"The war will give us the land. The concepts of 'ours' and 'not ours' are only concepts for peacetime, and during war they lose all their meaning." David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel
The Palestinian literature we are reading often has as a reference point the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the loss of Palestinian land, and the Palestinian refugee crisis. Under the British "mandate" or colonial rule of Palestine (Trans-Jordan) the British supported Jewish immigration, many escaping terrible persecution in Europe. (Many Jewish refugees were turned away from European countries and the United States, and returned to Germany where they died in extermination camps.)
From 1936-39 Arabs in Palestine revolted and were brutally suppressed by the British and Jewish auxiliary troops, and "Special Night Squads" attacked Palestinian villages. By 1947-48 there was civil war in Palestine, and when David Ben-Gurion, a Zionist leader, proclaimed the state of Israel in May of 1948 troops from the surrounding Arab league countries invaded. Eventually Jewish troops prevailed and something over 700,000 Palestinians became refugees, and many Palestinian villages were destroyed.
Today, nearly sixty years later, the Palestinian refugee problem has not been solved and 5 million Palestinians live as refugees, stateless, and lacking citizenship in any country. 8 million Palestinians live directly or indirectly under Israeli military occupation in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and in Israel.
5 comments:
Wow! I didn't know the Jewish refugees had been turned away from European countries and the United States. It's pretty scarey to think about how long this war and unrest in the Midle East. I think this information will help me next term in my World History class.
Is the goverment there or here trying to do anything about the refugees? It's sad that it has taken so long and still nothing has been done about the Refugees.
Interesting quote by the first prime minister of Israel. Not necessarily a good way to start out a peaceful relationship but again that was not his agenda.
I knew a girl in high school who vary Jewish and was very out spoken for Israel. She used to wear shirts with "support Israel" slogans and what not. I had no idea what any of it meant at the time, but in retrospect I wonder if she really understood the situation either (She was American). I feel that the whole thing was never cut and dry.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1668481,00.html
When I was looking at your blog, I saw the Time cover. I went to Time's website, just out of curiosity because this is one of my favorite magazines and I hadn't been to their website. On the main page, i saw an article that immediately caught my eye. I feel like it pertains to our class because of the way it addresses the way Middle Easterners are treated in the West. Just thought you might enjoy it!
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