At first glance, this demand might seem unreasonable or absurd – but it actually has a surprising degree of historical precedent and, had history played out differently, may have allowed the world to avoid the situation which exists today.
The maps below illustrate this point in simple terms (and my apologies to those who prefer a more detailed accounting of history):
▶️ In 1917 the British issued the ‘Balfour Declaration’ indicating their support for a Jewish homeland. Map 1 shows the originally proposed boundaries of this. ️
▶️ In 1922, Britain was granted a ‘mandate’ to control a significant portion of Middle East territory which had formally been part of the Ottoman Empire (which was defeated in WW1) – however, as a result of strong Arab lobbying, the land originally proposed for a Jewish state was reduced by 77% (Map 2) in order to create a Palestinian protectorate known as ‘TransJordan’ (which later became ‘Jordan’). Despite this, the Arab nations still continued to oppose the establishment of a Jewish state.
▶️In 1947, following the atrocities of the Holocaust, the newly formed United Nations voted to establish a Jewish State. However, the surrounding Arab nations attacked Israel when it formally declared independence in 1948 – telling Arabs to flee to the borders until the Israelis were defeated.
▶️Israel won that war and the Arabs who fled (about 80% of them) became the ‘refugees’ in Gaza and the West Bank. These territories then came under the control of Jordan and Egypt (Map 3) – neither of which chose to either assimilate them or create a ‘Palestinian’ state for them.
▶️In 1967, Israel won the 6 Day War, in which they secured their ancient Capital of Jerusalem, took possession of the Sinai Peninsula and became responsible for Gaza and the West Bank. Sinai was subsequently returned to the Egyptians as part of a peace deal in 1982 – but neither Egypt, nor Jordan, have expressed any appetite to reclaim Gaza or the West Bank – a situation which continues to this day.
As such – a simple solution would be to simply re-absorb Gaza back into Egypt. No relocation would be necessary and the Gazans would suddenly have free access to live anywhere in a nation many times larger than Israel, and which shares the same religion.
Or, they could be absorbed into Jordan – a nation which was established to provide a Palestinian homeland over one hundred years ago – the original ‘two state solution’ (a fact which is conveniently ignored by those who use that term today).
Either way – Trump is right. The Palestinians are the responsibility of the Arab nations of the Middle East. Perhaps, for once, we can learn from history?…..
Greg Bouwer writes for the Israel institute of New Zealand. This article was sourced HERE
5 comments:
While this is a proposition that seems to take Israel's right to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Arabs as an unexamined first principle, let's take the idea of relocation to ethnic homelands to its logical conclusion: let's get the Jews out of the West and send them all to Israel. After all, many of them talk so passionately about Israel, far and above how they'd ever talk about the non-Jewish nations they live in. So let's get them all over there ASAP.
Wouldn't that be best for them, to be reunited with their coethnics in the Promised Land? Or maybe that would be counter-productive, given the need to influence Western societies from within and leverage them to achieve Israel's goals, perhaps by way of something like The Israel Institute of New Zealand or AIPAC in the US.
Think about it: there'd be no more need for something called The Israel Institute of New Zealand, for whom this presumably Jewish authors writes, to advocate against Gazans and for Israelis in foreign lands, because they could do it in Israel instead.
Of course, such a policy of ethnic transfer would immediately cause Jews to evoke Nazism or one of the other rhetorical Jewish tropes; put the shoe on the other foot, though, and the same principle is self-evident when it concerns getting Gazans out of Gaza.
Good summary Greg. Of course it won't change the attitudes of the John Mintos of this world who never let history get in the way of a noisy demonstration.
After reading your 'piece', no doubt you'll be happy to move along when a maori says 'get of my historical land'.
Now you've got the intellectual ball rolling Mr/Ms Clairly, lets all just bugger off back to Africa where we started from.
Great Britain had no sovereign rights over Palestine; it had no proprietary interest; it had no authority to dispose of the land, yet on November 2, 1917, Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary, conveyed the following pledge in a public letter to a prominent British Zionist, Lord Walter Rothschild: His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.
This British Empire statement inaugurated Zionism’s legitimation and has been called the single most destructive political document on the Middle East in the 20th century, or the 'original sin' against the Palestinian Arabs.
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