The "Palestinian" Law of Return

The "Palestinian" Law of Return

© David Burton 2022

Israel and the Arab Countries
 

     After the massive number of rockets fired into Israel in 2021 and the ongoing “Palestinian” terrorism perpetraed against Israeli civilians, I wrote that it was Time to Finally End “Palestinian” Terrorism.[1] Following up on that article, I herein suggest a “logical” corollary to that pronouncement – a Law of Return for Palestinians similar to the Law of Return for Jews that has been in force in the State of Israel since 1950.

     Here – in summary – is what I recently wrote in a Time to Finally End “Palestinian” Terrorism.

     The so-called “Palestinians” have clearly demonstrated that they deserve to have no nation of their own and that they will not live peaceably within or adjacent to the sovereign nation of Israel. What they do deserve is to be removed once-and-for-all from the region they call “Palestine” and from the State of Israel. They are no better than the Nazis and fascists who brought death, destruction and misery to the world in the 1930’s and 1940’s. These “Palestinian” fascists deserve no place in today’s world – certainly not in the area where they can attack innocent Israeli civilians.
     In the spring of 2021, the “Palestinian” terrorists of Hamas, Fatah and other Islamic terrorist organizations attacked the State of Israel and the Jewish people of Israel. By the second week of May in that year, it was "war” as Israel was under massive attack. Rockets fell, with over 700 explosions in one day. Sirens blared but provided only seconds for Israeli families to run for cover. There appeared to be no end in sight.
     Violent Arab rioters torched portions of the Israeli city of Lod and roamed the streets with Molotov cocktails looking to break into Jewish homes. "It's another Kristallnacht," said the residents. "Nothing short of war." Prime Minister Netanyahu declared a state of emergency!
     Men, women and young children were living in terror and fear. Two Israeli women were killed by direct hits on their home in Ashkelon. Hamas said it fired 137 rockets within 5 minutes, apparently to overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome defense. A school house was hit. Over 100 rockets were fired into Tel Aviv. Hundreds of Israelis were injured.
     On the night of 11 May, during Jerusalem Day celebrations, rockets were fired at Israel's capital. Arab violence in Jerusalem spiraled out of control. Air-raid sirens were blaring throughout Israel, causing chaos, destruction and injuries.[2]

     In the city of Lod, normally a city where Jews and Arabs got along peacefully, violent Arab rioters torched portions of the city while threatening Jewish residents of the town. In Jerusalem, Arabs launched a wave of violence to coincide with the start of the Muslim month of Ramadan. Later, confrontations erupted at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.[3]

     The scene in Lod showed that the hatred that had been allowed to grow over the years in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip had now spread into Israel proper. These events, more reminiscent of the Pale of Settlement in Czarist Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries, were taking place in Israel proper.
     More than one eyewitness called it a pogrom. The city’s mayor compared it to the Kristallnacht of Nazi Germany.
     Israelis were watching and no doubt reaching conclusions. “All the work we have done here for years [regarding coexistence] has gone down the drain,” Lod’s mayor said. Even the most dedicated peace advocates fell silent as Arabs, who a month earlier were wishing their Jewish neighbors a Happy Passover, took to the streets with chants of “With blood and fire we will redeem Palestine.”[4]

     Back in 2017, one Israeli wrote realistically of how to treat the hardline “Palestinians” who were bent on attaining one objective ever since Israel became the only free, democratic nation in the Middle East. That objective was the destruction of the State of Israel and the “elimination” of all Jews from the Middle East!

