Changes

At the time, Head of [[Muslim Brotherhood]] [[Hassan al-Banna]] declared: "If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea"<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1948/08/02/archives/aim-to-oust-jews-pledged-by-sheikh-head-of-moslem-brotherhood-says.html Aim To Oust Jews Pledged By Sheikh; Head of Moslem Brotherhood Says U.S., British 'Politics' Has Hurt Palestine Solution. Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES By Dana Adams Schmidt, Aug. 2, 1948, page 4] ''CAIRO, Egypt, Aug. 1 -- Sheikh Hassan el-Bana, head of the Moslem Brotherhood, largest of the extremist Arab nationalist organizations, declared in an interview today: "If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea ...''</ref>

At the time, Head of [[Muslim Brotherhood]] [[Hassan al-Banna]] declared: "If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea"<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1948/08/02/archives/aim-to-oust-jews-pledged-by-sheikh-head-of-moslem-brotherhood-says.html Aim To Oust Jews Pledged By Sheikh; Head of Moslem Brotherhood Says U.S., British 'Politics' Has Hurt Palestine Solution. Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES By Dana Adams Schmidt, Aug. 2, 1948, page 4] ''CAIRO, Egypt, Aug. 1 -- Sheikh Hassan el-Bana, head of the Moslem Brotherhood, largest of the extremist Arab nationalist organizations, declared in an interview today: "If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea ...''</ref>

<blockquote>

<blockquote>

"For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews' return here impossible."</blockquote>

"For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews' return here impossible."</blockquote>

''' Ethnic cleansing: Jews from Arab Muslim lands '''

''' Ethnic cleansing: Jews from Arab Muslim lands '''

Jewish schools must not teach their pupils a one-sided narrative of Palestinian victimhood...

Jewish schools must not teach their pupils a one-sided narrative of Palestinian victimhood...

As many as 870,000 Jews (persecuted by the Arab League as the “Jewish minority of Palestine”) were driven from, or fled, the Arab world at around the same time as the Palestinian refugees — and as a consequence of the same conflict, merely because Jews in Arab lands shared the same religion and ethnicity as Israelis.</i></ref>

As many as 870,000 Jews (persecuted by the Arab League as the “Jewish minority of Palestine”) were driven from, or fled, the Arab world at around the same time as the Palestinian refugees — and as a consequence of the same conflict, merely because Jews in Arab lands shared the same religion and ethnicity as Israelis.</i></ref>

'''Arab Pestinian exodus - pawns'''

'''Arab Pestinian exodus - pawns'''

Thousands of  Palestinian Arabs left their homes in 1947-48 for a variety of reasons.<ref>M Bard, "[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-the-palestinian-refugees Overview of Palestinian Refugees]", JVL.</ref> These refugees <ref>M Bard, "[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-palestinian-refugees The Palestinian Refugees: History & Overview]", JVL</ref> have been used by theirs and by Arab leaders as a weapon against Israel and as scapegoats. Efforts by Israel to improve their conditions have been rejected for decades.

Thousands of  Palestinian Arabs left their homes in 1947-48 for a variety of reasons.<ref>M Bard, "[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-the-palestinian-refugees Overview of Palestinian Refugees]", JVL.</ref> These refugees <ref>M Bard, "[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-palestinian-refugees The Palestinian Refugees: History & Overview]", JVL</ref> have been used by theirs and by Arab leaders as a weapon against Israel and as scapegoats. Efforts by Israel to improve their conditions have been rejected for decades.

The displacement of the 700,000 Arabs who became “refugees”—and I put the term in inverted commas, as two-thirds of them were displaced from one part of Palestine to another and not from their country (which is the usual definition of a refugee)—was not a “racist crime” . . . but the result of a national conflict and a war, with religious overtones, from the Muslim perspective, launched by the Arabs themselves.

