Have you heard the Palestinian Spokesmen Lately?

1. Have you heard the Palestinian Spokesmen Lately? A bus is blown up in Jerusalem… Palestinian Masses are cheering and celebrating the 9/11 tragedy It’s the occupation… Saeb Arikat Terrorists are blowing up Gal, a 4 year old girl… The problem is the occupation… The occupation is the violence… Nasser Al-Kidwa Nabil Sh’ath

2. What do the Palestinian’s mean by “Occupation”? Was there ever a state called Palestine? How did Israel get into the disputed territories? What did the so-called “Occupation” do to the people?

3. Unlike what Westerners think, the Palestinians have a very clear notion of the “Occupation”: For the Palestinian Ministry of Industry, all of Israel is considered “Occupied”… http://www.industry.gov.ps For the Palestinian Ministry of Parliamentary affairs, all of Israel is considered “Occupied”… http://www.mopa.gov.ps And for Arafat, displayed proudly on his arm, Israel is the “Occupied” Palestine!

4. Hanan Ashrawi, the most articulate exponent of the Palestinian cause, has been even more forthright in erasing the line between the post-1967 and pre-1967 “Occupation." Speaking in the now-infamous World Conference Against Racism in Durban, on Sep 2001, she maintained that the original “Occupation” was the actual creation of the state of Israel in 1948, only to be extended in 1967! Ashrawi also charged that “Rarely has the human mind devised such varied, diverse, and comprehensive means of wholesale brutalization and persecution.” Some people may believe her… But the real facts are very different… Stay tuned for some amazing information…

5. 1948 The State of Israel was founded based on the UN resolution 181 of November 29, 1947, giving the Jewish people self determination in a small part of its ancient homeland. The resolution also called for an Arab state in the rest of the land. No ‘Palestine’ existed prior to this decision. Instead of building their own land, the local Arabs called all neighboring Arab states to destroy the Jewish state at birth. They failed. The nascent State of Israel, far outnumbered, overcame seven Arab states and forced an armistice.

6. Had they won, would the Arab States really establish a State called ‘Palestine’? On 1947, The British High Commissioner for Palestine, General Sir Alan Cunningham, informed the Colonial Secretary, Arthur Creech Jones: “The most likely arrangement seems to be Eastern Galilee to Syria, Samaria and Hebron to Abdallah [of Jordan], and the south to Egypt."

7. And indeed, the same Arab States, which today call for a Palestinian State, have never established one when they could, between 1948 and 1967 On April 4, 1950, Jordan annexed the West Bank. Egypt ruled the Gaza Strip, until 1967, as an “Occupied” military zone. As late as 1974, Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad openly referred to Palestine as "not only a part of the Arab homeland but a basic part of southern Syria"

8. 1967 Egypt closed the Tiran Straits (Israel’s only opening to the Red Sea) and amassed its army in the SinaiPeninsula. Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser: "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel." Syrian Defense Minister (later President) Hafez Al-Assad: "Our forces are now entirely ready... to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland… the time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation." Sinai Tiran Straits

9. The Results: • Israel won again, capturing: • Sinai and the Gaza Strip from Egypt • Judea and Samaria (The West Bank) from Jordan • The Golan Heights from Syria Golan Heights West Bank These are the ‘disputed’ territories -A much more apt name than the “Occupied” territories. Sinai Two key international decisions followed: Arab States (Khartoum, Sep 1st, 1967) decided: no peace, no recognition, no negotiations with Israel. The UN drew the often-cited Resolution 242 (Nov 22nd, 1967).

10. Does UN Resolution 242 require a complete withdrawal from the West Bank? Legal scholar Eugene Rostow, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs between 1966 and 1969, and one of the producers of the Resolution: “[The decision] calls on the parties to make peace and allows Israel to administer the territories it occupied in 1967 until 'a just and lasting peace in the Middle East' is achieved. When such a peace is made, Israel is required to withdraw its armed forces 'from territories' it occupied during the Six-Day War--not from 'the' territories nor from 'all' the territories, but from some of the territories."

11. Does UN Resolution 242 envisage a Palestinian State? Actually, no. Since the Palestinians were still not viewed as a distinct nation, it was assumed that any territories evacuated by Israel, would be returned to their pre-1967 Arab occupiers-Gaza to Egypt, and the West Bank to Jordan. The Resolution did not even mention the Palestinians by name, affirming instead the necessity "for achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem"-a clause that applied not just to the Palestinians but to the hundreds of thousands of Jews expelled from the Arab States following the 1948 war.

12. Did Israel execute Resolution 242 ? As a result of the 1978 Camp David accords--in which Egypt recognized the right of Israel to exist and normal relations were established between the two countries--Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula, a territory three times the size of Israel and 91 percent of the territory Israel controlled as a result of the 1967 war. Click on the map to see the results This action proves that Israel is ready to return land for real peace!

