The Plight of the Palestinians? Who
is responsible for waging war; creating the refugee problem; and intentionally
prolonging the suffering and refugee status of the Palestinian people.
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MYTH
#179
“Palestinians
no longer object to the creation of Israel.”
FACT
One
of the primary Palestinian obligations under the road
map for peace is to affirm Israel’s right to exist in peace and security.
How then does one interpret Palestinian
Authority Chairman Mahmoud
Abbas’s description (Jerusalem Post, May 15, 2005) of
the decision to create a Jewish state in 1948 as a crime?
While
Israelis were still celebrating the 57th anniversary of their independence,
Abbas and other Palestinians were mourning the establishment of Israel
on what they call Nakba Day. Had the Palestinians and the Arab states
accepted the partition
resolution in 1947, the State of Palestine would have also been celebrating
its birthday, and Palestinians would not be lamenting Al Nakba
(“The Catastrophe”).
Palestinians
are understandably bitter about their history over these last six decades,
but we are often told that what they object to today is the “occupation”
of the territories Israel captured in 1967. If that is true, then why
isn’t their Nakba Day celebrated each June on the anniversary of the Arab
defeat in the Six-Day
War?
The
reason is that the Palestinians consider the creation of Israel the original
sin, and their focus on that event is indicative of a refusal, even today,
to reconcile themselves with the Jewish State. Abbas’s comments on the
occasion, along with those by PA Prime Minister Ahmed
Korei, who said “our wound is still bleeding 57 years later,” hardly
inspires confidence in their willingness to end the conflict with Israel
(Jerusalem Post, May 15, 2005).
And
Hamas,
which has never left any doubt about its refusal to accept Israel’s existence,
said that Israel is a “cancer” and promised to continue fighting “until
the liberation of the last inch of our land and the last refugee heads
back to his home” (AP, May 15, 2005). This is the organization that
could win upcoming elections in the PA and would then presumably have
a greater say in policy toward Israel.
Another
disturbing aspect of Nakba Day was that traffic stopped and people stood
straight and silent as sirens of mourning sounded, intentionally mimicking
the Israeli practice on Holocaust
Remembrance Day. This was an insidious way to make the odious comparison
between the Holocaust
and the creation of Israel.
It
may be that the current leadership does not truly represent the feelings
of the Palestinian people. A May 2005 poll, for example, found that 54
percent of Palestinians are prepared to accept a two-state solution (Jerusalem
Media & Communication Center, May 2-7, 2005). This is a hopeful sign,
however, as long as the Palestinian
Authority treats Israel’s creation as a catastrophe on a par with
the Holocaust,
the prospects for coexistence will remain bleak.
This
article can be found at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf22.html#ppp
Source:
Myths & Facts Online -- A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Mitchell
G. Bard, http://www.JewishVirtualLibrary.org.
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