Lesson 1: JERUSALEM, A CITY OF « ISRAEL AND PALESTINE »The key characteristics of the Levant region...

20 questions that might help you solve the presentation of the Israeli-Palestinian issue...

1. Is it in the Near or Middle East?

Near East Derives from the « Eastern question » = the Ottoman lands, viewed from the West, and the dangerosity of Islamic repression onto Christians (Armenian minority slaughtered in 1890s – Hamidian massacres *)Near = proximity of Islamic Turkish power with West EuropeToday: the eastern part of Orient, bordering the Mediterranean

Middle EastA junction place...Eurocentric concept(1850s British India Office)

* Armenians and others were to be converted to Islam at gunpoint… or to die> 300,000 deaths

Mediterranean sea

Golan Heights

Jordan river

Lake Tiberias

Dead sea

Gulf of Aqaba

Red sea

COUNTRIES...

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2. Is it in the middle of nowhere?Locate correctly

...

3. Is it mountainous?

The land of Israel is a narrow strip of land, of the size of New Jersey, between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean.

It is so small that “Moses could view all of it standing on Mt Nebo” in Jordan.

Distances from... to... (km)

Jerusalem Tel Aviv

Jerusalem Eilat

Jerusalem Tiberias

Jerusalem Dead Sea

Jerusalem Mediterranean

58? 68? 78?

309? 420? 502?

100? 150? 180?

22? 32? 42?

42? 52? 62?

4. How small is Israel?

ISRAELIsraelisIsraeli

PALESTINEGaza stripWest bankPalestiniansPalestinian

Others: LEBANON Lebanese

SYRIA Syrians

JORDAN Jordanians

SAUDI ARABIA Saudians EGYPT Egyptians

5. How are Near East inhabitants named?

6. How many Israeli / Palestinian cities do you know?

Where would you locate...

-Nazareth?-Eilat?-Jerusalem?-Tel Aviv?-Hebron?-Gaza?-Ramallah? -Haifa?-Bethlehem?-Ashqelon? -Masada?

Label and mark the main cities

Play with your memory again...

7. How many people live there and where?

All lands

Israel except Palestinian lands Gaza strip

DESCRIBE trends, main

changes, ratios,

measuring method,

resultINTERPRET

Possible causes /

consequences

La confession religieuse (le courant religieux): church, denomination, faith

Jewish enclaves / settlements

300,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.5 million Palestinians

Arab citizens of Israel are the Palestinian Arabs who remained within Israel's borders after the 1948 War, as well as those who had left during the exodus and who have since re-entered as lawful residents (family reunifications)

8. Is Arab citizenship possible in Israel ?

The Druze: Arab-speaking citizens of Israel

Numbered 117,500 (2006)

living in former British Mandate Palestinepersecuted under the Ottomans

became Israeli citizens in 1948some identify themselves as "Palestinian Druze",

but most consider as Israeli rather than Arab

Serve in the Israel Defense Forces represented in mainstream Israeli politics and business

Israel, being a « Jewish state » (i.e. using Hebrew as the official language), is a secular place for everyone who wants to be an Israeli citizen...

e.g. The Druze community (their religion = Ismailism): a mystical and philosophical branch inside of Islam

God is "the whole of existence", rather than "above existence"

9. Why does E. Todd talk about a struggling demography?

How come Jewish populations increased? How come Palestinian populations increased?

« Aliyah » (ascent) Immigration to the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel)# Yerida (descent, emigration)

Ultra-Orthodox birth rates (associated to allowances)

Islamic encouragement

Financed immigration

Child allowances

Fertility rates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel

Aliyah numbers by country since 1948

From France since 1880s: 51,000 peopleFrom Morocco since 1880s: 271,000 people

In 2008, “the latest Bank of Israel report includes a clear answer to the controversy: "The birthrate in the ultra-Orthodox sector has declined in recent years, while it has remained largely unchanged among the non-ultra-Orthodox Jewish population.“”

(Haaretz)

In 2012, the situation has changed: “Once a tiny minority, ultra-Orthodox Jews - also known as Haredim - now make up more than 10 % of Israel’s population and 21 % of all primary-school students. With the community’s fertility rate hovering at more than three times that of other Israeli Jews, demographers project that by 2034, about one in five Israelis will be ultra-Orthodox”.

(The Daily Beast)

“The Muslim birthrate had remained virtually unchanged until 2005, then it plummeted from 4.5 to 4 children by 2005. The change among the Bedouin was even more dramatic: it declined by 1.5 children, from 9 to 7.6.Like the Haredim, the cut in the child allowances, which was implemented mainly in June 2003, really affect the birthrate”

Haaretz, sept. 2008

Debate:If every family has the right to bring as many children as it likes into the world, does it have a right to require the taxpayer to pay for them?

...

“There were several reasons for the public battle to reduce child allowances. One was that over the years, the allowances had turned into special allowances for the Haredi and Arab sectors that enabled parents in these sectors not to work. In that way, they seriously damaged the gross national product. Another was that the allowances were extremely discriminatory, as fifth children - which are mainly found in Haredi and Arab families - received almost five times as much as first and second children.

A long list of economists and other experts claimed that these allowances encouraged having children, thus giving rise to large families and poverty”.

Haaretz, sept. 2008

“The impact will reach well beyond the neighborhood quarrels over segregated buses or modest attire, another Haredi preoccupation that has stirred tensions across Israel. Most ultra-Orthodox Jews lack the skills to work in a modern economy, having studied little or no math and science beyond primary school (their curriculum focuses almost entirely on religious texts such as the Torah and Talmud). As a result, more than 60 percent live below the poverty line, compared with 12 percent among non-Haredi Jews”.http://thedailybeastcom Jan. 2012

A burning issue for traditionalists

8. Is water distribution a problem?Who is supplied by water?

1. The western basin of the Mountain Aquifer, the Yarkon-Tanninim

2. The northern basin is called the Nablus-Gilboa Aquifer

3. The eastern basin

Water resources in West Bank

340 M cubic meters / year domestic use of 2.5 M Israeli civilians

20 M m3 / yearPalestinians

115 M m3 / year, Agricultural irrigation in the kibbutzim and moshavim in the northern valleys

25 M m3 / yearPalestinians

40 M cubic meters / yearIsraeli agricultural settlements in the

Jordan Valley

60 M m3 / yearPalestinians

Israel is using about 80 percent of the groundwater basins in the West Bank to meet 25 percent of its water needs.

Palestinians are denied the right to utilize water resources from the Jordan River since 1967.They also have brackish water and face severe water shortages.

Water consumption by Palestinians is approximately 73 litres per capita per day (l/c/d) compared to about 300 l/c/d for Israelis

around four times higher / lower

9. How is water carried to Israeli cities?

The national water carrier

10. What makes that region a crossroads?

Between…

Empires Egypt / Mesopotamia

Commercial routes India / EthiopiaArab Peninsula / Mediterranean

Under the AssyriansUnder the Canaanites

11. A many-sided identity... How was the region named in History?

1300 BCE 900-600 BCE

Under the Romans (Time of Herod)

Under the Jewish kingdoms

Under the Romans (after the diaspora)

1000 BCE 20 BCE 70 – 120 CE

How to name this land?

Under the Crusaders

Under the Ottoman rule

Under the Abbassids

8-9th c CE 11-12th CE 15-20th BCE

Why did Romans call that place « Palestine »?

Palestine philistine = the principal enemies of the Jews

Under the Ottoman rule

The zone was split between

a sanjak, i.e. a land linked to a banner / flag

= an aristocratic power led by governors

and the northern vilayets (districts of Syria and Beirut)

Many people saw the region as a large Syrian or Transjordan

territory

Under the British Under the UN

1919 - 1947 CE 1947 - 48 CE

You notice that Jordan

should a Palestinian

state today...

TO RECAP...

The land changed hands so many times that it’s impossible to say « I was there first » or « This land is strictly mine ». It isn’t possessed, but punctually controlled. The land’s name is a matter of misunderstanding for everyone

The Palestinian lands given in 1948 were to cross the Jordan river, but the Jordans expelled the residents to establish their regime

The Egyptians also rejected the creation of a Palestinian state; then they accepted the Gaza strip only

Philistines

Zionist Palestinians

Arab-Muslim Palestinians

Who’s who?

