(Miryam Institute) Lt.-Col. (ret.) Yochai Guiski - The Palestinian campaign to turn the date of the historic UN decision to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states into an "International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People" is about privilege and supremacy of the Arabs and Palestinians, and not about justice. Privilege and supremacy are not exclusively white, but are borne of deep-seated perceptions of superiority by those groups who are in power, especially if they have held power for a long time. Some societies manifest it by formally making religious or ethnic minorities into second-class citizens. Jews were second-class citizens in the areas controlled by the various incarnations of Arab or Islamic rule over the centuries, and this only ended after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. When the "second-class" Jews were suddenly equal rights citizens under the British Mandate, the Arabs chafed under what seemed sacrilegious - a Jew enjoying the same rights as an Arab. The racist treatment of Jews intensified to a crescendo of violence all over the Middle East and North Africa as Israel was established. Attacks on Jews were the norm, their properties were confiscated, and many were arrested or detained in camps. Around 900,000 Jews were thus forced to migrate and leave most of their property behind. There was not a single Arab or Middle Eastern country that didn't see its Jewish community decimated and abused. The rejection of the right of Jews to self-determination in their ancient homeland is pervasive. The notion of Zionism, the national movement of the Jewish people, is described in the most derogatory terms - colonialism, racism, apartheid, crimes against humanity. The Palestinians and their supporters are out to redefine history as part of denying Jewish claims to the Holy Land. In the Palestinian version of reality, only Muslims have a sacred connection to the Temple Mount. Make no mistake about it, this is racist to the core. Palestinians maintained their privilege through the decades. They are the only refugees that have their own UN agency, which has received tens of billions of dollars over the years, and their refugee status is permanent and passed on to their descendants. They also have two other dedicated UN agencies. The writer, an expert at The MirYam Institute, is a 23-year veteran of the IDF, serving in Military Intelligence.
2022-12-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive