A COMPARISON BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA; AND ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK
Too many “bloggers” and so called experts publish postings without citing sources or a bibliography, when it comes to reporting emotive issues. The following comparisons are courtesy of the CIA, the United Nations and U.S. governmental agencies. The full list is at the bottom of the page.
Israel has a geographical property area of 8019 square miles.
Gaza has a geographical property area of 139 square miles.
Occupied West Bank has a property area of 2263 square miles.
Population of Israel is 6.93 million. Occupied West Bank is 4.2 million. Gaza has 1.55 million
The total population of the Palestinians=5.75 million. Israelis=6.93 million.
Israel has 883 people per square mile. Gaza has 11,165 people per square mile.
The Occupied West bank has 1,845 people per square mile.
The population growth figures for Israel are 1.88% per annum.
The population growth figures for Gaza are 3.42% per annum.
The growth figures for the Occupied West Bank; 3.21 per annum
Life expectancy for Israeli’s is 80.7 years.
For the people of Gaza it is 73.4 years.
For the Occupied West Bank it is 74.5 years.
The meridian age for Israeli’s is 28.9 years.
For Gaza the meridian age is 17.2 years.
Occupied West Bank is 20.2 years.
The GDP for Israel is $162 billion per annum.
The GDP for Gaza is $768 million per annum.
Occupied West Bank is $5.458 billion per annum.
GDP per capita for Israel is $19,280 per annum.
GDP per capita for Gaza is $2,900 per annum.
Occupied West Bank’s is $1,129 per annum.
Real growth figures for Israel are 4.898% per annum.
For Gaza it is 0.8% per annum and Occupied West Bank is 4.909%.
Inflation rate for Israel is minus 0.194% per annum
For Gaza it is 3.6% per annum, Occupied West Bank is 11.3% per annum.
Unemployment runs at 6.1% in Israel and 41.3% in Gaza.
The occupied West Bank’s runs at 16.3% per annum.
It is worth noting, in the immortal words of Benny Morris,”...at the end of the 1948 War, Israel had a population of some 750,000 Jews and 150,000 Arabs. By the year 2002, Israel’s Arab minority still constituted some 20% of the country’s population (just over one million as compared with some five million Jews) –and this despite the fact that the Jews’ natural increase had been supplemented during this 50-year period by the arrival of some two and a half million new immigrants.
Sources: United States Central Intelligence Agency,” The World Factbook” 2009
United Nations Statistics Division UNdata.
United Nations,”National Accounts Main Aggregates Data Base. U.N. Statistics Division.
United States Census Bureau, International Data Base (IDB) 2008
United States Geological Survey
University of California, Berkeley, Global Administration Areas, 2008.
World Health Organisation, Mortality Database Tables, 2009.
Monday, 20 July 2009
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Amnesty:Israel guilty of war crimes.
The Israeli Transport Minister, Yisrael Katz has proposed replacing all English and Arabic place names on road signs. Katz claims, it will halt the confusion inflicted upon drivers. Yeshaayahou Ronen, from the Transportation Planning Department said," The lack of uniform spelling on signs has been a problem for those speaking foreign languages, citizens and tourists alike. However, Transport Minister Yisrael Katz was more enlightening," Some Palestinian maps still refer to the Israeli cities by their pre-1948 names. I will not allow that on our signs." Seems Katz has disappeared so far up his own arse that either end is indistinguishable.
In further developments, Israel has been found guilty of war crimes by Amnesty International. The report confirms that 1400 Palestinians were kiled in the 22 day Israeli offensive, between December the 27th 2008 and January the 17th 2009, which is similar to Palestinian figures. Of these, 900 were civilians including 300 children and 115 women.
The 117-page report by Amnesty International states that many of the hundreds of civilian deaths,"..cannot simply be dismissed" as,"collateral damage incidental to otherwise lawful attacks-or as mistakes." "..disturbing questions..." remain unanswered as to why children playing on roofs and medical staff attending the wounded were killed,"...by highly accurate missiles whose operators had detailed views of their targets."
The use of white phospherous has been confirmed. The destruction of homes, businesses and public buildings is referred to as,"... wanton and deliberate...could not be justified on the grounds of military necessity." The report reiterates," All of these things occurred on a scale that constitutes pattern-and constitutes war crimes." The following link will take you to the report in full:
www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/02_07_09_gaza_report.pdf
In further developments, Israel has been found guilty of war crimes by Amnesty International. The report confirms that 1400 Palestinians were kiled in the 22 day Israeli offensive, between December the 27th 2008 and January the 17th 2009, which is similar to Palestinian figures. Of these, 900 were civilians including 300 children and 115 women.
