The final entry in IPT's "Countering Pro-Palestine Propaganda" concerns one of the most enduring and outrageous claims in the anti-Israel toolbox: that "Palestinian refugees" have a right to claim land, houses, and apartments from which their forebears fled during the 1948 War of Independence. In truth, few of them are really refugees, most of them left their homes voluntarily, and no "Palestinian" has a right to claim anything in Israel. 👇
On one of our frequent trips to Israel (as I recall it may have been in 2014), my wife and I visited the "Land of Israel" museum in Tel Aviv. Therein was a temporary exhibit, complete with photos and numbers, of each of the Jewish communities that were expelled by a particular Arab nation. A traveling exhibit such as this, stopping at each major Jewish community in the U.S., would go a long way towards educating the Diaspora, many of whom unfortunately, don't have a clue. On a personal note, the paternal family of my son-in-law was run out of Libya and the maternal side was run out of Iraq. His parents were part of the first generation of those refugees born in Israel.
"In 1929, in the holy city of Hebron, Arab mobs slaughtered 67 Jews, mutilated bodies, and destroyed synagogues in a community that had existed for millennia."
In 1994, in the holy city of Hebron, a Jewish American-born settler slaughtered 29 Arabs. Today his grave is a shrine and pilgrimage site, covered with pebbles (Jewish mark of respect for the dead).
That was then; times have changed. Far from being a lunatic, Goldstein is attaining his goals posthumously. The shrine at his grave in a large park in Kiryat Arba is alive and well. Yes, part was torn down; the enormous grave and plinth itself is untouched, covered with small stones. I have photos (photos can't be inserted into this note, DM me if you want them).
For some reason (cough!), after the massacre, it was the Arabs of Hebron whose entry and egress was restricted for their "own protection". The former main street and market is now deserted. The few remaining Arab residents have to leave via their fire escapes. Most of the homes have been seized by Jews. (I have photos of this, too.)
Minister Itamar Ben Gvir used to have a photo of Goldstein in his office. Ben Gvir, who was affiliated with Kach, was once labeled a terrorist. Now he is literally in charge of policing in the West Bank, where pogroms against non-Jews have become routine. I think it's fair to say that Goldstein's act has been approved retroactively by the authorities running Israel today.
If Israel's population was still majority Jews from the European diaspora it would be no less authentic. Now that Jews for political reasons are recast as Arab, Israel is still found to be a European imposition. Jews have always been part of Western Civilization. I add to your essay that Jews were central to the music traditions of the Mid East. When Iraqi Jews were forced to flee, they took with them the music legacy they helped fashion. It was Israel's mistake to treat this legacy with less importance than Jewish participation in Western Classical music. I'm glad that this has changed. This marginalized Mizrahi/Sephardi people within Israel are coming in to their own. It's alway part of my joy being in Israel to see the variety of Jews who make up contemporary Israel. And I'm gratified to see Arabs in all aspects of Israeli society. While the Jews of the Arab lands and Muslim lands are either gone or dwindling.
The final entry in IPT's "Countering Pro-Palestine Propaganda" concerns one of the most enduring and outrageous claims in the anti-Israel toolbox: that "Palestinian refugees" have a right to claim land, houses, and apartments from which their forebears fled during the 1948 War of Independence. In truth, few of them are really refugees, most of them left their homes voluntarily, and no "Palestinian" has a right to claim anything in Israel. 👇
https://www.investigativeproject.org/9362/countering-pro-palestine-propaganda-part-6
On one of our frequent trips to Israel (as I recall it may have been in 2014), my wife and I visited the "Land of Israel" museum in Tel Aviv. Therein was a temporary exhibit, complete with photos and numbers, of each of the Jewish communities that were expelled by a particular Arab nation. A traveling exhibit such as this, stopping at each major Jewish community in the U.S., would go a long way towards educating the Diaspora, many of whom unfortunately, don't have a clue. On a personal note, the paternal family of my son-in-law was run out of Libya and the maternal side was run out of Iraq. His parents were part of the first generation of those refugees born in Israel.
"In 1929, in the holy city of Hebron, Arab mobs slaughtered 67 Jews, mutilated bodies, and destroyed synagogues in a community that had existed for millennia."
In 1994, in the holy city of Hebron, a Jewish American-born settler slaughtered 29 Arabs. Today his grave is a shrine and pilgrimage site, covered with pebbles (Jewish mark of respect for the dead).
That was then; times have changed. Far from being a lunatic, Goldstein is attaining his goals posthumously. The shrine at his grave in a large park in Kiryat Arba is alive and well. Yes, part was torn down; the enormous grave and plinth itself is untouched, covered with small stones. I have photos (photos can't be inserted into this note, DM me if you want them).
For some reason (cough!), after the massacre, it was the Arabs of Hebron whose entry and egress was restricted for their "own protection". The former main street and market is now deserted. The few remaining Arab residents have to leave via their fire escapes. Most of the homes have been seized by Jews. (I have photos of this, too.)
Minister Itamar Ben Gvir used to have a photo of Goldstein in his office. Ben Gvir, who was affiliated with Kach, was once labeled a terrorist. Now he is literally in charge of policing in the West Bank, where pogroms against non-Jews have become routine. I think it's fair to say that Goldstein's act has been approved retroactively by the authorities running Israel today.
If Israel's population was still majority Jews from the European diaspora it would be no less authentic. Now that Jews for political reasons are recast as Arab, Israel is still found to be a European imposition. Jews have always been part of Western Civilization. I add to your essay that Jews were central to the music traditions of the Mid East. When Iraqi Jews were forced to flee, they took with them the music legacy they helped fashion. It was Israel's mistake to treat this legacy with less importance than Jewish participation in Western Classical music. I'm glad that this has changed. This marginalized Mizrahi/Sephardi people within Israel are coming in to their own. It's alway part of my joy being in Israel to see the variety of Jews who make up contemporary Israel. And I'm gratified to see Arabs in all aspects of Israeli society. While the Jews of the Arab lands and Muslim lands are either gone or dwindling.