The Palestinian Arab War -on- History

by Bassam Tawil
August 11, 2020 at 5:00 am in gatestoneinstitute.org



The Palestinian War on History: 'Every person, irrespective of whether or not they are disabled, should have the opportunity to visit the tomb, which is an important Jewish heritage site... The tomb belongs to us after Abraham bought it with his own money 3,800 years ago.' — Former

• "Every person, irrespective of whether or not they are disabled, should have the opportunity to visit the tomb, which is an important Jewish heritage site... The tomb belongs to us after Abraham bought it with his own money 3,800 years ago." — Former Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett.
• These Palestinian leaders continue to deny any Jewish connection to the holy site on the pretext that it belongs exclusively to Muslims. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki has condemned the elevator plan as an Israeli "war crime" and a "violation of international law."
• The winners? The Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who dream of extending their control from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. This dream, thanks to the lawless and lethal regime of the Palestinian Authority -- funded by the West -- appears closer than ever.

Palestinian leaders seem more worried about an Israeli plan to install an elevator for disabled people at the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron than about a Palestinian upsurge in violent crime. Pictured: People exit the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron on August 7, 2020. (Photo by Hazem Bader / AFP via Getty Images)

Palestinian leaders seem more worried about an Israeli plan to install an elevator for disabled people at the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron than about a Palestinian upsurge in violent crime.

The Israeli government recently approved the construction of a handicapped access elevator at the holy site. "Every person, irrespective of whether or not they are disabled, should have the opportunity to visit the tomb, which is an important Jewish heritage site," said former Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett. "The tomb belongs to us after Abraham bought it with his own money 3,800 years ago."

The 2,000-year-old structure was built by King Herod the Great to house the Cave of Machpela, burial site of the Biblical founding fathers and mothers. The site, divided into separate Muslim and Jewish prayer areas, has only steep staircases for entrances.

The decision to build the elevator came in response to the Israeli Equal Rights for People with Disabilities Law that requires every public structure to be fully accessible to the disabled.



Palestinian leaders, however, do not seem to care about the rights of people with disabilities, particularly when it comes to providing access to Jews who want to pray at one of their holiest sites. These Palestinian leaders continue to deny any Jewish connection to the holy site on the pretext that it belongs exclusively to Muslims.



Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki has condemned the elevator plan as an Israeli "war crime" and a "violation of international law." In his opinion, enabling handicapped Jewish worshippers to enter the holy site is part of an Israeli scheme to "forge Palestinian history and heritage."



Hanan Ashrawi, a Christian PLO leader, is also pretending that she is worried about Islamic holy sites. Ashrawi, in a statement published on July 25, also denounced the elevator project and accused Israel of "stealing Palestinian history, holy sites and identity and provoking the feelings of Muslims."

Ashrawi does not seem to be concerned about the dwindling number of her fellow Christians in the West Bank. Evidently, she has not heard of a recent public opinion poll that showed that the desire to emigrate is much higher among Palestinian Christians than among Palestinian Muslims.

The poll found that a "very large minority [of Christians] believe that most Muslims do not wish to see them in the country" and face discrimination when searching for jobs or when seeking Palestinian Authority services.



The Palestinian incitement against the planned elevator also happens to coincide with a dramatic increase in violent crime and scenes of anarchy and lawlessness in the West Bank. It also comes at a time when Palestinians are coping with an increase in the number of people diagnosed with Covid-19 and the economic hardship resulting from restrictions imposed by the Palestinian government to prevent the spread of the disease.



Instead of holding an emergency meeting to discuss ways to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians during the pandemic, Palestinian leaders are busy inciting violence against Israel over the elevator project for the handicapped.



Instead of taking serious measures to disarm gangsters and militiamen roaming the Palestinian streets and killing and terrorizing Palestinians, the Palestinian leaders are continuing to demand that the International Criminal Court launch a "war crimes" probe against Israel for planning to facilitate access for Jews to pray at a site that is holy for Jews.



In the past two weeks, masked gunmen have reappeared on the streets of Palestinian cities in an open challenge to the Palestinian Authority and its security forces. Palestinian leaders, however, do not seem to be worried about the gunmen, most probably because they belong to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction.