The 117-page report by Amnesty International states that many of the hundreds of civilian deaths,"..cannot simply be dismissed" as,"collateral damage incidental to otherwise lawful attacks-or as mistakes." "..disturbing questions..." remain unanswered as to why children playing on roofs and medical staff attending the wounded were killed,"...by highly accurate missiles whose operators had detailed views of their targets."
The use of white phospherous has been confirmed. The destruction of homes, businesses and public buildings is referred to as,"... wanton and deliberate...could not be justified on the grounds of military necessity." The report reiterates," All of these things occurred on a scale that constitutes pattern-and constitutes war crimes." The following link will take you to the report in full:
www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/02_07_09_gaza_report.pdf
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Jewish Colonisation & Illegal Settlements
JEWISH COLONISATION AND ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
In the late 19th Century, Palestine was divided into three northern Sancaks (Beirut, Acre and Balqa) which were part of the larger Vilayet of Beirut. Jerusalem was an independent Sancak of its own in the south. In those days, Palestine was neither large nor prosperous. It had a population of 500,000 Arabs. The late 1880’s saw the beginning of Jewish colonisation, spurred on by persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe and Russia and the genesis of the Zionist movement in Western Europe.
In 1918 there were 644,000 Arabs (92% of the total population) and 56,000 Jews (8%) with the Jews establishing their settlements in the lowlands, on approximately 2% of the land. This was facilitated via moshavot, privately owned villages and collective farms, known as kibbutzim. These were the prototypes for building illegal settlements on Arab land.
Together with the Arabs, the British drove out the Ottomans in 1920 and The League of Nations mandated Britain to govern Palestine with the proviso of establishing a national home in Palestine for the Jews, in accordance with the Balfour Declaration of November 1917 (see previous postings). The Palestinian Arabs understandably resented this, especially in the 1930’s, when massive numbers of Jews began arriving from Germany. The futile efforts by the British to stop this mass immigration were in vain and land transfer to the Jews, likewise. In May 1948, Jewish ownership of the land had increased to 6% from the 2% of 1918. The boundaries with Lebanon were drawn up in 1920 and agreed in an Anglo-French Convention; the boundary delimited in 1923. The boundary with Transjordan was delimited in 1922 and the boundary with Egypt remained unchanged. This meant that Palestine consisted of 25,900 square kilometres. This is not coterminous with Biblical Palestine or the former Ottoman districts.
The conflict of May 1948, resulted in Israeli control of 77% of the former Palestine, contrary to the 56% given to the Jews under the United Nations partition plan of 1947. 600,000 Arabs were forced to flee from Israel, leaving only 160,000 Arabs inside the new State of Israel. In 1948 Israel’s population had increased to 915,000. 83% were Jews and 17% Arab. The 1967 Arab-Israeli war left Israel in possession of Sinai and Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. All three were colonised; 22 settlements of 4,000 Jewish settlers in Sinai, a source of revenue through tourism, the Gulf of Aqaba and Rafah plundered for its rich agriculture and 100,000 Syrians fled for their lives from the Golan Heights. The West Bank, occupied since 1967, is the Arab land most coveted by Israel, because of its importance and natural position, to be a heartland for any future Palestinian State; Jerusalem being its natural capital.
Illegal Israeli settlement policies pursued the template of the Alon (sometimes called Allon) plan, establishing moshavim and kibbutzim along the Jordan Valley,until 1977 and ran parallel with a campaign of forced migration by Bush Emunin through terrorism. The group became famous for a failed attempt to blow up the Dome of the Rock and the massacre at the Islamic College of Hebron, a revenge attack for the murder of a Jewish student. The group (a terrorist organisation) sprayed machine-gun fire into the college and tossed in a hand grenade, killing three students and wounding thirty-three more. They were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1983 but had their sentences commuted a total of four times resulting in their release in 1990, by Chaim Herzog.
