Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Nixon Faced His Own 9/11: Palestinian Airplane Hijackings (Daled Amos)

Back in July, when Palestinian Arabs protested against the use of metal detectors to secure and protect visitors to the Temple Mount from terrorist attacks, Walter Russel Meade made an interesting point. He noted on his website, The American Interest, the key role Palestinian terrorism has played -- not only in the innovation and development of terrorist strategies, but also in the effort to protect against them:

With the possible exception of al-Qaeda, Palestinian terrorism—which pioneered the use of plane hijackings, airport attacks, and suicide bombings—has perhaps done more to force the introduction of metal detectors into our daily lives than just about any other cause.

While plane hijackings in the 1970's were just as easily associated with Cuba as with the Palestinian Arabs, it was the latter that pushed the US to increase security on airplanes.

In September 6th and 9th in 1970, 5 planes were were hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Of the 5 airliners, 3 of them were forced to land at Dawson's Field, located near Zarka, Jordan.

This became then-President Nixon's own "9/11":

The crisis opened Nixon's eyes.

His chief of staff, H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, recorded in his diary on September 7, 1970, that Nixon was "very anxious to develop some dramatic administration action about hijackings, need tough shocking steps, especially guards on planes."

Nixon responded to the trio of hijackings in a written statement listing seven steps to combat "air piracy." Beyond the air marshals, he called on foreign governments to join the United States in combatting hijackings and ordered electronic surveillance at airports to spot potential terrorists.

Nixon also envisaged that the 100 initial air marshals would eventually grow to a force of thousands. But over the ensuing years, as the threat from hijackings receded, the force never reached full capacity.

President Richard Nixon, who faced his own 9/11 in the form of
Palestinian terrorism. Credit: Wikipedia

On September 11, Nixon responded to the Palestinian hijackings with a program on dealing with the problem.

I have directed the Departments of Transportation, Treasury, and Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Science and Technology, and other agencies to accelerate their present efforts to develop security measures, including new methods for detecting weapons and explosive devices. At the same time, the Departments of Defense and Transportation will work with all U.S. airlines in determining whether certain metal detectors and x-ray devices now available to the military could provide immediate improvement in airport surveillance efforts. To facilitate passenger surveillance, appropriate agencies of the Federal Government will intensify their efforts to assemble and evaluate all useful intelligence concerning this matter and to disseminate such information to airlines and law enforcement personnel. (emphasis added)

Metal detectors, which decades later Palestinian Arabs would protest as an impediment, were first deemed necessary as a result of Palestinian terrorism.

Nixon reiterated this point later that month, while speaking to some of the released Americans who had been held hostage

Again, in speaking to the released hostages, Nixon emphasized that in addition to the newly instituted air marshals, "new electronic devices" would be put in place as well.

Times have changed since then, in ways that Nixon could never have imagined.

The years during which Palestinian Arabs terrorized the airways have been forgotten. Who today remembers that the tools used now to secure travelers against terrorist attacks were originally developed to protect them against Palestinian terrorists.

Instead, the only irony greater than the attempt to used those security devices on Palestinian Arabs is their protest that such tools impinge on their rights.

Meanwhile, the world endures the legacy of Palestinian terrorist innovations used by other terrorist groups: hijackings, airport attacks, suicide bombings -- and now car-rammings.

Nixon may not have foreseen these developments, but he did try to prevent them.

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Before Netanyahu vs. Obama There Was Netanyahu vs FDR (Daled Amos)

US bipartisan support for Israel -- when and how did that start?

Apparently, the birth of that bipartisan support for Israel came about during the term of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, despite FDR's antagonism towards Zionism.

FDR. Photo by Leon A. Perski, 1944.
Source: Wikipedia

And a lot of the credit seems to be due to Netanyahu.

In FDR’s Retreat on Zionism–and What it Means Today, Rafael Medoff writes about Roosevelt's attitude towards then-Palestine and Zionism.

Roosevelt opposed both, vigorously:

On January 17, 1943, on the question of restoring the pre-war equal rights of North Africa’s 330,000 Jews following the liberation of Casablanca, Roosevelt suggested that “the number of Jews engaged in the practice of the professions (law, medicine, etc) should be definitely limited to the percentage that the Jewish population in North Africa bears to the whole of the North African population,” so that local Arabs would not be angered.

Roosevelt also opposed settling Jewish refugees in North Africa: “I know, in fact, that there is plenty of room for them in North Africa but I raise the question of sending large numbers of Jews there...That would be extremely unwise.”

In April 1943, Roosevelt approved of a suggested Allied ban on all public discussion of Palestine until the end of the war. He backed down after Secretary of War Stimson called such a measure "alarmist"

On March 9, 1944, Roosevelt rejected the request of Rabbis Stephen S. Wise and Abba Hillel Silver to open Palestine to Jews fleeing Hitler. He claimed that the move would enrage Arabs and responded to them, “Do you want to start a Holy Jihad?”

Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise; Library of Congress portrait.
Wikipedia

Abba Hillel Silver; excerpt from YouTube video

Also in 1944, Republican Senator Robert Taft introduced a resolution affirming US support for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine. In response, Roosevelt claimed that the resolution would be “responsible for the death of a hundred thousand men.” As a result, the resolution was table for a year, and when Congress passed it – there was no Arab rioting.

Yet despite all this, the same Roosevelt who rejected a request by the Palestine (Jewish) Symphony Orchestra to name one of its theaters the “Roosevelt Amphitheatre” for fear it would link him too closely the Zionists -- did in fact turn around and support Zionism.

To a degree.

In the fall of 1943, it appeared that the Republican contender in the 1944 presidential election would go after the Jewish vote.

A major factor in adapting a strong pro-Zionist plank at the Republican National Convention was Netanyahu -- Benzion Netanyahu, the father of Israel's current prime minister.

