Dear friends,
To quote Tim's recent reply:
"The Israelis are often portrayed as stealing the Palestinian land as though Palestine were a country before Israel. In fact, neither existed as a country before 1948. The region called Palestine was a British colony up to that time, when an effort was made to provide both Palestinians and Jews with a homeland. But the Palestinians and their Arab neighbors refused and attempted to expell the Jews by force."
I would just like to try to clear up details that are now a matter of accepted history. You can check them out for yourselves from a variety of sources on the internet to be sure you get the true historic facts, untainted by any motives of propaganda.
From 1291 C.E. the area was a province of the Sultans of Egypt. In 1516 C.E.the Egyptians (the Mamaluks) were defeated by Sultan Selim I of the Ottoman Turks; and Syria and Palestine were added to the Ottoman Empire.
During later Ottoman rule, Palestine under the Turks was a sorry land where the feebleness of the Sultan in Istanbul led to misrule, corrupt tax farming and the gradual destruction of the resources and capital of Palestine. By the end of the 18th century the country had become barren and poverty ridden, and had only scanty and ignorant population.
By 1931, the Palestine census showed 175,000 Jewish residents. By the end of 1948, in the new state of Israel there lived approximately 760,000 Jewish people; 62,000 Moslems; 32,000 Christians; and 14,000 others who were mainly Druzes.
After WWI Palestine became a British Mandate. This lasted until May 15, 1948 when Britain withdrew under guidance of the United Nations. After many hearings, the United Nations voted in November 1947 for the partition of Palestine, and the creation of independent Jewish and Arab governments.
At the end of April, 1948 war broke out between the Israelis and the Arab forces of six Arab states, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Transjordan (which later became the Kingdom of Jordan.)
The war ended in victory for the Israelis with the signing of a separate Armistice Agreement from February to July 1949. The state of Israel wasadmitted to the United Nations on May 12, 1949.
Of Palestine's original 10,429 square miles, Israel retained almost 8,000 sq. miles, while an area of about 2,300 square miles of the east-central hilly region of Palestine was occupied by Jordan; 125 square miles on the sea coast south of the ancient port city of Gaza was retained and occupied by Egypt.
The Palestinians who lived in the area of the new nation of Israel were invited to continue to live in Israel when the country was formed. Many stayed, and they and their descendants still continue to live peacefully in Israel to this day. Israelis are not all Jewish. There are peoples of other nationalities living there still, as there were in 1931. (See above.)
The Palestinians who live outside of Israel chose to leave at that time. They had to go into camps, because neighbouring Arab countries who had taken part in the war at the end of 1948 wouldn't give them a home in their countries. The camps and places where they still live are not conducive to their happiness. Some might say they are being used as political pawns. Most of them appear to hate the Israelis. Israel and surrounding areas are the country they want, but they want to rid it of Jews. The shout still is "drive the Jews into the sea."
Mr. Arafat had control of billions of dollars of Palestinian money donated by extremely wealthy sympathizers in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, yet the Palestinians who left Israel and live outside of it are in extremely poor circumstances. Why weren't the billions of dollars spent to give them facilities, education, and a better existence?
No one can deny that Mr. Arafat lived simply and frugally himself. However, he made it possible for his wife and daughter to live in opulence in the very finest hotel in Paris, France. That is an extremely costly way to live, using Palestinian funds. Mrs. Arafat now has negotiated a pension and $22 million dollars *a year* for herself from the Palestinian money held by Mr. Arafat in Swiss banks, in the Cayman Islands, and other places where it escapes taxation. She likely deserves financial support. But $22 Million PER YEAR? The huge sums of money for Mrs. Arafat will come from Palestinian money, which one would think again might be better spent to improve those Palestinian people's lot.
I have no dislike for Arabs, Palestinians, Israelis, or anybody else. It is ignorant and prejudiced to have blanket dislikes of whole peoples. I'm a pretty detached observer. I would like to point out that current information above came from newspapers and websites around the world which I found and read for myself on the net. Information about the ancient and more recent history until the formation of the state of Israel came from Colliers Encyclopedia, printed in New York in 1957. It is easy to check in similar places yourselves, if you don't trust the accuracy of the above.
I hope this helps you to think further about your conclusions. Please add it into your considerations.
To finish, I think you cannot compare Chairman Mao with Mr. Arafat. Their situations were entirely different so they can't be compared to reach anykind of a logical conclusion. Trying to compare them is what is called in the English language, "comparing apples with oranges". Whether Mr. Arafat had one wife who once was a Christian and became a Moslem, and Chairman Mao had three wives, is totally beside the point.
Warmly, Mary
