As I was preparing my lecture on Israel–listen live tonight, I wanted to try to find an apt comparison to demonstrate just how small Israel is. A quick Google search revealed a great site: IRIS.ORG.IL (IRIS stands for “Information Regarding Israel’s Security”) that has great comparative maps.
Here’s the pick of the litter:
How Big is Israel–A Special Map for Americans:
How Big is Israel–a Special Map for Canadians:
How Big is Israel–a Special Map for Arabs:
Actually, the Arab World is so big, it won’t even fit in my blog window! You can click on the map to see the original, if you like. No wonder the Arab world had so much trouble accommodating the Palestinian refugees. Where would they all fit?
(IRIS also has a decent BLOG, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to leave a comment on some of their more interesting posts. If you manage to do so, let me know how!)
Have you ever stopped to think that maybe its the forced expulsion of native inhabitants that riled the locals? Perhaps they were not keen on colonial powers coming into their homes and giving it away as if they had any jurisdiction. This attempt to diminish a valid claim of injustice simply by basing land mass controlled by other people with similar linguistic and cultural backgrounds shows a dire misunderstanding of the last 60 year in human history.
There was no forced expulsion. This thesis has been more than sufficiently falsified. Furthermore, Arabs in Israel have more rights and live voluntarily and far more happily in Israel that they do in any Arab country.
So the 700,000 refugees that filed with the United Nations in 1948 do not exist?
Benny Morris, an Israeli Historian, has written extensively on the issue and even he agrees that there was a forced expulsion of Arabs by groups like the Irgun, Haganah and Stern gang.
“Morris argues that the 700,000 Palestinians who fled their homes in 1947 left mostly due to Israeli military attacks, but also due to fear of impending Israeli attack, fear of being caught up in fighting, and expulsions”
The book shows a map of 228 empty Palestinian villages, and attempts to explain why the villagers left. In 41 villages, he writes that the inhabitants were expelled by military forces; in another 90 villages, that the inhabitants panicked because of attacks on other villages, and fled
Then when the citizens attempted to come back to their homes when the fighting had ended they were blocked by the same gangs that forced them out. Israel then passed the “Absentee’s Property Laws” which stated that any Arab home found empty now belonged to the state of Israel.
So please, explain to me how this is false?
One more thing: Do some research on Discrimination against Israeli-Arabs. There are documented cases (by the Israeli and American Media) in which Israeli Arabs are treated like 2nd class citizens similar to African Americans prior to 1965.
I didn’t say that there wasn’t a refugee issue in relation to the invasion of Israel by its neighboring Arab states in 1948. There was. It was not mainly the fault of Israel, however, but rather of the Arab invaders. (I will concede that there were cases of Israeli action as well, but my goodness, do you not know what a *war* is?) Ultimately the point is that it was the Arabs who invaded, and created the war from which the refugees fled.
Still, based on the evident gulf between our two views it’s obvious that nothing I write here will change your point of view. If you are aware of some of the claims against the Jews in relation to the Arab refugees, then you must also be aware of the conflicting historiographical tradition, and in your evaluation, one side presents a more compelling argument than the other. Based on your avatar, it’s pretty obvious which that is.
My avatar is satire of the bomb scare in Boston over glow in the dark cartoon signs from a summer or two ago and has absolutely nothing to due with the topic at hand.
I disagree. It’s a reflection of what you think is important, i.e. how you think. It is completely consonant with the “about” section on your blog where you describe yourself in racial terms, state that you are “disenfranchised,” and don’t seem to have a clue that you are living in the best country in the world. All your blog material also has a single slant: attacking the West. We’re done here.
Ever considered he roughly equal number of Jewish refugess expelled by the Arabs post 1948 -Edmund ?
Do me a favour – press the button.