Pre-1948 Palestine. (Photo credit: MH)

Pre-1948 before the unceremonious invention of Israel inside the nation of Palestine, it was where all three Abrahamic religions lived equally.

As with most places during that era, there were internal divisions and in-fighting, but nothing compared to what it has become since 1948. It was relatively peaceful and harmonious pre-1948.

Zionists make many arguments for inventing their new state inside Palestine. Ranging from the fanciful to the absurd. Some of the most popular ones are:

‘Moral’

There is a pseudo moral argument that says after the Holocaust, the Jews needed a land that they can call their own. A new country that will be a sanctuary for Jews, were they to face any such persecutions in future. But does that justify them to go and ethnically cleanse and murder people in Palestine because of European antisemitism and hate. Israel has also not actually been a sanctuary for Jews, to the contrary, since WW2 it has in fact been the most deadliest place on Earth for Jews; there is no other place on Earth where more Jews have perished than in Israel wince WW2. They would be much safer in Europe and North America. The Palestinians should never have been made to pay for the crimes of Germany.

‘Genealogical’

The argument they make is “we are the descendants of Israelites”. What they forget to mention is the crucial distinction between the Israelite tribes of thousands of years ago (who live on today in Arab Jews, Muslims and Christians) and Ashkenazi Jews – Ashkenazi Jews have almost zero genetic connection to Israelite Jews. Ashkenazi Jews are by-and-large Jews due to conversions in Europe:

For the sake of argument, even if we assumed there is a complete and full genealogical connection between European Jews and Israelite Middle Eastern Jews, then are we really saying that justifies the invention of a new country inside the land of another via ethnic cleansing and murder? Nah, didn’t think so! The irony here is, to begin with the Israelite Jews got to be in that land more than three thousand years ago only via ethnic cleansing and genocide of the indigenous Canaanites of Canaan.

‘Historical’

The primary argument Zionists use for the existence of Israel inside Palestine is that it was their “ancestral homeland”.

In danger of stating the obvious – “ancestral homeland” means a land where someone’s ancestors had previously lived in. My ancestors lived in India at one point in history. Does that mean I can now go to that part of India and invent a new Muslim country, particularly when others are living today. No, of course not, I’d be told I am mentally deranged if I made that argument.

‘Political’

They so often hark back to an era more than three thousand years ago, when the Israelite Jews ruled over the land, and say therefore ” we have a right to return”. Hold on, so, a right to return from three thousand years ago but in the same breath they reject the right to return for Palestinians which is from only seventy five years ago. This makes no sense and doesn’t hold up to any rational or reasonable thinking. Furthermore, Israelite Jews ruled over that land not only the longest period away from today, but they also ruled the land for the shortest period of time compared to other groups – throughout the past three thousand five hundred years, many groups have ruled over that patch of land – with Christians, Muslims and other groups ruling over the land for much longer than the Jews did. If anyone accepts this argument of theirs then then it is unreasonable to not accept that all the other groups have a right to return too. Have a look at the historical time map:

After the Ottoman rule came to an end, Britain was granted the Mandate for Palestine on 25 April 1920 at the San Remo Conference and, on 24 July 1922, this mandate was approved by the League of Nations. It was called the Palestinian mandate for a reason; because it was Palestine, not Israel!

There were other mandates that were created in the San Remo conference, namely the Mandate for Jordan, Mandate for Syria, Mandate for Lebanon and Mandate of Iraq. The purpose of those mandates was to give temporary powers to Britain and France to govern these nations until they were fit to govern themselves. It was a temporary measure. There was no mandate for creating a new country called Israel inside of Palestine.

The Palestinians have been cheated for long enough. It is time for justice and to correct historical wrongs.