Myths of palestine

Israel & Palestine Forum

Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda and Information, said that a big lie that is told often enough and long enough will eventually be accepted as truth. With cooperation from the world's media, coupled with ignorance, apathy, and anti-Semitism among the nations, Israel is being presented as a giant Goliath killing little Davids who are only armed with stones. There would be peace in the Middle East if only Goliath Israel would agree to little David's demand for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. This is one of the many lies constantly repeated to the uninformed West. The purpose of this presentation is to expose some of the myths (read that big lies) regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict.
history of palestine palestine history history of israel and palestinians.

Myth #1 - The Myth of Palestine

In an article entitled, "The Lesson of Palestine," printed in the Middle East Journal, October 1949, Arab activist, Musa Alami, wrote, "how can people struggle for their nation, when most of them do not know the meaning of the word? … The people are in great need of a "myth" of imagination. The myth of nationality would create "identity" and "self-respect."
The Arab world has certainly demonstrated great skill in the "myth" of imagination. They have done such a good job that they have convinced much of the world that their "myths" are facts. Perhaps their biggest myth is the myth of Palestine. The Arab world would have us believe that the Palestinians have been in "Palestine" from "time immemorial" but were displaced by the Jews when Israel became a state in 1948. But what are the facts?
While we are not certain of the exact dates, Joshua conquered the Land God promised the Jews in the 13th century BCE. King David established Jerusalem as the capital of Israel around 1000 BCE. King Solomon built the Jewish Temple about 960 BCE. This was almost 1000 years before the beginning of Christianity and 1600 years before the rise of Islam. As Prime Minister Barak has noted, "When Jesus came to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts, he didn't come to a church or a mosque, he came to the Temple." It is not the Church Mount or the Mosque Mount that is fought over, it is the Temple Mount. It was the Temple Mount centuries before Christianity tried to make it the Church Mount and Islam tried to make it the Mosque Mount.

However, not to be confused with facts, in a personal audience I had several years ago with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who was appointed by Arafat, he boldly declared that the Arabs had been living in the Land for 10,000 years. Based on conservative Bible chronology, that means the Arabs have been living in the Land before the Almighty created Adam and Eve.

How did Israel become Palestine and who are the Palestinians? The second Jewish war with the Romans took place in 132-135 CE. Led by Rabbi Akiva and Simon bar Kochba, the Jewish uprising was crushed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian who sought to de-Judaize Jerusalem and make it a pagan city. Hadrian renamed Jerusalem "Aelia Capitolina" in honor of Jupiter. He changed the name of Judea and gave it the name of the Jews ancient enemy, the Philistines. He called it -- Palestine.

Over time, Palestine was ruled by the Roman Byzantines (312-637) [Persian interrupt 614-629], Omayyad Arabs (638-750), Islamic Abbassid's (750-1099), Crusaders (1099-1291) [Saladin the Kurd interrupt 1187-93], Mamluks (1291-1516), Ottoman Turks (1517-1917), and the British Mandate (1917-1948). None of these rulers established a sovereign state in the Land and Jerusalem was never the capital of any empire since the time of King David. Palestine was a forgotten desolate, wasteland, but historical records show there was always a Jewish presence in the Land.



The Jewish pioneers did not steal the Land from the Arabs. They purchased the Land at highly inflated prices from absentee landlords living outside the Land. As the Jews worked the Land, it began to prosper. While there were Jews and Arabs living in the Land, there were many poor migrant Arab farm workers in the surrounding Arab countries who needed work. When they heard that the Land was prospering under the hand of the Jews, they migrated to Palestine to get work from the Jews. Furthermore, the British allowed many thousands of Arabs into Palestine illegally while barring the Jews from entering the Land. For the most part, the Arab Palestinians are these peasant farm workers and illegal aliens. "Palestinians" have never been a distinct people, they have never had a sovereign land called Palestine, Jerusalem has never been their capital, there is no Palestinian language or culture, and there is no Palestinian people. It is a myth created after the Jews liberated Jerusalem in 1967.

Before the birth of the State of Israel, Arab leaders themselves denied the existence of an Arab country called Palestine. In 1937, Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi said, "There is no such country [as Palestine]! 'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. 'Palestine" is alien to us; it is the Zionists who introduced it." In 1946, a distinguished Princeton professor and Arab historian said, "There is no such thing as Palestine in Arab history, absolutely not."

All who lived in the Land, Jews, Arabs, and Christians, were called Palestinians. In fact, the Jerusalem Post was called the Palestinian Post. Under the British Mandate, the Palestinian Jews were given a state. But before this state came into existence, Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, in 1922, took away seventy-seven percent of the geographic area promised to the Jews and created Transjordan as a state for the Palestinian Arabs. Israel would be for the Palestinian Jews and Transjordan (now Jordan) for the Palestinian Arabs.

Israel became a state in the War of Independence in 1948. At that time, approximately 600,000 Arabs fled to become refugee pawns in the hands of neighboring Arab states. Some number of Arabs stayed to become Israeli citizens. While we certainly sympathize with the plight of the Arab refugees, their problems could easily be solved if their Arab brothers cared enough to assimilate them as the Jews did their own 800,000 immigrants who were kicked out from the Arab countries.

Question: Wasn’t Palestine always an Arab country?