Zionists and British call future Jewish inhabitants “Palestinians”

Balfour Declaration, 1917: “His Majesty's government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country”

12. Why did Zionists call the Jewish homeland « Palestine »?

1170 BCE

Philistine Hebrew language: "to divide", "go through", "to roll in”, “to invade"

A Palestinian nationality emerged slowly in the Palestinian refugee diaspora

Palestine: a wrong term to name the region

The flag of Jordan, adopted 1928

- consists of horizontal black, white, and green bands connected by a red chevron.

-Pan-Arab Colors, representing the Abbasid (black band), Umayyad (white band), and Fatimid (green band)

caliphates. - red chevron is for the Hashemite dynasty and the Arab

Revolt vs. the Ottomans.

-the seven points = the seven verses of Islamic belief, mentioned at the beginning of Qur'an (faith in one God, humanity, humility, national spirit, virtue, social justice,

and aspiration)

- star also stands for the unity of the Arab nation

13. Why are Jordanian and Palestinian flags so similar?

Originally, the British had devised a partition between a Jewish and an Arab Palestines... Jordan is a Palestinian land in fact. Which was not given to « Palestinians ».

14. Where Palestinians expelled by Jewish colons and troops?

“Stricken with panic” “Overtaken by panic”

The tragedy of Deir Yassin The strategic lies and mistake of Muslim leaders

FROM

TO

The map the Arabs refused...

The map the Arabs had after all...

Jewish inhabitants fleeing Jerusalem, captured by

Jordan

The city remained forbidden to Jews until

1967 (6-Day War)

Palestinian civilians fleeing to West Bank territories,

where tents were the only shelters, Jordanians

refusing to let them enter massively

15. How to name Israeli enclaves in West Bank: Illegal settlements? Occupied territories? Jewish implantations? Colonies?

Israel: a legal stateWest Bank: not recognized as an Israeli territory by UNPalestine: not a legal state, not a state

Colonists / Colonizers=

Homesteaders Conquerors Pioneers

16. How do Israelis / Palestinians obstruct each other?

Most of the fence runs roughly along the Green Line

“In 2002, the Israeli government adopted a plan to construct a security barrier in the West Bank. It maintains the barrier is essential to protect its citizens from _________ and to prevent s_________ bombers from entering Israel”

Graf arts on the Fence

Named the « Apartheid Wall »

« From the Palestinian perspective, the wall is a land grab, intended to create a de facto annexation of land to Israel. (...) Why are walls built, whom do they serve and how do they become obsolete? »

(Geographical review, Shaul E. Cohen, 2006)

Grab = illegal acquisition

Yet, the Fence is not completely closed...

“The combined impact of these impediments, coupled with complex permit restrictions, has been a fragmentation of the socio-economic space in the West Bank into a northern, a central and a southern economic zone, bounded on three sides by the separation barrier and to the west by a Jordan Valley that is increasingly difficult for Palestinians to access”.

Doctors

Chemists

Engineers

Merchants

Doctors

Chemists

Engineers

Merchants

“The world body’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the principal organ under the U.N. Charter tasked with addressing human rights and fundamental freedoms, has just concluded its annual session by turning a blind eye to the ongoing massacres by the Assad regime. Instead, a list of all its resolutions for the entire world shows that ECOSOC condemned only one single country: Israel. Two resolutions were adopted against Israel, and one report.Sponsored by Algeria for the Third World grouping known as G-77, and by Turkey, a one-sided and politicized resolution was adopted on July 26 2012 with the following title: “Economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan.”www.Unwatch.org

“In April 2008, J Street was established, describing itself as the only federal "pro-peace, pro-Israel" Political Action Committee (PAC). Its goal is to provide meaningful political and financial support to candidates for federal office from US citizens who believe a new direction in US policy will advance US interests in the Middle East and promote real peace and security for Israel. Founded by former President Bill Clinton, advisor Jeremy Ben Ami and policy analyst Daniel Levy and supported by prominent Israeli politicians and high-ranking officers, J Street supports diplomatic solutions over military ones, including with Iran; multilateral over unilateral approaches to conflict resolution; and dialog over confrontation with a wide range of countries and actors”

Lobbying in America...