In 1980, the restrictions on Jews purchasing private land were lifted and the Jewish West Bank population rose from 12,000 in 1980 to 45,000 in 1985. Long-term plans were drawn up for dozens more villages and a half-dozen towns to accommodate 100,000 Jews. In 1997, Matitiyahou Drobless, head of The World Zionist Organisation Settlement Division, prepared his first comprehensive plan for establishing colonies throughout the West Bank and beyond. The majority of these were built on the central mountain ridge and around Palestinian population centres. Drobless proposed high volume traffic arteries to connect Israel to the West Bank and beyond. The Jews ultimate goal was explained to Time Magazine, March 1980 by the economic editor of the Jerusalem Post, Meir Merhav,”...is to be carved up by a grid of settlements and strongholds into a score of little Bantustans so that [The Palestinians] shall never coalesce again into a contiguous area that can support autonomous, let alone, independent existence.”
The majority of Jewish settlements are of a “community” type known as yishuv kehillati focussing on light industrial entrepreneurships and involve commuting daily to Israeli urban centres with very little agricultural activity. The systematic repeating of these communities through illegal settlements has led to a network of new roads, water and electric supplies servicing the Jewish settlements but neglecting the Arab ones instead, affecting them adversely; with cases of Israeli sewage infecting the Arab water supply. Israeli capital investment in the Jerusalem suburbs is increasing daily, the prospect of the return of these suburbs to the Arabs seems highly unlikely.
Sources: Blake, G. Dewdney, J. Mitchell, J. THE CAMBRIDGE ATLAS of the MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA. Cambridge University Press CAMBRIDGE 1987
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 27th December 1990, Section A; page 3
www.p4d.org/settlements/glossary.html
INTRODUCTION
In the late 19th Century, Palestine was divided into three northern Sancaks (Beirut, Acre and Balqa) which were part of the larger Vilayet of Beirut. Jerusalem was an independent Sancak of its own in the south. In those days, Palestine was neither large nor prosperous. It had a population of 500,000 Arabs. The late 1880’s saw the beginning of Jewish colonisation, spurred on by persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe and Russia and the genesis of the Zionist movement in Western Europe.
In 1918 there were 644,000 Arabs (92% of the total population) and 56,000 Jews (8%) with the Jews establishing their settlements in the lowlands, on approximately 2% of the land. This was facilitated via moshavot, privately owned villages and collective farms, known as kibbutzim. These were the prototypes for building illegal settlements on Arab land.
Together with the Arabs, the British drove out the Ottomans in 1920 and The League of Nations mandated Britain to govern Palestine with the proviso of establishing a national home in Palestine for the Jews, in accordance with the Balfour Declaration of November 1917 (see previous postings). The Palestinian Arabs understandably resented this, especially in the 1930’s, when massive numbers of Jews began arriving from Germany. The futile efforts by the British to stop this mass immigration were in vain and land transfer to the Jews, likewise. In May 1948, Jewish ownership of the land had increased to 6% from the 2% of 1918. The boundaries with Lebanon were drawn up in 1920 and agreed in an Anglo-French Convention; the boundary delimited in 1923. The boundary with Transjordan was delimited in 1922 and the boundary with Egypt remained unchanged. This meant that Palestine consisted of 25,900 square kilometres. This is not coterminous with Biblical Palestine or the former Ottoman districts.
The conflict of May 1948, resulted in Israeli control of 77% of the former Palestine, contrary to the 56% given to the Jews under the United Nations partition plan of 1947. 600,000 Arabs were forced to flee from Israel, leaving only 160,000 Arabs inside the new State of Israel. In 1948 Israel’s population had increased to 915,000. 83% were Jews and 17% Arab. The 1967 Arab-Israeli war left Israel in possession of Sinai and Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. All three were colonised; 22 settlements of 4,000 Jewish settlers in Sinai, a source of revenue through tourism, the Gulf of Aqaba and Rafah plundered for its rich agriculture and 100,000 Syrians fled for their lives from the Golan Heights. The West Bank, occupied since 1967, is the Arab land most coveted by Israel, because of its importance and natural position, to be a heartland for any future Palestinian State; Jerusalem being its natural capital.
Illegal Israeli settlement policies pursued the template of the Alon (sometimes called Allon) plan, establishing moshavim and kibbutzim along the Jordan Valley,until 1977 and ran parallel with a campaign of forced migration by Bush Emunin through terrorism. The group became famous for a failed attempt to blow up the Dome of the Rock and the massacre at the Islamic College of Hebron, a revenge attack for the murder of a Jewish student. The group (a terrorist organisation) sprayed machine-gun fire into the college and tossed in a hand grenade, killing three students and wounding thirty-three more. They were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1983 but had their sentences commuted a total of four times resulting in their release in 1990, by Chaim Herzog.