Benzion Netanyahu in 2007. Source: Wikipedia

Medoff writes:

Benzion Netanyahu, scholar and activist (and father of the current prime minister) arrived in the United States in 1940 as an emissary of Revisionist Zionism, the militant wing of the Zionist movement, headed by Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Netanyahu organized rallies and authored full-page newspaper advertisements challenging the Roosevelt administration for abandoning European Jewry and the Zionist cause.

Netanyahu also spent part of his time on Capitol Hill. In an interview with this author, Netanyahu recalled the political landscape he encountered in the nation’s capital: “Most of the Jewish and Zionist leaders, led by Rabbi Stephen Wise, were devoted Democrats and supporters of President Roosevelt. The idea of having friendly relationships with Republicans was inconceivable to them.” In the months prior to the June 1944 Republican National Convention, Netanyahu did the inconceivable–he took his case to GOP leaders, including former president Herbert Hoover; Senator Robert Taft, who was chairing the convention’s resolutions committee; and the influential Connecticut congresswoman Clare Booth Luce, who was slated to deliver the keynote address at the convention and would also serve on the resolutions committee. Netanyahu’s goal was to have the GOP platform include a plank supporting Jewish statehood in Palestine. Neither party had ever before taken such a stand.

The efforts of Netanyahu -- and Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver -- resulted in the inclusion of the following in the Republican platform :

In order to give refuge to millions of distressed Jewish men, women and children driven from their homes by tyranny, we call for the opening of Palestine to their unrestricted immigration and land ownership, so that in accordance with the full intent and purpose of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the resolution of a Republican Congress in 1922, Palestine may be reconstituted as a free and democratic commonwealth. We condemn the failure of the President to insist that the Palestine Mandatory carry out the provisions of the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate while he pretends to support them.

In response, Rabbi Wise felt forced to try to get the Democrats, with Roosevelt's approval, to include a pro-Zionist statement in its platform as well.

To a large degree he was successful. The Democratic platform supported the “unrestricted Jewish immigration and colonization” of Palestine as well as the establishment of “a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.”

One could argue that this was the beginning of the bi-partisan support for Israel that despite its ups and downs continues to this day.

Medoff writes:

Wise summed up what was achieved: “With the plank in both platforms the thing is lifted above partisanship.” The adoption of the two party planks ensured that support for Zionism, and later Israel, would become a permanent part of American political culture. No subsequent Republican or Democratic convention could go back on it without significant electoral ramifications.

Despite the questions that are raised today about the extent and degree of Democratic support for Israel, that bi-partisan support does in fact continue.

As does the tendency of Netanyahu's not to quietly acquiesce to US policy towards Israel.

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No one would call anyone "Palestinians" today without Balfour (Daled Amos)

We know that historically, there has never been a sovereign, Palestinian state.

But if there has never been a state, a country, called Palestine -- then what did the Arabs call themselves when that territory was under Muslim rule?

In his book, From Babel to Dragomans, Bernard Lewis includes a talk he gave in 2001, under the title "The British Mandate for Palestine in Historical Perspective." In just a few understated paragraphs, Lewis hints at the importance of The British Mandate for the Palestinian Arabs:

The name [Palestine] survived briefly in the early Arab Empire, and then disappeared. The Crusaders called the country the Holy Land and their state the Kingdom of Jerusalem After the end of the ancient Jewish states, the capital of the administrative districts called Palestine were not in Jerusalem but elsewhere, in Caesarea, in Ramleh, in Lydda, in various other places The only time between the ancient and modern Jewish states when Jerusalem was the capital was the Crusader Kingdom, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem as it was called. And that was a comparatively brief interlude. [emphasis added]

When Arabs today call themselves Palestinians, that is a new phenomenon. For centuries, the name "Palestine" had fallen into disuse and had actually disappeared altogether.

A secondary point Lewis raises is that outside of the crusaders, the city of Jerusalem was considered a capital only 2 times in history: as the capital of ancient Israel and of the modern reestablished state of Israel.

Jerusalem has never been the capital of an Arab territory, despite being the "3rd most holy" place in Islam, directly contradicting the current claims to East Jerusalem made by Abbas and by UNESCO.

Lewis continues:

Even the adjective Palestinian is comparatively new. This, I need hardly remind you, is a region of ancient civilization and of deep-rooted and often complex identities. But Palestine was not one of them. People might identify themselves for various purposed, by religion, by descent, or by allegiance to a particular state or ruler, or sometimes locality, But when they did it locally it was general either the city and immediate district or the larger province, so they would have been Jerusalemites or Jaffaites or the like, or Syrians, identifying either the larger province of Syria, in classical Arabic usage, Sham

While the name "Palestine" is the one that Rome assigned in order to erase the Jewish connection to the land, that name "Palestine" was itself forgotten as well. Using the name Palestine today is itself a modern anomaly in a land of ancient and deep-rooted history. Those who lived in the land during the Ottoman occupation of the land did not call themselves Palestinians -- that is something that would come later, in the 20th century.

If not as Palestinians, then how did the Arabs in the identify themselves?

In The Case for Israel, Alan Dershowitz explains:

Under Ottoman rule, which prevailed between 1516 and 1918, Palestine was divided into several districts, called sanjaks. These sanjaks were part of administrative units called vilayets. The largest portion of Palestine was part of the vilayet of Syria and was governed from Damascus by a pasha, thus explaining why Palestine was commonly referred to as southern Syria. Following a ten-year occupation by Egypt in the 1830s, Palestine was divided into the vilayet of Beirut, which covered Lebanon and the northern part of Palestine (down to what is now Tel Aviv); and the independent sanjak of Jerusalem, was covered roughly from Jaffa to Jerusalem and south to Gaza and Be'er Sheva. It is thus unclear what it would mean to say the the Palestinians were the people who originally populated the "nation" of Palestine [italicizes in original].

