People who support the ethnic cleansing of Palestine of non-Jews and other Israeli atrocities believe a version of history unsupported by the evidence.
I could say it's you who believes a version of history unsupported by the evidence, but I know you don't actually believe what you're saying. You've been corrected numerous times on the "Ethnic cleansing" fallacy already, but lets go one more:
The growth rate of the Arab population in Israel is 2.6%, while the growth rate of the Jewish population in Israel is 1.7%. The growth rate of both the Jewish and Arab population has slowed from 3.8% in 1999 to 2.6% in 2008 for Arab and 2.7% to 1.7% for the Jewish population. The fastest growing segment of population are Arab Muslims with the latest growth rate of 2.8% for 2008.[
Demographics of Israel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So, in a nutshell, what ethnic cleansing? lol
Genetic and archeological evidence prove Palestinian history in this region goes back to prehistoric times. Palestinians (Muslims, Christians and Jews) and Jews who originate from this region are essentially the same race.
lol yeah you've said that before, and if I recall I challenged you to go to Gaza and announce that there's no difference between Palestinians and Jews. I'm guessing you passed. lol
But you know as well as I do that what we commonly call Palestinians of today, the Palestinian Arabs, are a peoples invented in the 1960's. Genetic history doesn't mean Jack Squat in realpolitik, and that's a position I believe would be held stronger by the Arabs than by the Jews.
Jews that left this region in the first and second century tended to keep their religion and intermarried with European, African and Asian converts to Judaism. Only the people that left can claim they are returning home. Unless some of these people are still alive (they would be 1800+ years old), Jews who claim they are "returning home" to Israel but were born somewhere else clearly fit the definition of immigrants.
Of course, that standard will never apply to the Arabs, what are we up to now, 4 Billion refugees? lol
The Jews that stayed in this region are ancestors of Palestinians. Over the centuries these people intermarried with immigrants and a majority converted to Islam and Christianity. These people clearly fit the definition of indigenous people.
This is a perfect example of the dishonesty that keeps me unsympathetic to the Palestinian Arabs. You're trying to conflate Palestinian with the modern day Palestinian Arab. You're not fooling anyone,
The name Palestine originates from 390AD when this region was ruled by the Romans. By the time this region was conquered by the Ottomans, the indigenous Muslims, Christians and Jews were already known collectively as Palestinians.
Timeline of the name Palestine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Actually, the name Palestine originates to much earlier than that. I'm surprised you would pretend not to know that, since it was you who alerted me to the fact that Palestine is the ancient Greek word for Israel. It was you who pointed out that Aristotle referred to Palestine somewhere around the third century BC, I don't recall exactly and don't feel like looking it up right now. I followed up on that and discovered you were absolutely right. It also led to me discovering that there was a word for Philistina other than Palestine. Your reference led to me discovering that the common wisdom that the Romans renamed Judea and Samaria to Palestina to slight the Jews with a reference to their historic enemies the Philistines, is incorrect. It actually simply translates to Israel. Thank you for that.
Under Ottoman rule, all Palestinians (Muslims, Christians and Jews) lived together relatively peacefully. Jews and Christians were protected by the Ottomans as long as they paid their taxes.
.....and showed due humility and submission. We've had this discussion in the past as well, where you actually had the integrity to admit that living under those conditions would be unacceptable to the dignity of any people. Yet here you are again, flaunting it as "relatively" peacefully. Why would you downplay now, the intensity of what is encapsulated in that "relatively" qualifier?
Starting in the late 1800's European Jews began to immigrate to Palestine to avoid European discrimination, injustice and oppression as part of a movement known as Zionism. Zionists claimed that Palestine was "A land without people for a people without land". The only land without people at the time would have been Antarctica. Nearly every other region of the planet has been populated for tens of thousands of years just like Palestine. This "Land without people" lie is just one of many Zionist distortions and deceptions they promote in order to support their goal of cleansing Palestine of non-Jewish Palestinians.
and yet the population of non-Jewish Palestinians has been steadily, healthily, growing the whole time. Where is this ethnic cleansing you speak of?