In 1980, the restrictions on Jews purchasing private land were lifted and the Jewish West Bank population rose from 12,000 in 1980 to 45,000 in 1985. Long-term plans were drawn up for dozens more villages and a half-dozen towns to accommodate 100,000 Jews. In 1997, Matitiyahou Drobless, head of The World Zionist Organisation Settlement Division, prepared his first comprehensive plan for establishing colonies throughout the West Bank and beyond. The majority of these were built on the central mountain ridge and around Palestinian population centres. Drobless proposed high volume traffic arteries to connect Israel to the West Bank and beyond. The Jews ultimate goal was explained to Time Magazine, March 1980 by the economic editor of the Jerusalem Post, Meir Merhav,”...is to be carved up by a grid of settlements and strongholds into a score of little Bantustans so that [The Palestinians] shall never coalesce again into a contiguous area that can support autonomous, let alone, independent existence.”
The majority of Jewish settlements are of a “community” type known as yishuv kehillati focussing on light industrial entrepreneurships and involve commuting daily to Israeli urban centres with very little agricultural activity. The systematic repeating of these communities through illegal settlements has led to a network of new roads, water and electric supplies servicing the Jewish settlements but neglecting the Arab ones instead, affecting them adversely; with cases of Israeli sewage infecting the Arab water supply. Israeli capital investment in the Jerusalem suburbs is increasing daily, the prospect of the return of these suburbs to the Arabs seems highly unlikely.
Sources: Blake, G. Dewdney, J. Mitchell, J. THE CAMBRIDGE ATLAS of the MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA. Cambridge University Press CAMBRIDGE 1987
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 27th December 1990, Section A; page 3
www.p4d.org/settlements/glossary.html
Monday, 6 July 2009
JEWS OF ARAB CULTURE CONFERENCE 1948-2009. CAMBRIDGE 22-24 JUNE 2009
ORGANISED BY THE CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF MUSLIM-JEWISH RELATIONS
IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE CENTRE FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
It was a qualitative conference, with never more than sixty people present in the lecture room, including speakers. HRH Prince Hassan of Jordan formally opened the conference with his introduction. He thanked Cambridge University, CJMR and CEMEIS and commented that the Israeli blogosphere had already begun to criticise the conference before it had even started, as an exercise in Israeli bashing. There was mention of the silent majority that had been silenced, a majority that had its voice stolen; The Palestinian Diaspora. HRH spoke eloquently of the troubles plaguing the region and acknowledged the fact that “democracy cannot land in our region by parachute and perform miracles overnight.” The Diaspora of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire was touched upon briefly, having been given its own terminology, the “Turkos” and the fact that it took three World Wars, the Prussian-Franco”, WWI and WWII for the Europeans to establish the Erasmus Programme. HRH commented on the conference,”...That this meeting was a process for those setting out on the journey, towards reconciliation between two peoples...it took several decades after meeting Golda Meir, in the sixties, for me to realise the importance of dignity of all creeds and human beings was vital.”
“Judaism, in relation to the “Other” meant that they were connected but apart, separate but together.” On Jerusalem itself, he commented that “...it was ideally suited to establish a moral authority...that rises above politics via management of a Holy space through...fifteen Churches of the Eastern Communion involved in this space.” HRH explained about the different emotions he invokes amongst different people. This concerned the differing attitudes embraced surrounding him,”...I am often accused of being a closet Jew by some in the Arab world, and of being the Goebbels of the Arab world by the Israelis.”
The situation in present day Iraq was referred to because his country has so many refugees from that benighted and plundered land due to the wretched situation of the Iraqi refugee children in Jordan. Jordanian psychologists are having to treat eighty percent of them because they are suffering from trauma. HRH was visibly moved by their plight and one can only commend Jordan for benevolence shown to Iraqi refugees.
HRH moved on to the prospect of peace in the Middle East, and emphasised that it would only happen under certain circumstances and political conditions given the difficult nature of the situation,”...reconciliation will take place eventually but only when each side recognises the other...by building bridges we can overcome conflict and the only way to achieve this is to transcend loyalties by hope and that this series of talks will culminate in the realisation of Jews of Arab culture, and Arabs of Jewish culture to move forward; that the emancipation of women reflects the globalisation of the financial market...”
