The Palestinians are the world’s most special people. They really are. The Palestinians have no unique language, culture or customs of their own. They do not produce a single barrel of oil. They have not invented anything that has brought any advancement to mankind. They have no currency of their own. They exist on charitable donations.
Despite this, the world has bowed to their demands. They have managed to get Arab countries to send their armies to fight losing wars on their behalf, not once but three times. The Palestinians have managed to convince the world that peace in the middle east is only possible if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is solved. Now it is obvious to anyone with even a minimum grasp of Middle Eastern history to realize that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not solve the catastrophic situation in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon or Sudan, or do anything to bridge the huge divide between the Shi’ites and Sunnis in the Muslim world.
The Palestinians deny thousands of years of Jewish history in the Middle East. They deny the Holocaust. The Palestinians claim that the Jews are colonialists who came from Europe as a result of the World War II. Well, the reality is that Jews have lived in the Middle East for more than 1,000 years before the Muslim conquest in the 7th century. The Palestinians claim Israel is an apartheid state.
In reality, Arabs with Israeli citizenship consist of one-fifth of the Israeli electorate and have full voting rights. Eighty six Arab-Israelis have been elected to the Knesset since the first elections in 1948. Blacks never had a single vote in the South African government under Apartheid and never had any representatives in parliament. Clearly, Israel is not an apartheid state. What the Palestinians say in English is completely different to what they say in Arabic. When 9/11 occurred, the Palestinians rejoiced. They love American money but despise the West.
The Palestinians have lied and lied and lied. They promote the story of a “Nakba” of 700,000 Palestinians who left Israel in 1948. They leave out that 850,000 Jews were forced to flee from Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia and other Arab countries after the State of Israel was declared. The value of Palestinian losses is a fraction of the losses sustained by Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews who were first disposed of all their property and possessions, and finally were forced to pay to get one way no return exit visas from countries that they had lived in for thousands of years. Their home language was Arabic, and they used Hebrew for prayers.
The Palestinians have perfected the art of victimhood, even though their plight is largely caused by their own actions. They could have had a Palestinian state in 1948. They refused the UN Partition Plan.
They have refused four separate offers of a Palestinian state and rejected US President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” before it was even published. In doing so, they have once again rejected the possibility of a Palestinian state, as well as $50 billion in aid. Despite existing on donations, the Palestinians have refused to end their policy that has been called “pay to slay.”
The more Israelis a Palestinian kills or maims, the higher his pension will be. This policy should be considered abhorrent, but donations keep pouring in to the Palestinians. The Palestinians reward terrorists and even name public squares in their honor.
Palestinian refugees are not to be confused with any other refugees. The other 50 million refugees in the world are handled by the UNHCR. The mandate of the UNHCR is to solve the problem of the refugees by getting them citizenship and settlement in countries as soon as possible. Palestinians have a different UN agency called UNWRA. The UNWRA mandate is to perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem. Since its formation in 1949, UNWRA has received billions of dollars in aid for Palestinian refugees. The UNWRA budget is more than double per refugee than the budget of the UNHCR. The definition of a Palestinian refugee is not the same as other refugees. The Palestinians are special. The Palestinian refugees are defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to May 15, 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” Yes, you read it correctly. Two years residence, with no proof required, and no proof that you were forced to flee. Just that you left is sufficient for you to receive more help than any other refugees in history. This right is also extended to all future generations of descendants of Palestinian refugees. Even if a Palestinian refugee becomes a citizen of another country, he is still considered a Palestinian refugee. Not only do Palestinian refugees receive perpetual help, but they also claim an inalienable right of return to Israel. No such right exists anywhere. Period. Palestinian refugees are obviously considered very special by the world.
