to be Palestinians came to the region mainly from Jordan, Syria and Lebanon,
attracted by the prosperity created by the Jews. Thus the concept of Palestinian
nationhood and identity is nothing but wishful thinking and a glorified myth. 

>>Claim: Israel is occupying West Bank & Gaza

##Truth: The term "West Bank" did not exist until 1948. The area now known as West
Bank was originally Judea, Samaria and the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem,
which was originally awarded to Israel through the UN mandate. Soon after
declaration of independence by Israel the combined Arab forces of Tans-Jordan,
Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq attacked the fledging nation with the intent of
pushing all Jews into the sea. But miraculously the rag tag army of Israel drove
back all the Arabs. However before the complete evacuation of the Arab League under
Jordan who lay siege of the territories Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem, UN
intervened and established a ceasefire. Jordan seizing the chance created a new
region called West Bank(strikingly similar to Azad Kashmir). The West Bank and Gaza
strip came under Israeli control only after the 1967 Six-day War, which was
initiated once again by the Arabs. Israel is holding on to the land only as a
bargaining block for security and has no intention to bring it under its control
except for Jerusalem which they claim as theirs. 

>>Claim: Jerusalem is an Arab capital and after Mecca and Medina is their third holy
city, and that it is intolerable to them that infidels (Jews) are in possession of
it. 

##Truth: Jerusalem was never an Arab city. Until the Jews revitalised it, Jerusalem
was a dusty provincial city that hardly played any economic, social, or political
role. Jerusalem is mentioned hundreds of times in the Jewish Bible and has been the
c enter of the Jewish faith and the focus of Jewish longing ever since the Romans
destroyed the Temple in the early years of the first millennium. Not once is
Jerusalem mentioned in the Koran. Here are statements from prominent personalities
about Jerusalem. 

"A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and
action. We reached Tabor safely.. We never saw a human being on the whole journey."
- Mark Twain in his book "Innocents Abroad" detailing his visit to the Holy Land in
1867.

"The region is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its
greatest need is that of a body of population." - Official statement from Palestine
British consulate in 1857. 

"Outside the gates of Jerusalem we saw no living object, heard no living sound." -
Alphonse de Lamartine in his book "Recollections of the East" detailing his visit to
Holy Land in 1835.
====================
Sources
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WWW History Index  http://www.ku.edu/history/VL

O Jerusalem by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins 

Exodus by Leon Uris

=====
Bye,



Netgeek aka Cherian
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