On August 5, dozens of Fatah gunmen took to the streets of Ramallah and its twin city, Al-Bireh, firing into the air from automatic rifles and terrorizing their residents. The gunmen were protesting the fatal shooting of Khalil al-Sheikh, a brother of senior Fatah official Hussein al-Sheikh, during a "family feud."



Two weeks ago, the residents of another Palestinian city, Nablus, underwent a similar experience. Scores of Fatah gunmen took to the streets to protest the killing of one of their commanders by Palestinian security officers.

Both incidents sparked widespread protests among Palestinians, who are now complaining of "anarchy and lawlessness" and are accusing their leaders of failing to tackle the crisis of rising crime and violence.



Palestinian human rights organizations are also complaining about the "chaos of weapons" and are calling on Palestinian leaders to order the PA security forces to confiscate weapons from gangsters and militiamen. Abbas and other Palestinian leaders, however, continue to pretend that the major problem currently facing the Palestinians is Israel's elevator for the handicapped.



Some Palestinians believe that the latest wave of violent crime in the West Bank is a sign of what awaits the Palestinians in the post-Abbas era. They fear that tensions among several Palestinian officials who see themselves as natural successors to Abbas could spill into violence, given that many of them have armed their own followers and private militias.

"There is a state of mobilization among a number of influential people in power who aspire to rule after Abbas, and each one of them has his power and [security] apparatus through which they will try to impose themselves," said Atef Udwan, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative council.

"We expect the violence to worsen because matters are not stable. Those who create security chaos in the West Bank do not care about the homeland or the people; they want to achieve personal goals and political influence. The anarchy in the West Bank is a crime that needs to be confronted."

By failing to address the grievances of their people, Palestinian leaders are again proving that their main priorities are preserving their political seats and diverting all rage away from themselves and toward Israel.

For Palestinian leaders, denying Jewish history and heritage is far more important than combating a range of domestic crime that runs wide and deep.

As Palestinians bury the victims of violent crime week after week, Abbas and his officials take step after step to bury their own credibility. The winners? The Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who dream of extending their control from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. This dream, thanks to the lawless and lethal regime of the Palestinian Authority -- funded by the West -- appears closer than ever.

Bassam Tawil, a Muslim Arab, is based in the Middle East.

Imagine if Gulf countries would accept Palestinians as citizens

Imagine if Gulf countries would accept Palestinians as citizens: Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

Imagine if Gulf countries accepted Palestinians as citizens

Elder of Zion :

 If the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and other potential Arab peace partners of Israel would allow Palestinians to become citizens, it would be an even bigger political earthquake than those countries normalizing relations with Israel.

Right now there are 150,000 Palestinian workers in the UAE and about 250,000 in Saudi Arabia, along with at least another 100,000 in other Gulf countries. These countries have huge outside worker populations.

Palestinians are desirable workers. They work harder than Gulf Arabs and are generally better educated. Many of them know Hebrew which will make them more important as Gulf countries slowly normalize with Israel.

If the UAE and Saudi Arabia would announce that they would accept Palestinians as citizens, motivated Palestinians from the territories would move there, as well as many more from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. It would help the Gulf countries’ economies and it would help Palestinians who want to live in s stable Arab land where they can raise their families.

Perhaps most importantly, it would puncture the myth that somehow purposefully keeping Palestinians in a stateless limbo for over seven decades is for their own good.

Once Palestinians are shown to be happy, productive members of the Gulf states, other countries that deny them citizenship like Egypt, Syria and Lebanon would be shown to be mistreating them not out of solidarity but out of bigotry.

The “Palestinian right of return” which has no basis in international law would be exposed as a means of using Palestinians as cannon fodder.

And the Middle East would be that much closer to real peace.

Let’s hope that this is part of the negotiations.

Elderofziyon.blogspot.com

The Israel-UAE Agreement: 30 Years in the Making

The Israel-UAE Agreement: 30 Years in the Making (Daled Amos): Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

By Daled Amos on Elder of Zion

The Israel-UAE agreement has been described as groundbreaking.And rightfully so.

But just for context, how long has this agreement been in the making?

