Dvora Marcia, my grandmother, was a Palestinian. I have the
documents to prove it.
She went to school in Palestine. She grew up in Palestine. Got
married, had two boys and worked with her (first) husband in Irgun Hashomer to
protect Jewish land from being stolen by Bedouin. My grandmother worked as head
secretary in the Israel Diamond Exchange and served as a liaison between
members of Israel’s different underground resistance units, helping them pass
messages between each other – all for one purpose… to free Palestine.
From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free!
Free from the British. Free to return to her natural state. To
return to being what she always was – Israel, Zion.
My grandmother went to America to lobby for the foundation of
the State of Israel. She distributed pamphlets and spoke on the radio. She
spoke passionately in front of a number of different audiences, raising money
and awareness for the plight of the people of Palestine.
My grandmother was a freedom fighter. Not a terrorist, she was a
real freedom fighter, fighting for the right of her people, the Jewish people,
to live freely in their homeland.
It was hearing my grandmother speak on the radio that compelled
my grandfather to seek her out. He felt he had to meet her. Once I asked him
why he, born in to a non-practicing Christian family, was interested and so
moved by my grandmother’s plea to free Palestine and help the Jewish people
rebuild their homeland.
He is answer was: “Because I thought that Jewish blood was worth
more than Arab oil.”
He then went on to tell me that, when he finally found her, it
took him a total of 3 seconds to realize that he had to marry her. It wasn’t
long before he did, becoming her second husband.
My grandparents danced in the streets of New York celebrating
their joy over the end of the British Mandate and the official establishment of
the State of Israel. Shortly afterwards, they left America and moved to Israel.
My mother was born in Jaffa.
My grandmother, the Palestinian, had an Israeli daughter.
In a time when the world seems to have gone insane, everything
is topsy turvy. Black is white, up is down and facts that were once understood
by all have now become extremely confusing and too complicated to comprehend.
Palestine.
Palestine is a name given to the Land of Israel for the sole
purpose of disconnecting the Jewish people from Judea, from Israel, from Zion.
This was done in the 2nd century CE, when the Romans crushed
the revolt of Shimon Bar Kokhba (132 CE), and gained
control of Jerusalem and Judea which was
renamed Palaestina in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification
with the land of Israel. After World War I, the name “Palestine” was
applied to the territory that was placed under British Mandate; this area
included not only present-day Israel but also present-day Jordan. Leading
up to Israel’s independence in 1948, it was common for the
international press to label Jews, not Arabs, living in the mandate as
Palestinians.
Words give meaning and form to reality, thus names are of vast
importance. It is obvious that Jews belong in Judea, but who belongs in
Palestine?
Palestine is and always was, a politically motivated name. It is
a name that is meant to denigrate and destroy the Jewish connection to her
homeland.
If you will – calling Israel, “Palestine” is the original hate
speech.
And today, out of nowhere, there suddenly is a new people called
“Palestinians” and they are demanding “Palestine” for themselves. And most
people in the world go along with this story, furthering a narrative that is a
perversion of history and one that steals and makes a mockery of the efforts my
Palestinian grandmother and thousands of others like her to reinstate Palestine
to her rightful status of being recognized for who she really is and always was
– Israel.
It’s probably the biggest media stunt in the history of the
world. And everyone has accepted it. The world has recognized that there is a
“Palestinian people” and they no longer mean what this term always meant –
Jews.
Any people, the world agrees, has the right to
self-determination (unless they are Kurds or Tibetan). Suddenly it becomes
reasonable to give “Palestine” to the “Palestinians.”
When Palestine, Texas was named, its founders were not thinking
about an Arab nation. Neither were the people of Palestine, Illinois. They were
thinking of Zion, the country who America’s founders modeled her after.
The “Palestinian narrative” is one big commercial that the world
has swallowed, hook, line and sinker. This is based on the premises that if you
repeat a lie enough times people begin to believe it. If enough believe it
becomes fact.
But the facts are that there are Jews and there are Arabs. There
are Israeli Arabs, Jordanian Arabs, Syrian, Lebanese and Egyptian Arabs. There
are Muslim Arabs and Christian Arabs.
Arab “Palestinians” are a nationality invented to facilitate and
justify cleansing Jews from Israel.
The “Palestinians” are stealing my history in order to steal my
land. Stealing my land is one step before my annihilation. Without Israel there
is no Jewish people. The “Palestinians” are claiming my history as their own.
Denying my roots, to deny my future.
Words are powerful. Every single person who uses the terminology
as defined by the Arabs who wish to establish the State of Palestine is
complicit.
Every time you say “Palestinian” and don’t mean the Jews who
were striving to free their land from occupiers you are complicit. Every time
you utter the word “Palestine” you are denying my past, my roots and worse, you
are denying my future.
You are literally, wiping Israel off the map.
We have all been complicit. It is time to change our language
and return to the factual, historical definitions. Before it is too late (if it
is not already too late).
It’s really not that complicated. Palestine was always Israel.
Palestinians were Jews.
For the love
of Zion, my grandmother was a Palestinian.
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