     That Israeli wrote that a new approach to the “Palestinians” was needed. Hoping that they would come to their senses some day and understand that coexistence was more profitable than endless war clearly wasn’t working. Thinking that “after all, they were human beings too and that if Israel treated them fairly, they would act like human beings” also didn’t work.
     Nothing rational worked with the “Palestinians”! Providing them with electricity so they could make rockets with which to kill Israelis didn’t work! Respecting their religious rights (to behave like 7th century barbarians) didn’t work! Treating their corrupt inciter-in-chief like a president didn’t work! Letting them destroy Israeli villages and kicking Jews out because they claimed the land (they claim everything) didn’t work!
     These things didn’t work for several reasons. They didn’t work because of the culture of these barbarians; they didn’t work because Islam tells them that they really ought to be on top, and Jewish sovereignty is a perversion of the moral order; and they didn’t work because the "Palestinians" believed in a historical narrative that is false from start to finish.
     Unfortunately, every time the “Palestinians” demonstrated their violence, they got something. Violence worked for them. Every time they have been violent, the anti-Semites of the world blamed Israel for the violence. Every time they were violent, bleeding heart liberals of the world rushed to reward them.
     So what can work? First of all, a fundamental change in our point of view is needed. Stop treating them as another people more or less like those in the civilized world, one with whom Israel must find a way to coexist. Coexistence is impossible with such animals! Instead, they must be seen as an implacable enemy that must be defeated by any means necessary. This is the lesson that has been taught over seven violent decades and should now be obvious to those who are not blind and to those who are not prejudiced against Judaism and Israel.
     What needs to be done is to stop talking and start aggressively resisting! Cut them off from everything Israel supplies them - money, food, water, electricity, communication, and transport. Take control of Jerusalem and the holy places. Take control of all of Palestine.
     The alternative for Israel (and the world) is to keep on pretending that an accommodation can be reached with them - IT CANNOT!
     Trying to reach an accommodation with the “Palestinians” hasn’t worked. What can work is to stop pretending, stop submitting to threats and violence, and start standing up against Israel’s enemies.[5]

     Picking up on where I ended with my previous article on the "Palestinians”, let me suggest that Israel extend its Law of Return to encompass the “Palestinians”. Israel’s Law of Return from 1950 is summarized below.

     The Israeli Law of Return, granting every Jew in the world the right to settle in Israel, was passed by Israel’s Knesset on July 5, 1950. Two amendments were later added - one passed August 23, 1954, and the other passed March 10, 1970.
     1. Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh (a Jew immigrating to Israel). 2. (a) Aliyah (immigration to Israel) shall be by oleh's visa. (b) An oleh's visa shall be granted to every Jew who has expressed his desire to settle in Israel, unless the Minister of Immigration is satisfied that the applicant
     (a) is engaged in an activity directed against the Jewish people; or (b) is likely to endanger public health or the security of the State. 3. (a) A Jew who has come to Israel and subsequent to his arrival has expressed his desire to settle in Israel may, while still in Israel, receive an oleh's certificate. (b) The restrictions specified in section 2(b) shall apply also to the grant of an oleh's certificate, but a person shall not be regarded as endangering public health on account of an illness contracted after his arrival in Israel. 4. Every Jew who has immigrated into this country before the coming into force of this Law, and every Jew who was born in this country, whether before or after the coming into force of this Law, shall be deemed to be a person who has come to this country as an oleh under this Law. 5. The Minister of Immigration is charged with the implementation of this Law and may make regulations as to any matter relating to such implementation and also as to the grant of oleh's visas and oleh's certificates to minors up to the age of 18 years.[6]

     I propose that the Palestinian Law of Return read something like the following:

     Every “Palestinian” has the right to leave the State of Israel and the area that they call “Palestine” and permanently go to any other Arab country.

     An Arab countryis a country in which most of the population is of Arab origin and/or speaks the Arabic language. There are 18 Arab countries spread throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa (excluding Western Sahara). Most of the people in the Arab countries practice Islam as their religion. Some ethnic and religious minority populations can be found throughout the Arab world – They are mostly treated as second class citizens and are frequently discriminated against. Today, more than 450 million people live in the world’s Arab countries.
     The 18 Arab Countries are: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, andYemen. Several Arab countries, including Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, and Yemen once had large Jewish communities, but most of the Jews living in Arab countries fled or were expelled from those countries following the creation of Israel in 1948. The number of Christians in Arab countries has dropped dramatically since the end of the European colonial era. Many Christians have left the Arab world due to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and religious persecution.[7]

     Every “Palestinian” and every member of their immediate family that are: (1) engaged in an activity directed against the Jewish people and/or the State of Israel, or (2) is likely to endanger public health or the security of the State shall be permanently removed to some Arab country.

