Oh how I wish I’d had this document in my hands back then! On second thought would it have made a difference?
More than a year ago I was part of a group of Israelis at a meeting in the Arab village of Abu Ghosh for discussion and debate with two Arab intellectuals. The man and woman were professors at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University and they were considered moderate in their point of view. The discussion of course centered upon the Israeli occupation and the Jewish affinity for Eretz Yisrael.
The Arab lecturers stated their case in a quiet suave manner in flawless Hebrew but their message was just another delivery of the tired revisionist Palestinian version of the history of Eretz Yisrael. According to them we Jews have no right to Eretz Yisrael and we never did have any such right. Until recently we never lived here. This is the homeland of the age-old Palestinian nation that was wrongfully expelled by the Israelis following World War II when the UN decided to compensate the Jews for their suffering during the Holocaust. These false claims have also been voiced by President Obama in his notorious Cairo speech and on other occasions.
We Israelis listened to them with polite restraint despite the provocative and spurious nature of their argument. But even the most “open-minded” of our delegation felt compelled to challenge the premise; an affirmed left-wing delegate was the first to come out and ask “Professor are you acquainted with Jewish history?”
Create a free account to keep reading.