By 1948, the land Zionists claimed had no people, was populated by about 1.3 million indigenous Palestinians (Muslims, Christians and Jews).
There you go, evidence of my previous point. The influx of Zionists led to growth and prosperity for all.
In 1947 the UN proposed a partition plan for European Jews living in the British Mandate of Palestine. The plan ignored the rights of hundreds of thousands indigenous Palestinians who lived here before European Jewish refugees began immigrating to the British Mandate of Palestine. The UN Partition plan proposed turning hundreds of thousands of indigenous Palestinian Muslims and Christians into second class citizens in a state for mostly European Jewish immigrants. Even though the indigenous Palestinians were the majority in the region (about 70%), they were never consulted and no vote was taken regarding the UN plan. The UN partition plan divided up the British Mandate of Palestine so the European immigrant side had a slim Jewish majority (55/45), more territory, the best farmland and control over the water resources. The majority non-immigrant Palestinians which had an overwhelming Muslim and Christian majority (99/1) got less land, (very little of it arable) and no control over the water resources. Most of the indigenous Palestinian side was desert.
....and the Earth grew a little bit to make room for Jordan, which miraculously popped onto the face of the map out of nowh....o wait, no it didn't, it comprised almost 80% of the British Mandate of Palestine, and was given to the Arabs entirely. You must have just forgot that part.
O, and the UN partition plan makes quite specific reference to the preservation of the rights of the non-Jewish .... err... sorry, non-immigrant lol Palestinians.
Also, I've been interested in this issue, as you well know, for quite some time, and have done quite a lot of reading. Never have I come across an Arab grievance stating that they're upset because the Jews got the "best land". lol That's your invention. And it's nonsense anyway, the West Bank has most of the good Arable land, which was slated for the Arabs. They passed. They decided they wanted no Jews more than they wanted Arable land to call their own.
Furthermore, the Jews made Gaza one of, if not the, most productive agricultural zones in the middle east. Gaza, too, was slated for the Arabs. You're arable land contention makes me embarrassed for you. Also, another example of why I have such a hard time taking your cause seriously. It just seems whatever claims are made, will eventually turn out to be lies.
The 1947 UN partition plan helped solve a post WW II European refugee crisis by shifting the burden onto the indigenous Palestinians. Anyone in the world claiming to be Jewish could go to Palestine and help the Zionist immigrants cleanse the British Mandate of Palestine of indigenous non-Jews. That ethnic cleansing war continues to this day.
So what's that, your third reference to the non-existant ethnic cleansing? Goebbels much?
Jewish Israeli historians have determined that the Jewish immigrants to Palestine never intended to share Palestine with non-Jewish Palestinians. The Zionists had always envisioned turning Palestine into a Jewish only state and removing the indigenous non-Jews. Zionists often disagreed about the means to remove non-Jews, but they always agreed that the Jewish state would have a Jewish majority and in order for that to happen, hundreds of thousands of non-Jew had to leave. Some Zionists proposed non-violent means of achieving this goal (I could even support some of their proposed non-violent methods). But the Zionists who proposed violent ethnic cleansing eventually got their way. By the time the British had abandoned their Palestinian mission (1948), Zionist terrorists and war criminals had already killed thousands of non-Jewish Palestinians in a series of atrocities and terrorist acts:
List of Irgun attacks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lehi (group) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The first two waves of Palestinian refugees had already fled Palestine by the time the European immigrants declared independence:
1948 Palestinian exodus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The indigenous people never invited the European Jewish immigrants. The indigenous Palestinians were never consulted when the UN gave their land to mostly European immigrants. Zionists came to this region as immigrants and started the ongoing ethnic cleansing war. As a result of Zionism, millions of indigenous Palestinians live as nationless refugees without recognized rights or freedoms in terrible oppression and injustice. People living this way tend to become violent over time...
O, ethnic cleansing, there it is again, I should have known you weren't done yet.
But I am.
Good night.