The map below, published by Carta, illustrates the division of the land in the 1830s as described by Dershowitz:

Map from "Israel's Right to Live in Peace Within Defensible Frontiers:
Secure and Recognized Boundaries," by Carta, Jerusalem 1971, p.19.

There were no set boundaries to Palestine, which is what you would expect when there was no political, sovereign state -- just another Ottoman territory.

So if the name "Palestine" was forgotten for centuries, who revived the name -- thus making it possible for the Arabs to take the name Palestine and Palestinian for their own?

Lewis continues:

The constitution or the formation of a political entity called Palestine which eventually gave rise to a nationality called Palestinian and the reconstitution of Jerusalem as the capital were, it seems to me, very important, and as it turns out, lasting innovations of the British Mandate... (p. 154)

Instead of Abbas demanding an apology from Great Britain for the Balfour Declaration, he and all of those who want to call themselves "Palestinians" owe a debt of gratitude to the British. After the Arabs had long forgotten the name "Palestine" it was the British, whose Mandate was based on the Balfour Declaration, who themselves re-established the name of Palestine.

Just as the British re-established the name Palestine as the name for land, it was naturally used for coins and stamps:

This was during the time of the British Mandate.
But what about during the 400 years of the Ottoman Empire preceding it?

According to the Encyclopedia Judaica

Both Turkish and European coins circulated in Erez Israel during Ottoman rule. Tokens issued by various communities, such as the Jews and the German Templers, and by some business firms, were also in circulation...granted special rights to some European powers and resulted in French gold napoleons and Egyptian coins being brought into circulation alongside Turkish coins (5:723)

Contrast this multiplicity of currencies and the lack of an official local currency with the situation that developed under the British:

On the British occupation of Palestine, the Egyptian pound was made legal tender in the territory. It was replaced in 1927 by the Palestine pound...the designs, prepared by the Mandatory government, were intended to be as politically innocuous as possible, the only feature besides the inscriptions being an olive branch or wreath of olive leaves. The inscriptions were trilingual, giving the name of the country, Palestine, and the value in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. As a concession to the Jewish community, the initials "Alef Yud" ("Erez Israel") appeared in brackets following the name Palestine. (5:723-4)

The only coins ever minted with the name "Palestine" on them were the ones issued during the British Mandate while it governed that territory under the authority granted it by League of Nations. No coins with the name Palestine were ever minted before then. There was no reason to, since there was no country called Palestine and no Palestinian identity.

In his book, Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events in the Middle East And the Jews has a chapter on "Palestine: On the History and Geography of a Name" Lewis notes that the name Palestine has a very different meaning for Arabs and Jews:

It [the name Palestine] had never been used by Jews, for whom the normal name of the country, from the time of the Exodus to the present day, was Eretz Israel. It was no longer used by Muslims, for whom it had never meant more than an administrative su-district, and it had been forgotten even in that limited sense.

The British use of the name Palestine was a convenience, renewing a word that held no special meaning for Arabs and had fallen into disuse. The Arabs went along with the British usage. The Jews on the other had not only historical but indigenous roots to the land, spanning 3 millennia. They preserved that connection wherever they could by incorporating the ancient name, whenever the official name Palestine was used.

Without the Balfour Declaration, and the British Mandate that was based on it, the name Palestine -- which had been forgotten in the region -- would have continued to be forgotten.

But Jews will always have Eretz Yisrael.

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A career diplomat on Arabs and Israelis after the War of Independence

Stanton Griffis (1887–1974) had a long career as Ambassador to Poland, Egypt, Argentina and Spain, in addition to having been a top executive at Brentano's, Paramount Pictures and Madison Square Garden.

In his wonderfully named memoir, Lying in State, he publishes a series of autobiographical letters he wrote while in these positions. While he was hardly a Zionist, and he had sme harsh words for the Israeli side as well, here are two notable excerpts from his letters, both written apparently in 1949.

Israel won the war but found an uneasy peace, a peace that rises and falls like the wind in the desert. Israel won not only because of American dollars but because it is very hard to beat crusaders. It is very hard to beat a nation that has a great principle; it is very hard to beat a country that is smart enough to carry out the policy of divide and conquer—Israel knocked out most of the Arab nations one by one.

The Jews were righting an Arab world torn by jealousies and hatreds, and the result was for good or for evil; I hope, for good. ....

The Arab armies were small and untrained. I asked my senior military attache to tell me the size and strength of the army of one of the small Arab countries. He may have been a bit cynical, but his answer was, "They have about five thousand men under arms, about half of them are usually absent without leave, and the other half are looking for them. When they find them they change places."

They had no real will to fight. The Arabs were not impelled by the urge to defend this homeland as the Jews were. And so the world witnessed the astonishing situation in which fewer than one million Jews were victorious against a Moslem world of two hundred and eighty millions.
The result is part of the new map of Europe today.
====================================

Touring Tel Aviv and Jewish-held Jerusalem, it is not difficult to see why the crusading, organized and hard-working Jews have been able to defy the whole Arab world with its laziness, its corruption, its dreamy philosophies, and its fantastic mixture of great wealth and hideous poverty. Tel Aviv and Jewish-held new Jerusalem constitute a land of milk and honey, of organization, of modernism; that contrasts sharply with the Arab cities of approximately the same size and particularly with Old Jerusalem held by the Arabs and the site of the holy places of three out of the four great world religions.

"In my book," it is certainly a mistake for the Christian tourist to visit Old Jerusalem. The Via Dolorosa, along which Christ was supposed to have carried His cross, is a horror of filthy, stinking Arab shops, little improved, I think, as to sanitation, ptomaine or literacy during the past 2,000 years. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Calvary are beset with commercialism and dirt and I am still sufficiently naive to want to keep my childhood illusions about Jerusalem. I will take a De Mille picture or a Sunday school colored picture of the old days rather than see it as it really is. On the other hand, while, of course, the Jewish wailing wall is deserted, the Moslem mosques are clean and well kept. I devoutly hope that some day some great world organization such as Lawrence Langner has visualized will make it their work to restore Old Jerusalem to a semblance of beauty. Call it what you will, or be of what religion you may, the beautiful illusion is better to create faith than the stinking reality which is the Via Dolorosa today. Langner's idea would be a modern drive of the smelly money changers from the temple.

...
In this specific problem of the Near East I earnestly hope that when the bitterness and enmities die down, the Jews and the Arabs will trade together, that the Jews will be reasonable in their territorial aspirations, and that the Arabs will forget for all time their fanatical leanings towards "Holy War."

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Major terror attack on Brussels airport was foiled by Israeli security in 1979

Remember when Palestinian attacks on civilians were considered terrorism by the entire civilized world?

There is not much difference between the attacks in Brussels this week and a similar one carried out by Palestinian terrorists in 1979 - except that Israeli security prevented a much larger catastrophe in 1979.

From The Washington Post, April 17, 1979 - right before Easter weekend:

Israeli security agents on hand for the arrival of an El Al flight with 160 passengers opened fire on four Palestinian terrorists here today and prevented what could have been a major bloodbath.

The Israelis shot, then seized one heavily armed terrorist and captured a second. Belgian police joined the shootout but were unable to find another man and woman said to be among the attackers.

The terrorists, armed with fragmentation grenades and Soviet-made submachine gun, hurled two light hand grenades into the crowded terminal from a balcony, wounding what officials said was "about a dozen persons." none seriously. The victims, all Belgians, were taken to hospitals in Brussels, 10 miles from the airport.

Belgian police joined the attack on the terrorists but Defense Minister Paul vanden Boeynants-who rushed to the airport as soon as he heard of the attack-said. "The first shots at the terrorists were fired by El Al security agents who happened to be there."

While police said one or two other terrorists were believed to have escaped, most eyewitnesses mentioned two, one of them a woman.

Authorities said the captured terrorists carried bogus Lebanese passports, and said the El Al plane was their target. They reportedly declared they were from a new group of the Palestine Liberation Organization called "Black March"-for the month when the Egyptian-Israeli treaty was signed.

Belgian state radio said the terrorists belonged to the Marxist radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group that broke away from the PLO in 1974.

In Beirut, the PLO disclaimed any knowledge of the attack.

Last month the PLO spoke of reviving the Black September terrorist group to punish Egypt and Israel for signing the peace treaty. The Black September group carried out the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

Airport authorities said the usual El Al security precaution of parking its planes a good distance from the terminal foiled the apparent intent to seize the aircraft. El Al planes are considered a choice target by Palestinian terrorists.

Police closed the roads leading to the airport for three hours, stranding hundreds of persons on Easter Monday, a holiday in Belgium.

Police then raided the Brussels residences of well-known PLO sympathizers, informed sources said.

JTA added some color that also could have been written this year:

In Washington, the State Department condemned the terrorist attack but refrained from condemning the PLO.

Nathan Perlmutter, national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, sent a telegram to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance saying: “It is ironic and instructive that at a time when a State Department visa has been granted to Shafik AI-Hout, PLO representative in Lebanon, to lecture at U.S. universities, and PLO supporters are stressing the ‘moderate’ role of this murderous group, PLO assassins attack innocent passengers in the Brussels airport lounge. We respectfully request reconsideration of your position on AI-Hout.”

And:

The PLO representative in Brussels Naim Khader, said on a Belgian radio interview last night that his organization had nothing to do with the attack. “We had everything to lose and nothing to gain from this senseless attack against Belgian citizens,” Khader said. He charged that the attack was “an Israeli provocation.”

(h/t Naftali)

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Arab intransigence, 1923

I just saw three consecutive articles from JTA in October 1923 that were illuminating.

Says Jews Plan to Set Up an Independent State in Irak

October 4, 1923
JERUSALEM (Oct. 3)

That the Jews are obtaining the best land, buildings and houses in Mesopotamia and that the Zionist movement is making great headway there is the contention of a writer in the Arab organ “El Carmel”.

The writer warns that the Jews in Mesopotamia may intend to set up a state of their own there and urges the Arabs to build up their country with their own resources exclusively.

Urges Prayer As Means to Fight Zionism

October 4, 1923
JERUSALEM (Oct. 4)

The use of prayer to combat the Zionistic movement is being urged by the Arab organ “Miraat el Shark”. The Moslems are urged to repeat daily in their prayers specified forms of anti-Zionistic statements. The following sentences should be said seven times daily:

“We do not recognize the Balfour Declaration” “We want full liberty” “We want full freedom without any mandates” “We hate the British” “We hate the Palestine government” “Down with Zionism”.

“We do not want Zionism”, the paper urges should be given an additional recitation or a total of eight times.

The article concludes as follows: “Say, dear readers, this prayer ten times a day and after this if you had sold your lands to Zionists, if you have acted as Zionist agents or received Zionist pay, if you have made the national question a personal one only, if you have been a Zionist or government spy, if you belong to those who let their good houses to Jews and themselves live in bad houses, say this prayer and we are sure that you will be freed of the taint of Zionism and treachery and will become a good and devoted nationalist.”

Protest Jews’ Entrance to Holy Places

October 4, 1923

JERUSALEM (Oct. 4)

Protest against allowing Jews to visit the Holy Places is voiced by the Bethlehem Arab paper “Sut el Shaab” in a recent issue.

The paper declares that by the terms of the treaty between Moslem rulers and the great powers. Jews were barred from the Holy places. Yet it declares notwithstanding this agreement, the government allows the Jews to enter and even gives them a military escort.

Conspiracy theories, antisemitism, Muslim fundamentalism. It is not exactly new, nor the result of "settlements" or "ethnic cleansing."

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Persecution of Jews in Muslim countries, 1841

From The History of the Hebrew Nation: From Its First Origin to the Present Time By Rev. Joshua William Brooks, 1841:

As regards the present political condition of the Jews, notwithstanding the decrees in their behalf which have been passed, the Christian reader will be deceived if he concludes that the reproach of Israel is yet “rolled away from off all the earth.” The public mind has recently been startled by the report of cruelties and injustice to which the Jews of Damascus and Rhodes have been subjected, as if such instances of persecution and oppression were a novelty in these times. But in the East the Jews have all along been exposed to them, though their wrongs have failed until now in arresting particular attention. In the year 1823, at the same Damascus, all the Jews suspected of having property were thrown into prison, and compelled to pay forty thousand purses or lose their heads. At Safet, in 1834, their houses were stripped, and great personal cruelties inflicted upon them, for the like purpose of extorting money; and generally in Syria they were compelled to work for the Turks without payment, being bastinadoed if they remonstrated. The lowest fallaah would stop them when travelling, and demand money as a right due to the Musselman; which robbery was liable to be repeated several times a day upon the same Jew. Throughout the East they are obliged to affect poverty in order to conceal their wealth ; the rulers in those countries making no scruple of seizing what they can discover. And though not interdicted from holding land, yet the enormous taxes demanded of them (equal to one-third of the produce, whilst the Mahometans pay only one-tenth), effectually exclude them from agriculture.

The occupation of Syria by the Egyptians did not mitigate the hard condition of the Jews of Palestine' They were still defrauded and insulted; the commonest soldier would seize the most respectable Israelite, and compel him by blows to sweep the streets, and to perform the most degrading offices. The contempt indeed in which they are held by Mahometans, however difficult to be accounted for, exceeds that which they have experienced in Christian lands. In the East they are truly become a proverb, the term Jew being applied despitefully, as the most reproachful and degrading known.

Even the Christians of Syria manifest a degree of malignity and contempt for the Jews, not witnessed in other places: the Nestorians in particular entertain a bitter hatred toward them; and were a Jew to set his foot within the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, he would be stoned by the Christians of all denominations. ...

In Persia the condition of the Jews is worse even than in Syria. Often whilst they are assembled in their synagogues, a soldier enters with an order from the Shah for money; they are compelled to work without payment; and their women are unceremoniously taken from them, without their daring to murmur. Their poverty and wretchedness may be best understood by the following graphic description given to Dr. Wolff, before he visited Shiraz, by a Mahometan: “Every house in Shiraz with a low, narrow entrance is a Jew's. Every coat much torn and mended is a Jew's. Every man with a dirty camelhair turban is a Jew. Every one picking up broken glass and asking for old shoes and sandals is a Jew." This description was afterwards confirmed by the doctor's own observation, who found old and young in the street of their quarter sitting and crying to every stranger, with outstretched hand and feeble voice, “Only one pool (penny) for poor Israale !”

In Morocco they are equally ground down by a barbarous despotism. The Moors consider that the object of a Jew's birth is to serve Musselmen, and he is consequently subject to the most wanton insults. The boys for their pastime beat and torment the Jewish children: the men kick and buffet the adults. They walk into their houses at all hours, and take the grossest freedoms with their wives and daughters, the Jews invariably coming off with a sound beating if they venture to resist. In 1804 those of Algiers were subjected to horrible tortures, being suspended from the walls by long ropes with hooked nails at the ends, merely because they had unsuspectingly lent money to persons who were secretly conspiring against the Dey; nor were they released without the payment of a large sum. In 1827 the Dey threw a rich Jew into prison for no other purpose than to extort from him 500,000 Spanish dollars. At Tripoli the bashaw extorted a large sum from them on account of the drought, which he declared them to be the cause of. Mr. Ewald, after describing the beauty, fertility, and prosperity of the island of Gerba in Morocco, “where, if any where, (he says) every one lives quietly beneath his own vine and fig-tree,” next speaks of the Jews as the only exception, among whom he nowhere witnessed greater poverty and oppression; insomuch that he could have imagined he was beholding the Israelites of Egypt in Pharaoh's time, under their taskmasters. They were the quarrymen, hewers of wood, and drawers of water; their food consisted entirely of barley flour with salt and water; and they were altogether in an abject state of slavery. Since the occupation of Algiers by the French, the political condition of the Jews in that part of Morocco is improved; but their religious state, from their having imbibed the French infidelity, is more hopeless.

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The Jews and Arabs of Palestine, 1852

Here's another in an occasional series of contemporaneous writings from the 19th century and earlier showing that the supposed tolerance that Muslims had of Jews is a myth.

From Remarks on the present condition and future prospects of the Jews in Palestine, by Arthur George Harper Hollingsworth, 1852:

The population in Palestine is composed of Arabs, who roam about the plains, or lurk in the mountain fastnesses as robbers and strangers, having no settled home, and without any fixed attachment to the land. In many of the ruined cities and villages there exists also, a limited number of Christian families, uncivilized, and not knowing correctly from what race they derive their origin. Poor, and without influence, they tremblingly hold their miserable possessions from year to year, without security, and without wealth, in a land which they confess is not their own. ...

The Arab and Christian populations diminish every year. Poverty, distress, insecurity, robbery, and disease continue to weaken the inhabitants of this fine country. Ruins fall upon ruins; solitudes increase in the deserted vallies. The land mourneth for its inhabitants. ...

