Israel’s diplomats find it difficult to say
that even if people were driven out, the exchange of populations in
those years was acceptable and normative.
They find it difficult to say that successive
Arab leaders, including Jordan’s King Abdullah, Nuri al-Said, Iraqi
Prime Minister, Husni Zaim, the Syrian ruler, and prominent leaders of
the Arabs of Palestine, supported the idea of transfer and exchange of
population.
They find it difficult to say that out of tens
of millions of refugees, from the 40s, no one is a refugee today,
except the Palestinians.
They find it difficult to say that not one of those tens of millions of people displaced has a “right of return.”
They find it difficult to say that the Jews
were expelled from Arab countries, through no fault of their own, and in
greater numbers than Arabs in Palestine.
They find it difficult to say that Jews’ right to compensation are tenfold that of the Palestinians.
They find it difficult to say recalcitrant Arabs created the refugee problem.
They find it difficult to say that
international law does not recognize the right to recover one’s original
property and certainly not a ‘right of return.’
And when they are uninformed and lack
confidence, they also lack the ability to say things in the
international arena and in negotiations. Because a clear Israeli
position could remove the greatest obstacle to reaching an agreement.
In the past, Livni drew a barrage of criticism
when she said that the Palestinians should delete the Nakba – the
Tragedy, as they have labelled what befell them in 1948 – from their
lexicon. They are not supposed to forget it on the personal level. The
pain is real. They must forget it on the political level. The
responsibility for the Nakba rests on those who refused the 1947
Partition plan, and encouraged the Palestinians to leave. The
responsibility for the Nakba lies with those who said, again and again,
that the Jews of Arab countries will pay the price.
This is not a Zionist propaganda ploy. These
Arab leaders in person said it. Khalid al-Azam, who was Prime Minister
of Syria, said: ”
Since 1948 we have demanded the return of the refugees to their homes, but we ourselves, we encouraged them to leave.
Nuri Said, who was prime minister of Iraq, said:
We will smash the country (Israel) with our guns, and destroy the place where all the Jews are seeking shelter. Arabs should lead their wives and children to a safe place until the end of the fighting.
And the Palestinian leader Abu Mazen also said this in 1976 in the newspaper Falistin el-Thawra:
Arab armies entered to protect the Palestinians, but instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland.
In addition, the Arab League decided on a plan
to persecute the Jews, and almost every Arab leader announced that Jews
in Arab countries would become victims. Hassan al-Banna, the founder
and leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, went further and threatened that
“Arab peoples will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea.”
Contrary to
what Livni says, there is no distinction in this matter between the
Palestinians and the Arab world. It was the Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini,
the Palestinian leader, leading broadcasts from Berlin, who incited
against Jews in Arab countries, and played a key role in raising the
level of Nazi anti-Semitism in the Arab world. So you cannot separate
Arab states and the Palestinians on the question of who is responsible.
For decades, Israel has neglected the Jewish
Nakba. For many years, Israeli spokesmen failed to put it on the agenda
or the negotiating table. Even the U.S. Congress passed a resolution on
the subject before the Israeli Knesset. This is why Livni, who runs the
negotiations on behalf of Israel, is also proceeding in the lamentable
old tradition of forgetting the subject.
Spot on article.Thank you.
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