One of the key reasons for this agreement, and for potential Israeli alliances with Arab Gulf states in general, is the need for unity in the face of the common enemy of Iran.

But this is not the first time that Israel and Arab countries found a common enemy in their back yard.

In his book "Personal Witness: Israel Through My Eyes," Abba Eban wrote:

Saudi Arabia, as the pivot of the Desert Storm operation [August 2, 1990 – February 28, 1991], began to see Israel as a fellow victim of Saddam Hussein's Scuds and as a potential collaborator in postwar economic enterprises. A year later, it even proposed a transaction whereby Israel would freeze new settlements and Saudi Arabia would cancel the Arab boycott regulations. If Shamir had accepted this proposal, as any other Israeli prime minister would have done, Israel's economy would have taken a forward leap. (p. 638) [Emphasis added]

That was about 30 years ago.Back then, the common enemy that inspired cooperation was Iraq, not Iran.

Later, the spark that led to the new peace agreement may be a program that was put into action in 2008 in an effort to "rebrand" Israel. The concept was presented that year at the First Nefesh B'Nefesh JBlogging Conference. In an article in The Canadian Jewish News, Ido Aharoni, founder of the ministry’s Brand Israel concept, described how the goal was to focus on the fact that

...aspects of Israel are worthy of promotion, including its culture and arts; its accomplishments on environmental matters such as water desalination, solar energy and clean technology; its high-tech successes and achievements in higher education; and its involvement in international aid, he added.

Getting Canadians – both Jewish and non-Jewish – to see Israel in that light is part of the branding effort. Not only would that change Israel’s image, it could lead to more tourism and investment, educational exchanges and other benefits, Aharoni said.

The idea that rebranding Israel's image could improve its international relations was not mentioned.

Today, we can see that the focus on Israeli accomplishments, especially on water desalination, high-tech successes and involvement in international aid paid off.

The payoff has been more than just good PR. It has led to improved relations with other countries. For example, Netanyahu has developed key alliances with countries in Eastern Europe such as Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia -- known as the Visegrad Group. One benefit these countries get is that good relations with Israel provide a fig leaf protecting them against accusations of antisemitism.

In return, Netanyahu has gained important leverage against the EU:

o  In 2017, Hungary abstained when the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to reject the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

o  Hungary joined the Czech Republic and Romania in blocking a European Union statement criticizing the US for moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.

o  In November 2019, the EU failed to get all of its 28 member states behind a joint statement condemning the US decision to no longer consider Israeli settlements as illegal. Hungary blocked the move. As a result, instead of issuing a joint statement of the entire EU, they had to settle for a statement by then-EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

o  In January of this year, the EU again failed to get a consensus, when it tried to unanimously condemn Trump's peace plan.

o  Hungary and the Czech Republic are also among the countries that will file an amicus brief with the ICC in response to ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's statement last December that there was enough evidence to investigate alleged war crimes by Israel.

Obviously, improving relations and building alliances with Arab countries can bring political dividends, as well as economic -- and of course defense against Iran.

But at the beginning of Trump's term, Arab states in the Gulf were not as open to the idea of Israel-Arab alliances against Iran as they are now.

A February 2017 article in The Wall Street Journal noted that plans for Israel to join an Arab coalition against Iran were limited:

The U.S. would offer military and intelligence support to the alliance, beyond the kind of limited backing it has been providing to a Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, the officials said. But neither the U.S. nor Israel would be part of the mutual-defense pact.

“They’ve been asking diplomatic missions in Washington if we’d be willing to join this force that has an Israeli component,” said one Arab diplomat. “Israel’s role would likely be intelligence sharing, not training or boots on the ground. They’d provide intelligence and targets. That’s what the Israelis are good at.” [Emphasis added]

The article goes on to describe various reasons Arab members of the coalition gave for opposing the idea of including Israel -- reasons that apparently no longer stand in the way:

Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are putting forth their own demands in exchange for cooperating with Israel, officials said. Those two countries want the U.S. to overturn legislation that could see their governments sued in American courts by families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, they said.

Arab diplomats have told administration officials they would pursue more overt cooperation with Israel if it ceases settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem—something Israel refused to do under intense pressure from the Obama administration.