Amongst the scattered and feeble population of this once happy country, is found, however, an increasing number of poor Jews; some of their most learned men reside in the holy cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, and Tiberias. Their synagogues are still in existence. Jews frequently arrive in Palestine from every nation in Europe, and remain there for many years'; and others die with the satisfaction of mingling their remains with their forefathers’ dust, which fills every valley, and is found in every cave.

This Jewish population is poor beyond any adequate word ; it is degraded in its social and political condition, to a state of misery, so great, that it possesses no rights. It can shew no wealth even if possessed of it, because to display riches would secure robbery from the Mahometan population, the Turkish officials, or the Bedouin Arab. These Jews live chiefly on alm, collected from the nation in all parts of the world. There is no people more charitable, though that charity is generally exclusive, than the Jew. This money is precarious in .its amount, frequently tardy in its arrival, always uncertain when it may be received, lost sometimes in its passage, and accompanied ever by the degradation of receiving a distant and unsettled charity, supporting a wretchedly impoverished and famishing people. No advancement is made by the Jew of Palestine, in trafficking, in commerce, in farming, in the possession of settled houses or lands. There alone, where he ought to be first, he is last; and where in all other countries a Jew thrives and increases in wealth, in that one he is spiritless from oppression, and without energy, because without hope of Protection. He creeps along that soil, where his forefathers proudly strode in the fulncss of a wonderful prosperity, as an alien, an outcast, a creature less than a dog, and below the oppressed Christian beggar in his own ancestral plains and cities. No harvest ripens for his hand, for he cannot tell whether he will be permitted to gather it. Land occupied by a Jew is exposed to robbery and waste. A most peevish jealousy exists against the landed prosperity, or commercial wealth, or trading advancement of the Jew. Hindrances exist to the settlement of a British Christian in that country, but a thousand petty obstructions are created to prevent the establishment of a Jew on waste land, or to the purchase and rental of land by a Jew. “

...Agricultural pursuits are attended with much hazard, for, in the vicinity of the Jordan there are many Arabs, who support themselves chiefly by plunder. ...What security exists, that a Jewish _ emigrant settling in Palestine, could receive a fair remuneration for his capital and labour? None whatever. He might toil, but his harvests would be reaped by others; the Arab robber can rush in and carry off his flocks and herds. If he appeals for redress to the nearest Pasha, the taint of his Jewish blood fills the air, and darkens the brows of his oppressors ; if he turns to his neighbour Christian, he encounters prejudice and spite ; if he claims a Turkish guard, he is insolently repulsed and scorned. How can he bring his capital into such a country, when that fugitive possession flies from places where the sword is drawn to snatch it from the owner’s hands and not protect it ?

,,,Now, how is this poor, despised, and powerless child of Abraham to obtain redress, or make his voice heard at the Sublime Porte? The more numerous the cases of oppression, (and they are many), the more clamorous their appeals for justice, the more unwillingly will the government of the Sultan,—partly from inherent and increasing weakness, partly from disinclination,—act on the side of the Jew. They despise them as an execrated race ; they hate them as the literal descendants of the original possessors of the country. ...

How 85 Jews captured 9000 Italian troops in Bardia, Libya in WWII

Most histories of World War II describe the following incident very tersely:

The British drove the Italian Tenth Army from Egypt and achieved a major victory on 3 January 1941 at Bardia, just inside Libya.

In January, Bardia fell to the British, prompting the Italians to withdraw to Tripolitania...I just read The Forgotten Ally, a 1943 book by Pierre Van Paassen. I hope to write a review soon but this is a great story.

Australians also take credit for the fall of Bardia.

The details are a lot more interesting.

This comes from "The Forgotten Ally" by Pierre Van Paassen, a 1943 book (out of print now) that I hope to review soon.

"Just as soon as we start the big push," said General Montgomery, "I want to create a little diversion behind Rommel's lines. I would like to take one of his supply depots on the Libyan coast. I had thought of the town of Bardia, that is the nearest to us. I do not think we could hold it for any length of time, for the place is strongly held by an entire division of Italians who have German artillery support. But holding on to Bardia is not the first essential at the present stage of the game, although permanent seizure would, of course, be a big help. For the moment I would be satisfied with raising hell there for a few hours, blowing up the munition dumps and the petrol supply which is stored in the caves near the shore, wrecking the tank and aviation repair shops, and ruining the harbor. What do you say? Do you think it can be done?"

The words were addressed to Commander Osterman-Averni, chief of a Jewish "suicide-task force" from Palestine serving with the Eighth Army. Commander Osterman-Averni has told the story in the Hebrew daily newspaper Hamashkif, which is published in Jerusalem and I have verified it from other sources.

"Three days after General Montgomery called us to headquarters," he writes, "we were inside Bardia. But we did not go alone. I mean my task force was joined by another Jewish suicide commando. Together we went in. I wouldn't be surprised if the Italians of the Bardia garrison, who are now nearly all prisoners of war, were still trying to solve the riddle of how we got there. Actually, the answer to their puzzle is extremely simple.

"We were put aboard two destroyers in the late afternoon. As usual, the men were not told in advance of their destination. They imagined that our task would be one of those routine 'behind-the-line' actions: the demolition of a bridge, the destruction of a water supply line, or some similar task. They did not have any particular reason to devote much speculative thinking to the task ahead. . . .

"When we were nearing land, I told the men that we were going to land at Bardia and that, if possible, the town was to be taken in a general assault at dawn. I told them it would not be an easy job and emphasized that strict discipline and group spirit alone could insure success. I said it was the most important task entrusted to us thus far and that the honor of the Palestinian 'suicide forces' was at stake. 'If we come through,' I said, 'I am authorized to promise each of you an additional stripe.'

