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This is a guest essay written by David S. Levine, a college professor as well as author of the books, “Revolutions: In Their Own Words” and “Hey Israel – You’re Perfect. Now Change.”
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
With a new university semester upon us, the political discussions regarding Israel and Hamas, Israel and the Palestinians, Israel and Iran, Israel and the U.S. Administration — you name it — increase in frequency and intensity.
Unfortunately, arguments with friends and family can devolve into shouting matches.
How does one discuss, convince, or at least input an element of doubt into those who have bought into the anti-Israel demagoguery to really understand what those anti-Israel movements are really about and discover their own “Aha!” moment of the truth.
History is usually written by the victors and academics. History is usually taught by the era (e.g. the rise and fall of the Roman Empire) or the event (e.g. World War One). History is rarely taught by comparison of commonality (e.g. the Black Plague versus the Spanish Flu).
How can we learn what they really were striving for without the bias of the victors or academics? What could be researched and how should it be examined?
Wouldn’t it be better to hear it in their own words? To let the pro-Hamas and anti-Israel advocates make their own case to your friends and family, in their own words, so you don’t have to?
As a former advertising and marketing professional and professor, I know that “pop culture” in the form of advertisements, slogans, and jingles is a great representation of the real ideals, beliefs, and morals of the people at a particular time. Therefore, the songs, poetry, slogans, and even national anthems of a revolutionary movement are a great place to uncover the ideals, beliefs, and morals of those people striving for a specific cause or revolution.
My goal as a professor was always to teach my students how to think, not what to think. I accomplished this by employing the Socratic method — showing the facts and then asking questions. This results in many “Aha!” moments. Specifically, because it is in the revolutionaries own words, rather than the unsubstantiated rhetoric being shouted on campuses or presented by biased (Left-leaning or Right-leaning) media outlets.
On our city streets and college campuses the demonstration chants are getting more aggressive and speak more towards inciting violence. All in honor of: “Free Palestine!”
However, the words (as do the the actions) of Arab leadership consistently demonstrate that this “Palestine liberation” movement for a homeland for Palestinians was never their intention. What does “permanent ceasefire” even mean if your objectives do not change?
Their objective simply is, and always has been, the elimination of Israel and the extermination of Jews as a people and religion.
Here are just five examples of Arab and Palestinian leaders supporting this anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, and anti-Zionist position in their own words:
1937 – Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, a local Arab leader: “There is no such country [as Palestine]! Palestine is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country is part of Syria.”
1947 – Haj Amin el-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem: “Palestine was part of the Province of Syria … Politically, the Arabs of Palestine were not independent in the sense of forming a separate political entity.”
1948 – Secretary-General of the Arab League: “This war will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongol massacres and the Crusades.”
1977 – Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member, Zahir Muhsein: “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people … to oppose Zionism.”
1994 – Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, called for “Jihad” to liberate Jerusalem. He suggested that the Oslo Accords peace process with Israel at the time was only a tactical step that could still be reversed, since it is based on “Taqiyya,” which is an Islamic law that “permits” lying to confound and defeat enemies through deception.
Yasser Arafat was very effective in saying one thing to the English-language news media and then saying the opposite in Arabic to his followers and the Arab audience. That pattern continues. The proof can be found in media reports on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees and Hamas education programs, as well as key websites that translate messages. Here is a synopsis of what can be found. Again, these are quotes attributed to Palestinian leadership:
“The Muslim loves death and martyrdom like the Jews love life.”
“The Palestinian people are prepared to sacrifice the last boy and the last girl so that the Palestinian flag will be flown over the walls, the churches and the mosques of Jerusalem.”
“The goal of our struggle is the end of Israel, and there can be no compromise.”
“Peace for us means the destruction of Israel.”
“Whoever thinks of stopping the uprising before it achieves its goals, I will give him 10 bullets in the chest.”
What’s more, Palestinian songs and poems, as well as many videos, have a common violent and bloody theme:
“Strap on the belt, O daughter of my land, and detonate it in front of the enemies / How sweet is the taste of Martyrdom.”
“Write 'death, death, death to Israel' with flowing blood, And with the bleeding body cause death, death, death to Israel."
