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Posted on August 2, 2001
For the moment, let's assume that the Palestinian people should not have a country of their own because they have never had a state, then why should the peoples of Salvador, Guatemala, Congo, Algeria, ... etc. have the right of self determination?
It should be noted that none of these countries had a state prior to gaining independence, nor a distinct language or culture that set them apart from their neighboring states. In other words, even if it's true that the Palestinian people had neither a state, nor a distinct culture or language:
According to historical facts, Zionism, as an ideology, evolved in response to the rise of Europe's nationalism and anti-Semitism in the late 19th century, especially in Tsarist Russia (Pale States), France during the Dreyfus affair, and Germany after WW I.
Similarly, Palestinian nationalism evolved in response to the presence of Zionism in Palestine, and most importantly because of the British intention to turn Palestine into a "Jewish National Home," see the Balfour Declaration for further details. These central facts were well articulated by David Ben-Gurion (Israel's 1st Prime Minister) and Moshe Sharett (Israel's 1st Foreign Minister) on many occasions. For example:
"Everybody sees the problem in the relations between the Jews and the [Palestinian] Arabs. But not everybody sees that there's no solution to it. There is no solution! . . . The conflict between the interests of the Jews and the interests of the [Palestinian] Arabs in Palestine cannot be resolved by sophisms. I don't know any Arabs who would agree to Palestine being ours---even if we learn Arabic . . .and I have no need to learn Arabic. On the other hand, I don't see why 'Mustafa' should learn Hebrew. . . . There's a national question here. We want the country to be ours. The Arabs want the country to be theirs." (One Palestine Complete, p. 116)
On May 27, 1931, Ben-Gurion recognized that the "Arab question" is a
"tragic question of fate" that arose only as a consequence of Zionism, and so was a "question of Zionist fulfillment in the light of Arab reality." In other words, this was a Zionist rather than an Arab question, posed to Zionists who were perplexed about how they could fulfill their aspirations in a land already inhabited by a Palestinian Arab majority. (Shabtai Teveth, p. xii, Preface)
As the number of Jews in Palestine (Yishuv) doubled between 1931-1935, the Palestinian people became threatened with being dispossessed and for Jews becoming their masters. The Palestinian political movement was becoming more vocal and organized, which surprised Ben-Gurion. In his opinion, the demonstrations represented a "turning point" important enough to warrant Zionist concern. As he told Mapai comrades:
". . . they [referring to Palestinians] showed new power and remarkable discipline. Many of them were killed . . . this time not murderers and rioters, but political demonstrators. Despite the tremendous unrest, the order not to harm Jews was obeyed. This shows exceptional political discipline. There is no doubt that these events will leave a profound imprint on the [Palestinian] Arab movement. This time we have seen a political movement which must evoke the respect of the world. (Shabtai Teveth, p. 126)
But Ben-Gurion set limits. The Palestinian people were incapable by themselves of developing Palestine, and they had no right to stand in the way of the Jews. He argued in 1918, that Jews' rights sprang not only from the past, but also from the future. In 1924 he declared:
"We do not recognize the right of the [Palestinian] Arabs to rule the country, since Palestine is still undeveloped and awaits its builders." In 1928 he pronounced that "the [Palestinian] Arabs have no right to close the country to us [Jews]. What right do they have to the Negev desert, which is uninhabited?"; and in 1930, "The [Palestinian] Arabs have no right to the Jordan river, and no right to prevent the construction of a power plant [by a Jewish concern]. They have a right only to that which they have created and to their homes." (Shabtai Teveth, p. 38)
In other words, the Palestinian people are entitled to no political rights whatsoever, and if they have any rights to begin with, these rights are confined to their places of residence. Ironically, this statement was written when the Palestinian people constituted 85% of Palestine's population, and owned and operated over 97% of its lands!
In February 1937, Ben-Gurion was on the brink of a far reaching conclusion, that the Arabs of Palestine were a separate people, distinct from other Arabs and deserving of self-determination. He stated:
"The right which the Arabs in Palestine have is one due to
the inhabitants of any country . . . because they live here, and not because
they are Arabs . . . The Arab inhabitants of Palestine should enjoy all the
rights of citizens and all political rights, not only as individuals, but as a
national community, just like the Jews." (Shabtai
Teveth, p. 170)
In 1936, Moshe
Sharett spoke in a similar vein:
"Fear is the main factor in [Palestinian] Arab politics. . . . There is no Arab who is not harmed by Jews' entry into Palestine." (Righteous Victims,
p.136)
So if the causes of Zionism had not risen, meaning European anti-Semitism, then Palestinian nationalism might not have evolved into what it is today. It's worth noting that the Palestinian people, prior to WW I, always identified themselves as being part of "The Great Syria" (Suriyya al-Kubra), however, that drastically changed when Britain intended to turn Palestine into a "Jewish National Home", see the Balfour Declaration for more details.
