Palestine: History, People

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Palestine History, People the Land

• Dispelling the Myths
• Primer on History
• Key Issues
• Life in Palestine Now

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Myth 1 Palestine and Palestinians Never Existed
There was no such thing as Palestinians
Former Israeli PM Golda Meir
Palestinians are Two-legged vermin
Former Israeli PM Menachem Begin
Former Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir
We need to keep Palestinians like drugged
roaches in a bottle
Palestinians are grasshoppers
Former IDF Chief Rafael Eitan
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Reality
Of course Palestine and Palestinians Existed!

• Blanket dehumanization of a people used as
  propaganda tactic
  
• Israel has devoted enormous energy to
• Expel Palestinians from their homes
• Strip away Palestinians identity
• Deny Palestinians existence
• Maps, books, photos reference Palestine
• Baedecker's famous guidebook (1876) was entitled
  Palestine Syria

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Population 1870-1946
1,237,000
608,000
367,224
7,000
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Population 1870-1946
35
65
2
98
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Question it!

• If Palestinians never existed, why do Israeli
  leaders refer to the Palestinians in their
  derogatory, racist statements?
  
• If Palestine / Palestinians never existed, why
  are there resources (Pre-1948) referencing
  Palestine and its people?
  
• If Palestinians never existed, what people lived
  there when European Jews arrived?

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Myth 2 Palestinians Chose to Leave their Land
in 1948

• Myth Palestinians left at their own will
• Myth Encouraged to leave by Arab leaders
• Myth 68 of Palestinians left without ever
  seeing an Israeli soldier
  
• But on the other hand.
• Myth It was a war and they lost, so it goes
• Myth Population Exchange - Palestinian refugee
  losses balanced by claims resulting from
  comparable exodus of Jews from Arab world

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Reality
Palestinians were forced to leave their land

• Palestinians largely defenseless in 1948
• Exodus was involuntary and enforced
• Never relinquished their rights of home land
• Significant proportion terrorized into leaving
• News of massacres, rape, plunder instilled fear

• "In our country there is room only for the Jews.
  We shall say to the Arabs Get out! If they don't
  agree, if they resist, we shall drive them out by
  force."
• Professor Ben-Zion Dinur Israel's First Minister
  of Education, 1954
  
• from History of the Haganah http//www.birzeit.e
  du/crdps/village.html

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• 419 Arab villages demolished and depopulated
  between 1947-1949

Thats about 4 villages destroyed per week!
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Question it!

• Why would people want to leave their homes at
  their own will? Homes that have been in their
  families for generations!
  
• Oh, okay new-person-not-from-this-land, heres
  the key to my house. Take it, its yours! Ill
  just live in a tent.
  
• What causes masses to leave their land?
• Would nearly 1 million people living peacefully
  on a land for hundreds and hundreds of years
  suddenly decide to pick up and leave because they
  felt like it? Where were they going?

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Myth 3 A religious war that has lasted
thousands of years

• Myth This is a religious war that has been going
  on for thousands of years mainly between Jews and
  Muslims
  
• Myth Since it has been going on for so long,
  theres no chance for it to end in a short time
  period
  
• Myth There has never been peace in the Middle
  East

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Reality
Its not about religion, its about land AND it
just began in the 1900s!

• Christian, Jews, Muslims have been living
  together peacefully for hundreds of years
  
• Difficulties have only started with an exclusive,
  religiously pure apartheid system
  
• Israel loves saying it because
• Longer it goes on, more time to build illegal
  settlements and humiliate Palestinians
  
• Implies Jews have been there long time
• Makes Americans feel that theres no hope
• Why put pressure on Israel to change? Its been
  going on for so long.

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Question It!

• Why has there been relative calm before the
  colonist / Zionists arrived?
  
• If its a religious war, how come we rarely hear
  about the Palestinian Christians? Where do they
  fit in?
  
• If its a religious war, why isnt it going on in
  Morocco, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon,
  Jordan, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and many other
  countries were both Jews and Muslims live?

