Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Propaganda Disguised as "Facts"

I found this here and will deconstruct:-

Ten Facts about the Nakba

1. The Nakba is a root cause of the Israeli/Palestinian problem.

It is marked on May 15, the day after Israel declared its independence in 1948.


Comment:

The root cause of the "Israeli/Palestinian problem" is actually multiple. In 1917 when the Balfour Declaration was made and in 1920 when the San Remo Conference decided to 'reconstitute the Jewish national home' in "Palestine", was there a "Palestinian people" who were exclusively Arabs or were there only Southern Syrians or even just Arabs? If 1948 is connected to the root cause, why did the Arabs kill Jews and pillage them starting in 1920?

2. This traumatic event created the Palestinian refugee crisis.

By the end of 1948, two-thirds of the Palestinian population was exiled. It is estimated that more than 50% were driven out under direct military assault. Others fled as news spread of massacres committed by Jewish militias in Palestinian villages like Deir Yassin and Tantura.


Comment:

The Arab refugee crisis for the UN resolution spoke of "Palestine refugees" not "Palestinian" because the term included thousands of Jews made refugees by Arab aggression. "Exiled" is misleading. Many Arabs displaced due to their attempt to kill Jews and prevent a UN Resolution from being fulfilled moved no more than a few kilometers from their homes and unfortunately, unlike many hundreds of thousands of Jews made refugees from Arab countries, were not rehabilitated or absorbed into their new locations. And the Tantura incident as presented was proven false based on incriminating academic actions taken by Tedy Katz.

3. Jewish leaders saw "transfer" as an important step in the establishment of Israel.

Jewish leaders spoke openly of the need to use military clashes to expel as many Palestinians as possible before other Arab countries could come to their defense. The Haganah militia's Plan Dalet was the blueprint for this ethnic cleansing. Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, said "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." (See what other leading Israelis have said about transfer.)


Comment:

All misleading quotations and in any case, "transfer" was first adopted by Arabs when they attempted to destroy the Jewish community of Tel Hai in March 1920 and the next month, attempted the same in Jerusalem and in May 1921, in Jaffa.

4. Hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed.

Jewish forces depopulated more than 450 Palestinian towns and villages, most of which were demolished.


Comment:

Ethnic cleansing was an Arab innovation and initiative and Jewish villages and communities likewise were destroyed and in Gush Etzion, mass-murder took place by Arab forces.

5. Palestinian property and belongings were simply taken.

The newly-established Israeli government confiscated refugee land and properties without respect to Palestinian rights or desires to return to their homes.

Israeli historian Tom Segev reported that: "Entire cities and hundreds of villages left empty were repopulated with new [Jewish] immigrants... Free people - Arabs - had gone into exile and become destitute refugees; destitute refugees - Jews - took the exiles' places in the first step in their lives as free people. One group [Palestinians] lost all they had while the other [Jews] found everything they needed - tables, chairs, closets, pots, pans, plates, sometimes clothes, family albums, books radios, pets...


Comment:

When you start a war of extinction, don't cry when you lose.

6. Some Palestinians stayed in what became Israel.

While most Palestinians were driven out, some remained in what became Israel. Although citizens of the new state, they were subject to Israeli military rule until 1966. Today, Palestinian citizens of Israel comprise nearly 20 percent of Israel's population. They have the right to vote and run for office, but more than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. Nearly one-quarter of Israel's Palestinians are "internally displaced" persons, unable to return to the homes and lands that were taken from them.


Comment:

First of all, in 1948, almost 500,000 "Palestinian citizens" also became citizens of Israel quite willingly - the Jews of the Mandate. Arabs can vote, serve in the army, etc., something Jews cannot do in Jordan, oops, Jews can't even reside in Jordan even though it was part of the original Mandate territory scheduled to become the Jewish national home.

7. There are still millions of Palestinian refugees dispersed around the world.

Today, there are 4.4 million Palestinian refugees registered as such with the United Nations, and at least another estimated 1 million who are not so registered. Thus a majority of the Palestinian people, around 10 million persons, are refugees.

Comment:

No they aren't. They can call themselves 'exiles' if they want but not refugees.

8. Refugees have internationally-recognized rights.

All refugees enjoy internationally-recognized rights to return to areas from which they have fled or were forced out, to receive compensation for damages, and to either regain their properties or receive compensation and support for voluntary resettlement. This right has been explicitly acknowledged in recent peace agreements in Cambodia, Rwanda, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guatemala, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Burundi, and Darfur. This right was affirmed for the Palestinians by the United Nations Resolution 194 of 1948. Israel, however, does not allow Palestinian refugees to return, although a Jew from anywhere in the world can settle in Israel.

Comment:

There is no such right.

9. Justly resolving refugee rights is essential to Middle East peace.

An overwhelming majority of Palestinians believes that refugee rights must be fulfilled for peace between Palestinians and Israelis to endure. And according to an August 2007 poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, nearly 70 percent believe that refugees should be allowed to return to "their original land".

Comment:

But that is just a ploy. The UN resolution also spoke about resettling and why should the Pals. be the only group to demand only one solution?

10. The Nakba has implications for Americans.

Israel's ongoing denial of Palestinian rights - and unconditional U.S. financial and diplomatic support for Israel - fuels anti-American sentiment abroad. A 2002 Zogby poll, conducted in eight Arab countries showed that "the negative perception of the United States is based on American policies, not a dislike of the West." The same poll showed that "the Palestinian issue was listed by many Arabs among the political issues that affect them most personally." Resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue would undoubtedly improve America's international image, by proving that the U.S. government supports the consistent application of international law.

Comment:

Sure it does as does many other aspects of the conflict.

2 comments:

Suzanne Pomeranz said...

George Antonius, whose book "The Arab Awakening", written in 1938 to explain "Arab Nationalism" to a Western Audience, writes on page 312:

"The year 1920 has an evil name in Arab annals: it is referred to as the Year of the Catastrophe (Am al-Nakba). It saw the first armed uprisings that occurred in protest against the post-War settlement imposed by the Allies on the Arab countries. In that year, serious outbreaks took place in Syria, Palestine and Iraq."

It was because the Palestine mandate was separated from Syria that the "Palestinians" protested. The viewed it as a "Naqba" that their country was defined as "Palestine" and not part of Syria, since they viewed themselves as "Syrians" and REJECTED the term "Palestinian".

Thus, the original "Naqba" was when the identity "Palestinian" was thrust upon the Arabs of Eretz Israel AGAINST THEIR WILL.

And why did they object so vehemently? Because the term "palestinian" had already been used for centuries to identify the JEWS of the region!

That the word is now used against the Jews is obviously only for political expediency, as is, of course, every other comment, idea and purpose of their existence.

Yochanan said...

It's better to transliterate it as "nakba" since the Arabic pronunciation has a regular "k" sound.