     Israel and the rest of the civilized world would immediately benefit from the enactment of a ”Palestinian” Law of Return. The cost of defending against the “Palestinian” terrorists would be significantly reduced. The cost of resettlement and compensation to the “Palestinians” for any property that they give up when they are resettled should be born by the international community much as the United Nations has born the cost of the Arab “refugees” who left Israel after the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. This has been done via the permanent “temporary” United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA. Should the nations of the world refuse to pay the resettlement and compensation costs, then Israel should bear the financial burden.

     The total area of the Arab countries is about 5.07 million square miles, while the total area of the State Israel is just over 8,000 square miles. This means that the Arab countries have a combined area some 630 times greater than Israel. The area of Jordan alone is more than 34,000 square miles - 4 times bigger than Israel. Egypt’s size is 390,100 square miles. The area of Syria is more than 72,000 square miles and that of Lebanon is over 4,000 square miles. Thus, Israel’s 4 nearest neighbors have a total area of just under 500,000 square miles, which makes them 62 times bigger than Israel.[8]

     Clearly, the Arab countries have more than adequate room to accommodate their Arab brethren from Palestine. These Arab countries and the “Palestinians” share a common language – Arabic, a common ethnicity – Arab – and a common religion – Islam.

     So just who are these “Palestinians” that we are urging to be deported from the biblical Land of Israel?
     To the “Palestinians”, the birth of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948 is not a cause for celebration but what they call the Nakba or “Disaster.” Israel’s declaration of statehood was followed immediately by an invasion by surrounding Arab nations who told non-Jewish, Muslim inhabitants of the land that was then called Palestine, mostly Arabs themselves, to join the struggle or temporarily evacuate while the Israelis were conquered - and to then return to a Jew-free country. And many indeed left.
     But events didn’t go as planned. The Israeli Jews defeated the invading Arab forces, and the inhabitants who had left became displaced, most relocating to Arab countries where they were not allowed to be absorbed into the general populace but in which they were forced by their Arab brothers to live as refugees. A similar situation occurred nearly 20 years later in the 1967 Six-Day War, resulting in many more fleeing and joining the previous refugees in Arab countries.
     The non-Jewish inhabitants of the land, including the many of them who scattered as refugees, came to be known as the “Palestinians”. Most of these people now live in Jordan and in the territories known as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in lesser numbers in Syria, Lebanon and other countries.
     These “Palestinians” often portray themselves as indigenous people of the land they say is properly called Palestine, or Filastin in Arabic. The claim is made that the Zionist Jews who migrated to the land from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s had no legitimate national claim to the land - land they were supposedly stealing from the long-established ancient “Palestinians”.
     Is that what actually happened 70 years ago and in the decades before and after? To whom does the land actually belong? And just who are the “Palestinian” people?
     As history plainly shows, the idea of a “Palestinian” people or nation is an invention. No such ethnically or culturally distinct people of this name has ever existed. It is clear that the “Palestinians” of today are mostly Arabs, yet from many other areas, along with various other peoples. Palestinian leaders, however, continually insist on unsubstantiated, false and ridiculous claims to the contrary.
     Note what the “Palestinians” are not. They are not a unique people group indigenous to ancient Palestine. In fact, Yasser Arafat and his compatriots admitted as much. In a March 31, 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee member Zahir Muhsein said:
     “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism” (quoted by Joseph Farah, “Palestinian People Do Not Exist,” WND.com, July 11, 2002).
     In fact, the first article in the 1964 PLO Charter proclaims, “Palestine is an Arab homeland bound by strong Arab national ties to the rest of the Arab Countries and which together form the great Arab homeland.” Consequently, the Arab residents of what they call “Palestine” should have no problem in being assimilated into the “great Arab homeland”. Also, they should be welcomed because of “strong Arab national ties to the rest of the Arab Countries”.
     It is somewhat Ironic that the “West Bank” bears this name as denoting territory Jordan annexed and occupied on the west side of the Jordan River after 1948 instead of naming it “East Palestine”. But the Jews call this territory Judea and Samaria - the very heartland of the ancient Israelite kingdoms of Judah and Israel that existed more than 2,000 years ago.
     Even more ironic is the fact that “before the State of Israel was born, the term ‘Palestinians’ was used by the Jews to refer to themselves and their organizations. ‘The Palestine Post,’ the ‘Palestine Foundation Fund’, ‘Palestine Airways’, and the ‘Palestine Symphony Orchestra’ were all purely Jewish enterprises” (Daniel Grynglas, “Debunking the Claim That the ‘Palestinians’ Are the Indigenous People of Israel,” Jerusalem Post blog, May 12, 2015).