No peace talk with Israel unless Israelis freeze all construction in both the West Bank and east Jerusalem

Roadblock policy in the West Bank: >500 checkpoints are impediments to some free inter-Palestinian movements

Rockets Launched Into Israel (Sept. 2012)

This Month 9

Last Month24

This Year553

Last Year676

Total Since 200115,554

2003 Palestinian maps: Israel and Jews are erased from History

"A land without a people for a people without a land"

= a widely-cited sentence during the 19th and 20th centuries (not Zionist at first)

The Zionist Israel Zangwill used another sentence to establish a Jewish homeland in “Palestine” (in 1901 in the New Liberal Review): "Palestine is a country without a people; the Jews are a people without a country"

When History doesn’t matter...

TO CATCH WORLD AWARENESS...

AND TO SPREAD ... ?

Are Palestinian calls to violence a solution?Palestinian textbooks and TVs monitored

for incitement against Israel and Jews

PA TV program for kids, "The Best Home": Host: "Laila, what do you want to recite next?" Laila: "When I was young I was taught that Arabness is my honor... and that our lands extend from one end to the other, and that our wars were for the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and that our enemy, Zion, is Satan with a tail... Our division is by your hands [Arab rulers]. May your hands be cut off. We are fed up with our division, while all people are uniting." Host: "Bravo, bravo, bravo.“

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGTVCEH0b1k&feature=player_embedded

“The Palestinian Authority has combined anti-Semitic motifs - Holocaust denial, updated blood libels*, and Jewish conspiracy themes - with its general incitement to violence.

Some Palestinian Christians have developed a "liberation theology" that plays on older anti-Semitic efforts to de-Judaize Christianity.

As for Muslims, they openly see themselves as engaged in "a war against the Jews."

Hamas has embraced a vision of the "Jewish peril" derived from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.* libel= diffamatory

writing

The U.N. al-Am'ari Refugee Camp in Ramallah, where she used to work for the Red Crescent

Established in 1949 on 90 dunes

By 1957, all tents were replaced with cement block shelters

Circa 6,000 residents2 schools (girls / boys)

The example of Wafa Idris, the first female suicide bomber

Her parents were refugees who had lived in the Am'ari Refugee Camp since 1948

The bomb she detonated in 2002 killed 2 persons + wounded 100

Al-Sha’ab Egyptian press: "It is a woman who teaches you today a lesson in heroism, who teaches you the meaning of jihad, and the way to die a martyr's death” ...

In 2010, a Palestinian mother, Raida Abu Mustafa, was wishing her ill son to become a suicide bomber…The Palestinian child with a rare disease was eventually being treated by Israeli doctors, with operations funded by donations from Israeli citizens.

The mother before her boy was cured by Israeli doctors: "For us, death is a natural thing. We are not frightened of death. From the smallest infant, even smaller than Mohammed, to the oldest person, we will all sacrifice ourselves for the sake of Jerusalem. We feel we have the right to it. You're free to be angry, so be angry.”

The culture of the “shahids” (= martyrs)

The Jihad (personal spiritual struggle) may be used for war against those perceived to be enemies of Islam

17. How do Israelis / Palestinians justify their presence there?

The Jews grabbed the lands and the water

Palestine was a cultural reality before 1948

The lands where 1920s - 30s colonists settled was rather empty (arid and inhospitable)

There is no other country but Israel in the Jewish identity

Otherwise, Jews remained exiled (« the wandering Jew »)...

"There have been two competing mythologies about Palestine circa 1880.

The extremist Jewish mythology, long since abandoned, was that Palestine was 'a land without people, for a people without a land.' (This phrase was actually coined by the British lord Shaftesbury in his 1884 memoir) The extremist Palestinian mythology, which has become more embedded with time, is that in 1880 there was a Palestinian people; some even say a Palestinian nation that was displaced by the Zionist invasion.

The reality, as usual, lies somewhere in between."

