I was motivated to write this piece after joining a group on the internet site ‘Facebook’, called ‘Facebook: Delete the group, ‘Israel is not a country’’. Aside from the aim of this group, I found it most satisfying to see thousands of others writing posts on discussion forums about what really happened in 1948. It re-assured me that I am not the only one in GB who understands the real events that occurred from 1900-1948 and then to the modern era. As they all basically say: Israel displaced no-one. It was the Arabs that created the modern day 'Palestinian' refugee problem, not Israel. It was the armies of five Arab country’s who invaded Israel when it was just a one-day-old state that told the Arab inhabitants of Israel to leave, while they destroyed and removed the Jewish state and settlers. Unfortunately for them, Israel won and the Arabs that had left were then refused entry into the Arab countries who had of course, in the first place, told them all to leave their homes. Obviously, there were some instances of violence and displacement but no more so (if anything a lot less) than that which the Jews faced and in fact still face to this very day in the 22 Arab nations that surround Israel in which Jews (not to mention women of course) are persona-non-grata-that’s if they’re even allowed to live there. What is completely clear though, is that refugees are the inevitable casualties of war. Whether a direct or indirect cause of the IDF, the Arab refugees were created out of war sparked by Arab aggresion against Israel and the jewish people. They were casaulties of a war which Israel did not want and tried to avoid and yet, whatever the cause of the start of the conflict it is a historical fact to say that, had the Arab states chosen to adopt the same measures as Israel, there would be know arab refugee problem in the 21st century. Israel chose to take in all of the 850,000 jewish refugess (who were made so in regions that were nowhere near the areas of direct conflict, in other words, the real victims of ethnic cleansing in the middle east in the 20th century) and had the Arab states taken in ‘their’ refugees, rather than using them as a political weapon by which they hoped to diplomatically achieve the goal they started in 1948, there would be no Palestinian crisis and, moreover, there would be no calls for the destruction of Israel.

Furthermore, for those that say the 'Palestinians' lived on the land first and therefore it belongs to them, let me tell you that every claim in that statement is entirely false. Firstly, the Jews had being living in what is now Israel for a millennium which predated the birth of Islam. If anyone then has a right to that claim, anyone, it is, without question the Jews. Also, let me remind them that Israel is not the first Jewish state. 1948 represented the long-awaited re-creation of a Jewish state. Formerly there was Judea and then before that Canaan or ancient Israel. (Also for those indoctrinated western citizens who believe that the land on which Israel is situated belongs to Islam, you may not know that Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Quran and was never uttered in the same breath as holy sites like Mecca and Medina until the creation of the PLO by Yassar Arafat in 1964.)

Of course, aside from the fact that Israel is blamed for the Arab refugee problem when it was in fact down to their fellow Muslim brothers, there was no such a thing nor was there ever (pre 19-64) such a term as 'Palestinian'. This term was first established and used by the PLO when Yassar Arafat created the previously unheard-of theory that there was a nation, a historic race of people called Palestinians. (Hence the reason I use the term with inverted commas). This FACT can also be proved by looking at the official UN documentations on the division and declaration of the state of Israel-where Arabs and Jews were united under the title 'Inhabitants of Palestine'-no mention of Palestinians. We can also look back at newspapers that were printed when the Jewish state was declared in 1948 where you will find no mention of a ‘Palestinian’.

Finally, arguably the most important, the 'Palestinians' do have a state. It is called Jordan. It was created by the UN in 1948 alongside Israel in order to provide the Arabs of Palestine – the ‘Palestinians’ - with a first ever state of their own, (which is why-the most recent-King Hussein of Jordan is on the record to have said '' Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan”). And for those that say Israel 'occupies' Palestinian land, they should know that Israel actually owns under 20% of the former region of Palestine-the rest is in the hands of the 'Palestinians' in Gaza, the West Bank (which together make up 5% of Palestine) and Jordan (80%). Although, of course to refer to Israel as occupying ‘Palestinian’ land when there is evidential proof that there is no (or at least before 1964 there was no) such a thing as a ‘Palestinian’, is a complete contradiction of social and political history. Palestine was named such by the Romans (Hadrian to be precise) who named it that after the Philistines that had lived there during the existence of the last Jewish state (Judea) in order to spite the Jews who the Romans then either murdered or expelled from the area. From that we can understand that history is now repeating itself. Over 2,000 years ago it was the Romans who attempted to distance the region from the Jews by renaming the country Judea to Palestine. Two millenniums later and we face the same situation but with the Arabs-renamed ‘Palestinians’-all in attempt to rid the Middle East of its Jewish connections and historical routes. In fact, one need not spend too much time researching the internet, to find countless examples of high ranking Palestinian officials who have confirmed and re-iterated this historical, political and social truth.

Way back on March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:
The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.

I couldn’t have put it better myself. Zahir Muhsein was then assassinated in 1979. No side has since claimed responsibility.
Another argument that drives me totally mad is when people refer to Israel as Apartheid and a terrorist state due to the way they treat Israeli Arabs-or the 'Palestinians'. I find this most bemusing for a number of reasons. Please correct me if I'm wrong but Arabs have the vote and are able to participate in free and fair elections, they have (therefore) an equal say in society, they are represented in the Israeli Knesset, they get educated in Israeli schools and universities and have the right of free speech and to a national healthcare. Were these privileges available to black people during the SA apartheid? Again, correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think they were. I would like to end this point by giving all those who have to stick up for Israel against useless, incorrect rhetoric like 'Israel is Apartheid' with this simple statement (or rather question) told to me by Rabbi Shoshana Hantman of New York :

''So you are saying Israel is Apartheid? Well, why don't you ask the ARAB Mr. Majilli Wahibi, current deputy speaker of the Knesset-though had a brief run as president, as to whether he thinks ISRAEL is Apartheid.'' (Or you could use the names of any of the current 12 Arab members of the Knesset or any of the previous 47).

I think it is also worth pointing out that the latest findings from Just Journalism-which Alex Brummer reported on in the Jewish Chronicle (in the UK) on the 11th July-say that 83% of articles published in GB on Israel's 60th Birthday carried the message that Israel does not seek peace-clearly ignoring summits like the Oslo peace agreement in 1993 for which, let’s not forget the Israeli PM won a Nobel Peace Prize, Camp David in 2000 and of course let’s not forget the original UN partition which gave the Palestinians a state- arguably two - state(s) of their own. This sort of Bias in the British press (and inevitably therefore the British public) must be brought down and replaced with adequate, historically and politically correct factual information, before it is too late to erase the Arab myths, that have become supposed facts amongst the supposedly intelligent Western Left.