     Indeed, “the term Palestine was Western and was regularly used by Jews who immigrated to the country; the Zionists called themselves Palestinians while the Arabs simply identified themselves as Arabs. The Zionist institutions - such as the Anglo-Palestine Bank, the Palestine Post, and so on—were ‘Palestinian’ whereas the Arab institutions, such as the Arab Higher Committee, were simply ‘Arab’”.
     But terminology later shifted dramatically. “We first hear of Arabs referred to as ‘Palestinians’ when Egypt’s President Nasser, with help from the Russian KGB, established the ‘Palestine Liberation Organization’ (PLO) in 1964 and it was only during the 1970s that the newly minted ‘Palestinians’ began to promote their narrative through murder and assassination. The Arabs have justified their attacks as acts of the indigenous people struggling for national liberation” (Grynglas). But this is utterly contrived - a complete fabrication!
     Let’s briefly examine the history of this land from a biblical perspective. The Bible refers to this ancient land by the name of Canaan (Genesis 11:31; Genesis 12:5; Genesis 13:12), with Philistines dwelling along the Mediterranean coast before the Hebrew patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants, the Israelites, settled there.
     The Israelites formed a nation and kingdom that became divided into two - Israel and Judah. The 10 northern tribes of Israel were deported by the Assyrians and most of the 2 southern tribes of Judah - the Jews - were carried away to Babylon, with a few remaining in the land and some later returning to revive a Jewish state under the rule of the Persians and then continuing under Greek and Roman rule.
     The Romans crushed two Jewish revolts, in 70 CE and 135 CE, and the Jews became mostly scattered - although a significant population of Jews always remained in the land. The Jews were expelled from Jerusalem in 135 CE, but a number remained in other communities in the Holy Land.
     According to the scriptures, God gave the Land of Israel to the descendants of Israel forever (Exodus 32:13 ). And even when He warned of removing them and ultimately did so, He still spoke of regathering them in their homeland. So according to the 5 Books of Moses - accepted by Jews, Christians and Muslims as the word of God - no other people has a right to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel).
     When the Romans crushed the Jewish revolt of 135, they merged the Roman province of Judaea into Syria and called the new province Syria Palaestina, presumably to remove its Jewish distinction. The area continued to be called Palaestina later in the Byzantine period, and forms of this name persisted under the Arab caliphates and Turkish Ottoman Empire, though “Southern Syria” was the common distinction. After World War I, when Germany and its Ottoman ally were defeated by the western Allies, the name “Palestine” was applied to the territory that was placed under British Mandate. This area included not only present-day Israel but also present-day Jordan. At that time, it was common to label Jews, not Arabs, living in the mandate as Palestinians.
     When the Muslim Arabs took control of the Holy Land from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire in the seventh century, many of them settled in the conquered land, with the Jews remaining the largest minority.
     The population dwindled as various factors made it increasingly difficult to live here. The ruin of the land had begun with the Roman destruction of Judah. Later, the land became nearly desolate. Visitors to the land in the 1700s and 1800s commented on its forlorn desolation. The British Consul in Palestine reported in 1857, “The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is that of a body of population”. The most famous to speak of the land’s condition was Mark Twain in his book The Innocents Abroad after his visit in 1867.
     Jews returning to the land in the late 1800s and early 1900s as part of the Zionist movement and during the time of the British Mandate sparked immigration from surrounding Arab countries. This migration was so large as to overwhelm and assimilate earlier non-Jewish immigrants, leading to all being essentially Arabized and regarded as Arab.
     Records show that the large influx of Arabs into Palestine in the 19th and 20th century was a result of Jewish settlement and the resulting employment opportunities that drew successive waves of Arab immigrants to Palestine. According to the Peel Commission Report of 1937, ”The Arab population shows a remarkable increase . . . partly due to the import of Jewish capital into Palestine and other factors associated with the growth of the [Jewish] National Home”.
     This large-scale migration into the land continued up to the formation of the Israeli state, when “most Muslims living in Palestine . . . had been living there for fewer than 60 years”. It has been written that “the Arabs benefited economically so much by the presence of Jewish settlers from Europe that they traveled hundreds of miles to get closer to them. In turn, this explains why the definition of a refugee from Palestine in 1948 is a person who lived there for just two years [two years!]: because many Arab residents in 1948 had immigrated so recently.” Thus, “The ‘Palestinians’ are what they always were: a foreign Islamic Arab colony inside Israel.”
     The Arabs are not monolithic in their heritage. They consider themselves to be descended mainly from Ishmael, the first son of Abraham and the half-brother of Isaac. Yet among the Arabs are also some elements from other early tribes, including that of Jacob’s brother Esau, who was renamed Edom. Esau intermarried with daughters of Ishmael and the Canaanites. And we should further realize that Esau’s descendants, the Edomites, are not limited to Arab tribes but include various other peoples. [9]