The full speech may be obtained from : The Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths
Wesley House, Jesus Lane Cambridge CB5 8BJ
ORGANISED BY THE CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF MUSLIM-JEWISH RELATIONS
IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE CENTRE FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
It was a qualitative conference, with never more than sixty people present in the lecture room, including speakers. HRH Prince Hassan of Jordan formally opened the conference with his introduction. He thanked Cambridge University, CJMR and CEMEIS and commented that the Israeli blogosphere had already begun to criticise the conference before it had even started, as an exercise in Israeli bashing. There was mention of the silent majority that had been silenced, a majority that had its voice stolen; The Palestinian Diaspora. HRH spoke eloquently of the troubles plaguing the region and acknowledged the fact that “democracy cannot land in our region by parachute and perform miracles overnight.” The Diaspora of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire was touched upon briefly, having been given its own terminology, the “Turkos” and the fact that it took three World Wars, the Prussian-Franco”, WWI and WWII for the Europeans to establish the Erasmus Programme. HRH commented on the conference,”...That this meeting was a process for those setting out on the journey, towards reconciliation between two peoples...it took several decades after meeting Golda Meir, in the sixties, for me to realise the importance of dignity of all creeds and human beings was vital.”
“Judaism, in relation to the “Other” meant that they were connected but apart, separate but together.” On Jerusalem itself, he commented that “...it was ideally suited to establish a moral authority...that rises above politics via management of a Holy space through...fifteen Churches of the Eastern Communion involved in this space.” HRH explained about the different emotions he invokes amongst different people. This concerned the differing attitudes embraced surrounding him,”...I am often accused of being a closet Jew by some in the Arab world, and of being the Goebbels of the Arab world by the Israelis.”
The situation in present day Iraq was referred to because his country has so many refugees from that benighted and plundered land due to the wretched situation of the Iraqi refugee children in Jordan. Jordanian psychologists are having to treat eighty percent of them because they are suffering from trauma. HRH was visibly moved by their plight and one can only commend Jordan for benevolence shown to Iraqi refugees.
HRH moved on to the prospect of peace in the Middle East, and emphasised that it would only happen under certain circumstances and political conditions given the difficult nature of the situation,”...reconciliation will take place eventually but only when each side recognises the other...by building bridges we can overcome conflict and the only way to achieve this is to transcend loyalties by hope and that this series of talks will culminate in the realisation of Jews of Arab culture, and Arabs of Jewish culture to move forward; that the emancipation of women reflects the globalisation of the financial market...”
The full speech may be obtained from : The Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths
Wesley House, Jesus Lane Cambridge CB5 8BJ
Friday, 3 July 2009
Total Number of Palestinian Refugees Today
The total number of Palestinian refugees is estimated at over 8 million dispersed around the world, most of them home in host Arab countries. 4.6 million are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) 1.3 million of these are in 58 camps dispersed across three Arab countries and the Occupied Territories.
"You don't simply bundle people onto trucks and drive them away...I prefer to advocate a positive policy, to create, in effect, a condition that in a positive way will induce people to leave." Ariel Sharon, 24th of August 1988
Sources: Journal of Palestine Studies. Institute for Palestine Studies. University of California Press. Volume 38 pp 77-78
The Times (London) August 24 1988 page 7
"You don't simply bundle people onto trucks and drive them away...I prefer to advocate a positive policy, to create, in effect, a condition that in a positive way will induce people to leave." Ariel Sharon, 24th of August 1988
Sources: Journal of Palestine Studies. Institute for Palestine Studies. University of California Press. Volume 38 pp 77-78
The Times (London) August 24 1988 page 7
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Conclusion of the Balfour Declaration
There were four different drafts regarding the Declaration. A Zionist draft, a shorter, curt draft by Balfour, a Milner draft and a Milner-Amery draft. The authoritative voice was that of Claude Montefiore, one of the most respected contributors to Anglo-Jewry as a communal leader,philanthropist, prolific author and radical theoligian (Kessler). He wrote," The phrase" a national home for the Jewish race appears to assume and imply that Jews generally constitute a nationality. Such an implication is extremely prejudicial to Jewish interests, as it is intensely obnoxious to an enormous number of Jews...A national home for the Jews on the score of the oppressed condition of the Jews is no longer necessary...The Polish-Jewish question will, with the co-operation of the Allies, be doubtless settled as favourably as the larger Russian Jewish problem has already been settled. The Rumanian Government will also not be able to resist the pressure of events..For the true well-being of the Jewish race emancipation and liberty in the countries of the world are a thousand times more important than a "home"...It is very significant that anti-Semites are always very sympathetic to Zionism. It is no wonder...I and my friends do not desire to impede colonisation and immigration into Palestine...Whoever is the Suzerain power of Palestine may be, we are in favour of the Jews, when their numbers permit it, ultimately obtaining the power which any large majority may justly claim...The words "who are contented with" ill express the facts. When thousands of Jews are fighting with passion and ardour for their respective countries, they are not merely contented with their nationality. It is bone of their bone and spirit of their spirit....If the present words of the draft declaration are, for some reason or reasons unknown to me, believes by His Majesty's Government to be in the interest of British policy, and if His Majesty's Government is anxious to publish this formula for the sake of this country as well as for the Jews, I would of course, subordinate my Jewish feelings, wishes and interests of England and the Empire..." (Stein, p525)
In summary it must be said that the present situation in Palestine and Israel, can be attributed to the British Government of that time. Britain was vying for control of the region against France and applying it's formula of control by colonisation, this time by manipulating the Jewish peoples.
