The 'Palestine Paper' that got away...THURSDAY, 10TH FEBRUARY 2011
That fine blogger Elder of Ziyon has a great scoop in the shape of a ‘Palestine Paper’ that the Guardian unaccountably chose not to reveal. The PLO, no less, recorded the legal rights of Jews to land they owned prior to 1948 -- some of which they had bought from the Arabs -- in areas now considered beyond the 1967 border (in reality, the 1948 ceasefire lines; Israel has never had proper ‘borders’ because the war of extermination against it has never actually ended). Elder writes:
...in 2008 the PLO wrote a paper describing the legal rights of Jews to lands that they owned prior to 1948.The intent was to have a position ready in case Israel brought the issue up in negotiations. It was not presented to Israel.
It is astonishing to read paragraphs like these from the PLO:
Jews who owned land have the right to have their land restored to them or to be compensated, if restitution is not materially possible. Jews are entitled to compensation for other material and non-material losses, including lost profits, lost income, etc. caused by their displacement and dispossession.
Some of the parts are fascinating. For example, it describes (and implicitly supports) the bigoted British policy of severely restricting the rights of Jews - and only Jews - to buy land before 1948...
It was of course Jews -- and only Jews -- to whom the British had a legal obligation under the Mandate to settle throughout Palestine -- including in the very same ‘occupied’ territories that the British, who tore up their treaty obligations to the Jews, now claim ad nauseam Israel is occupying illegally. Elder continues:
Between 1948 and 1967, Jordan and Egypt essentially confiscated Jewish-owned land, against international humanitarian law... Finally, the document describes some specific lands indisputably owned by Jews - even according to the Palestinian Arabs.
[L]and located on Mount Scopus...was purchased from a British national in 1916. Boris Goldberg, a member of Lovers of Zion, paid for the land and took title in his name.51 He gifted the land to the JNF, which gave a 999-year lease to Hebrew University.52 Additional land was purchased on Mount Scopus from Raghib al-Nashashibi, Mayor of Jerusalem, and was used for the Hebrew University. Hadassah Hospital was also built on land purchased on Mount Scopus.
...By 1946, the JNF acquired 72,300 dunums in the Gaza district, which encompassed more than present-day Gaza.
In 1930, a Jewish farmer from Rehovot, Tuvia Miller, bought 262 dunums of land in Dayr al-Balah in the Gaza sub-district. Miller eventually sold his land to the JNF in the early 1940s. The JNF then allowed settlers from the religious Ha-Poel ha-Mizrahi movement to build the kibbutz of Kfar Darom on the land in October 1946. They abandoned the kibbutz in June 1948.59
Stein reports a purchase of 4,048 dunums in Huj (Gaza sub-district) in 1935 but does not indicate the identity of the Jewish purchaser.60 Note, however, that the Palestine Partition Commission reported that, by 1938, only 3,300 dunums in Gaza were owned by Jews. 61 In 1941, 6,373 dunums were purchased by the JNF around Gaza City, though it is unknown whether the purchase was permissible under the Land Transfer Regulations 1940.
The government of Palestine estimated a population of 3,540 Jews in the Gaza sub-district at the end of 1946. Information has not been found on the circumstances under which these Jews departed from Gaza in 1948.
Anyone like to hazard a guess?
Would all those shrieking ‘illegal’ at Israel over the ‘settlements’ care to, uh, synchronise their statements with the Palestinians? Or is it one law for everyone but another altogether for the Jews?
Don't all answer at once.
The Paradox of our Time
ReplyDeleteThe paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We've conquered outer space, but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've split the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less.
We plan more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships.
These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.
These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw-away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.