The Claims
* The Israeli- ‘Palestinian’ dispute centers around the land being claimed by two peoples. The Jewish People call it Eretz Yisroel, or the Land of Israel. The Arabs call themselves ‘Palestinians’ and their land ‘Palestine’. Both peoples claim that their histories go back thousands of years and that their claim is the true one.
* Although the Arabs claim an age-old “Palestine”, it never existed until the Romans defeated the Jews in 135 CE. Rome renamed Israel in an attempt to eradicate its Jewish identification. Renowned Arab historian Dr. Philip Hitti states, “There is no such thing in history as Palestine, absolutely not.”
* The Arabs claim the biblical Philistines as ancestors. But the Philistines were not even Arabs. They were a warlike Greek people from the Aegean islands who in the 12th Century BCE conquered part of the coast of Canaan.
Did the Arabs or any other people ever create a nation on the soil that was Israel?
For the 1900 years that the Jews were exiled, the land was never a national homeland of anyone, Arab or otherwise. Specifically, beginning in 634 CE and during the four centuries when the Arabs ruled it, Israel was never settled.
What is the “Palestine Mandate”?
The “Palestine Mandate” was the piece of land that included both present day countries of Israel and Jordan that was given to the British to administer after the Ottoman Empire lost the First World War. In exchange for wartime assistance the British had made promises to both the Jews and the Hussein family. Both were promised land. In order to try and keep both promises, the British sliced the Palestine Mandate into two parts. In 1922, 80% of the Palestine Mandate became Jordan, east of the Jordan River. All Jews living east of the Jordan River were expelled. This was in direct violation of the League of Nations Mandate to Britain.
In 1922 west Palestine became the only Palestine on the world map. When Israel was founded in 1948, the United Nations demanded that west Palestine be divided again, ‘forgetting’ the original division of land.
What does the Arab Leadership Know?
Arab leaders know that East ‘Palestine’ became Jordan. In 1948, King Abdullah said, “Palestine and Jordan are one.” Farouk Kadoumi, head of the PLO Political Department said, “Jordanians and Palestinians are considered by the PLO as one people.” Except for King Hussein and his Bedouin tribesmen, the remaining 80% of Jordan’s population are Arabs from the Palestine mandated area. King Hussein’s wife is “Palestinian”. In 1981, Hussein himself declared, “The truth is that Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan.” Therefore, the Arab leadership knows that there is no basis for Arabs now living in the State of Israel to demand the creation of a second Palestinian state.
