Who Stole the Land of Israel?
Why do the anti-Zionists feel that a thousand-year old claim by Arabs who were
never ruled by Arab Palestinians has legitimacy, while a 1,900-year claim by
Jews to the land should be rejected as absurd?
So let us see if we have this straight. The anti-Zionists claim that the Jews
have no right to the land of Israel
because before Israel
was re-created in 1948, Israel
re-assumed its sovereignty on May 15,
1948, but it was reconstituted in 1920 under international law and
treaties, with the British as trustee for the Jews to promote Jewish
immigration, until the Jews comprise a majority. It had been almost 1,900 years
since the last time that the Jewish people exercised sovereignty over the Land
of Israel. And the anti-Zionists
claim that it is absurd to argue that anyone still has rights to land that was
last governed with sovereignty 1,900 years ago. They forget to mention that
Jews were always residing in Israel
and in varying population census.
And on what basis do they argue that the Arabs have some legitimate claim to
these same lands? On the basis of the claim that the various Arab-Muslims
rulers last exercised sovereignty as an occupier over that land 1,000 years
ago.
Are you all with me? 1,900 year-old-claims by the Jews are inadmissible.
Thousand-year-old of numerous rulers, that the Arab-Muslim claims trump them
and are indisputable.
Now let us emphasize that even the thousand-year-old Arab claim is not the same
thing as a claim on behalf of Arab/Palestinian [sic] Arabs. After all, the last
time that Arab/Palestinians held sovereignty or control over the lands of “Palestine”
aka The Land of Israel was … never. There has never been an Arab Palestinian
state in Palestine aka The Land of Israel.
“Ever”.
It is true that various Arab rulers once exercised its occupation and control
over parts or all of historic Palestine
– Israel. There
were small Nomadic kingdoms in the south of “Palestine”
already in late Biblical days, and they were important military and political
allies of the Jews, who exercised sovereignty for over 1,000 years back then in
the Land of Israel,
which extended all the way to Mesopotamia. After the
rise of Islam, historic “Palestine”
was for a time indeed an occupied part of a larger numerous ruling Arab-Muslim
kingdoms or caliphate. But that ended in 1071 CE, when Palestine
aka The Land of Israel came under the rule of the Seljuk Turks and shortly
afterwards by the Crusaders for about 200 years.
That was the last time Palestine
had an Arab-Muslim occupier and ruler. After that, it was always occupied and
ruled by a long series of Ottomans, Mamluks, other Turks, Crusaders, British,
and — briefly — French. And in any case, why does the fact that Palestine once
was occupied by a larger Arab-Muslim empire make it any more “Arab” than the
fact that it also was once part of larger Roman, Greek, Persian, Turkish, or
British empires? Now it is true that historic Palestine
aka The Land of Israel probably once had a population majority who were Arab
Muslims and Christians, but today it has a population majority who are Jews.
So if population majorities are what determine legitimacy of sovereignty, Israel
is at least as legitimate as any other country.
So why exactly do the anti-Zionists claim that a thousand-year old claim by
various Arab-Muslims who were never ruled or occupied by Arab-Palestinians has
any legitimacy, while a 1,900-year legitimate claim by Jews to its own
historical ancestral land should be rejected as absurd, even though the Supreme
Allied Powers after WWI had signed a treaty that guaranteed Palestine as the
land for the Jewish National Home (The British in violation of international
law and treaties reallocated about 80% of Jewish land east of the Jordan River
to the new Arab state of Transjordan, which received its independence in 1946).
These terms were confirmed by the 1920 treaty of Sevres and Lausanne,
including the 1919 Faisal Weitzman Agreement. (The Supreme Allied Powers also
allocated over 5 million square miles to the Arabs). These treaties were
incorporated by the 52 members of the League of Nations,
which set-up the Mandate for Palestine
to reconstitute the Jewish sovereignty in the land. Immediately after the
British abandoned its obligation and duty, to implement the terms of the
Mandate for Palestine. The United
Nations recognized that the terms of the treaty of Jewish majority has been
reached and granted Israel
sovereignty in 1947?
The anti-Zionists say it is because the thousand-year-old Arab deceptive claim
is more recent than the older legitimate Jewish claim. But if national claims
to lands become more legitimate when they are more recent, then surely the most
legitimate of all is that of the remaining indigenous Jews of Israel, have
absolute right to the lands of Israel, also because it is the most recent!
The other claim by the anti-Zionists is that Jews have no rights to the lands
of Israel
(historic Palestine) because they
moved there from some other places. Now never mind that there was actually
always a Jewish habitation living in the lands of Israel even when it was under
the sovereignty of Romans, Greeks, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Mamluks,
Turks, French or British.
Does the fact that Jews moved to the land
of Israel from other places
disqualify them from exercising sovereignty there? The claim would be absurd
enough even if we were to ignore that fact; that most “Palestinian Arabs” also
moved to Palestine from neighboring
countries, starting in the late nineteenth century. But more generally, does
the fact that peoples that move from one locality to another deprive it of its
claims to its legitimate sovereignty in its new abode? Does this fact
necessitate the conclusion that they need to pack up and leave, as the
anti-Zionists insist?
If it does, then it goes without saying that the Americans and Canadians must
lead the way and show the Israelis the light, by returning all lands that they
seized from the Indians and the Mexicans to their original owners and going
back to whence they came. For that matter, the Mexicans of Spanish ancestry
also need to leave. The Anglo-Saxons, meaning the English, will be invited to
turn the British Isles over to their rightful original
Celtic and Druid owners, while they return to their own ancestral Saxon
homeland in northern Germany
and Denmark.
The Danes of course will be asked to move aside, in fact to move back to their
Norwegian and Swedish homelands, to make room for the returning Anglo-Saxons.
But that is just a beginning. The Spanish will be called upon to leave the Iberian
Peninsula that they wrongfully occupy, and return it to the Celt
Iberians. (The Muslims occupied Spain
for about 700 years, through the late 1400’s, how come they are not demanding Spain
as their land). Similarly the Portuguese occupiers will leave their lands and
return them to the Lusitanian’s. The Magyars will go back where they came from
and leave Hungary
to its true owners. The Australians and New Zealanders obviously will have to
end their occupations of lands that do not belong to them. The Thais will leave
Thailand. The
Bulgarians will return to their Volga homeland and
abandon occupied Bulgaria.
Anyone speaking Spanish will be expected to end his or her forced occupation of
Latin America. It goes without saying that the French
will lose almost all their lands to their rightful owners. The Turks will go
back to Mongolia
and leave Anatolia altogether, returning it to the
Greeks. The Germans will go back to Got land. The Italians will return the boot
to the Etruscans and Greeks.
Ah, but that leaves the Arabs. First, all of northern Africa,
from Mauritania
to Egypt and Sudan,
will have to be immediately abandoned by the illegal Arab occupiers and
squatters, and returned to their lawful original Berber, Punic, Greek, and
Vandal owners. Occupied Syria
and Lebanon
must be released at once from the cruel occupation of the Arab imperialist
aggressors. Iraq
must be returned to the Assyrians and Chaldeans. Southern Arabia
must be returned to the Abyssinians. The Arabs may retain control of the
central portion of the Arabian Peninsula as their
homeland. But not the oil fields.
Oh, and the Arab-Palestinians infiltrators, usurpers and squatters will of
course have to return the lands they are illegally and wrongfully occupying,
turning them over to their legal and rightful owners, which would of course be
the Jews, who are the only remaining indigenous people!
YJ Draiman
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