Palestinians commemorated the nakba, or catastrophe of the 1948 exile. Where were the 750,000 Palestinians driven out by Jewish troops hidden, as Ilan Pappé and the revisionists talk about?
In reference to the texts left by visitors to Palestine in the mid-19th century, which spoke of a sparsely inhabited desert region, the massive arrival of Jews on board ships helps us to understand the increase in the Jewish population. On the other hand, the presence of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poses a problem. Where were they? Where were the infrastructures, the cultivated fields to feed all these Palestinians? All scientific travelers are unanimous: they hadn’t seen them, otherwise they would have mentioned them in their scientific reports.
Jewish immigration prompted thousands of Arabs from neighboring countries to join the evolving Eldorado. From the turn of the century, the construction of the cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv offered attractive job prospects for Arabs. After the Second World War, the armies of the Arab League brought in their wake adventurers in search of a better life. Scavengers hoped to strip Jewish victims of their wealth. Others dreamed of grabbing land. It’s a thesis that helps us understand the explosion of the Arab population and its concentration in this small region. During the War of Independence, many Arabs obeyed the order to leave the territory granted to the Jews, others fled the fighting, and some were driven out by Tsahal. 390,000 refugees, according to Tsahal, and 450,000 according to other sources, are accommodated in tent cities in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Yet UNRWA claims to be looking after 750,000 refugees, a figure taken up by Ilan Pappé. Is it conceivable that Arab League fighters have not returned home? Having found a kindred spirit, having been wounded in the fighting or having voluntarily chosen change. They stayed in refugee camps and were taken care of by international aid organizations? It’s impossible to know the real story – there are too many theories with diverging conclusions, or even files that have been deliberately destroyed.
Without minimizing the tragedy of Palestinian refugees, Jews are refugees too. They have lived through horror, a genocide unimaginable for a normally constituted person. For an educated person with a minimum of human values, it’s unthinkable what they went through. The Jews had absolutely nothing left, everything had been taken away from them, including their human dignity.
Between 1945 and 1949, Israel’s 650,000 inhabitants welcomed around 700,000 European Jews, including some 360,000 survivors of the extermination camps. Between 1950 and 1952, the young nation of Israel took in a further 355,000 Jews fleeing Arab countries. So there was a refugee problem on both sides! According to a recent study, 83% of Israelis aged 60 and over were born in another country and immigrated to Israel at some point in their lives.234
The Palestinians of 1948 fled their land because friendly armies promised them, after the Jews had been eradicated, that they would return to live in their homes. They played poker and lost. Their claims are those of any player who refuses to admit failure.
UNRWA is the UN agency that looks after Palestinian refugees. For decades, the Palestinians have been receiving a billion dollars in regular aid to build schools, hospitals, sewers and other infrastructure. The problem is that 70 % of this aid disappears, diverted from its original purpose. But the following year, the UN returned the international aid. Palestinian leaders living in the chic districts of Damascus, Beirut, Cairo and Doha cash in on the millions of dollars and have no interest in changing the situation. They see to it that their Palestinian people remain starving, misinformed and uneducated, dependent on a few imams or Islamic intellectuals. This is the real tragedy of the Palestinians! As a British historian recently reminded us The Jordanian government granted a form of citizenship to Palestinian Arabs, but kept them in refugee camps. In other Arab countries, they became, and remain to this day, stateless people with no rights or prospects, supported by United Nations funds. Paradoxically, Palestinians who fled to Great Britain or the United States were able to become naturalized after a five-year period, and their children born there are legitimate citizens from birth. But in Syria, Lebanon or Iraq, Palestinian refugees and their descendants remain stateless, now for the fourth or fifth generation. Why is this so? The reason for this situation has been mentioned by several Arab spokesmen. It is the need to preserve the Palestinians as a separate entity until they can return and claim the whole of Palestine, i.e. the whole of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel. 235
The Arab world controls 99.6% of the land in the Middle East. Israel accounts for just 0.4% of the region’s surface area. But that’s still too much for Muslims who want EVERYTHING. Greed. Pride. Jealousy. Covetousness. All the concessions Israel could make won’t be enough. And the world doesn’t want to admit it. Israel has signed six peace treaties with the Palestinians, only to be confronted daily with terrorist acts and missile attacks.
The UN is a kind of international police force. It must ensure that the agreements signed under its aegis are applied, otherwise it loses all credibility. What’s the point of signing new treaties if previous ones are not put into practice and respected? The reliability of the international organization depends on it. The same goes for absurd positions tainted with anti-Semitism, which dishonor the ethical spirit of the founders, transforming this honorable international organization with a peaceful vocation into an instrument of instigation, misunderstanding and hatred.
