Jews are neither occupiers nor illegal settlers in Israel or Judea and Samaria (West Bank)!
Jews existed there in ancient times, long before Islam or Christianity. Even the word „Palestine“ is a derivative of a Hebrew word: „Peleshet“. It was first used in the Septuagint (“Greek Old Testament“), and merely denotes a geographical area without reference to any specific group of people. After the banishment of the Jews, the provinces of Judea and Galilee were renamed Palestine by the Romans in order to erase Jewish history.
Thus, a singular Palestinian people is an invention originating from a foreign source. The Palestinian people as we know it today was invented in 1967. Before then, there was no Palestinian language, no independent Palestinian culture, no Palestinian state and no Palestinian people. There were only people of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds who were united merely by the fact that they lived in a geographical area called Palestine. Until the mid-20th century, the designation „Palestinian“ was actually a synonym for „Jew“! In the forties of the previous century, there was a Palestinian orchestra in Jerusalem, whose members, without exception, were Jews. So how could it happen that a Palestinian nation is now characterized as non-Jewish?
To clarify this question one must first remember that the greater part of Palestine lies in present-day Jordan. Palestine also includes Golan, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, along with areas of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Present day Israel makes up only a very small part of Palestine. Whether they are Jordanians, Israelis, Arabs, Jews, Christians or Muslims, all of those living within the territory of Palestine are Palestinians. In the 20th century, the Jews were expelled from a group who then redefined themselves as “true” Palestinians.
After the First World War and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the territory of Palestine was orphaned. After a short time, the territory was then administered by the League of Nations. All people living in the area were called Palestinians whether they were Christian, Muslim, Jewish or pagan. Today, Palestine is divided up into several different countries. However, only one country is democratic: Israel! In 1948, Israel was founded by mostly Jewish Palestinians. They believed in the establishment of a peaceful democracy in the Middle East. In the Declaration of Independence, the nation of Israel extended its hand “to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.“
On the day on which that statement was broadcast, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria advised Arabs to leave that part of Palestine in order that their armies may annihilate the new nation and make way for a victorious return. 500.000 people left Israel, however 160,000 Arabs accepted Israel’s offer to all people within the new boundaries to remain and live free lives in democracy and self-determination. Today, about 20 percent of all Israeli citizens are Arabs with full and equal rights. The Israelis are therefore the freest Palestinians in the world!
They are the only Palestinians who have a prime minister who is elected legitimately within a democracy. Although Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005, his legislatorial period ended on 9 January 2009. Since then, he holds no legitimate power. Jordan is a monarchy with Islam as the state religion based on Sharia law. Jordan cannot possibly be considered a democratic nation, alone for the fact that Palestinians who are not Muslims are second-class citizens according to law. In Syria, disenfranchised Palestinians are held in camps. In January 2014, the Syrian army encircled one of those camps and let the Palestinians starve. In Gaza, Hamas rules. They were elected, but right after the elections they initiated a program of state terror. Hamas prevails in Gaza without legitimacy. Nowhere are Palestinians so brutally suppressed as in Gaza. All the horror is expressed in the Hamas Charter, in which Article 7 proclaims:
„The Prophet, Allah – bless him and grant him salvation – has said: ‘The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight and kill the Jews. If a Jew will hide behind stones and trees, the stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’“
Hamas stated that one can not be Palestinian and Jewish, just as the Nazis once claimed that it’s not possible to be Jewish and German. Hamas allows its ministers to hold speeches in the style of Joseph Goebbels. On February 28, 2010, the deputy minister of Hamas‘ Ministry of Religious Endowments, Abdallah Jarbu, reiterated Hamas’ principle views:
“Jews want to present themselves to the world as if they have rights, but, in fact, they are foreign bacteria – a microbe unparalleled in the world. It’s not me who says this. The Koran itself says that they have no parallel: ‘You shall find the strongest men in enmity to the believers to be the Jews.’ May He annihilate this filthy people who have neither religion nor conscience. I condemn whoever believes in normalizing relations with them, whoever supports sitting down with them, and whoever believes that they are human beings. They are not human beings. They are not people. They have no religion, no conscience, and no moral values.”
That speech would have made Adolph Hitler proud. Just as Hitler once wanted to “free” the German people from the Jews, there are efforts underway today to rid Palestine of Jews.
In the first half of the 20th century, there were many Jewish settlements in Europe. They were called shtetl. For the Nazis, however, these shtetl were illegal Jewish settlements that were to be destroyed along with most of the Jewish population in Europe. The Nazis declared, Jews couldn’t be Germans, by declaring it a racial identity, long after the Jews had already settled in Germany. It’s no coincidence that today Hezbollah and Hamas salute each other with outstretched arms as the Nazis did. The United Nations ignorantly looks on and the European Union even funds this madness.
Ultimately, the Nazis failed in their attempt to rid Europe of Jews. Hamas, however, has had partial successes. By the morning of September 12, 2005, every Jew was expelled from that area of Palestine called the Gaza Strip. After the last Jew crossed the Kissufim border, the event was celebrated frenetically by many Arabs with gun shots and motorcades. The abandoned synagogues were torched in a “Kristallnacht 2.0″. Soon after, intensive violence erupted between Arab klans and also between Hamas and Fatah, whereby several hundred Arab civilians lost their lives. Since the expulsion of Jews from Gaza, Israel has continuously, and even on a daily basis, been bombarded with rockets. Ever since, Gaza has been in decline on all fronts.
In the Middle East, the situation for Jews is similar now as it was in old Europe. Although Jews lived in Palestine long before there was Islam, Muslims consider Jews to be illegal settlers in the Middle East. European politicians, who share that rhetoric, have forgotten that their ancestors used the same trick to banish Jews from European cities and regions, although Jews lived in Europe before German and French identities were even invented.
„Why is it so beautiful on the Rhine?“ Jews, enjoying the local wine, asked themselves that question long before Christians and Germans even existed. Nevertheless, they were later expelled by Germans and Christians as squatters and their significance for European culture was negated. However, the Jews are the less illegal in Europe and Germany then as they are today in the Middle East. European politicians forget that fact when they repeat the rhetoric of “illegal settlers” in Judea and Galilee.
Muslims can reside anywhere in Jerusalem. They are not a barrier to peace! Jews, however, who build houses and reside in Jerusalem, are supposedly an obstacle to peace! Why that? In many countries of the world there are Jewish settlements and neighborhoods. In Germany, there are some urban neighborhoods which are predominantly Jewish, Muslim or Christian. Very few see these groups as obstacles to peace. They are seen rather as cultural assets which promote diversity, tolerance and acceptance and as embodiments of peaceful coexistence. In Cologne, there is the predominantly Muslim Keupstrasse and in Paris the Marais in the third and fourth arrondissement, a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. In Israel there are several Muslim quarters and settlements. Nearly twenty percent of Israelis are Muslims. For Israel, Muslim settlements within and without Israel are not obstacles to peace! However in the minds of many Arab extremists and a frightening number of Westerns, the very existence of Jews already represents a barrier to peace.
Jewish settlements are an obstacle to peace for those who want to be free of Jews. Quite the opposite is true; for peace with Jews, Jewish settlements are a necessary prerequisite!
Why should only the Jewish settlers be seen as illegal, but not the Arab ones? They’re not! Those who are convinced that Jewish settlers are the main problem in the Middle East should just replace the word „Jewish“ with „Muslim“, „Christian“ or „Arab“ in order to contemplate why, among all the settlers in Judea and Samaria, only the Jewish settlers should be the problem.
Mr. Obama, why do you say that there should be places in the world where Jews have no business to be, and that their very existence is illegal?
(Translation: William Wires)