It is time for Israelis to confront reality: when the Zionists came to Palestine, there were another people living here. Over 100 years ago, a Zionist mission was sent to Palestine and their report acknowledged this fact: "The bride is beautiful but she is married to another man." And this: soon plans to displace Palestine's population were unveiled.
The "bride is beautiful" quote is fiction.
And where were these supposed plans to forcibly displace Arabs in Zionist writings?
"Palestinians are Arabs who immigrated to Israel. We Jews fended off the attacks by seven Arab armies in self-defense." These declarations deny the very existence of the Palestinian people, continue to justify the atrocities committed against us, and deny Palestinian refugees' legitimate right of return.
Well, they are also true (actually five armies.) I'm not clear how the fact that Arab armies invaded Israel denies the existence of the Palestinian people. But the fact that there was no distinctive Palestinian people before 1948 is tough to deny. I've looked for evidence of distinctive customs, cuisines and other artifacts for years and have found nothing; the closest was some goods like Nablus soap or Bethlehem costumes that were not "Palestinian" but local specialties.
The hypocrisy is that while Erekat says that Israel denies the existence of the Palestinian people today - which is certainly does not - Erekat denies the existence of the Jewish people. The basic anti-Zionist argument is that Jews are not a people, but merely a religion, which flies in the face of thousands of years of history. Yet Erekat and the PLO explicitly deny this fact.
Pot, meet kettle.
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