     The conclusion to be reached is that there has never been a “Palestinian” people or “Palestinian” nation. There have been and are Arabs and others who live in what was known as Palestine and what was originally the Land of Israel. Some 4,000 years ago, the Land of Israel was conquered and then occupied for centuries by Hebrews or, as they are known today, by Jews. The Arabs living in the Land of Israel possess no valid history as a united people and they have no historic ties to the land on which they reside. Today they are simply Arabs who happen to live in the Land of Israel. During the British mandate period, such people were identified as Arab-Palestinians who lived alongside Jewish-Palestinians. These “Palestinians” have by now conclusively demonstrated that they will not live peacefully side-by-side with the Land of Israel’s original conquerors – the Jews – who are today the legitimate possessors of the territory that was once called Palestine.

     As a consequence, the Palestinian Law of Return should immediately be invoked in order to once-and-for-all end the constant reign of terror perpetrated by the “Palestinians” and to finally bring peace and tranquility to the Holy Land.
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References:

  1. Time to Finally End “Palestinian” Terrorism, David Burton, Son of Eliyahu: Article 538, 28 July 2022.
  2. ROCKETS IN TEL AVIV, RIOTS IN STREET, United With Israel, 12 May 2021.
  3. Netanyahu declares ‘state of emergency’ in Lod as violent Arab mobs torch city, threaten Jews,
    World Israel News, 12 May 2021.
  4. Opinion: The end of Jewish-Arab coexistence?, David Isaac, World Israel News, 12 May 2021.
  5. I’m calling for a new approach, Abu Yehuda, Blog Posted by Vic Rosenthal, 30 July 2017.
  6. Israel’s Basic Laws: The Law of Return, Jewish Virtual Library, Accessed 25 May 2022.
  7. Arab Countries, Wikipedia, Accessed 11 July 2022.
  8. How does Israel compare to the size of all the Arab Countries?, Aleksey Matiychenko, Quora,
    Accessed 11 July 2022.
  9. Who Are the Palestinians?, Tom Robinson, BEYOND TODAY, 7 June 2018.

 

  11 August 2022 {ARTICLE – 540; ISLAM_50 }    
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