“[Arafat] you are the rifle and I am the one who learned its art / O [Palestinian Authority President] Mahmoud Abbas, walk on and don’t worry ... / By Allah, my blood is your blood.”
“I’m coming towards you, my enemy. We’re going down from every house with cleavers and knives, with grenades we announced a popular war. I swear, you won’t escape, my enemy, from the revolution and the people.”
It is hard to expect anything but violence without any opening for peace. Hamas’ charter claims of peace “under the wing of Islam” refers to the concept of “dhimmis” — Arabic for second-class citizenship that comes with many religious restrictions, such as:
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." In other words, genocide for the Israelis and non-Muslims.”
“There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals, and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”
“I swear by the holder of Mohammed’s soul that I would like to invade and be killed for the sake of Allah, then invade and be killed, and then invade again and be killed.”
“Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions - Islam, Christianity, and Judaism — to coexist in peace and quiet with each other. Peace and quiet would not be possible except under the wing of Islam … It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region, because the day these followers should take over there will be nothing but carnage, displacement, and terror.”
The charter of the Palestinian Authority, which many in the West consider to be far more “moderate” compared to Hamas, offers the following highlighted points of view:
“Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.”
“The destiny of the Arab nation, and indeed Arab existence itself, depend upon the destiny of the Palestine cause.” In other words, linkage for the desire of leverage.
“…and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine.” (In other words: genocide.)
Also, there is a lot of talk about the Palestinian refugees. Yet, after the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948 and 1949, the head of Britain’s Middle East Office in Cairo, Sir John Troutbeck, reported to the Foreign Office that the Palestinian refugees declared to him that their Arab brothers “were the ones who persuaded them unnecessarily to leave their homes.”
Thus, many Palestinians self-acknowledged the role of various Arab states in the creation of today’s Palestinian refugee problem, now containing even four generations of the original refugees — a criteria that is afforded to no other refugee population across the entire world.
The quoted texts above are their own words. Perhaps by showing or challenging friends and family to read them, noting their sources for authenticity, and then asking themselves a few questions, they will see the light or at least have some doubt to keep questioning and verifying.
Here are some suggested questions for them:
How do the messages presented (quotes, slogans, and songs) reconcile with your recollection, understanding, history classes, and the messaging presented in the current media news cycles?
In reading the topic information, concepts, and objectives — in their own words — did you learn or conclude anything new? If so, what?
Are the revolutionaries right in their cause and course of action? Why? Or why not?
Do you think the revolutionaries will live up to their ideals, stated in their own words, if their revolution is won? Will the resulting society be better or worse for the general population under their new leadership?
And here is a bonus question: Who are the Palestinians?
For this one, all you have to do is look up the origin of the word “Palestine” on the internet and note who lived there when an ancient Roman conqueror renamed it.
Hint: the Israelites (known today as the Jews).
What, of course, is more ridiculous that even if Palestine were to be liberated “ from the river to the sea,” it would not be a democratic state. It would be, best, an Islamic theocracy. More likely, it would be what current territories under Palestinian authority, either Hamas or Fatah, are-Islamic kleptocracies.
And just what would happen after Palestinian Arabs took over? Civil War, political oppression, Everybody would be so miserable, they would start to leave, heading off for Europe or North America.
Is there any objective evidence that this would be the case? Yes – the rest of the Middle East.
Good article. I have used the well-known 1977 quote from PLO member Zahir Muhsein in several forums to shut down the false claim that Palestinian statehood was their goal and the even more outlandish claim that so-called Palestinians are indigenous to the regions now part of the state of Israel.
But there is still not much talk about the future of Pallies in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. I think we need to push the truth about Arab complicity in creating the Palestinian refugee problem in an effort to get those countries to take them in. (The Sir John Troutbeck report, mentioned by Professor Levine, lends support to this.) Other countries, too. As a Canadian I’m not happy the Marxist Justin Trudeau agreed to take in 5,000 of them. Australia’s PM wants to take some in, too. But I’d rather see large countries like Canada and Australia take them than to have Israel use her much-needed resources policing these Jew-haters endlessly.