Attack on Israel was bitterly partisan and riddled with inaccuracies
Its argumentation belongs to a different era and does nothing to advance the peace process.
The following are some of the myths in his article and the real historical facts:
Myth: Dr Ajjuri refers to Yasser Arafat as a leader “who had the will to make peace”.
Fact: Arafat lacked the will and the political courage to make peace. In 2000, at Camp David, the then Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, made an extremely generous proposal for the sake of peace, offering the Palestinians most of the West Bank plus the Gaza Strip. Arafat cynically rejected the offer and again returned to violence, encouraging the Second Intifada. Even many Arabs were appalled by Arafat’s refusal to seize the historic opportunity: for example, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia personally blamed Arafat, not Israel, for the resulting disaster. President Clinton also blamed Arafat for the failure of the Camp David peace negotiations.
Myth: Dr Ajjuri states that the Balfour Declaration of 1917 (a pledge by the First World War Allies to give the persecuted Jewish people a national home in their ancient land) “constituted a death certificate for the emerging state of Palestine and the establishment of the state of Israel”.
Fact: Palestine was merely the name for a region that was part of various empires over the millennia. The population of Palestine up to the 20th century was sparse and heterogeneous, made up of diverse Muslims (Arab and non-Arab), Christians, and Jews who had lived in the region for thousands of years. Arab Palestinians became interested in creating a separate Arab Palestine state only at the end of the First World War. Jews in Palestine, both natives who had lived there for thousands of years, and Jewish immigrants who had been migrating to Palestine since the late 19th century, wanted a state of their own in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration and the subsequent League of Nations’ decision recognised that after thousands of years of persecution, the Jewish people, just like any other people in the world, were entitled to their own homeland.
Myth: Dr Ajjuri says “Zionist gangs conducted a campaign of terror… ethnic cleansing” against the so-called Palestinians (ie, Arab Muslims in the region) so as to create the state of Israel.
Fact: The opposite is the case. From the 1920s, the local Arab population attacked the Jewish people of Palestine with organised violence and terror, such as the 1929 mass murder and expulsion of Jews from Hebron.
The British authorities were largely indifferent to these attacks and appeased the Arab majority by tolerating this and halting Jewish immigration despite the rise of Nazism in Europe. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Al Husseini, was pro-Nazi. He supported the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, and had the Nazis won the war he intended to destroy the Jewish community of Palestine.
After the war, the UN created a compromise by passing Resolution 181: two states were proposed, one for the Arab Palestinians and one for the Jewish people. The Jewish community accepted the offer, even though half of designated Israel was the barren Negev desert. The Palestinians refused and again accelerated their terror campaign, which had been ongoing for decades, against the Jewish community .
When Israel declared formal independence in 1948, five Arab nations invaded with the aim of destroying the new state of Israel. Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League, declared: “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres…” Fortunately, Israel defended itself and survived. But in subsequent decades, such as in 1967 and 1973, Israel continually faced aggression by Arab countries. The cause of conflict over the decades has never been Israel’s so-called occupation, it has been the refusal of Israel’s neighbours to recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Israel has always wanted to live in peace with its neighbours and has made huge sacrifices for the sake of peace. In return for peace and recognition, Israel gave up land to Egypt and Jordan. Particularly since the 1990s, Israel has also made repeated gestures to the Palestinians for peace, such as offering most of the West Bank and Gaza in 2000 and pulling out of Gaza completely in 2005, only to have such steps met with increased Palestinian terrorism.
Myth: Dr Ajjuri states that “Palestinians are forced to stand in separate lines from Jews so that Jews are not tainted” through “contact” with “inferior” beings.
Fact: This is false, and its implication of racism is especially offensive considering how Jews suffered from racial and religious persecution throughout history (including at the hands of Arabs from the 7th to the 20th centuries).
In fact, Israel is a vibrant liberal democracy which accords full political, civil and human rights to all its citizens, a fifth of whom are Arabs. Israeli Arabs hold positions of authority in the government, the justice system, the Knesset (Israeli parliament) and the diplomatic corps.
Indeed, Israeli Arabs enjoy more freedom and rights than do many other Arabs in the Middle East where autocratic governments suppress democracy and civil liberties. The only institutional discrimination in the Middle East is in some Arab countries where Jews, Christians and women are deprived of the most basic rights.
As to the future of the peace process, despite the continued refusal of Hamas to recognise Israel’s right to exist, Israel has and will continue to negotiate with moderate Palestinians to achieve the goal of the peace process: two states living side by side in peace, the state of Israel which already exists as the homeland of the Jewish people, and a future state of Palestine as the homeland of the Palestinian people. This is the only fair and just solution to the conflict.
The Palestinian Authority, like most of the Arab world, has gradually come round to the idea of a two-state solution, ironically an idea first proposed by the UN in 1947 which, if grasped then, would have avoided the 60 years of bloodshed up to the present day as a result of aggression against Israel.
As Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni recently said: “I believe that part of the responsibility of any Israeli leadership is to make every effort to try to achieve peace with our neighbours... Israeli interests are to try to translate the vision into two states for two peoples living side by side in peace and security.”
Also this month, President Shimon Peres set out the ultimate goal: “The two-state solution, namely, to establish an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel, with secure borders, peace and prosperity.”
Zion Evrony PhD
Ambassador of Israel
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