The year 1949, was when the refugee tally of the Palestinian peoples came to be assessed. Arab officials spoke of a total of 900,000 or a million. Israeli spokesmen(in public) referred to about 520,000. UNWRA, United Nations Relief and Works Agency, put the figure at 726,000. The estimates vary according to the appraiser. The British, in February 1949 put the figure at 810,000: 210,000 in the Gaza Strip; 320,000 in the West Bank; 280,000 in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan (East Bank)The Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Walter Eytan, in a private letter (that still exists) to Daniel Sirkis (Hatzofe) said the UNWRA figure of 720,000 as "meticulous" but thought the real number was 800,000. However,officially, Israel stuck to the low figure of 520,000-530,000 for the following, simple reason: "If people became accustomed to the large figure and we are eventually obliged to accept the return of the refugees, we may find it difficult, when faced with hordes of claimants, to convince the world that not all of these formerly lived in Israeli territory...It would, in any event, seem desirable to minimise the numbers...than otherwise."
Sources: Stein L. The Balfour Declaration. VALENTINE & MITCHELL:London 1961.
Morris, B THE BIRTH OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE PROBLEM REVISITED. Cambridge University Press, 2004
Dr. Edward Kessler
www.muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v022/22.3kessler.html accessed 03/07/09
In summary it must be said that the present situation in Palestine and Israel, can be attributed to the British Government of that time. Britain was vying for control of the region against France and applying it's formula of control by colonisation, this time by manipulating the Jewish peoples.
The year 1949, was when the refugee tally of the Palestinian peoples came to be assessed. Arab officials spoke of a total of 900,000 or a million. Israeli spokesmen(in public) referred to about 520,000. UNWRA, United Nations Relief and Works Agency, put the figure at 726,000. The estimates vary according to the appraiser. The British, in February 1949 put the figure at 810,000: 210,000 in the Gaza Strip; 320,000 in the West Bank; 280,000 in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan (East Bank)The Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Walter Eytan, in a private letter (that still exists) to Daniel Sirkis (Hatzofe) said the UNWRA figure of 720,000 as "meticulous" but thought the real number was 800,000. However,officially, Israel stuck to the low figure of 520,000-530,000 for the following, simple reason: "If people became accustomed to the large figure and we are eventually obliged to accept the return of the refugees, we may find it difficult, when faced with hordes of claimants, to convince the world that not all of these formerly lived in Israeli territory...It would, in any event, seem desirable to minimise the numbers...than otherwise."
Sources: Stein L. The Balfour Declaration. VALENTINE & MITCHELL:London 1961.
Morris, B THE BIRTH OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE PROBLEM REVISITED. Cambridge University Press, 2004
Dr. Edward Kessler
www.muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v022/22.3kessler.html accessed 03/07/09
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Who drafted the Balfour Declaration ?
On the 1st of May 1917, Nahum Sokolow,future President of the World Zionist Organisation (1931-35) met with the Papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Gasparri. Sokolow commented,"I felt a chill in my bones..." The purpose of the meeting was to enlist Vatican support for creating a homeland for the Jews. The reason for "the chill" arose from the Catholic Church's ambition to claim for the reserved area in the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This area comprised of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and even the surrounding areas of Tiberias and Jericho. Ambitious indeed.
