History: Palestine Was Always Arabic
Sunni
Muslim Arabs have occupied the territory previously known as Palestine,
as the majority of the region’s inhabitants, since the seventh-century,
together with a sizeable Christian minority. Indeed,
at the start of
the 19th century the Jewish population was only about 3%. To imply
otherwise would be a distortion of historical fact. Jews were only a
minority in the land of Palestine ever since about 700 BC until 1948 –
with the forcible establishment of the state of Israel – i.e. for
approximately 1200 years. That is documented and verifiable history.
For hundreds
of years prior to the British Mandate, Palestine was part of the Ottoman
Empire and was divided into provinces in which there were only very few
recorded Jewish inhabitants.
However, that
there was a Hebrew sect, with its own temple, in and around Jerusalem in
ancient times i.e. during and before the life of Christ, is not in
dispute. But the only people to have a valid claim on the region that
runs between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan, as the
continuous indigenous people of the region were, and are, the Muslim
Arab.
Nevertheless, during the 1880s, a Jewish nationalist movement by the name of ‘Zionism’ evolved among persecuted Jews fleeing from anti-Semitic pogroms in Europe, using the slogan: “a land without a people for a people without a land”.
This was, of course, demonstrably false as the land of Palestine was
already occupied by predominantly Muslim communities and had been for
over a thousand years!
The British government, however, was ‘playing with politics’ when, in 1917, its then foreign secretary, A J Balfour, sent a deliberately ambiguous statement of British intent to pro-Zionist, Lord Rothschild, on 2 November which was subsequently published in The Times.
It did not promise a Jewish state in Palestine but vaguely expressed
the sentiment that HM Government viewed with favour the establishment of
a Jewish national home in Palestine whilst recognising that there was
an existing Muslim population long settled in the region.
The Balfour Declaration
far from being written to help Jews fleeing from persecution, was in
fact designed to help boost American support for Britain’s then war
effort from an America with a significantly influential Jewish
population, even then. This is substantiated, historical narrative.
Fortunately,
Mr Netanyahu cannot erase history no matter how influential, powerful or
flush-with-casino-gambling-profits is the AIPAC Israel lobby in
Washington or its associated paid political persuaders in Westminster,
Strasbourg, the Bundestag or the Élysée Palace.
In the final analysis, truth will eventually always win over propaganda, and those who disseminate it.
*
Hans Stehling (pen name) is an analyst based in the UK. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Hans Stehling, Global Research, 2018
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