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Fiction Displaces Facts in Palestine

(Newsday) Ahron Bregman - I am a Jewish Palestinian. My father was born and raised in Palestine as was his father, grandfather, great grandfather, and so on for many generations. In fact the Bregmans have lived on this land - first Palestine then Israel - since around 1754. Other Jewish families as well have lived in Palestine for decades, mainly in Jerusalem, Tiberias, Safed, and Hebron, among other places. But Arab and Palestinian propaganda would not accept that. Mixing facts and fiction and rewriting the history of the Holy Land is part of the Palestinians' struggle against Israel and part of their negotiating tactics. Although Palestinians have legitimate grievances, there is absolutely no historical basis to their claims that Palestine is exclusively theirs and that the Jews "stole" their land. The Jews did not "rob" the Arabs or "steal" their land, but rather they bought it from them. As for the Arab aristocracy of landowners who had sold the land to the Jews, they did so voluntarily and with open eyes.
2004-06-18 00:00:00
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