Thousands of people are killed all over the world in wars and rebellions. The UN does nothing. On the other hand, the Palestinians are able to get the UN Security Council into session at will. They usually claim that Israel is using disproportionate force to kill innocent babies and is violating international law. This makes great headlines, but is not the truth. The fact that the Palestinians are shooting thousands or rockets at Israel is never considered a violation at all. The UN Human Rights Council has passed 45 resolutions condemning Israel. This is more resolutions against Israel than against the rest of the world combined. Anything that the Palestinians consider offensive receives international condemnation.
The Palestinians, although not a state, are now recognized as a state by the International Criminal Court. The Palestinians are the darlings of the world. They can do no wrong. Almost every meeting of the Arab League takes place with Arab leaders pledging millions of dollars for the Palestinian cause. The strange thing about the Palestinians is that in 400 years of Ottoman Rule, then British mandate rule, and finally Jordanian rule of east Jerusalem and the West Bank, nobody ever called for a Palestinian state.
The Palestinians can always count on the European Union for support. The reality is that the EU is supporting a people that does not adhere to a single principle upon which the EU is based. The Palestinians have neither democracy nor the rule of law. They have no freedom of the press, no right to protest, no women’s or gay rights, no freedom of religion, nor any other human rights that are the basis of Western civilization. They have not had an election in 14 years. The last election was won by Hamas. Simply put, the Palestinians themselves are sick of the corruption of the Palestinian Authority. The EU turns a blind eye to patent Palestinian corruption. Palestinian courts are a farce.
Any Palestinian reporter who reports anything that remotely resembles a different Palestinian narrative is either arrested, tortured or killed. Any Palestinian who sells a property to a Jew in east Jerusalem faces a death sentence. Gay rights and women’s rights are conspicuous by their absence. In fact, every human right that the West so fervently supports is totally non existent in the case of the Palestinians.
The PLO Charter is the Palestinian National Covenant. The charter clearly lays out the position of the Palestinians. It has never been altered. Somehow the world refuses to read the document. It calls for armed struggle as the only way to liberate Palestine. The charter states that the boundaries that existed at the time of the British Mandate is an integral regional unit. They claim all of this land to be Palestinian. Their leaders openly state that not a single Jew will be allowed to live in a Palestinian state. All one has to do is read the charter and listen to Palestinian claims of a Palestinian state from the river to the sea. They openly state their opposition to the existence of Israel on even one inch of Palestinian land. What could be clearer. No one at the UN or the EU wants to read the Palestinian charter. It will upset their preconceived ideas of the Palestinians wanting to live in peace with Israel.
Even some leaders of Israel consider the Palestinians as desiring peace. Shimon Peres even got the White House to roll out the red carpet for Yasser Arafat. What Israel got in return was more than a thousand killed. Peres called it the “price of peace.” Peres said that the bombs placed in Israeli hotels, buses and restaurants were caused by groups not controlled by Arafat. Well it turns out that Arafat was paying the groups to blow up Israelis. So much for peace. Palestinians with severe medical problems are treated in Israeli hospitals. Does any other country in the world provide humanitarian assistance to enemies who want to destroy you? The Palestinians in Gaza have been launching thousands of rockets aimed at Israeli towns and cities. Their youth have been organized to send balloons with incendiary devices attached in order to set fire to Israeli farms and to cause as much damage as possible. In return, Israel sends them food and electricity. The world condemns Israel and gives the Palestinians a pass on every level. The Palestinians are truly special.
The Palestinians have managed to garner the support of American presidents, Israeli prime ministers, the UN, the EU, the UN Human Rights Council, the Arab League, Russia, Turkey, China, the Non-Aligned Movement, Shi’ites and Sunnis, countless human rights organizations, as well as strong support on American university campuses. The Palestinians have received billions of dollars in aid and political support from a very diverse group of countries, organizations and individuals. No other people in history has managed to achieve this amount of support from so many quarters. They have achieved this without contributing anything positive to mankind. The Palestinians are simply remarkable. They are the world’s most special people.
The writer was born in South Africa and is a qualified accountant who lives in Ra’anana with his Israeli-born wife, with whom he has two sons and a granddaughter