Alan Dershowitz, LLB, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University, in his 2003 book The Case for Israel

http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000352

18. How to name armed Palestinians: freedom fighters or terrorists?

AL-AQSA MARTYRS BRIGADEPalestinian fedayeen mainly left-wing nationalist

proclaimed purposesto defeat Zionism, to "liberate Palestine" to establish it as "a secular, democratic, nonsectarian state"

HAMAS ("Islamic Resistance Movement") mainly far-right-wing religious nationalistsCaptions "There is no god but Allah“"Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.“ Top is a map = the boundaries of Israelproclaimed purposesto destroy Israel (“hanging a huge map of the world on the wall at my Gaza home which does not show Israel on it”)use antisemitic conspiracy theories

Hamas Charter extracts

"fear God and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors"

"our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious“

"The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews [and kill them]; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: Oh Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!“

“For a long time, the enemies have been planning (…) for the achievement of what they have attained. With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests.” “They were behind World War I (…), They were behind WWII”…

"renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion"

The charter states that Hamas is humanistic

“Many people think these Israeli-Arab wars occur because of land ownership but people actually fight about the "Holy" land as promised to them by their holy-writs, and on what sits on that land, the "sacred" sites that all three religions believe in”

19. Can peace be achieved with religion?

A small spot for giant religious rivalries...

Even though neither written in the Qur’an nor in the hadiths (the sayings of the Prophet), the idea of a world geographical division along islamic lines structured the vision of space and history (and still does for some).

2 1

Dar al-Islam (house/abode of Islam)Also named Dar al-Salaam (of Peace) or Dar al-Tawhid, (of Union)= countries where Muslims can practice their religion freely

3

1

2

“Muslims must be able to enjoy peace and security with and within this country”If it does not apply then physical means such as Jihad can be used to correct the situation

Dar al-Amn (House of safety)= the status of Muslims in the West or in other non-Muslim societies= « countries where Muslims as a minority group have the right to practice their religion »

Dar al-Harb (House of war)Or Dar al-Garb "house of the West" (Ottomans)A person from "Dar al-Harb" is a "harbi" = « countries which Muslims have war with / which have no Islamic belief »Defensive wars = 9:5, 6, "When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them"

3

The Near East yesterday

Israel today

« Merciful towards one another, but ruthless to the unbelievers who agressed »…

Qur’an: " If anyone commits aggression against you retaliate against them in equal manner" [2:194].

“The Islamic ideology makes it impossible to loose lands once conquered by primitive Islam - it contradicts the sense of honor and would go against the clan-system”

This tiny piece of territory has been occupied by Arabs (in 639 AD) and annexed to Dar El-Islam (the land of Islam)

According to Islamic interpretation, it must remain Muslim for perpetuity.

Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), Oct. 9, 2009

Friday prayer and sermon, unidentified Hamas speaker: "Today we look at Al-Aqsa as it sighs beneath the yoke of the Jews, beneath the yoke of the sons of apes and pigs, brothers of apes and pigs. Destroy the Jews and their helpers."

Tayseer Tamimi, PA Chief Religious Justice: “Concerning the Jews, the Holy Quran says that they lack understanding, are void of wisdom, know nothing, violate agreements, etc. However, the Jews were known - it was known about them throughout history- that they make false claims, lies, forgery, slander, and fabrications, in order to justify their aggression, land theft, defilement of holy sites, appropriation of land, destruction of homes, murder of children, women, and the elderly.”

Yasser Arafat addressing a crowd in Tulkarem:

"I now see the walls of Jerusalem, the mosques of Jerusalem, the churches of Jerusalem. My brothers! With blood and with spirit we will redeem you, Palestine! Yes, with blood and with spirit we will redeem you, Palestine!"

(Voice of Palestine, April 28, 1997)

Yasser Arafat in a speech in Gaza in January 1995:

"All of us are willing to be martyrs along the way, until our flag flies over Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine. Let no one think they can scare us with weapons, for we have mightier weapons - the weapon of faith, the weapon of martyrdom, the weapon of jihad."

(Parade Magazine, New York Newsday, June 25, 1995)

At Camp David II, in 2000, Arafat rejected an offer of a Palestinian State, comprised on 97% of the West Bank and all of Gaza with sovereignty over half of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount, and $30 billion in world economic aid.

