Palestinian people …. Semites….Arabs… lived in the land called Israel for centuries. By the end of the 19th century, the population of Palestine was overwhelmingly Arab. According to historical records, in 1852 there were only about 13,000 Jews, representing just 4 percent of the total population . At the start of World War I, the population was home to roughly 60,000 Jews compared to more than 700,000 Muslims and Christians .
Towns and villages inhabited by Palestinian Arabs bear names derived from ancient Hebrew, Canaanite, Greek, or Roman origins showing a continuous inhabitation over centuries. Nablus derives its name from the Roman Neopolis, and Jenin is built on the site of the ancient village of Ein Ganim .
In 1917, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, expressing support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” . This declaration was met with immediate opposition from the existing Arab population, who held their first congress in Jerusalem . In led the way to the catastrophe known as “the Nakba” began when the state of Israel was declared in 1948 at the United Nations. Conflict started and the displacement of a massive portion of the Palestinian population. An estimated 750,000 to 780,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes. According to one source, this meant that four out of every five Palestinians living in the area that became Israel lost their land and homes .
Now we have Netanyahu and his Zionism government denying basic human rights to the Palestine Arabs and expanding what appears to be a “permanent Zionism expansion “ into Lebanon.
The Middle East future looks bleak and may get bleaker. Israel has nuclear weapons and a hardline government? Dare I talk of a new Holocaust started by Netanyahu and his followers?