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Myth 4 Israels Generous Offer

• Myth Palestinians get 95 of land
• Myth Administrative control over some
  Palestinian neighborhoods around Jerusalem
  
• Myth Administrative civil control over
  Palestinians living in West Bank Gaza

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Reality
No Freedom No Independence

• Its like a prison
• Continued building of bypass roads
• Checkpoints every few miles
• No real sovereign control over borders
• No control over water or air space
• Non-contiguous land

And theres more.
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Reality
No Freedom No Independence

• Continued Israeli military control over large
  segments of the West Bank, including almost all
  of Jordan Valley
  
• Codified right of Israeli forces to be deployed
  in Palestinian state at short notice
  
• Continued presence of fortified illegal Israeli
  settlements and Jewish-only roads in the heart of
  the Palestinian state

Ohand one more thing.
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Reality
No Freedom No Independence

• Required nearly 4 million Palestinian refugees to
  relinquish their fundamental human rights in
  exchange for compensation to be paid not by
  Israel but by the "international community."

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Question it!

• Why is there no territorial contiguity for the
  Palestinian state?
  
• Why dont Palestinians have control of its
  external borders and water resources?
  
• Why is Israel NOT carrying out a FULL withdrawal
  as required by international law?
  
• Why is there no Palestinian Right of Return?
• Why is refugee compensation to be paid by
  international community?
  
• Why do Palestinians need to compromise any
  more?
  
• Already only left with 22 of their original
  land!

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Myth 5 Israels a democracy

• Myth Claims to be only democratic state in
  Middle East
  
• Myth Israel civilized an uncivilized world and
  made the desert bloom
  
• Myth Israeli Palestinians have equal rights

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Reality
Wheres the Democracy?

• Israels Law of Return gives automatic
  citizenship to any Jew
  
• No defined borders
• No constitution Only series of laws that
  establishes Jewish supremacy over non-Jews
  
• Torture is legal
• Land confiscation is legal
• Indefinite detention without charge

Applies only to Palestinian Israeli citizens
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Question it!

• How can you be democracy and an exclusive state
  for Jews? Thats blatant racism.
  
• How can you call a country a democracy when it
  doesnt even have a constitution or defined
  borders?
  
• Why does Israel grant citizenship to a Jew from
  Russia but not to an indigenous Palestinian who
  was born on that land?
  
• Why does US provide unconditional support to an
  overtly exclusive, racist state?

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• Israel is a full democracy only if we are to
  consider Apartheid South Africa a full democracy
  
• Yes Israel is a democracy if youre Jewish
• Its like saying US is a democracy as long as
  youre white

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Whenever You Hear

• Palestine Palestinians never existed
• Palestinians chose to leave their land
• This is a religious war that has lasted hundreds
  of years
  
• Israel has made generous offers to Palestinians
  and they never accept
  
• Israel is a democracy

Question it!
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The Key Issues

• Right to Return
• Violation of International Laws
• Refugee Crisis
• Illegal Settlements
• House Demolitions
• Resources
• Occupation
• Denial of Self Determination
• Human Rights Violations

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Right To Return A Critical Topic Often Ignored

• Right of Return is right of Palestinians to
• Return to their homeland
• Full restitution of all their confiscated and
  destroyed property in accordance with Intl Laws
  
• Why its not discussed?
• Tied to racist nature of exclusive state
• Israelis spin it as a demographic problem
• The Reality
• In 20 years population will be 55 Palestinian
  Christian and Muslim and 45 Jewish
  
• Israel is afraid if right to return is
  implemented, the special state of Jewish
  character is ruined

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Right of Return MUST be Brought to the Forefront

• Permanent return desirable for peace to prevail
• Ignoring it contradicts every link to democracy
• What if everyone in US says we want an exclusive
  Christian state or exclusive white state? Means
  no Latinos, Asians, African Americans,
  etcallowed
• Ignoring it goes against basic American values of
  openness to diversity, acceptance of people no
  matter what race, creed, ethnicity
  
• Its universal basic right!

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Universal Declaration of Independence

• "(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of
  movement and residence within the borders of each
  state.
  
• (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country,
  including his own, and to return to his country"

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1948 Resolution 194

• Paragraph 11 "...the refugees wishing to return
  to their homes and live at peace with their
  neighbors should be permitted to do so at the
  earliest practicable date... compensation should
  be paid for the property of those choosing not to
  return."