To divert attention away from his refusal of a Palestinian State, Arafat instigated violent riots against Israel.

P.A. (Palestinian Authority) Communications Minister, Imad Faluji, admitted that the violence was planned. P.A. radio called on Palestinians to demonstrate, schools were closed, and buses were used to bring students to the Temple Mount to take part in riots. September-October riots consisted both of stone-throwing Palestinian youth and of gun-wielding Tanzim fighters (a P.A. militia funded and armed by Arafat). As the riots evolved into guerilla and terrorist attacks, Arafat freed Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists from prison, supported illegal arms smuggling and stockpiling, and funded terrorist activities such as suicide bombings.

ARAFAT in 2001"... I was offered the return of something like 90 plus percent of the territories, 98 percent even,

excluding [occupied East] Jerusalem, but I couldn't accept. As far as I am concerned, it was either every single inch that I was responsible for or nothing."

No negotiation until “the Right of Return” and “East Jerusalem” = the end of Israel“Any peace process that does not address the Right Of Return is nothing but a temporary cease fire” (www.palestineremembered.com)

October 2005, Ahmadinejad's speech to the "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran

“Our dear Imam (referring to Ayatollah Khomeini) said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement. We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine. Is it possible to create a new front in the heart of an old front. This would be a defeat and whoever accepts the legitimacy of this regime has in fact, signed the defeat of the Islamic world. Our dear Imam targeted the heart of the world oppressor in his struggle, meaning the occupying regime. I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world”.

The issue with Palestine would be over "the day that all refugees return to their homes [and] a democratic government elected by the people comes to power",

He denounced attempts to normalize relations with Israel, condemning all Muslim leaders who accept the existence of Israel as "acknowledging a surrender and defeat of the Islamic world."

The reconquest of “Palestine” symbolizes for the Islamists the ultimate triumph of Islam over the Judeo-Christian faithIt may eradicate the aggressive construction of a pagan state in historical Dar es-Islam

The Qur’an draws sayings of anti-Judaic attitude: Qur’an 98:7: “The unbelievers among the People of the Book and the pagans shall burn forever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures”[2.88] And they say: Our hearts are covered. Nay, Allah has cursed them on account of their unbelief; so little it is that they believe.[5.51] O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.[5.60] Say: Shall I inform you of (him who is) worse than this in retribution from Allah? (Worse is he) whom Allah has cursed and brought His wrath upon, and of whom He made apes and swine, and he who served the Shaitan; these are worse in place and more erring from the straight path. [5.63] Why do not the learned men [rabbis] and the doctors of law prohibit them from their speaking of what is sinful and their eating of what is unlawfully acquired? Certainly evil is that which they work. [5.64] And the Jews say: The hand of Allah is tied up! Their hands shall be shackled and they shall be cursed for what they say. Nay, both His hands are spread out, He expends as He pleases; and what has been revealed to you from your Lord will certainly make many of them increase in inordinacy and unbelief; and We have put enmity and hatred among them till the day of resurrection; whenever they kindle a fire for war Allah puts it out, and they strive to make mischief in the land; and Allah does not love the mischief-makers.

To recap The religious reasons for the erosion / erasing of Israel

The region is clash between two beliefs the Judeo-Christian belief that the Land was given by God to the Jewish people the Islamic belief that every square foot conquered by Muslimsbelongs to Muslims for perpetuity

Is faith a universal mandate to commit violence?

20. Is the Fatah more democratic than the Knesset?

Fatah (PA) Charter, Preamble (2009 provisioned)“Brother and Comrade in Struggle: This movement and this work are a national trust and a historic responsibility. You must shoulder the precious trust and recognize the historic responsibility. You must prepare yourself to inspire the spirit of organized revolutionary work in every Arab soul that is sincere to Palestine and that believes in its liberation. Let us train ourselves to be patient and to face ordeals, bear calamities, sacrifice our souls, blood, time and effort. All these are the weapons of revolutionaries. Therefore, Brother, do not stop. With the calm of the workers, the silence of the sincere, the determination of the revolutionaries, the resolve of the believers, and the patience of the strugglers, you must act quickly because our people cannot spare a single moment after our tragedy continued throughout all those long years. You must know that our enemy is strong and the battle is ferocious and long. You must know that determination, patience, secrecy, confidentiality, adherence to the principles and goals of the revolution, keep us from stumbling and shorten the path to liberation. Go forward to revolution. Long live Palestine, free and Arab”.