"'If the honor of the force is at stake, we will be in Bardia tomorrow morning,' spoke up a sergeant.

"We approached the Libyan shore in Stygian darkness," Commander Osterman-Averni goes on to write. "The destroyers scarcely moved as the rope ladders were let down by which we slid into the rowboats that were to set us ashore. These boats advanced stealthily. Nobody spoke. The oars barely skimmed the waters. Not a speck of light showed in Bardia. In fact, we could not even see the coast. The scraping of the boats on the rocks was the first intimation we had that we had reached our destination.

"In deepest silence we waded ashore. A patrol was sent forward immediately. We waited an hour. From the distance came the thunderous roll of our artillery. We could hear the metallic steps of the Italian sentries on the quays. When the patrol returned, reporting that they had established the exact position of the spot where we had landed, the British sailors from the warships whispered 'good luck' and dipped their oars in the water. Then we were on our own. The last contact with the Eighth Army had been broken. . . .

"We were eighty-five men in all. We had ten machine guns which required the services of twenty men. The rest of us were armed with tommy guns and knuckle-duster daggers. We had one signalman and one medical man with us.

"We advanced in the dark. Some scouts went ahead, their daggers ready for instant action. We lost all sense of time. Every minute was like an eternity. We reached the road at last, stopped, and lay down to await the report of the scouts. In this neighborhood we knew there should be an Italian guard post. Our machine guns were at the ready, to meet all eventualities. But we also knew that we must not fire yet, for it would have betrayed our presence. And that, considering that we were eighty-five men against a division, would have meant our certain annihilation.

"Forty-five minutes we waited. I was growing anxious about our scouts. Then the sound of a shrill low whistle came to us in the dark. A scout came running back. The Italian post had been taken. The scouts had carried out a 'silent job'. As we stepped up I noticed several bodies on the ground. I could not tell whether they were corpses or just stunned or tied. Nor did I care.

"Ten lorries then rumbled past over the road. They did not even dream of stopping to examine the isolated guard position. Then we advanced, the machine guns in front. Dawn was breaking. As we marched along the road into Bardia, another caravan of trucks passed by, going in the same direction as we. Our main danger was that the drivers might offer us a ride. But to our luck, all the trucks were heavily loaded, and nobody bothered with us hitchhikers. It did not seem to enter the drivers' heads that an enemy party was marching along right in their midst.

"So we kept walking until we saw our chance and made off across a field. Several blockhouses were dealt with. Their small garrisons were given 'silent treatment.' We managed to advance to a well-built concrete blockhouse. The garrison was still asleep. We quickly dispatched all of them while they lay on their cots. Then we made ourselves comfortable, set up our machine guns, and waited.

"When an hour after dawn a deafening roar heralded the artillery barrage of our own guns, indicating that the British 'push' was on, we heard the signals all around us, calling the blockhouse garrisons to the defense. Italian soldiers streamed out of them and ran forward. And we opened fire on them.

"One officer, thinking that his men were being fired on by mistake, shouted at us, but we continued to fire. After a while it dawned on the Italians that something was wrong. Two companies appeared, cautiously approaching our position. When they were quite near, we hurled a well-aimed mass of hand grenades at them. They dispersed in panic.

"Fire was opened at us by their machine guns from all directions, but it was ineffective since we were in a good position of concealment. They got their artillery to open fire on us too, but their fire was misdirected, since their own men were all over and they could not easily pick out as a special target the one blockhouse we occupied.

"But now shells of our own guns began falling dangerously near. Realizing that we were no longer an unknown quantity, we flashed signals to our own observers overhead and in the general direction of where our main forces might be. After an hour or so we knew that we had been seen, for the shells of the British artillery outside Bardia began giving our blockhouse a wide clearance.

"We then redoubled our fire on the Italian rear, and their officers, believing themselves surrounded by superior forces, hoisted white flags on the blockhouses. The town of Bardia was ours. But we did not leave our blockhouse except to occupy a few more of the neighboring pillboxes, where we manned the captured Italian machine guns. We could not very well show the enemy how few we were, for in that case he might well have regretted his surrender and turned on us. By mid-afternoon the first wave of British infantry and the motorized units moved into Bardia without firing a shot.,

"We did not raise hell in Bardia, it is true. We did better: we captured everything intact and nine thousand enemy prisoners to boot ...."

First photos of Jerusalem (1844)

These were in Smithsonian Magazine this month. They were taken by French photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey.

I found very high resolution images for most of these from a Russian site. Click to enlarge.

Enjoy:

(h/t Yerushalimey)

UPDATE: Israel Daily Picture, as can be expected, has a link to the archives of all these images in France. (h/t Ian)

A "Law of Return" for Muslim Nazi sympathizers (1948)

This short JTA article from 1948 is just begging for a researcher to write a book or two:

ROME (Feb. 20)

Arab agents are today recruiting mercenaries to fight against the Jews in Palestine from among the Yugoslav Ustashi and Chetniks and the Ukrainians, Albanians, Circassians (former inhabitants of the northwestern area of the Caucasus) and other groups here who were on Hitler’s side during the war, and are now under the care of the International Refugee Organization.

Able-bodied men, both inside and outside the I.R.O. camps, who are between 22 and 32 years of age, and who accept the Arab terms of payment–their fares to the Middle East and maintenance of their families in exchange for their pledge to serve in the Arab forces for at least one year–are being given visas by the governments of Egypt, Syria and Transjordan. Where the mercenaries are of Moslem origin they are being officially resettled by formal negotiations between the governments concerned and the I.R.O. which, however, disclaims any knowledge of what use the individuals are put to on arriving in the Middle East.

So the Arab nations did once want to accept and naturalize refugees - as long as they shared Hitler's goals for the Jews.