Reaffirmed 110 times with universal consensus,
except for Israel U.S.
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1974 UN Resolution 3236

• Subsection 2, "the inalienable right of the
  Palestinians to return to their homes and
  property from which they have been displaced and
  uprooted, and calls for their return".

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1997 UN Resolution 52/62

• Reaffirms that the Palestine Arab refugees are
  entitled to their property and to the income
  derived therefrom, in conformity with the
  principles of justice and equity."

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19481974 1997 .

• UN Resolutions reaffirmed over and over and over
  with universal consensus

except for Israel U.S.
Question it!
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Right to ReturnWho Can Become An Israeli Citizen

• If youre Jewish
• Arrive at airport
• Go to Qlitat Aliyah (Jewish Immigrant
  Reception)
  
• Say Im Jewish
• Congratulations, Youre a citizen!

Palestinians are not allowed the same methods as
Jews to become a citizen

• If youre a Palestinian
• Sorry, no chance.

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Refugee Crisis

• About 5½ million Palestinian Refugees
• Oldest largest refugee problem in the world
• Not a single refugee allowed to return
• Onto fourth generation of refugees
• Some made refugees multiple times 1948 1967
• Ways of dispossession
• Home demolitions.displaced again
• Israeli Laws

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Right of Return IS Possible

• A study on the demography of Israel shows that
  78 of Israelis are living in 14 of Israel and
  that the remaining 86 of the land in Israel is
  mostly land that belongs to the refugees on which
  22 of the Israelis live.

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Illegal Settlements

• Large housing projects/cities built illegally by
  Israel on land confiscated from Palestinians
  within West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip
  
• Began as a means of controlling annexing
  Palestinian land occupied during 1967 War
  
• Serves Israels strategic, military, economic
  interests
  
• Impedes peace process creates facts on ground
• Constant reminder and humiliation to Palestinians
  in an Apartheid system

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Settlers Settlements
Of 400,000 Settlers, 70 Americans (e.g.
Brooklyn) Others Russian European
SOURCE Foundation for Middle East Peace
http//www.fmep.org/reports/2002/sr0203.html5
190 Illegal Settlements
130 / 16
11
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Water

• 80 water aquifers in West Bank
• Illegal settlements strategically placed on top
  of water aquifers mountains
  
• Illegal settlements get priority access
• As illegal settlements are built or expand,
  water taken away from Palestinians

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This Really Happens

• When supplies run low during summer, Israeli
  water company shuts off valves that supply
  Palestinian towns. So settlers get full swimming
  pools while Palestinian villages a few miles away
  run out of drinking water.

Settlers attack Palestinians' water supply,
severing pipes and switching off valves. They
dump untreated sewage on Palestinian land,
polluting wells and aquifers.
Israeli army has routinely destroyed water
supplies, an activity defined as a war crime.
SOURCE http//www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId74
4CategoryId4
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Palestinian Olive Trees

• Sole source of income for many Palestinian
  farmers
  
• Each tree yields approximately 5 gallons of oil
  sold at markets for equivalent of about 75
  (U.S.)
  
• Olive Trees passed down through generations of
  Palestinian families
  
• Takes decades to mature fully
• More than 11,000 olive trees have been uprooted
  and destroyed
  
• Under attack by Settlers

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House Demolitions

• Classic colonial practice attacking or
  eliminating habitat of indigenous population
  
• Carry out collective punishment either in
  retaliation for, or as deterrence against, acts
  of resistance
  
• Violations of International Law
• Demolish villages and create policies refusing to
  grant them building permits
  
• Encouraging and subsidizing construction of
  illegal Israeli settlements
  
• Creating nation of homeless dispossessed
  (becoming a refugee yet again)

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Occupation

• Loss of control over natural resources
• Imposition of suffocating closures and curfews
• Destruction of Palestinian land and property
• Suppression of free statement
• Systematic destruction of the Palestinian economy

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Occupation

• International law considers agreements between an
  occupier and any body in occupied areas to be
  null and void if they deprive civilians of
  recognized human rights including the rights to
  repatriation and restitution.

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