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Truth-Telling to Advance Israeli-Palestinian Peace

(Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Dr. Max Singer - It is false to say that there exists "Palestinian territory" that Israel refuses to "give back." The land in question is disputed: it is territory for which Israel has historic and legal claims. It is not Palestinian territory because Palestinians have never ruled or been sovereign over any land. This is an indisputable fact, not a question of interpretation. While Palestinians claim there are nearly 5 million "Palestinian refugees" from 1948, the reality is that only some 50,000 are refugees as the world defines the term. The others are descendants of refugees who never lived in Israel. The miseries imposed on them for three generations are the result of the Arab world's decision to prevent their resettlement in Arab lands. It is well understood that the Palestinian "right of return" is a weapon to destroy Israel. Official statements always refer to Jerusalem as sacred to both Jews and Muslims (sometimes adding that it is sacred to Christians as well), but in reality, there is very little symmetry between the Israeli and Palestinian connections to Jerusalem. The al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is in no way central to Islam. Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran, nor in regular Muslim prayers. On the other hand, Jerusalem is a central feature of the Jewish religion and of daily Jewish prayer. Palestinian denial that there was ever a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem is a recent invention. Older Muslim sources explain that the Dome of the Rock was built on the Temple Mount because it was the site of the Jewish Temple. If Israel was simply a colonial power taking Arab land by force, as the Palestinians falsely argue, it would be cowardly for them to yield. But Israelis did not come to the land as European colonialists; they came as a people returning to its homeland. Acknowledging Israel's historical and moral claim to the land would provide the Palestinians with an honorable basis for compromise with Israel. The writer is co-founder of the Hudson Institute in Washington.
2017-01-30 00:00:00
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