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Palestine:
This is the name recorded in the history and
scriptures of the country. It derives from
the name of its original inhabitants, the
Philistines, which the Old Testament books
of Genesis, Deuteronomy and Joshua
acknowledge. The Old Testament records the
names, inter alios, of the Anakim, the
Rephaim, the Canaanites, the Jebusites, the
Hittites and the Phoenicians, and the Book
of Exodus explicitly states, “When Pharaoh
let the people go, God did not lead them by
way of the land of the Philistines...
The name of Palestine persisted for the
duration of the British Mandate, which the
various projects and settlements put forward
all recognise. It is a fact acknowledged
even by the zealots of the Zionist Movement;
for example, Shmuel Katz, founder of the
Herut Zionist movement and one of the
leaders of the Etzel National Military
Organisation, who wrote, “All Zionist
institutions in the world bore the name of
Palestine. His examples include the Zionist
‘Anglo-Palestine’ Bank, the Jewish
Foundation Fund, which was known as the
Palestinian Foundation Fund, and the
Palestine Workers Fund, which was Jewish. He
noted that in the Diaspora the songs of
Palestine were Zionist anthems, that as
emigrants in foreign lands they would
celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles as the
Palestinian Feast of Tabernacles and that
the Palestine Post, which went under the
name al-Barid al-Filistini, was a Zionist
newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Zionist
Federation. “The name of Palestine,” he
wrote, “was only replaced after the
establishment of what was called the State
of Israel.
He admits that the Hebrew language only came
into use in Tiberias in the tenth century.
Even when President Roosevelt of America
responded to Prince Abdallah of Jordan in
March 1944 he wrote, “With regard to
Palestine, I am pleased to communicate to
you the assurances that the United States of
America has no view to take any decision to
change the situation in Palestine without
full consultation of Arabs and Jews.
Generally speaking, notwithstanding the
matter of its name, the history of Palestine
fits the pattern of other countries in the
region: a country inhabited by different
peoples, with rule passing successively
between many tribes, nations and ethnic
groups, some of whom were immigrants and
some of whom were invaders, a country that
has seen many wars and stood witness to
waves of human immigration from all
directions.
From an historical perspective, therefore,
no one has the right to assert that it is
tarty can claim the right to one part of
Palestine, neither can they lay just claim
to any otherheir land, for that would amount
to no more than an unsubstantiated claim.
And if no one p part.
A State for
the Jews:
The original idea
was for a Jewish state by which to protect
the Jews, an idea which was first adopted by
Theodor Hertzl, among others, in recent
times. The immediate motive lay in the persecution to which the
Jews were subject, specifically in Europe,
before Hitler’s time.
Cyprus, Argentina, Uganda, Al Jabal Al
Akhdar, Palestine and Sinai were proposed as
sites for the establishment of a Jewish
state as a way of ridding Europe of Jews.
Palestine is not therefore necessarily or
inevitably the national homeland of the
Jews, as this history confirms.
Balfour Declaration:
The motivation underlining the Declaration
was to rid Europe of Jews, rather than
express sympathy for them.
The
Persecution of the Jews:
The Jews are an unfortunate people. They
have suffered greatly at the hands of
governments, leaders and other peoples since
ancient times. Why? Because this is the will
of God, just as the Quran makes clear in the
accounts of Egypt’s Pharaoh, and as their
treatment at the hands of the rulers from
Babylon, Roman emperors, from Titus to
Hadrian, and the kings of England, such as
Edward I, illustrates. The Jews have been
banished, held captive, massacred,
disadvantaged and persecuted in every
possible fashion at the hands of the
Egyptians, the Romans, the English, the
Russians, the Babylonians, the Canaanites,
and, more recently, at the hands of Hitler.
The Arabs and the Jews:
There is no enmity between Arabs and Jews.
In fact, the Jews are Adnanite cousins to
the Arabs on the father’s side, from the
stock of Abraham, peace by upon him. When
the Jews were persecuted, their brother
Arabs invited them as guests to live
alongside them in the town of al-Madinah,
even giving them the land of Wadi al-Qura,
which was named in this way in reference to
the Jewish villages [Al. qura]. Following
the emergence of Islam under the Prophet
Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him, the
Jews found the notion of a prophet from
outside their number repugnant and harboured
hostility towards him. Some attacks against
them took place, just as there were attacks
against those from the Quraish, who refused
to accept Islam and against Arabs who
initially accepted Islam but subsequently
rejected it. The Jews, along with the Arabs,
were expelled from Andalucia at the end of
the 15th century and found refuge in the
Arab countries, which is why we find a
Jewish quarter in every Arab country. There,
they lived in peace and friendship with
their brother Arabs.
Single State Draft Proposals
British Proposals
A- Walkhope
Proposed by the British High Commissioner in
Palestine at the beginning of the 1930s,
requiring the establishment of a Palestinian
Legislative Council comprising 11 Muslim, 4
Christian and 7 Jewish members, in
proportion to the demography of Palestine at
that time.
b- Newcomb
i) Establishment of an independent
sovereign Palestinian state.
ii) Broad sectarian freedom.
iii) Broad municipal freedom.
iv) Decentralisation.
c) British White Paper of 1939
i) Independent federal Palestinian
state.
ii) Consultative Council comprising
Arabs and Jews.
iii) Executive Council comprising
Arabs and Jews.
d) Lord Morson
i) Central government.
ii) Four administrative areas: Arab area,
Jewish area, Jerusalem and the Negev.
iii) Local government and Legislative
Council for each area.
All these proposals were rejected for
non-substantive reasons; for example,
dissatisfaction with the size of the areas
or towns awarded to one side, differences
over the duration of the British mandate, or
matters relating to the number of
immigrants.
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