I remember an Armenian acquaintance from Syria telling me once how unjust it was that the Palestinian refugees in the Middle East (and their descendants) were not given citizenship and allowed to integrate into the Arab states where they lived: “They even gave us citizenship, for heaven’s sake,” meaning Armenian survivors of the Turk genocide, who were neither Arabs nor Muslims.
That came to mind again when I read that even those Palestinians classified as refugees who are living on the West Bank and Gaza would not receive citizenship in the phony Palestinian state, if it ever comes to fruition. The point is that these people (and their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, et al.) must remain forever pawns in the eternal drive to exterminate Israel.
Judith Levy, an American immigrant to Israel who wrote the Ricochet post I linked to, is frustrated, commenting on the admirable qualities of the Palestinian workers building her house and blaming the political problem on “a pathologically weak-minded leadership” among the Palestinians. I’m afraid that’s naive. Palestinian individuals have the same range of good and bad characteristics as any other large group of people. But the collective Palestinian identity (which has developed into a real national identity, despite claims to the contrary) necessarily entails the goal of exterminating Israel. After all, the Arabs living there had no national identity until Israel gave them a reason to have one — to destroy Israel. This is why, for instance, the logo of the Palestinian mission to the UN shows all the land between the Jordan and the sea as Palestine.
In fact, I wonder if the Arab public would stand for any effort to give citizenship to Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Let’s say we sprinkle unicorn dust over Syria and Assad is ousted and liberal democracy blooms there and the new regime wants to give extend Syrian citizenship to long-resident Palestinians, integrating them politically — would the Syrian public even stand for that? I think Jew-hatred is so deeply rooted in the Arab and broader Islamic world that even governments that would want to help end the citizenship limbo of Palestinian refugees and their descendants would hesitate, fearing popular uprisings and Islamist attack.
I live in a corner of Northern NJ with a large immigrant Arab population, Christian and Muslim, from all over the Middle East, and over the years have become acquainted with more than a few. Let's just say that for any number of reasons-including some I can't quite grasp-Palestinians are not well regarded by their fellow Arabs.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat is the dirty little secret. The other Arab tribes (and that is what they are) have always disliked/distrusted the Palestinians. The whole "we must get rid of Israel" meme is just to keep the Palestinians focus away from taking over the host country.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"...Jew-hatred is so deeply rooted in the Arab and broader Islamic world that even governments that would want to help end the citizenship limbo of Palestinian refugees and their descendants would hesitate, fearing popular uprisings and Islamist attack."
100% agreement - the truth be told.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOne thing that I never understood is that these lands now claimed by Palestine were under the control of Jordan and Egypt until 1967. Jordan did not give up its claim until 1988. The Palestinians never got mad at these people. Can someone tell me why? I do not understand this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseohfitx:
"One thing that I never understood is that these lands now claimed by Palestine were under the control of Jordan and Egypt until 1967. Jordan did not give up its claim until 1988. The Palestinians never got mad at these people. Can someone tell me why?"
Palestinian refugee camps were hotbeds of anti-Jordanian activity, frequently raided by the Jordanian military to make arrests and seize arms1950 and 60's. In fact, in 1951, the Jordanian king was assassinated by a Palestinian extremist.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI did not know the refugee camps were hotbeds of anti-Jordanian activity. Probably true, but Palestinians were not birthed, if you will, until the 1960's (not sure what year - '62? '63?)
when Yassar Arafat declared he would solve the refugee problem by making them the subjects of his new kingdom.
Palestinians for a nation called Palestine. Until then they were Arab refugees.
Jewish Palestine of the 1920s became Israel in 1947. Arab Palestine became Jordan. Other than Egyptians and Persians, a lot of Arabs have assumed new identities when the names of the countries changed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm not sure who to be more disgusted with: the Palestinians who are doing this or their Western enablers. The Palestinian leadership has made it blazingly clear that they don't give a @#$@ about their own people, that this is either about personal power (for Fatah) or Jew-killing (for Hamas). And leaders in the West seem inclined to go along with it.
Is it worse to be evil or chronically stupid in the face of evil?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI's worse to be chronically stupid in the face of evil. Evil exists,always has, always will. There's nothing you can do about it. But there's no excuse for being chronically stupid, and few of the enablers of the Palestinians are stupid. Some are Marxists, some pure Anti-Semites,some are getting paid off, some are simply misguided.But they all have an agenda. What's weird is that their narrow agendas may not even dovetail with the Palestinians' own aims.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI remember from David Pipes' book on Pan-Syrianism that Syria DOES give their Palestinian refugees citizenship--for whatever Syrian citizenship may be worth. Remember the "artificiality of the colonial borders" of modern-day Syria. At least in the past, Syrian ambitions regarded not just Lebanon but Jordan, Israel and the West Bank as part of "Syria's natural borders."
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