When the Ottoman rule ended, there was no Palestinian national identity
or political borders. It was all made up later. Arabs themselves say so,
but the west isn’t listening
One of the biggest, most stubborn and costliest untruths of our time
is the notion that the jihad waged by Arabs in the Palestinian Authority
(PA) and Gaza against Jews in Israel is a national struggle of an
indigenous people for independence.
No matter the facts, the lie
persists to the tune of billions of dollars in international aid and
political prestige, which makes it increasingly difficult for anyone
involved to admit that the whole thing is nothing more than a propaganda
stunt.
Unlike the fairy tale of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’,
everyone pretends to be blind and deaf when it is pointed out that the
emperor is naked. In fact, if the emperor himself were to stand up and
yell, ‘I am naked folks, go home!’ the crowd would go on complimenting
his non-existent garments.
Last week the naked emperor did just that:
“Before
the Balfour Promise, when the Ottoman rule [1517-1917] ended,
Palestine’s political borders as we know them today did not exist, and
there was nothing called a Palestinian people with a political identity
as we know today”, historian Abd Al-Ghani admitted on official PA TV on November 1.
“Since
Palestine’s lines of administrative division stretched from east to
west and included Jordan and southern Lebanon, and like all peoples of
the region [the Palestinians] were liberated from the Turkish rule and
immediately moved to colonial rule, without forming a Palestinian
people’s political identity.”
In 1917, says this Arab historian on
official PA TV, there was no such thing as a Palestinian people. This
statement amounts to saying that the whole narrative of an ‘indigenous
Palestinian people’ was made up at a later point in time.
As Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security Fathi Hammad speaking
on Al-Hekma TV said in March 2012: “Brothers, half of the Palestinians
are Egyptians and the other half are Saudis. Who are the Palestinians?
We have many families called Al-Masri, whose roots are Egyptian.
Egyptian! They may be from Alexandria, from Cairo, from Dumietta, from
the North, from Aswan, from Upper Egypt. We are Egyptians…”
There is a reason, why the “Palestinian National Museum” is empty of historical artifacts.
The
Arab historian’s admission corroborates the observations of 19th
century travelers to the region, who notably had no specific political
agenda when they visited, unlike so many visitors to Israel today:
”Outside
the gates of Jerusalem, we saw indeed no living object, heard no living
sound”, wrote French poet Alphonse de Lamartine about his visit in
1835.
”The country is in a considerable degree empty of
inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is that of a body of
population.” wrote British Consul James Finn in his 1857 description of
the Holy Land.
”Palestine sits in a sackcloth and ashes. Over it
broods the spell of a curse that withered its fields and fettered its
energies. …Palestine is desolate and unlovely….It is a hopeless dreary,
heartbroken land.” wrote American author Mark Twain in his description
of his visit in 1867.
Nevertheless, the Arab propaganda machine gets away with publishing
fantastic falsehoods, such as this one on the Palestinian Authority’s
tourism website: “With a history that envelops more than one million
years, Palestine has played an important role in human civilization. The
crucible of prehistoric cultures, it is where settled society, the
alphabet, religion, and literature developed, and would become a meeting
place for diverse cultures and ideas that shaped the world we know
today”.
The international community not only approves of these falsehoods, it happily pays for them.
Historian
Abd Al-Ghani’s declaration on PA TV was a historic, highly newsworthy
admission that ought to have made the headlines everywhere, considering
the importance the issue is given by political leaders, diplomats, the
media and other establishment figures all over the world.
After
all, if the Arabs themselves admit that the ‘Palestinian people’ is an
invented entity, should not the consequence be that the countless UN
projects, billions of dollars in international aid, and the endless
campaigns against Israel cease and be used for more noble purposes?
The answer is yes, but no one is paying attention.
We
live in a post-factual world. Facts no longer have any currency, unlike
feelings and ideological posturing. The truth has been reduced to a
troublesome inconvenience and if it happens to stare you in the face,
nothing could be easier than closing your eyes or simply looking away
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