Re: Hamas to blame for conflict
Carolyn Moore attributes the violence in Gaza to Hamas, and asks “What would we do?” I would like to ask her and those that believe that Israel is “only” protecting itself, “What would you do if … ?”
In 1922, Jews accounted for only 10 per cent of the population in Palestine, and then in 1947, the Jewish population soared to about 50 per cent, unfortunately for the Jewish immigrants, however, the Palestinians owned 93.5 per cent of the land. By 1948, through the use of terrorism, 630,000 people were violently expelled from the lands their families had lived on for centuries. Israel then passed regulations forbidding expelled Palestinians from returning to their homes and enacted a special law that deemed this Arab property “abandoned” and “subject to confiscation without compensation.” It was now Jewish land and by law it can never be sold to, rented to, or worked on by a non-Jew.
Would people voluntarily leave their homes, their business, and their farms, only to become penniless, stateless people in a squalid refugee camp?
Israel was founded on terrorism; in fact, it was Prime Minister Menachem Begin that bragged that, “Zionists brought terrorism to the Middle East and the world at large.” Israel routinely massacred entire villages and refugee camps to spread fear in surrounding villages so the populace would flee, leaving their land and possessions. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, presided over the deliberate ethnic cleansing of around 750,000 Palestinians, and the destruction of their villages. The world said nothing then, and after almost 70 years of war crimes, it still says nothing.
The facts are inescapable, Jewish immigrants forced their way into Palestine against the wishes of the inhabitants and then through the weight of arms and terror had driven the residents from their homes, robbing them of their land, possessions and their very lives.
So, I ask you again Ms. Moore “What would you do if a hostile alien force stole your home, all your money and possessions, and killed your family and friends and no one did anything to help?”
Robert Leggett, Nelson