Answer: Palestine was never an exclusively Arab country. No independent Arab or Palestinian state ever existed in Palestine. Palestine is never explicitly mentioned in the Koran. In 1937, a local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, told the Peel Commission, which suggested the partition of Palestine: “There is no such country as Palestine! Palestine is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria.”

Palestinian Arab nationalism is largely a post-World War I phenomenon that did not become a significant political movement until after the 1967 Six-Day War and Israel’s capture of Judea and Samaria.


Question: Did the Zionists make any effort to compromise with the Arabs?

Answer: Chaim Weizmann considered the task important enough to lead a Zionist Commission to Palestine to explain the movement’s aims to the Arabs. Weizmann went first to Cairo in March 1918 and met with Syrian Arab nationalists who had been chosen by the British as representatives. He stressed the desire to live in harmony with the Arabs in a British Palestine.

From 1923- 1948 Zionist leaders inside and outside Palestine tried repeatedly to negotiate with the Arabs. Similarly, Israeli leaders since 1948 have sought peace treaties with the Arab states, but Egypt and Jordan are the only nations that have signed them.

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The residents of Palestine are called "Palestinians". Since Palestine includes both modern day Israel and Jordan both Arab and Jewish residents of this area were referred to as "Palestinians".

It was only after the Jews re-inhabited their historic homeland of Judea and Samaria, that the myth of an Arab Palestinian nation was created and marketed worldwide. Jews come from Judea, not Palestinians. There is no language known as Palestinian, or any Palestinian culture distinct from that of all the Arabs in the area. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. "Palestinians" are Arabs indistinguishable from Arabs throughout the Middle East. The great majority of Arabs in greater Palestine and Israel share the same culture, language and religion.

Much of the Arab population in this area actually migrated into Israel and Judea and Samaria from the surrounding Arab countries in the past 100 years. The rebirth of Israel was accompanied by economic prosperity for the region. Arabs migrated to this area to find employment and enjoy the higher standard of living. In documents not more than hundred years, the area is described as a scarcely populated region. Jews by far were the majority in Jerusalem over the small Arab minority. Until the Oslo agreement the major source of income for Arab residents was employment in the Israeli sector. To this day, many Arabs try to migrate into Israel with various deceptions to become a citizen of Israel.

you wat you m8. palestine was there B4 israel, the israeli state only came in exsistance 40 years ago when the palestinians gave them space to stay and then the jewish traitors started killing the muslims claiming that gaza was theres. your the f**king terrorists b**ch

in fact palestinian were aware of their identity before rise of zionism, and was strenghtened by the escape of zionism.

"Important though Zionism was in the formation of Palestinian identity -- as the primary 'other' faced by the Palestinians for much of this century -- the argument that Zionism was the main factor in provoking the emergence of Palestinian identity ignores one key fact: a universal process was unfolding in the Middle East during this period, involving an increasing identification with the new states created by the post-World War I partitions."
1997 Rashid Khalidi

rise of nationalist ideology started in 19th century in europe and influenced both zionism (which was influenced by anti-semitic sentiments in europe) and palestinian nationalism.

This kind of crap helps nobody. All it does if fuel the arguments of extremists.

Until the mass immigration to what is now Israel of European and American Jews in the early 20th century Arabs and Jews had shared the 'holy lands' in relative peace for a long, long time.

The hardcore religious nationalist jewish settlers in the West Bank/Judea and Samaria hold the state of Israel to ransom threatening civil war if any attempt is made to evict them. The judiciary and government of Israel have also been complicit in helping them them over the years - the average sentence for a settler who murders a palestinian is 3 years - many only receive community service - and they receive 3 times as much public money as those Israelis who live inside the green line. They also have a fair bit of support in Israel proper and wield a power disproportionate to their numbers which makes it very difficult for any Israeli government to act against them even if they wanted to. They are dragging the state of Israel to the moral depths and are endangering it's future.

Regardless of the ancient history, much of which is open to question unless you're a religious fundamentalist, the Palestinian people are being treated brutally, with arbitrary detention without trial, no proper legal recourse for their mistreatment by the jewish settlers and the army that protects them, and in Gaza they are being starved to death for the actions of a few extremists. This is called collective punishment and it is illegal.

Both peoples deserve to live in peace and security.

The fundamentalists on both sides have too much power.

..... and supplemental point 4). The international United Nations decreed that Israel should exist for the Jews

Never in recorded history was there a "palestinian state" nor a "palestinian people". It is ironic, that the "palestinian people" and their "Arab brothers" defied the UN first and rejected the original "two state solution"...with the invasion of five Arab armies od the newly partitioned Former British Mandate in Palestine.

Now these folks invoke UN resolutions and international law.

Nation states gain "effective control" and thus international recognition in ONE way since the dawn of time....war.

This war is done and the Arabs have lost.

As my grandfather a english soilder in israel with the British Mandate 1945-1947 he always told me about how the poor arabs from lebanon and damesque were comming to israel to be farm workers for the israelis and the jews that were left in europe had been held from entring israe. all his life until he died in 1997 my grandfather felt that the we the british created the problem and he always believed that there was never a country , a state, songs, food, or even tradition that is palestinian. these people that calle themself palestinians are actualy arabs from the area. thats all. and the arab leaders use them against israel and i do feel sorry for them but lets face it isral belong to the jews and thats it. no other people but muslim have aproblem with this. the muslim should learn to love their children and then maybe the can learn to live in peace.