The Palestinian people [do] not exist. The
creation of a Palestinian state is only a means
for continuing our struggle against the state of
Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is
no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians,
Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and
tactical reasons do we speak today about the
existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab
national interests demand that we posit the
existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to
oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a
sovereign state with defined borders, cannot
raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa. While as a
Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa,
Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However,
the moment we reclaim our right to all of
Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to
unite Palestine and Jordan.
* PLO executive committee member Zahir
Muhsein, March 31, 1977, interview with the
Dutch newspaper Trouw.)
The facts are as follows based on UN records:
1. Palestine was a British invention after WWI and
never existed as an independent state. Most of
this "Palestine" is called Jordan today.
2. The small number of people (700,000) occupied
the entire Palestine Mandate which included Israel,
the West Bank, Golon Heights, Gaza and Jordan
today. Most of the Arab populations lived East of
the Jordan River.
3. The common usage of the word "Palestinian" refers
to people who live in Palestine: Arabs (a "mixed
race of Arabic speaking peoples"), Bedouins,
Christians, Druze, and Jews.
4. Under Muslim rule the region had been reduced to
a barren wasteland. Jews were the only people that
produced anything causing resentment from the
m***** of illiterate and poverty-ridden Arabs. Jews
never held any political power until 1948.
5. The British [that is the fascist PM Lloyd George]
didn't want a Jewish majority in the region. This led
in later years to a policy of systematically reduced
immigration quotas, and indirectly to the death of
millions of Jewish refugees in Europe. The British
would illegally partition the region into Jordan,
(forbidding Jews from living there) then stripped off
the Golon Heights giving that to France and Syria.
Calling the remainder "Palestine" then flooding it
with outside Arabs, mostly from the Cairo slums.
6. Constant agitation by outside Arabs and others
leading to riots and murders of Jews. The British
did nothing to stop this. Immigration and travel
restrictions were almost universally applied only to
Jews, no restriction was placed on Arab immigration
to help flood the region with Arabs the British favored.
Jews were the only economic success even with all
of this going on.
7. Whenever there were Arab riots, Jewish immigration
was restricted. This was the beginning of the British
Policy of Appeasement, and the success of terrorism.
The success of terrorism goes on today and
appeasement still fails today. When will they ever
learn?
8. All lands acquired by Jews were purchased, not
taken according to Arafat's Nazi Uncle in 1937 and
the British. Haj Amin al-Husseini was a Nazi war
criminal wanted in Yugoslavia and mixed Nazi
ideology into Islam. Arafat in fact wasn't even a
Palestinian, but was born, raised, and educated in
Egypt. According to Forbes, his estate is estimated
to be worth over $300 million while he locked his
own people into concentration camps.
9. Between 1950 and 1967 when Jordan and Egypt
annexed the West Bank and Gaza, they flooded the
area with more Arabs. Even today most Arabs in the
West Bank, etc. hold Jordanian pass****ts and
Jordanian citizen****p. After 1967 Jordan/Egypt
relinquished claims to the area then started to scream
for a second Palestinian state in addition to the first
Palestinian State of Jordan. Before that, they claimed
Palestine meant land of the Jews.
10. Even with immigration from Russia in the 1990's,
the majority of Israelis are descended from Arab,
Asian, and African Jews including two-thirds of the
870,000 Arab Jews expelled from surrounding Arab
Nazi states. Druze, Bedouins, Christians, and some
Arabs sided with the Jews in 1948 and serve in the
Israeli Army today. The Israeli military has three
Arab generals.
11. Why did the British do this? It's about oil,
stupid! Britian didn't give a damn about
Arabs or Jews. Just like America today
ignores Saudi terrorism it's still about oil.
"If you believe what you read in most news
sources, Palestinians want a homeland and
Muslims want control over sites they consider
holy. Simple, right?
Well, as an Arab-American journalist says who
has spent some time in the Middle East
dodging more than his share of rocks and
mortar shells, these are just phony excuses for
the rioting, trouble-making and land-grabbing.
Isn't it interesting that prior to the 1967
Arab-Israeli war, there was no serious
movement for a Palestinian homeland?
"Well, Farah," you might say, "that was before
the Israelis seized the West Bank and Old
Jerusalem."
That's true. In the Six-Day War, Israel captured
Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. But they
didn't capture these territories from Yasr Arafat.
They captured them from Jordan's King Hussein.
I can't help but wonder why all these Palestinians
suddenly discovered their national identity after
Israel won the war.
The truth is that Palestine is no more real than
Never-Never Land. The first time the name was
used was in 70 A.D. when the Romans committed
genocide against the Jews, smashed the Temple
and declared the land of Israel would be no more.
From then on, the Romans promised, it would be
known as Palestine. The name was derived from
the Philistines, a Goliathian people conquered by
the Jews centuries earlier. It was a way for the
Romans to add insult to injury. They also tried to
change the name of Jerusalem to Aelia
Capitolina, but that had even less staying power.
Palestine has never existed -- before or since --
as an autonomous entity. It was ruled alternately
by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by
the Ottoman Empire and, briefly, by the British
after World War I. The British agreed to restore
at least part of the land to the Jewish people as
their homeland.
There is no language known as Palestinian.
There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There
has never been a land known as Palestine
governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs,
indistinguishable from Jordanians (another
recent invention), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc.
Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent
of the Middle East lands. Israel represents
one-tenth of 1 percent of the landmass.
But that's too much for the Arabs. They want it
all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in
Israel is about today. Greed. Pride. Envy.
Covetousness. No matter how many land
concessions the Israelis make, it will never be
enough.
What about Islam's holy sites? There are none
in Jerusalem.
Shocked? You should be. I don't expect you
will ever hear this brutal truth from anyone else
in the international media. It's just not politically
correct.
I know what you're going to say: "Farah, the Al
Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in
Jerusalem represent Islam's third most holy sites."
Not true. In fact, the Qur'an says nothing about
Jerusalem. It mentions Mecca hundreds of times.
It mentions Medina countless times. It never
mentions Jerusalem. With good reason. There is
no historical evidence to suggest Mohammed
ever visited Jerusalem.
So how did Jerusalem become the third holiest
site of Islam? Muslims today cite a vague
passage in the Qur'an the seventeenth Sura,
entitled "The Night Journey." It relates that in a
dream or a vision Mohammed was carried by
night "from the sacred temple to the temple that
is most remote, whose precinct we have blessed,
that we might show him our signs. ..." In the
seventh century, some Muslims identified the two
temples mentioned in this verse as being in
Mecca and Jerusalem. And that's as close as
Islam's connection with Jerusalem gets -- myth,
fantasy, wishful thinking. Meanwhile, Jews can
trace their roots in Jerusalem back to the days
of Abraham.
The latest round of violence in Israel erupted
when Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon tried to
visit the Temple Mount, the foundation of the
Temple built by Solomon. It is the holiest site
for Jews. Sharon and his entourage were met
with stones and threats. Can you imagine what
it is like for Jews to be threatened, stoned and
physically kept out of the holiest site in Judaism?
So what's the solution to the Middle East
mayhem? Well, frankly, I don't think there is a
man-made solution to the violence. But, if there
is one, it needs to begin with truth. Pretending
will only lead to more chaos. Treating a
5,000-year-old birthright backed by
overwhelming historical and archaeological
evidence equally with illegitimate claims, wishes
and wants gives diplomacy and peacekeeping a
bad name."
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