While the site is biased I was interested by the figures here showing that Palestine was largely made up of a vast commingling of different groups.
Well, the Israeli version of Palestinian history taught in Israeli schools is just that: ignore the people who have lived there for centuries, claim that most of the inhabitants moved in in the 19th century. That this is false by all historical accounts of Palestine that pre-date Israel doesn't seem to worry these revisionists.
What appears to be generally agreed on is that until the 20th century, Jews were less than 6% (http://www.palestine-net.com/history/bhist.html) of the population of Palestine: one religious group among others. The massive increase in the Jewish population of Palestine in the first half of the 20th century (well, okay, until 1948) was entirely European and American immigrants moving in, with the intention of taking over.
And yes, I consider this an aggressive act - while appreciating the historical context in which it happened. Nevertheless, the people against whom this aggression was directed were not the people who had been persecuting the Jews in the countries from which they came.
I feel about Israel the way I used to feel about South Africa. It was impossible to argue that the white South Africans ought to "go home": South Africa was their home and had been for generations. Nevertheless, they were descended from colonists who had moved in and were taking over. Israel isn't (yet) an apartheid state to the extent that South Africa was for more than forty years - but it's clearly heading in that direction, and informally, considering the discrimination faced by Arab Israelis, it already is.
Israel achieved its right to exist by an act of aggression by the neighbouring Muslim countries - not their invasion in 1948, but the expulsion of Middle Eastern Jews into Israel at about that time. From then on, Israel ceased to be uncomplicatedly a new colonialist nation, white settlers driving out natives, and became a much more realistic Middle Eastern country - though from what Israelis tell me, Middle Eastern Jews were and are also discriminated against. (In fact, there is effectively a four-tier social structure: the European/American Jews at the top, the Middle Eastern Jews underneath, the black Jews from Ethiopia third rung down,and at the very bottom, legally discriminated against in many ways, the Israeli Arabs.)
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Well, the Israeli version of Palestinian history taught in Israeli schools is just that: ignore the people who have lived there for centuries, claim that most of the inhabitants moved in in the 19th century. That this is false by all historical accounts of Palestine that pre-date Israel doesn't seem to worry these revisionists.
What appears to be generally agreed on is that until the 20th century, Jews were less than 6% (http://www.palestine-net.com/history/bhist.html) of the population of Palestine: one religious group among others. The massive increase in the Jewish population of Palestine in the first half of the 20th century (well, okay, until 1948) was entirely European and American immigrants moving in, with the intention of taking over.
And yes, I consider this an aggressive act - while appreciating the historical context in which it happened. Nevertheless, the people against whom this aggression was directed were not the people who had been persecuting the Jews in the countries from which they came.
I feel about Israel the way I used to feel about South Africa. It was impossible to argue that the white South Africans ought to "go home": South Africa was their home and had been for generations. Nevertheless, they were descended from colonists who had moved in and were taking over. Israel isn't (yet) an apartheid state to the extent that South Africa was for more than forty years - but it's clearly heading in that direction, and informally, considering the discrimination faced by Arab Israelis, it already is.
Israel achieved its right to exist by an act of aggression by the neighbouring Muslim countries - not their invasion in 1948, but the expulsion of Middle Eastern Jews into Israel at about that time. From then on, Israel ceased to be uncomplicatedly a new colonialist nation, white settlers driving out natives, and became a much more realistic Middle Eastern country - though from what Israelis tell me, Middle Eastern Jews were and are also discriminated against. (In fact, there is effectively a four-tier social structure: the European/American Jews at the top, the Middle Eastern Jews underneath, the black Jews from Ethiopia third rung down,and at the very bottom, legally discriminated against in many ways, the Israeli Arabs.)
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