Palestine

From SourceWatch

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Islamic groups in the Palestinian territories have become close allies of Iran. Here is the photo of Yasser Arafat with Ayatollah Rafsanjani.

1.) When was it founded and by whom?: British Mandate Palestine was created by the League of Nations in 1922 and governorship was mandated to Great Britain. Prior to that Palestine was a part of the Ottoman Empire for over 400 years. After its defeat by the Allies in World War I, the Ottoman Empire was carved up by the Allies into what is now the modern Middle East. The borders of the current nation states in the Middle East were determined after WWI by aBritish and French agreement (the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement).

2.) What were its borders? Roughly the same as modern day Israel (including the occupied territories minus the Golan Heights, which is Syrian territory).

3.) What was its capital?: Jerusalem

4.) What were its major cities?:Bethlehem, Nablus, Jenin, Haifa, Beersheba, Hebron, Gaza, Jaffa, Nazareth, Khan Yunis, Ramallah, Qalqilya, Ramle and Tulkarem. (does not include cities destroyed by the Israelis in 1948)

5.) What constituted the basis of its economy?:Agriculture. Many inhabitants were farmers and harvested olive and citrus trees. Olive oil was the main export.

6.) What was its form of government?:Under the British mandate there was a Palestine National Congress that sent delegations to Great Britain, demanding independence.

7.) Palestinian leaders before Arafat? Musa Kazim Pasha al-Husseini was president of the Palestinian National Congress until his death in 1934. Ahmed Shukeiry was the head of the PLO before Arafat.

8.) Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation? The region of Palestine was promised to both the Arabs and the Jews by the British. The region of Palestine was promised by the British to the Zionists who wanted to establish a Jewish homeland there. The formal British agreement to permit Zionist colonization came in the form of a letter known as the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917, which supported creating a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine with the following condition, "it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." In fact, the British overlooked the interests and approval of the natives of the land, the Palestinians. Additionally, the Arabs believed that they had in fact been given assurances of British support in the McMahon Letters of 1915-16 (see 'McMahon Letters', Wikipedia). Arabs and Palestinians also point to the "Declaration to the Seven" of 1918 (see Wikipedia).

9.) What was the language of the country of Palestine? Arabic and Hebrew (although modern day Hebrew is a recent creation; most Jewish immigrants before 1948 spoke Yiddish).

10.) What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine? Islam, a sizable minority of Christians and some Jewish communities. A survey was done showing the distribution of Palestinian and Jewish districts in Palestine in 1945 and was published by the United Nations.

11.) What was the name of its currency?:The currency was the Palestine Pound and it was written in Arabic, Hebrew and English. The Palestinian Pound is equal to 1000 mils and was roughly equivalent to the British Pound. Type in "Palestine" on eBay and you will see actual coins for sale similar to the one here.

12.) Since there is no such country today, what caused Palestine's demise and when did it occur?: On May 15, 1948 when the Jewish immigrants expelled the Palestinian population, destroyed hundreds of their villages/cities, and founded Israel on 78% of the land of Palestine. Palestinians refer to this as the Nakbah or Catastrophe. Transjordan (later named Jordan) then took control of the West Bank and Egypt took over the Gaza Strip. In 1967, Israel attacked the Egyptian airforce, then took control of the remaining 22% of lands in the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. The Palestinians in those areas have been living under Israeli military occupation until today.

Source: The Vested Owl

The name "Palestine" derives from Palaestinia, the Roman name for the region, and ultimately from the Philistines, who occupied much of it during Old Testament times.

Jews, Christians, and Muslims all inhabited Jerusalem in relative harmony until "the Crusades" [1] [2] (c.1099), and possibly until the creation of Israel in 1948.

Stateless and humiliated for so long, Palestinians have risen up against Israel's huge [U.S. sponsored & supported] military machine, although they themselves have no arm, no tanks, no planes and gun ships or missiles. [3]

Some have committed desperate acts of terror, like suicide bombing. But for Palestinians, the overriding, routine terror, day after day, has been the ruthless control of almost every aspect of their lives, as if they live in an open prison. The John Pilger film, Palestine Is Still The Issue, is about the Palestinians and a group of courageous Israelis united in the oldest human struggle - to be free. [4]