The Cardinal, having voiced his formative principle regarding the matter, continued by commenting that The Holy See, wished the Zionists well in their attempt to build a Jewish State. Sokolow's letter continues,"I do not wish this premature superlative to pass without comment. We do not plan to create a State but only an autonomous home." According to this letter, the reply was,"Do not worry. I only used that as a figure of speech. Call it what you will. I assure you that from the Church you will have no opposition. On the contrary, you may count on our sympathy. We shall be glad to see the land [sic] of Israel."
On May 4th, Sokolow was received in private audience by Pope Benedict XV. Thirteen years previously, Theodore Herzl, had been received by Pope Pius X, who told him that the Church could not support the return of the infidel Jews to the Holy Land. Herzl's greatest quote was,"In Basle I founded the Jewish State...maybe in 5 years, certainly in 50, everyone will realise it."
Theodor Herzl was driven by the antisemitism he witnessed in France, at the height of the Dreyfus Affair, hearing chants of,"Death to the Jews." The Dreyfus Affair was a determinant in the genesis of Political Zionism. He was the first president of the World Zionist Organisation in August 29-31, 1897. It was here the Basle Program was adopted; a call to collect funds from Jews around the world for creating a company owned by stockholders, the controlling shares to be held by the Rothschild's (Der Judenstaat,1896)
In Altneuland (1902) Herzl set out a rationale for his vision of Israel; a peaceseeking neutral land, built on the secular model. A socialist utopia consisting of a cooperative utilising science and technology in developing the land. It was to be a pluralist advanced society," a light unto the nations." This book became a symbol of the Zionist vision for the land of Israel.
The British view, of that time had not changed since Lord Palmerston stated in a despatch to the British Ambassador to Constantinople, 11th August 1840," There exists at present among the Jews dispersed over Europe, a strong notion that the time is approaching when their nation is to return to Palestine...It is well known that the Jews of Europe possess great wealth, and it is manifest that any country in which a considerable number of them might choose to settle would derive great benefit from the riches which they would bring into it."
Sources: Stein, L THE BALFOUR DECLARATION, Valentine & Mitchell, London 1961
THE JEWISH VIRTUAL LIBRARY accessed 30/06/09
The Cardinal, having voiced his formative principle regarding the matter, continued by commenting that The Holy See, wished the Zionists well in their attempt to build a Jewish State. Sokolow's letter continues,"I do not wish this premature superlative to pass without comment. We do not plan to create a State but only an autonomous home." According to this letter, the reply was,"Do not worry. I only used that as a figure of speech. Call it what you will. I assure you that from the Church you will have no opposition. On the contrary, you may count on our sympathy. We shall be glad to see the land [sic] of Israel."
On May 4th, Sokolow was received in private audience by Pope Benedict XV. Thirteen years previously, Theodore Herzl, had been received by Pope Pius X, who told him that the Church could not support the return of the infidel Jews to the Holy Land. Herzl's greatest quote was,"In Basle I founded the Jewish State...maybe in 5 years, certainly in 50, everyone will realise it."
Theodor Herzl was driven by the antisemitism he witnessed in France, at the height of the Dreyfus Affair, hearing chants of,"Death to the Jews." The Dreyfus Affair was a determinant in the genesis of Political Zionism. He was the first president of the World Zionist Organisation in August 29-31, 1897. It was here the Basle Program was adopted; a call to collect funds from Jews around the world for creating a company owned by stockholders, the controlling shares to be held by the Rothschild's (Der Judenstaat,1896)
In Altneuland (1902) Herzl set out a rationale for his vision of Israel; a peaceseeking neutral land, built on the secular model. A socialist utopia consisting of a cooperative utilising science and technology in developing the land. It was to be a pluralist advanced society," a light unto the nations." This book became a symbol of the Zionist vision for the land of Israel.
The British view, of that time had not changed since Lord Palmerston stated in a despatch to the British Ambassador to Constantinople, 11th August 1840," There exists at present among the Jews dispersed over Europe, a strong notion that the time is approaching when their nation is to return to Palestine...It is well known that the Jews of Europe possess great wealth, and it is manifest that any country in which a considerable number of them might choose to settle would derive great benefit from the riches which they would bring into it."
Sources: Stein, L THE BALFOUR DECLARATION, Valentine & Mitchell, London 1961
THE JEWISH VIRTUAL LIBRARY accessed 30/06/09
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