This declaration, which was made to the Zionist Movement in 1917, signaled the future dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people because it did not address their political rights. On the other hand, the declaration recognized the political rights of the "Jewish people" around the world, despite the fact that the Jews in Palestine were under 8% of the total population as of 1914 (Righteous Victims, p. 83). In that respect, Lord Balfour, who was the British Foreign Secretary and a self-professed Christian Zionist, stated in 1919:
"Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-old traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder importance than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 [Palestinian] Arabs who now inhabit the ancient land." (Righteous Victims, p. 75)
In response to this declaration, the Palestinian people started to collectively oppose the British Mandate, Jewish immigration, and land sales to the Zionist movement.
Rather than dealing directly with the issues, sadly many Israelis and Zionists have chosen to ignore the existence of the Palestinians as a people. It should be emphasized that the hawk of all Israeli hawks, Ariel Sharon, has accepted the existence of a Palestinian state, in principle, in a portion of historic Palestine. Whether Israelis and Zionists like it or not, Palestine now exists as a postal code, international calling code, internet domain name, ...etc. in the heart of "Eretz Yisrael". The 8.5 million Palestinians are not going away, and the sooner Israelis and Zionists understand this simple message, the faster they shall start dealing with core issues of the conflict in a pragmatic way.
Finally, applying such logic is very dangerous since it would eliminate half United Nations' members overnight. It is simply not just to suppress the political, economic, and civil rights of the Palestinian people by claiming that they never previously had a state, distinct language, and distinct culture. Ironically, the Zionist movement has been encouraging Jews from all corners of the world to emigrate to "Eretz Yisrael", so that there is no real common denominator between all of these immigrants such as a common language, culture, country of origin, or even a unified interpretation of "who is a Jew".
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The article is great and very informative. but there was some messed points here related to the Palestinian leadership and the independence of Palestinian community throw history
Palestinian had always the access of independent of leadership and history filled of Palestinian leaders who lead their people start from King Salem the Canaani Arabian king who build the city of Orsalem and his son King Malki Sadeq on same location where Jerusalem or AL-Quds located now days. and throw history where Palestine as part of the Arabian region were always follow the leader of the region either Jews for 80 years by King David or Roman and finally the Islamic empire you will find always a leader who try to create independency for this area, till the last revolution of Shaikh Thaher Al-Umar who revolt peacefully against ottoman in the 16 century and got the Sultan approval of independent state in the area between river to sea and from Sidon in north to Gaza in south which lasted something like thirty years. Also the leadership of Al-hussini family which been recognized by the ottoman earlier and the British occupation later, and been ended with Al-Mufti Hajj Ameen .
Even as a Palestinian we consider our selves as part of great Syria, which a fact came of being one united region. Still we and a long with history see ourselves as independent nation managed to survive against all the occupation and invaders attacks start from the early attacks which leaded by the first war criminal Yousha Ben Noun .
Finally to whom saying that we are never exist as one nation and we are no more than multi nations came in waves throw centuries. That’s all applicable for every single nation such American, Mexican, Russian, Spanish and even German the only don’t fit to this fact are the Israeli who are so many nations belong to multi races who have no specific geographical or demographical identity.
If Palestinians don't exist because of the reasons the lying zionists mention then that means that many other people in the world dont exist like Lebanese, Chileans, Ecoudarions, puerto ricans, Morocans, Tunisians and the list can be made so long. The Palestinians have lived in Palestine since they were called Caananites, there name changed so what? During greater Syria, The Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians considered themselved all as one people (The Shamis) and people identified more with their city/village/area than nationwise but that doesnt mean that the Palestinians didnt live in Palestine during this time and didnt have their own customs such as brodery styles, local foods etc. The zionists are so ignorant and are so used to lying that they even believe their own lies sometimes! Even if there was no poastal code, internet domain etc for Palestine, that would proove absolutely nothing since it wasent that long ago the rest of the world didnt have internet domains yet they existed! The zionists should recognize the Palestinians as natives of Palestine because that is what they are with or without a state. Look at Jordan as an example, it has a state but the rulers of that state are from Saudi Arabia, the majority of the citizens are Palestinians who were forced out from Palestine in 1948, 1967 and after that, those in Jordan who consider themselves pure jordanians are bedouins who are known to have been moving from area to area up until the creation of Jordan by the British. Clearly it is an artificial state yet it is recognized as a state by the entire world but where is the people who have roots in Jordan with a Jordanian culture (not bedouin)? That doesnt exist yet the zionists dont mention anything about this. A peoples existence and history is not determined by statehood, even before modern states erupted, people still existed. I support a Palestine on 1948 borders, not 1967 borders who are only 20 percent of Palestine. Israel can not survive for ever because it was built on lies and fabrication. The "Israelis" are not one people, they are people from all over the world who share the same religion, not the same ethnic background. Anything less than 1948 borders is unfair to the Palestinians. The refugees were forced out of Palestine as Palestinians and they must return to Palestine as Palestinians, not be called "Israeli arabs" or "arabs48", if these immigrated jews want to remain in Palestine then they should be the ones adopting the Palestinian citizenship, not the native Palestinians being told to adopt a foreign citizenship on their own land and be called israeli on paper when they are citizens in their land PALESTINE.