The displacement of the 700,000 Arabs who became “refugees”—and I put the term in inverted commas, as two-thirds of them were displaced from one part of Palestine to another and not from their country (which is the usual definition of a refugee)—was not a “racist crime” . . . but the result of a national conflict and a war, with religious overtones, from the Muslim perspective, launched by the Arabs themselves.

</i>

</i>

... Several years ago, I briefly visited the largest refugee camp in the West Bank: Balata, inside the city of Nablus. Many of the camp’s approximately 20,000 residents are the children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren of the Arab citizens of Jaffa who fled their homes in early 1948.

... Several years ago, I briefly visited the largest refugee camp in the West Bank: Balata, inside the city of Nablus. Many of the camp’s approximately 20,000 residents are the children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren of the Arab citizens of Jaffa who fled their homes in early 1948.

For half a century, the United Nations has administered Balata as a quasi-apartheid welfare ghetto. The Palestinian Authority does not consider the residents of Balata citizens of Palestine; they do not vote on municipal issues, and they receive no PA funding for roads or sanitation. The refugee children—though after 60 years, calling young children “refugees” is absurd—go to separate schools run by UNRWA, the UN’s refugee-relief agency. The “refugees” are crammed into an area of approximately one square kilometer, and municipal officials prohibit them from building outside the camp’s official boundaries, making living conditions ever more cramped as the camp’s population grows. In a building called the Jaffa Cultural Center—financed by the UN, which means our tax dollars—Balata’s young people are undoubtedly nurtured on the myth that someday soon they will return in triumph to their ancestors’ homes by the Mediterranean Sea.

For half a century, the United Nations has administered Balata as a quasi-apartheid welfare ghetto. The Palestinian Authority does not consider the residents of Balata citizens of Palestine; they do not vote on municipal issues, and they receive no PA funding for roads or sanitation. The refugee children—though after 60 years, calling young children “refugees” is absurd—go to separate schools run by UNRWA, the UN’s refugee-relief agency. The “refugees” are crammed into an area of approximately one square kilometer, and municipal officials prohibit them from building outside the camp’s official boundaries, making living conditions ever more cramped as the camp’s population grows. In a building called the Jaffa Cultural Center—financed by the UN, which means our tax dollars—Balata’s young people are undoubtedly nurtured on the myth that someday soon they will return in triumph to their ancestors’ homes by the Mediterranean Sea.

In Balata, history has come full circle. During the 1948 war, Palestinian leaders like Haj Amin al-Husseini insisted that the Arab citizens of Haifa and Jaffa had to leave, lest they help legitimize the Jewish state. Now, the descendants of those citizens are locked up in places like Balata and prohibited from resettling in the Palestinian-administered West Bank—again, lest they help legitimize the Jewish state, this time by removing the Palestinians’ chief complaint. Yet there is a certain perverse logic at work here. For if Israel and the Palestinians ever managed to hammer out the draft of a peace treaty, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, would have to go to Balata and explain to its residents that their leaders have been lying to them for 60 years and that they are not going back to Jaffa. Which, to state the obvious again, is one of the main reasons that there has been no peace treaty.</blockquote></ref>

In Balata, history has come full circle. During the 1948 war, Palestinian leaders like Haj Amin al-Husseini insisted that the Arab citizens of Haifa and Jaffa had to leave, lest they help legitimize the Jewish state. Now, the descendants of those citizens are locked up in places like Balata and prohibited from resettling in the Palestinian-administered West Bank—again, lest they help legitimize the Jewish state, this time by removing the Palestinians’ chief complaint. Yet there is a certain perverse logic at work here. For if Israel and the Palestinians ever managed to hammer out the draft of a peace treaty, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, would have to go to Balata and explain to its residents that their leaders have been lying to them for 60 years and that they are not going back to Jaffa. Which, to state the obvious again, is one of the main reasons that there has been no peace treaty.</blockquote></ref> ''The Palestinian national narrative is the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East.''

''The Palestinian national narrative is the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East.''

==External links==

==External links==