Okay Evangelion. Explain this:
Palestinians lived all throughout the land now known as Israel.
They still do. How long are you claiming they've been there?
Yes they do. In fact, Palestinians currently comprise
35% of Jerusalem's population (
source).
Who kicked them out? The jewish did.
They haven't been kicked out. 35% of Jerusalem's entire population is Palestinian, for crying out loud! 35%!
Do you think it's okay for the jews to kick out the palestinians from their homes?
No, of course it's not. I've already agreed with this.
Ignoring for a second which country is which. I don't care if Palestine existed beforehand or not. Your argument is the equivalent of saying that the native americans were not technically a country so it was okay to take it over.
No, that's not equivalent to my argument at all. The native Americans are
indigenous to America. The Palestinians are
not indigenous to Israel. They are
Arab nationals. They even admit this!
You cannot avoid the fact that the arabs lived in these towns, cities and countrysides and were forcefully kicked out by the jews. Is that right? Well?
Yes,
some were. Most
weren't. And a large proportion of them were
told to leave by the surrounding Arab nations when they attacked Israel in 1948. This is well documented by European, Jewish and Arab sources alike:
The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland... The Arab States succeeded in scattering the Palestinian people.
Abu Mazen, article 'Madha `Alamna wa-Madha Yajib An Na`mal', in Falastineth-Thawra, official PLO journal, Beirut, March 1976
The British police in Israel in 1948 reported to headquarters:
Every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab population to stay and carry on with their normal lives...'
Report of British police in Israel, 26 April, 1948
Now an Arab testimony, from a Jordanian daily in 1949:
The Arab States which had encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies, have failed to keep their promises to help these refugees.'
Jordanian daily, 'Falastin', 19 February 1949
The Arabs in Israel were offered citizenship and a peaceful continuation of their lives. Israel sought a peace treaty with the Arab National Committee, which represented Arab interests in Israel. The Arab National Committee (note - not the
Palestinian National Committee), refused to sign the treaty, and happily reported back to the Arab League Governments (a political collective of neighbouring Arab states), in the following memorandum:
...when the delegation entered the conference room it proudly refused to sign the truce and asked that the evacuation of the Arab population and their transfer to neighboring Arab countries be facilitated...
The military and civil authorities and the Jewish representatives expressed their profound regret. The mayor of Haifa (Mr. Shabtai Levi) adjourned the meeting with a passionate appeal to the Arab population to reconsider its decision...'
Haifa, 27 April, 1948
A Greek Catholic priest who was an eyewitness of the events of 1948 recorded:
The refugees were confident that their absence would not last long, and that they would return within a week or two. Their leaders had promised them that the Arab Armies would crush the "Zionist gangs" very quickly and that there was no need for panic or fear of a long exile.'
Monseigneur George Hakim, quoted in Sada al Janub, August 16,1948
During the evacuation, the London Economist reported:
Of the 62,000 Arabs who formerly lived in Haifa not more than 5,000 or 6,000 remained. Various factors influenced their decision to seek safety in flight. There is but little doubt that the most potent of the factors were the announcements made over the air by the Higher Arab Executive, urging the Arabs to quit... It was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades.'
The Economist, October 2, 1948
Now another Arab testimony, from an Arab daily:
The Arab States encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies.
Editorial, Falastin, February 19, 1949
Now another Arab testimony, from an Arab radio broadcast:
It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees' flight from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa, and Jerusalem.
Near East Arabic Broadcasting Station, April 3, 1949
Now another Arab witness, from 1948:
I do not want to impugn anybody but only to help the refugees. The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the action of the Arab States in opposing partition and the Jewish State. The Arab States agreed upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem.
Emil Ghoury (Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee), quoted by the Daily Telegraph, September 6, 1948
Now another Arab testimony, from 1951:
'The Secretary General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and of Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade... He pointed out that they were already on the frontiers and that all the millions the Jews had spent on land and economic development would be easy booty, for it would be a simple matter to throw Jews into the Mediterranean... Brotherly advice was given to the Arabs of Palestine to leave their land, homes, and property and to stay temporarily in neighboring fraternal states, lest the guns of the invading Arab armies mow them down.'
Habib Issa, in the Lebanese newspaper Al Hoda published in New York, June 8, 1951
Now a direct quote from one of the Arab refugees:
The Arab governments told us: get out so that we can get in. So we got out, but they did not get in.'
Jordanian daily Ad Difaa, September 6, 1954
Now an Egyptian testimony, from a Cairo daily in 1963:
15 May 1948 arrived... on that very day the Mufti of Jerusalem appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country, because the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their stead...'
Cairo daily Akhbar el-Yom, 12 October, 1963
And to finish:
The Jewish people extends the hand of sincere friendship and brotherhood to the Arab people and calls on them to cooperate as free and equal allies for the sake of peace and progress.
Assembly of Palestine Jewry, October 2, 1947
Israel offered its Arab population full citizenship and harmonious co-existence within Israel. By contrast, the surrounding Arab nations told their brethren to leave Israel so that they might destroy her. They then abandoned the Arab refugees who were left behind when Israel humiliated the Arab crusaders by defeating them wholesale. They refused to accept those refugees into their own countries, and forced them into a buffer zone between themselves and Israel. The Jews have since been left to deal with the consequences.
One caveat: there
were attacks by Jewish forces on Arab living within Israel shortly before to the 1948 war. Some Arabs were driven out by Israel. But these events were aberrations, and the numbers were very small.
They owned the land, they lived there. The jews just moved in, kicked them out and set up their own houses. That's what they've been doing since 1947. Atleast before that they made a pretence of buying the land they moved in to.
False. You really haven't studied the history, have you?
