Israel: An Imperialist Fortress
The zeal shown by the Western Powers to defend Israel convinces the Muslim world that their motive is not purely humanitarian but that their own interests are vitally concerned. The Arabs believe that Israel is an Anglo-American fortress, stuffed with the latest weapons, and established as a constant armed thread to the Arab world.
The West has a belief that Jews and Arabs are the traditional enemies. But history tells us that for thirteen centuries, until the beginning of Zionism, Jews and Muslims were traditional allies against Christendom. Arabs have never persecuted Jews, as European nations have. It is ironic to think that the West, which did the persecution, is now inflicting retribution for these past atrocities on the people who not only never committed them, but who for centuries provided refuge to the persecuted Jews who escaped from Europe.
The woes of the people of Palestine basically started with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. This declaration favoured the establishment of a National House for Jewish people in Palestine. There was also in the declaration that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. In 1917, Arabs constituted 93 percent of Palestine’s population and the rest 07 percent were the Jewish people. This was the start of the still-running conundrum.
During the First World War, the Balfour declaration was not the only pledge given. Britain, France and the United States promised that all the people previously governed by the Turks should have to choose their own form of government. This promise was also one of President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, which aroused such intense enthusiasm all over the world for the noble ideals of the people of the United States.
The people to whom the promises were made ultimately obtained their fulfilment. The people of Palestine alone were an exception. They were never allowed to choose their own government.
In 1948, about a million Palestinians were driven from their homes by force. It has been alleged that Palestinian have left their homes voluntarily. In fleeing from their homes, they abandoned their shops, their houses, their businesses, their farms and their livelihood. In 1940, a great number of French people left their homes before the advancing German armies and fled in the clothes they stood up in. Nobody has ever suggested that they thereby fortified their right to return to their homes when the war was over. The million odd Palestinians who fled in 1948 have never been allowed to return. Most of them are still living in sordid camps.
After the Second World War, the Arabs of Palestine realized that they were weak enough to present their case in the United Nations, as they were not enjoying the status of a sovereign nation. They asked the Arab states to help. The Arab states who fought the case of Palestine in the United Nation did know little or nothing about the case. They did more harm than good to this case.
Fighting broke out immediately after the end of British mandate in May, 1948, and Israel gained a sweeping military success. Israel was also allowed to enjoy the fruits of her armed success. The West usually gives the justification that Egyptians were the aggressors, because they invaded the area allotted to Israel by the United Nations. The argument of something doubtful validity.
Firstly, the admission of hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants into Palestine under the protection of British army, against the opposition of 93 percent of the population, is rightly regarded by Palestinians as military aggression.
Secondly, it may be questioned whether the United Nations had the legal power to order that half of the territory of a country be taken from inhabitants and given to a completely foreign race of immigrants.
Thirdly, Egyptians are an entirely different race from the Palestinians. The relationship of Egypt to Palestine may be compared to that of Germany or Holland to Britain, if the North Sea were full of sand instead of water.
It has been asked that why don’t the Arab countries take the refugees. Suppose, Hitler won the Second World War and conquered Britain. He decided to move all the Jews from Germany to England. For this purpose, he took over counties of Kent, Surrey and Sussex and ordered the area to be cleared of its inhabitants to accommodate the immigrants. The persons evicted were told that they could find new homes for themselves in other parts of England.
The refugees admitted and welcomed by Jordan amounted to one-third of the population of the country. The influx of refugees was equivalent to the arrival of seventeen million destitute in Britain at that time.
In the 1967 crisis, the Israeli army occupied all Palestine down to Jordan. Now, the Arab part of Palestine is also occupied by Israeli army. We have recently witnessed the armed violence of Israeli army on Palestinians, who are now the minority in their own homeland.
It is the high time to count the atrocities of Israel on the true inhabitants of Palestine. The “imperial fortress” of the West needs to be broken down. History, geography and all other such factors support the fact that Israel is a colonial power. Now, it is the time for the global community to call Israel an occupant and must liberate the holy land of Palestine from the foreign occupied people.