Even though Palestinians speak arabic, they still have a diffirent dialect as other arabs have as well, that alone prooves that not all Arabs are identical. Secondly, Palestinians are not even a purely arabic people, they have other blood in them as well. Had the language of Palestine remained Aramaic, then nobody would have referred to the Palestinians as Arabs today even if they would have had purely arab blood in them. Zionists want to make it seem as if Palestinians came in to existence as a branch of arabs that have no business being in Palestine when in reality Palestinians are all the people that mixed together in the holy land over the past thousands of years and became one. It is not Possible for a country that have faced so many rulers to remain of only one origin (same with Syria and Lebanon). This is why many Palestinians look southern european or have white skin, indeed i have seen Palestinians who's skin is even more white then Scandinavians, some Palestinians are even blond and have blue eyes and many of them have green eyes with olive skin and brown hair - that is more of a southern european/levant look then it is Arabic. With the exception of the Gulf Arab people, the rest of Arabs in the middle east and North Africa are a mix of arabs and the native people of their countries.
Hi Shadi, I'd definitely say there is proof that at least a certain amount of the Palestinian people have links to the Caananites and other ancient peoples. This is mixed with later arrivals like Greeks, oddly enough Jews themselves, and Arabs.
Thanks for this article,very informative... but i have a question to anyone able to answer..
Can we link Palestinian people to the ancient Canaanities or Greeks? Or they are just Arabs?
My question in other words is : From what origin are the Palestinian people?
very thanks brothers for your clarifyng article, a am chilean teacher but always also palestinien because my father was from bait yala, his nom was hannna alarja, he died thinking at his country
Good synopsis, it is the story of the native American, Inu and Eskimo, and Kurds, too.
There are many stories of injustice by Western European nations.Europeans divided the middle east into nation states, with artificial borders. The Kurds still plead for their country; the Hashemites, from the Nation state of Saudi Arabia, still take refuge in foreign territories (Iraq, Jordan), Circassians still take refuge in Palestine, as do Muslim Serbs, who settled villages like Qisariya); no one laments their plight.
There is no easy equation to solve Israeli and Palestinian history.
Focus on a solution that will move closer to acceptance of both sides, rather than a tit-for-tat rehashing of the pain of history.
This happened, good, bad, indifferent, the land was divided, and ruling powers took over. Israel is fact; the Palestinian people have an for nationhood.
We need not explain why things did not happen, make things happen now.
Great job! Like you mentioned up until the end of WWI and the "Balfour Delcaration" era Palestinian Arabs say themselves as part of the "Great Syria". This siginificantly changed with the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the colonial domination of Europe chiefly England and France. The nations/people the Palestinians had relied on before as their "Pan-Arab" leaders were gone and they were replaced by puppet regimes set up by the colonial British and French. See British Mandate of Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, etc. Britain (with Lord Balfour) and France (which was Israel's early military supplier) were very supportive of Zionism. Thus the Palestinians saw they couldn't rely on a Pan-Arab ruler and developed strong nationalism. Just like European Jews reacted to European Christian Anti-Semitism with a "nationalism".
As I understand it, after the treaty of Versailles, an official, self determined country of Palestine was created. Am I in error here? By the way, I found this article very informative and logical in the way it addresses a very complex and emotional issue. My question is this....what is a realistic solution to the issue?
Excellent website.Also in Holland we hear the same rubbish as yamuboy mentioned.We are willing to defeat the untrue arguments,and your webside gives us the weapons.Keep up the good work.
I've heard a lot of rubbish in the US about the Palestine -Israel conflict and your website is a perfect resource for those of us who can't stand blatant lies about the nature of the conflict and it's origins. The next time someone tells me that the "Palestinians simply don't exist" or something along those lines, I don't entertain their ignorance with a response but simply suggest they look at this website. Keep up the good work!