By Steve Kramer
KFAR SAVA, Israel — Of course, Israel should be governed by its indigenous people. Isn’t every country? Not really. In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, indigenous means produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment. According to http://www.indigenouspeople.net, indigenous people are people defined in international or national legislation as having a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory, and their cultural or historical distinctiveness from other populations that are often politically dominant.
But who are Israel’s indigenous people? Now that we know the definition, it shouldn’t be hard to identify Israel’s indigenous population. The Palestinian Arabs claim to be Palestine’s indigenous people. Below is the proof of their claim.
The Bible (which has existed for thousands of years) describes the religious, philosophical, moral, historical story of how the Palestinian people escaped slavery in Egypt, then conquered and ruled the Land promised to them by the one, universal deity. But wait, that was the Jews.
According to the Bible, 3,000 years ago a Palestinian shepherd killed the giant Goliath and later became the ruler of Hebron. He then conquered Jerusalem and made it the capital of the united Palestinian kingdom. His son later built the Holy Temple on Mt. Moriah. That wasn’t a Palestinian, it was David and his son and heir, Solomon.
According to the Bible and archaeological evidence, the Palestinians made Jerusalem Islam’s most holy site, where Palestinians made pilgrimage on the three festival holidays. No, it’s the Jews whose foremost holy city and capital was and is Jerusalem.
According to the Bible and archaeological evidence, the Palestinians were almost destroyed by the Assyrians and then the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans. But they endured and established multiple kingdoms in the Land over millennia. Many Palestinians remained scattered throughout the land despite the conquests. Eventually, they were joined by an influx of Palestinians from throughout the world. No, it was the Jews who, against all odds, always maintained their presence in the Land.
The Arch of Titus was erected in Rome in 82 CE to commemorate Titus’s victories, including the defeat of the Palestinians in the Siege of Jerusalem. Palestinian slaves were marched through Rome’s streets to celebrate the event. No, the Arch commemorates the Romans’ hard-won victory over the rebellious Jews, who fought to the death in an attempt to regain their independence.
In the early and mid-20th century, the Palestinians were promised recognition of their national homeland by the Great Powers, the League of Nations, and subsequently the United Nations. Oh wait, that was the Jews, who have 3,500 continuous years of history, religion, and culture centered in the Land of Israel.
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Israel is governed by its natives, in contrast to most countries. While Jews always remained scattered throughout the land over millennia, the mass movement of Diaspora Jews started in a burst of political Zionism in the late 19th century. The Jews gained independence in 1948, after defeating five invading Arab armies.
From the early 1920s, Jews living in Palestine were Jewish “Palestinians,” while Arabs residing there were reluctant to use the term. The Palestinian Arabs who remained in the Jewish State of Israel were later described (mostly in 1964 and after) as “indigenous,” a strategy suggested to the Arabs by the Soviets. In 1964, the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) was founded with impetus from the KGB in Moscow. This was the first significant use of “Palestinian” adopted by the Arabs in Israel/Palestine.
Where are the “Palestinian” bona fides which would confer native status on them? Where are the writings, the artifacts, the contemporaneous and historical accounts of the “Palestinian” nation? There are none.
Israel’s right to a national home in Palestine was mandated more than a hundred years ago by the Great Powers and the League of Nations, and subsequently by the United Nations; its present de facto borders were won in defensive wars; its majority population is indigenous Jews; there are also minority populations. Israel is indisputably the Jewish State.
Unfortunately, most Muslims as well as most countries in the European Union and the United Nations refuse to acknowledge the obvious truth that Jews are Israel’s indigenous population. Why? I say it’s because of antipathy towards the Jewish people, for whatever reason. Instead, these opponents of Israel are the biggest supporters of the fabricated “Palestinian” people, whose expressed desire is to destroy the Jewish State of Israel.
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Kramer is a freelance writer based in Kfar Sava. He may be contacted via steve.kramer@sdjewishworld.com
Wrong. Abraham moved to the area and resided there as an alien. Later the Jews returned from Egypt, after willingly leaving due to a drought. Upon returning, they forcibly displaced the local population. I have no stake in this, and divine intervention aside, history is all too often seen through the eyes of an agenda.