Historical facts show Palestinians not “˜mere victims’
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 18, 2003 9:00 p.m.
As a reporter who has traveled to and covered the news in the
Middle East, I was utterly shocked and disturbed by Rebecca
Steinfeld’s presentation of inaccurate historical facts and
uncalled-for criticism of the Bruins for Israel (“Israeli
independence also a Palestinian catastrophe,” May 9).
Through a series of distorted historical facts, she incorrectly
portrays the Palestinian and Arab people of 1948 as innocent and
with clean hands ““ mere “victims” of supposed
Jewish aggression. This image of the Palestinians is completely
inaccurate, as they were involved in numerous bloody massacres
against the Jews between 1920 and 1948.
One prime example ““ reported by Rabbi Dov Cohen, who
witnessed this pogrom and was interviewed by the Israeli news
outlet, Arutz Sheva in August of 1999 ““ was the three-day
slaughter of 67 Jews in the city of Hebron, which began on August
23, 1929, by their Palestinian neighbors.
Likewise, Steinfeld repeatedly points to supposed historical
facts from various UCLA and Israeli historians, who obviously have
hidden agendas or axes to grind against Israel.
For instance, she refers to the massacre of the people in the
Arab village of Deir Yassin by Israeli soldiers. While covering the
Middle East, I researched this event and found it to be greatly
exaggerated by biased Arab sympathizers and historians.
In Mitchell Bard’s “Myths & Facts, a Guide to
the Arab Israeli Conflict,” Bard states, “A study by
BirZeit University, based on discussions with each family from the
village (Deir Yassin), arrived at a figure of 107 Arab civilians
dead and 12 wounded, in addition to 13 fighters, evidence that the
number of dead was smaller than claimed and that the village did
have troops based there.”
Also, a 1998 BBC program, “Israel and the Arabs: The 50
Year Conflict,” indicated that “Hazam Nusseibi, who
worked for the Palestine Broadcasting Service in 1948, admitted
being told by Hussein Khalidi, a Palestinian Arab leader, to
fabricate the atrocity claims (at Deir Yassin).” Most
importantly, Bard points to the fact there were no rapes of
Palestinian women, and that some civilians living in Deir Yassin
were even evacuated by Israeli troops during the attack. Since
civilians were being helped by Israelis, this dispels any notion of
a “massacre.” Those civilians who were killed were
caught in the crossfire of Arab soldiers hiding among the civilian
population and dressing like women, according to Bard.
In addition, Steinfeld claims it would be intellectually
dishonest not to acknowledge the attacks on Palestinians by the
Jews in 1948. I ask why she has been intellectually dishonest by
failing to mention the other 1948 massacres against the Jews living
in the Arab countries.
According to historian Arieh Avneri’s 1984 book,
“The Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land Settlement and the
Arabs, 1878-1948,” from 1948 up to the early 1970s there were
more than 800,000 Jews (living in the Arab countries of Morocco,
Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen) who
were murdered and/or raped, and many had their properties taken
away by the Arab governments they lived under. Where is
Steinfeld’s outrage and cry for them? When will they get
their justice and money back?
The truth of the matter is they will never get it, and their
only hope for survival was and is Israel. That is why Jews and the
Bruins for Israel celebrate the independence of their own Jewish
homeland. These Jews have been the real victims: they suffered
oppression from the Arab and Muslim populations they lived under
for centuries. They never had their own Jewish homeland until
Israel, and before that, they were unwanted throughout the
world.
The Palestinians, whether they were supposedly expelled or fled
their homes, deserve our sympathy, not because of what Israel
supposedly did to them, but because of what their own government
(headed by Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority) has done to
them over the past 10 years since the Oslo Accords. Steinfeld
claims the Palestinians “continue to live and die under the
brutal and illegal Israeli occupation,” but hasn’t the
mistreatment of Palestinians by Arafat’s own dictatorship
been a factor in their plight?
Why has Arafat and the Palestinian Authority continued to keep
the Palestinian people starving in rundown refugee camps when the
government has had millions in U.S. and European Union aid to build
homes, schools, hospitals and infrastructure? Again, where is
Steinfeld’s outrage for the thousands of Palestinians who
have been mistreated by their own leadership?
Again and again, it is easy to blame Israel for the plight of
the Palestinian people when their own leadership and the Arab world
has done more injustice to them than anyone else. If there is
anyone to blame for the Palestinian misery, it is the
Palestinians’ own leadership, which over the past 10 years
has chosen a path of war, terrorism and death instead of peaceful
co-existence.
Lastly, how dare Steinfeld challenge Israel’s right to
defend its citizens against the disgusting terror attacks
perpetrated by the Palestinian Authority. There is no justification
for such terrorist attacks against innocent Jewish men, women, and
children.
Suppose Mexico and its government perpetrated terrorist bombings
against U.S. nationals living in Los Angeles. Would we in the
United States stand for it? No, we’d fight terror just as our
government has since Sept. 11, 2001.
The celebration of the independence of the State of Israel is a
modern miracle of biblical portions. It is not just a victory for
the Jews, but a victory for those who love freedom and democracy.
Israel’s creation marked one of the few times in history when
Christians, Muslims and Jews were all free to pray and practice
their faiths in a land holy to all three religions. This is why
many Americans, regardless of their faith, celebrate the 55 years
of Israel’s establishment.
I call on UCLA students to challenge the liberal, one-sided bias
against Israel from your professors and fellow students and ask for
the other side, because it’s not exactly as clean cut as
they’d have you believe. The Arab people are as guilty, if
not more, for this bloody conflict in the Middle East.
Melamed is a freelance reporter in Los Angeles.