International agreements
For Israel, international agreements are a heavy burden, and its leaders are reluctant to sign new ones. For it is part of their mentality, derived from the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, containing the divine laws received by Moses), not to speak in vain. The Law of Moses expressly commands … you shall observe and do what comes from your lips.236 Whether your word is yes, yes, or no, no; what is added to it comes from the evil one.237Aword is an oath that is enforced, a word has value. And he who speaks falsely is a despicable, unworthy person. For almost all Jews, words are accompanied by deeds.
The same cannot be said of Palestinians and Muslims. They are authorized by the Koran to lie if it serves the Islamic cause (taqiya in Arabic). They can sign anything, without the least concern for their conscience. The very next day, they can act in opposition to their sworn word.
These different conceptions of the value of a word lead the Jewish people to reflect and not to sign too quickly agreements that could be regretted. The educated diplomatic world understands these misgivings. Journalists, however, see it as bickering or even obstructing peace plans. Thus, the media, lacking an overview, discredit Israel and slander it. For them, Jews are intractable and stubborn.
This lack of understanding is reflected in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that take place in cities across the world. Unfair slogans and speeches that run counter to historical and political reality are disseminated. This fuels hatred, violence and contempt. Demonstrators convinced they are defending a noble cause are instrumentalized, chanting words in flagrant opposition to international rights.
Jerusalem
The city of Jerusalem is coveted by the Palestinians. They want to make it their capital. According to them, it is an Islamic holy site, even though Mohammed never set foot there. His journey to heaven was initiatory and nocturnal.
Let’s be logical. Let’s put the two sacred books, the Koran and the Torah, side by side. The City of Peace is never mentioned in the Koran, but it is mentioned 669 times in the historical books of the Old Testament. Jesus spoke a lot about Jerusalem, so the New Covenant doesn’t change the attribution. Another important sign is that the apostle John, in his revelations, speaks of a new Jerusalem, the holy heavenly city.238
Throughout its eventful history, Jerusalem was only the capital of the Latin Christian world for 88 years, after its conquest by the Crusaders (1099-1187). With this exception, Jerusalem has never been the capital of any nation other than the Jews. The city has been linked to the Jews since Abraham, 1900 BC, or nearly 4,000 years ago!
The Jews would rather die than give Jerusalem back to the Palestinian Authority. It’s their city, and the Palestinians know it. For this reason, in front of the world’s media, the Palestinian political authorities demand that Jerusalem be their capital. This puts them in the position of victims, discriminated against, martyred by the evil Jewish people. The worst thing is that this tactic works perfectly. No one to say stop! Where are the diplomats and politicians to speak out against this discriminatory one-track thinking, to provide fact-based reasoning, to establish reality and rely on truth?
Handling
Every day, the media talk about occupied Gaza, even though it has been an autonomous strip of land since September 2005, politically run by Hamas since 2007! The same goes for the West Bank, politically run by Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. So it’s an independent territory, the Palestinian State. And the proof of this state’s independence is that it has its own armed police force. If injustice reigns supreme in the Palestinian State, the fault lies not with Israel, but with the Palestinian Authority, which doesn’t apply the law and is gangrened by corruption. The role of the police is above all to protect terrorist fighters.
Being a refugee is the other misinformation conveyed by the Arab media and textbooks. Palestinians are convinced that they are the victims of a massive population displacement outside their territory. Their happiness therefore depends on the elimination of the invaders, the Jews. This state of affairs is the deliberate consequence of not informing, of refusing to educate according to historical reality. Uninformed, the Palestinian population or citizens understand the causes of their suffering exclusively in relation to the realization of the State of Israel. From their point of view, the fight against the Jews is absolutely logical if you want to reclaim your land and stop being a refugee. It’s a fight that concerns everyone.
As soon as the first news of the October 7 pogrom broke, the joy of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank distributing sweets to children was perplexing. The education this population has benefited from for decades has been provided by teachers and school equipment supplied by UNESCO to UNRWA. Considering the result, we have to admit that misinformation is more important than information. As proof of this statement: 5-6 year-olds talk of suicide as a liberation! 239 These children carry bombs that explode when they pass by Israeli soldiers. These children are victims of despicable Islamist indoctrination. This begins at an early age, in the presence of their mothers. Adults manipulate children, imams promise them paradise and virgins from childhood, and this is unfortunately a reality. The information that children are the most numerous victims of the Gaza battle is sadly logical.
Is this something new? No, the world has known about it for many years. In this matter, thinkers, philosophers and theologians are united by a politico-religious agreement of non-interference and silence. Isn’t the refusal to take a stand against conquering Islam a sign of acquiescence? Another proposition: we are already so far advanced in a global atheist and pro-Islamic dictatorship, that each and every one of us unconsciously measures the consequences of his or her publicly expressed opinion. Babylon builds its structures in omerta. We’re in for a rude awakening.
You will know that I, the Lord, have heard all the insults
That you have uttered against the mountains of Israel.
Saying, they are laid waste, they are given up to us as a prey.
You have magnified yourselves against me with your words
You have multiplied your words against me.
I have heard! 240