The Fatah "Oath of Loyalty to Palestine": "I swear by Almighty God and by my honor and beliefs that I will be faithful to Palestine and that I will spare no effort in working for its liberation. I swear that I will not disclose any of the movement's secrets or affairs. This is a free oath. God bears witness to what I say."

“Collective leadership is the sole method of the movement.

This means:

A) Democracy is the basis of debate, discussion, and decision-making on all organizational levels.B) Democratic centralism is the basis of handling responsibilities, and this involves unity of work, ideological harmony, and political interaction in the movement. C) Criticism and self-criticism are the basis of rectification and correction, and punishment is not an end in itself but a means for assessment and development. D) The minority must conform to the view of the majority, and those in lower ranks must abide by the decisions of those in upper ranks in order to achieve discipline and unified organization which must have a unified vision, ideology, and practice. E) The movement believes in the sacredness of membership and the freedom of the individual, and it rejects vengeance. The movement believes in the right of the citizen to participate in the revolution, and it refuses to nullify this right unless this participation is a source of danger threatening the movement's process and security”.

Originally written during the Cold War, the Charter still encourages the communist-state values of « democratic centralism » that marked the Soviet regime and bureaucracy...

Is the Knesset more democratic?

Women in the Knesset, 1949 - 2009

Compared to other democracies, Israel's female representation (21%) is considered ‘average’.

Israel ranks 67th in a list of 170 countries, well behind Rwanda (56%), Sweden, Holland, Argentina and

Spain (40-36%)... However, it is on par with the US (16.6%, 80th rank), France (27%, 38th rank) and the UK (22%, 57th rank)

The Israelis are not thinking the same “The Haredi community in Israel has adopted a policy of cultural dissociation, but at the same time, it has struggled to remain politically active, perceiving itself as the true protector of the country's Jewish nature”. Yet, the Haredi have varied political positions or enforce apolitical stance.

Ultra-Orthodox

Secularists

A traditionally binary representation

The Israeli war of Independence (1948-49): Arabs leave or are expelled

Jordanians refuse to welcome them east of the river Jordan

Egyptians refuse a « free Palestinian » state

21. How did the Refugee problem get born?

Palestinians

Israelis

Jordanians

Egyptians Why isn’t the attention also focused on Jordan?

Probably the most famous « propaganda » map This map is wrong and creates misunderstanding as

-The key is anachronic regarding history (no State of Israel in 1946)(no State of Palestine in 1946 or in the past, even today)(no mention of British Mandatory Palestine)-The colours are absurd (empty and desert parts are coloured as if inhabited)-It has no author-It erases the wars from the map (an acausal logic)-A gruyere-like depiction of Palestinian lands (Israelis seem to snack on / encroach on their lands...)

EPILOGUE. Do all maps tell the truth?

ARAB-ISRAELI WARS

The geopolitical position of Israel within the Arab Muslim world - predominantly Sunni.

Compare the size of Israel

to that of Saudi Arabia, the “homeland” of the Arab peoples

to the size of the expanded “Arab nation” (Muslim countries + Arabic official language)

to France

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/sep/14/map-israel-palestinian-territories

Watch the interactive map

Gaza strip and « West Bank » were not free Palestinian territories before 1967...

Who ruled over the Gaza strip?

Who ruled over West Bank? How was it called yet?

What happened in 1967? What did it result in?

The All-Palestine Government (APG) was established in Gaza in September 1948

On October 1, 1948, an independent Palestinian state was declared in Gaza by the Palestinian National Council (PNC) - although only half of the municipal and village leaders had arrived out of the 150 invited

Haj Amin Al Husseini, a fugitive collaborator of Nazi Germany leader Adolf Hitler, was elected President of the PNC as well as President of the Higher Council