The diplomats also said their countries’ cooperation would be contingent upon the Trump administration refraining from moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, an effective recognition of Israel’s claim to Jerusalem as its capital. In recent weeks, the administration has walked back previous statements supporting settlement construction and moving the embassy. [Emphasis added]

And this was years before the idea of "annexation" was broached.

Seen this way, the agreement between Israel and the UAE is something that Netanyahu has been working towards for years.

Commentator Ehud Yaari also sees this agreement as part of a long term plan, referring to this as The Netanyahu Doctrine:

The "Netanyahu Doctrine," as I understood it from many years ago, says simply - instead of letting Israel drown in negotiations that will not lead to an agreement with the Palestinians, we had better make a bypass, a broad flanking movement, that leaves the Palestinian Authority at the end of the line.

According to Netanyahu's view, and not from today, Israel needs to build its international relationship and then leverage it to create a bridge to Arab countries. This is in order to deprive the Palestinians of the right to veto the attitude of the Arabs and others towards Israel.

In 2009, The Telegraph fretted that Israel's isolation -- from the US in particular -- could drive Israel to do something desperate. The problem was that the Obama administration was concentrating on the Arab world -- "Mr. Obama is attempting to rebuild relations with the Arab world in the wake of the invasion of Iraq."

In the end, Obama's success is questionable at best.

But not to worry.

Israel has lots of friends, with the prospect of making even more in the Arab world.

Champions Academy in Gaza

 

Champions Academy in Gaza. Boys soccer club

Gloria Hotel in Gaza!

 

Gloria Hotel & Restaurant overlooks Gaza beach
Offering the best oriental & western varieties
Warm hospitality
Beautiful scenery
Outstanding services!

Amy Klobuchar: Good for Israel? Best Dem of the Lot?

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PLO diplomat admits, in English, that Palestinians never wanted to live side by side with Israel (video)

PLO diplomat admits, in English, that Palestinians never wanted to live side by side with Israel (video): Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

Black slaves in Palestine

Slavery by Palestinian Arabs continued into the 1950s: Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

France: Police worker who murdered 4 inside Police station was a rabid Islamist.

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Latest Arab lie: "Innocent students being threatened by settlers" Truth: They had knives and were about to attack.

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Work accident! Islamic Jihad member blows himself up

Work accident! Islamic Jihad member blows himself up: Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

:) :)

Arab Migration to the Land of Israel. Ettinger Report

From The Ettinger Report August 30th, 2019 :
http://theettingerreport.com/arab-migration-shaped-palestinian-society/?fbclid=IwAR15DRZBzrnHXvNakKaBXlov0CMvoTRBOVbe6pNWVpbNJIgqSXJ2YOAL0LM

Mahmoud Abbas promotes an egregious historical fabrication, claiming that the Palestinians are descendants of the original Canaanite peoples.

Moreover, Mahmoud Abbas’ school curriculum – which glorifies suicide bombers – reiterates this falsified history.  It claims that the multitude of archeological findings of 3,000 year old Jewish roots in the Land of Israel “constitute an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian heritage…especially in Jerusalem… misrepresenting the city as a Zionist entity….” (6th grade Social Studies volume 1, page 24; 7th grade Social Studies volume 1, pages 61-62).

However, the name “Palestine” is not related to Arab/Muslim culture.  It is a derivative of the Philistine people (Plishtim, Polshim – invaders – in Hebrew), who were expelled from the Greek Aegian Islands in 1300 BC and invaded the southern coast of Judea (Land of Israel) in 1200 BC. In 136 CE – upon crushing the Jewish Bar Kochba rebellion – the Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed Judea, calling it Palestina (a derivative of the Philistines, who were an aggressive enemy of the Jewish people), aiming to erase the Jewish Homeland, Judaism and the Jewish people from human memory.

Contrary to Mahmoud Abbas’ claim, most Arabs in British Mandate Palestine were migrant workers and descendants of the 1832-1947 wave of Arab/Muslim immigration from Egypt, the Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, North Africa, Bosnia, India, Afghanistan, etc.  While the British Mandate encouraged Arab immigration, it blocked Jewish immigration.

