[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> Corporate America and Israeli Occupation

[WoNereH@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/3/02 9:09:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time, gashgirl@systemx.autonomous.org writes:
> .  In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that power, for a multitude
> of reasons, has been unjustly mobilized to help sustain 35 years of an
> illegal Israeli military and economic domination of the Palestinian
> people.


Unfortunately, Mr. Bahour's entire premise is based on this one false belief, or at the least, this completely one-sided version of the middle east situation.  For instance, he does not even consider that Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., two thousand years before the rise of Islam.  Or, more to the point, Arab refugees in Israel didn't even begin identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people until 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel. 

Perhaps one should also note that since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C.E. the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no more than 22 years.  The so-called Palestinians are therefore the ones inhabiting Israeli land, not the other way around.

The Palestinians *religious* argument doesn't take into account that for over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital.  Jerusalem has NEVER been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not even come to visit there!

As for the Jew's claim to the land, besides the fact that they have always lived there, and fought and died for it many many times over, Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures while Jerusalem is not even mentioned once in the Koran. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem. 

In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. The Jewish refugees were FORCED to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms. 

Arab refugees were intentionally not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands.  In fact, the Arab leaders have not even ALLOWED the Palestinians to build permanent housing in the so-called Palestinian territory because they are only interested in the Land of Israel, not the so-called occupied territory. 

The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.  Those that call it *occupied territory* never mention this.  Besides which, the P.L.O.'s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.  Meanwhile, Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them with weapons. 

The reality is, Israel is the dividing line between fanatical Islam like that practiced in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, where women are not allowed any freedoms and homosexuals are put to death, and the West's notions of a free society.  The children of Europeans will pay greatly if Israel falls, because European culture is also against Islam.  The obviousness of this only shows how foolish and ignorant people are who put their prejudices above their own well-being.

Debra Swan