A Palestinian Myth

[Marc Peterson]

According to Palestinians, they were expelled from Israel by the Jewish armies in 1948. A large documentation, and many testimonies from Arab leaders and h... intend to prove that, actually, they fled the zone of conflict because of Arab propaganda, spreading the fake news of massacres...

If you choose to respond, please do so with specific thoughts on where you think those quoted are wrong about this history.

[Dave Timmer]

Seems like a twisted view of history. Like you're digging for reasons to not question the current situation in Palestine/Israel. If they were convinced by Arab propanda to leave their homes, I'm sure the tanks, bombs, bullets, and soldiers, not to mention the creation of a new country where they lived helped make their decision. If they were somehow tricked into leaving the place where they lived, wouldn't it be all the more reason to help them get back?

What does this video mean for the deaths, imprisonments, walls, poverty, checkpoints.....that are happening in present times.....today? Do we just ignore that injustice, thinking "Oh they were told to leave by Arab propaganda so their situation doesn't matter." Ultimately, if you can accept that their situation sucks (that there is some injustice going on there).....it demands attention no matter what role Israel played in 1948. It demands attention whether you're are Arab, Christian, Jew, Athiest, or whatever.

You might not say that is Biblical...that Israel being Israel is the culmination of the Biblical narrative. Therefore, we can turn a blind eye on the situational injustice of the Palestinian people today. You might think that this injustice has to occur to fulfill Biblical prophecy and to bring the narrative to a conclusion. I think there is much more to that narrative than Israel being a country and definitely more to that narrative than the US supplying Israel with guns, bombs, fighter jets, and wall-building materials...Oh so much more. I have to believe that Jesus wasn't resurrected so that our country could make sure Israel stays Israel so that the Armegeddon could occur. The Kingdom that He set in motion when He was incarnated seeks justice no matter where injustice occurs. Shalom is impossible where injustice occurs.

[Marc Peterson]

Hello Dave, thanks for responding. If I can answer your second paragraph first, I have never hinted at some kind of end-times scenario where the modern state of Israel must be preserved and neither did the video I posted. That is a straw-man argument to make any Christian who supports Israel to sound irrational.

Now, to your point of why it matters? The truth matters and how this tragedy happened matters and who is responsible for putting those people in the world's first multi-generational refugee camp matters. This can't be the first time you've heard this story, the Arab armies massed and promised to push the young country into the sea. They warned and threatened their brethren who lived there among the Israelis to leave while they planned to easily and quickly perform a second holocaust and then they could return. They lost badly and the Israelis did what every country on earth has ever done after winning a war, they adjusted their position in a way to make an attack less likely to happen again.

I have said here many times- The Palestinians are living in a hell on earth and no one should have to live that way. Unfortunately, those of their "brethren" who could most easily help them do not choose to because they hate them (they are called dogs by "pure" Arabs) and they serve a greater purpose where they are. Most of them were Jordanians but were massacred and kicked out by the then-king of Jordan. Why do we not protest outside of the Jordanian embassy? They are given soul-poisoning textbooks and weapons instead of food and water. How is any of this just?

[Dave Timmer]

Hey Marc – good to hear from you again. I realize that your posting of the video was not a specific eschatological promotion. But, does the end-times potential influence the reasoning behind the video? or of some interest groups promotion of it? You are correct….to me the end-times argument (which may be straw) does sound irrational. Which is why I need assistance in figuring it out. But I digress….

The (what appears to me) selective “truth” behind the video is to affix blame for the current situation on someone besides Israel. This blame leads us to fix our anger/protest/or justice-seeking on the “Arab” countries rather addressing the elephant in the room. The truth is that there is (since 1948) a very powerful country that politically and militarily occupies the land where the Palestinians live. Again, it seems to turn a blind eye on the Israel side of the current military and political situation. You are right…certain gov’ts have used and continue to use the Palestinian situation to promote their agenda of “hating the West”….but that is all the more reason to seek justice and seek a difficult solution to the problem. What is the real reason behind the injustice? While the Arab countries may have made the situation worse…they didn’t start the situation…did they? As you question…..none of that is just.

Their “brethren” are also our brethren are they not? Their religion or ethnicity doesn’t make justice any less necessary.

I think, as often happens in this and many other arguments (abortion, poverty reduction, war, peace, environmental stewardship), is that the two sides really want a similar outcome but are arguing something completely different based on the way they view the situation. As long as both sides can realize that (which I presume you and I both do)….productive discussion can occur. So….back to the eschatological discussion…..I don’t understand the unquestioning support for Israel. Now, I’m probably lumping you into a category you shouldn’t be…but you may be able to address my question. Is the unflinching support because of the history of the holocaust, a concern for anti-Semitism, a fear of a different religion, end-times theology…..?

[Marc Peterson]

Hi Dave, thanks for your polite tone to a very thorny issue. Jews have lived in Judea and Samaria — the West Bank — since ancient times. The only time Jews have been prohibited from living in the territories in recent decades was during Jordan's rule from 1948 to 1967. This was contrary to the Mandate for Palestine adopted by the League of Nations, which provided for the establishment of a Jewish state, and specifically encouraged “close settlement by Jews on the land.”

Now, this was an important point in how I came to my current point of view- From 1949-67, when Jews were forbidden to live on the West Bank, the Arabs refused to make peace with Israel. So, no settlement or occupation still resulted in no peace.

Israel is a democracy. They have a free (and cantankerous) press, they have many Arab citizens who own businesses, vote, serve in the Israeli military and even hold positions in the Knesset. Contrast that with Jewish treatment in any country controlled by Arabs and you may start to see why I support Israel more on balance although certainly not without reservation.

Sorry for the length here, but another fact which gets little play is the forced removal of Jews from their land in 1948. 850,000 Jews living in Arab countries in the Middle East and north Africa were forced out of their homes, often in brutal circumstances, between 1948 and the 1960s, and particularly in the few years surrounding the creation of the state of Israel.

It is believed that the governments of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen stole billions of dollars from abandoned or expropriated Jewish properties and assets. This is not to say that two wrongs make a right, but merely to explain why it is so critical that Israel remains as a place for Jews to be safe. The quote marks around the word brethren was not to say that all men are not our brothers, but to point out the irony of the incredibly wealthy Arab kingdoms talking about helping the palestinians but not helping them. They are abused by their own leaders and used by the Arab world and I just don't hear that much anger over this.

[Micah Schuurman]

The Arab countries did incite the Palestinians to leave. But, that is not the only reason that people left. Some left for other reasons. Read Archbishop Elias Chacour's book, Blood Brother. He is the Archbishop of the Melchite Catholic church in Israel and a leader of the non-violent resistance movement among the Palestinians. He is coming to the J-Series at Calvin College.
To summarize his story, he and everyone in his village were forced to leave. The Israeli army came and told them that they had to leave for their own safety. So, they dutifully left and went into the hills. They were never allowed back. Archbishop Chacour's father and brothers were rounded up by the Israelis and dropped off in the West Bank (then under Jordanian control). Fortunately, his father and brothers managed to sneak home.

Furthermore, even if some people did leave voluntarily, did that give Israel the right to confiscate their lands and prevent them from returning? Proving that the Arab leaders bear some of the blame does not exhonorate Israel.

Finally, I have never heard much about these massacres and gang rapes. Arabs do not talk about them much if at all. Clearly, if these myths are a part of the story that Arabs tell each other and foreigners, they constitute a very small part.