13. But what happened in the rest of the disputed territories? In the aftermath of the 1967 war, Israel found itself, unexpectedly, in control of some one million Arabs, inhabiting these territories. Did it carry out, as Hanan Ashrawi claims, a policy of ‘wholesale brutalization and persecution’? Or was it the total opposite? To counter these claims, we should review some facts and figures.The next slides show the amazing economic progress which occurred under Israeli “brutal oppression”…

14. Palestinian Gross National Product (GNP) per Capita, between 1968 - 1991 165 1715 During the 1970's, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world - ahead of such "wonders" as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself!

15. Palestinian Life Expectancy1967 - 2000 Mortality rate in the West Bank and Gaza fell by more than two thirds between 1970 and 1990, while life expectancy rose from 48 years in 1967 to 72 in 2000!

16. Palestinian infant-mortality rate (per thousand births)1968 - 2000 60 15 Under a systematic program of inoculation, childhood diseases like polio, whooping cough, tetanus, and measles were eradicated.

17. Palestinian Standard of Living1967 - 1986 % of houses equipped with basic utilities In 20 years, Israel brought the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza into the 20th century!

18. Palestinian Education1967 - 1991 • Percentage of school children growth: 102% • Number of classes growth: 99%(population growth during the same period was only 28%!) • Seven Universities were established (none existed in 1967) • 16,500 local high education students (up from zero) • Adults over age 15 illiteracy rate dropped to 14% Morocco – 69% Egypt - 61% Tunisia - 45% Syria - 44%

19. Were the Jewish settlements in the disputed territories an obstacle to peace? Contrary to common misperceptions, Israeli settlements--which constitute less than five percent of the currently disputed territories--almost never displaced Palestinians. In fact, these very settlements, providing ample employment, were one of the factors contributing to the amazing improvement of the Palestinian population’s standard of living. It should also be pointed out that Jews lived in these areas for centuries before being massacred or driven out by invading Arab armies in 1948-49.

20. 1987 With all the improvements Israel brought to the life of the Palestinian population of the disputed territories… Israel did make one big mistake… It let the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), headed by Yasser Arafat, exert its influence on the territories from the outside – using a lethal network of intimidation and bribery. Amazingly, It took the PLO 20 years, until 1987, to entice the Palestinians in the disputed territories to engage in a violent struggle against the Jewish state.

21. 1994 After promising to stop all forms of violence, Arafat was allowed back into the territories, as a part of the Oslo Accords, bringing with him a ‘small’ army of 50,000 “policemen”. By January 1997, 99% of the Palestinian population was under the control of Arafat’s regime, but as the “occupation” ended the terror and violence rose. Suicide bombings were introduced soon after Arafat shook hands with the late PM Rabin, in 1994. 178 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinian terrorists between 1994 and 1996, while Israel was handing over land for peace!

22. 2000 Ehud Barak offers the Palestinians a complete end to the Israeli presence, ceding virtually all the disputed territories… But Arafat wants the end of occupation, that is, the elimination of Israel.His response is WAR! The terrorist Palestinian Authority targets mainly Israeli civilians, women and children… But in the process, it sends the nascent Palestinian economy, to its lowest level in thirty years.

23. So here are the very difficult questions you should ask the Palestinians who speak about “occupation”: If the “Occupation” was the cause of terrorism, why was terrorism sparse during the years of actual occupation? Why do many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, in private conversations, yearn for the good life they had before 1987? Why did terrorism increase dramatically with the prospect of the end of the “Occupation”? Why did terrorism escalate into open war only after Israel's most far-reaching concessions?

24. And the real, painful answers… The creation of Israel, not the 1967 “Occupation”, led to the Palestinians' rejection of peaceful coexistence and their subsequent pursuit of violence. Palestinian terrorism started well before 1967. Terrorism continued, and even intensified, after the “Occupation” ended in all but name. Terrorism threw the Palestinian economy into a downward spiral, not the ”Occupation”. And behind this terror there is the reckless Palestinian Authority, seeking Israel’s destruction, while blaming it all on the “Occupation”. Until a different Palestinian Leadership arises, the idea of peace with Israel will continue to mean, for Arabs, little more than the continuation of war by other means!

25. The information in this presentation is based on the following sources, to which we are grateful: What Occupation?Prof. Efraim karshProf. EFRAIM KARSH is head of Mediterranean studies at Kings College, University of London. Link to the full article: http://www.frontpagemag.com/media/cartoons/what_occupation.html Twenty facts about Israel and the Middle EastBill Bennett, Jack Kemp, and Jeane Kirkpatrick Link to the full article: http://www.empoweramerica.org/stories/storyReader$515 For comments and responses: for-peace@graffiti.net