The fact that most Palestinians are descendants of Arab migrants was exposed on March 23, 2012 by a former Hamas Minister of the Interior, Gaza-based Fathi Hammad, in an interview with Al Hekmat TV: “We all have Arab roots. Every Palestinian in Gaza and throughout Palestine can prove his Arab roots, whether from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, or anywhere….Half of my family is Egyptian…. More than 30 clans in the Gaza Strip are called Al-Masri (“the Egyptian”). Half of the Palestinians are Egyptians….”

Mark Twain described the state of the sparsely-inhabited Palestine in his 1869 Innocents Abroad: “The hills are barren…. It is a hopeless, dreary, heart-broken land…. Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes…. The hills are barren…. The valleys are unsightly deserts…. Palestine is desolate and unlovely.”

Prof. Moshe Brawer of the Hebrew University, a leading global authority on Israel’s geography, documented the impact of the 1920s and 1930s waves of Arab immigration on the exceptional expansion of Arab villages in the Land of Israel. This followed sustained Arab immigration during the years from 1832-1840 when the Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali Pasha conquered the area (“Immigration as a factor in the growth of the Arab village in the Land of Israel,” Merhavim 2 periodical, 1975).  Following WW1, waves of immigration were triggered by major British Mandate infrastructure construction projects, such as military bases, roads, railroad and warehouses, in addition to the expansion of Jewish commercial agriculture (especially citrus) and residential construction, which created growing demand for labor force.

According to Prof. Brawer, the Arab population growth rate – especially along the coastal plain, which attracted most of the immigrants – was dramatically higher than the natural growth rate (births minus deaths). His findings were consistent with those of the US Biblical geographer, Edward Robinson, the British Palestine Exploration Fund and official documents of the British Mandate.

Thus, between 1880 and 1919, Haifa’s Arab population surged from 6,000 to 80,000, mostly due to migrant workers.  The eruption of WW2 accelerated the demand for Arab manpower by the British Mandate’s military and civilian authorities.  Beginning in 1882, legal and illegal Arab migrants were, also, attracted by economic growth, generated by the Jewish community.

According to a 1937 report by the British Peel Commission (featured in Prof. Efraim Karsh’s Palestine Betrayed), “during 1922 through 1931, the increase of Arab population in the mixed-towns (including many Arab immigrants) of Haifa, Jaffa and Jerusalem was 86%, 62% and 37% respectively, while in purely Arab towns (very few Arab migrants) such as Nablus and Hebron it was only 7% and a decrease of 2 percent in Gaza.”  The 1831-1947 wave of Arab immigration triggered dramatic growth of the Arab populations of Jaffa (17 times), Haifa (12 times) and Ramla (5 times).

In 1917, the Arabs of Jaffa represented at least 25 nationalities, mostly Egyptians, but also Syrians, Yemenites, Persians, Afghanis, Hindus and Baluchis.  The British Palestine Exploration Fund documented a proliferation of Egyptian neighborhoods in the Jaffa area: Abu Kebir, Sumeil, Sheikh Munis, Salame’, Fejja, etc. Hundreds of Egyptian families settled in the inland, in Ara’ Arara’, Kafer Qassem, Taiyiba and Qalansawa.

In 1865, the British traveler, H.B. Tristram, documented in The Land of Israel: a journal of travels in Palestine, Egyptian migrants in the Beit-Shean Valley, Acre, Hadera, Netanya and Jaffa.

Arieh Avneri, a ground-breaking historian of Arab and Jewish migration, documented 205,000 Moslems, Christian and Jews in 1554, 275,000 in 1800 and 532,000 in 1890, the result of accelerated Arab immigration (The Claim of Dispossession, 1980).

In conclusion, Arabs have not been in the Land of Israel (Palestine) from time immemorial; Palestine’s strategic location has attracted waves of Arab immigration, but has no Arab roots; no Palestinian people was ever robbed of its land; there is no basis for an Arab “claim of return”; and the pursuit of peace must dwell on reality, while rejecting misrepresentations, falsifications, hate-education and wishful-thinking.

http://theettingerreport.com/arab-migration-shaped-palestinian-society/?fbclid=IwAR15DRZBzrnHXvNakKaBXlov0CMvoTRBOVbe6pNWVpbNJIgqSXJ2YOAL0LM