40 years ago, AP described Palestinian Arabs as "statesmen of tomorrow"

This AP article from 1974 interviews different Palestinian Arabs as to their ideas about the future of the Middle East. A few are pragmatic, others are hardline.The supposed "moderates" show themselves to be anything but.

No one really expects Israel to continue to exist, certainly not for 40 more years. Some want a federation with Jordan and others a Greater Syria.

Not much has changed, except for one thing: In 1974, no one really believed that a Palestinian Arab state in the territories was economically viable. Everyone expected to either take over Israel, federate with Jordan or something else.

(Notice also how AP in 1974 did not capitalize "west bank.")

Palestinians who escaped the horror of refugee camps have taken a quiet back seat to the guerrilla leaders of today. But they are the statesmen of tomorrow.

Affluent, well-educated, more familiar with the Byzantine maze of Middle East politics, they have suffered less under the Israelis and learned to survive in other parts of the Arab world.

...“We have to forget the past and start building again,” says Hikmat Masri, the head of a large and powerful family in Israeli-held Nablus, “the guerrillas are just a passing phase.”

The Masri family owns soap and match factories, a trucking firm and a vegetable oil company. Hikmat is a former Jordanian government minister, his nephew Taher serves in King Hussein’s present cabinet in Amman, his brother. Zafer, runs the Chamber of Commerce.

Hikmat Masri says there can be peace in the Middle East if Israel withdraws from the west bank of Jordan and the Gaza Strip which it captured in 1967. He envisions a five-year “transition period” of international supervision in these territories while the Palestinians hold elections and decide whether they want independent statehood or federation with Jordan.

“We have a limited choice and we will have to accept an imposed solution,” he says. “Right now the Palestine Liberation Organization — PLO — is the only structure available to represent us, but we have plenty of leaders to choose from when the time comes.”

Not so, says his American educated nephew Taher, who administers the west bank in exile as Jordan’s “minister of occupied territories."

“We have no leader, only followers. I have to accept Yasir Arafat because the PLO is all that’s available. If the guerrillas go to Geneva the most important issues will be decided before we Palestinians can elect any other representatives.”

His reference to Geneva was to an upcoming conference of Arab and Israeli representatives to discuss ways of achieving a permanent peace in the Middle East. This was a condition of recent troop disengagement arrangement worked out with U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. The future of the Palestinians and the possibility of an independent Palestinian state may be discussed at Geneva.

The younger Masri agrees with his uncle that a truncated Palestinian state in the west bank and Gaza would not be economically, politically and militarily viable. Both feel there would have to be some form of federation with Jordan after an initial period of independence- “long enough to give the Palestinians an entity and make them feel they can negotiate with King Hussein as equals rather than subjects.”

Can Palestinian refugees be persuaded to give up their claims to land which became part of Israel in 1948?

“If you make them hungry enough you can force them.” said Taher Masri. "Let us face it, whatever the superpowers impose will be accepted by the Palestinians and Jordan. The United States can easily topple King Hussein if they want to form a Palestinian-Jordanian state.

“Palestinians already own half of Amman. Why should we separate?"

... “If only those people would wait a little longer, they will find that the Arabs can face up to Israel,” said Yussuf Savegh, a professor of the American University of Beirut, “I want to dynamite the Geneva peace talks."

“I do not envision anything except a military solution; not total defeat for Israel but enough to make them reassess the whole Palestinian question. We can do this with Arab support, but gradualism makes it more complicated, more costly ”

Sayegh was one of the few independent members of the PLO executive committee before he resigned earlier this year, largely because his views were not shared by Arafat. He has been replaced on the committee by three moderate west bankers, of whom the most prominent is Mohsen Abu Maizer.

Often touted as the future “premier of Palestine." Abu Maizer was a west bank lawyer before his expulsion by Israeli authorities last December because of illegal underground political activity. He is a member of the Socialist Baath party and one of the founders of the clandestine Palestine National: Front (PNF) which emerged in the occupied territories after the October war in 1973.

Abu Maizer now lives in Damascus, Syria. He supports Arafat's desire to negotiate for Palestinian statehood, but he feels that Palestinians should not be breaking down the doors to go to Geneva.

“Let the world come to us with a solution," he said. "We are the ones who have been wronged. Everyone knows there can be no peace until we are satisfied, so our attendance at a peace conference is not important.”

Hadj Rashad Shawa, the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip. points to Israel’s paramilitary settlements in the occupied territories as a clear indication that Israel will not withdraw.

“The real aim of the Israelis is to take over every inch of land here,” he said. “Anything short of a real partition similar to 1917 will lead us to another war. I doubt that there will be peace for 130 years.

“Giving us the west bank and Gaza would delay another war for 10 years at the most. The tide has changed in favor of the Arabs. It will take us two or three more generations to eliminate Israel and liberate Palestine, but eventually the Jews will have to assimilate.

"They cannot set up a European state in an Arab society.”

Shawa has survived two assassination attempts by Palestinian guerrilla groups who felt he was collaborating with the Israelis. “Some people misunderstand my historical perspective,” said Shawa. “It is silly to think that an independent state can survive on the west bank and Gaza, just as Israel and Jordan cannot survive alone.

“The first step which would truly create independence would have to be reunification of ancient Syria, including Jordan, the west bank, Lebanon, Israel and Gaza. There will be many more wars before that comes about.”

NYT, 1924: "Hitler tamed by prison"

Wishful thinking has trumped news at the New York Times for quite a while.

(h/t HaDaR)

PLO's phased plan to destroy Israel is alive and well

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Syrian TV host: "When they talk about [the US] imposing a solution, we know that it will be deficient."

Member of Fatah Central Committee Abbas Zaki: "You can relax. We find ourselves united for the first time. Even the most extreme among us, Hamas, or the fighting forces, want a state within the '67 borders. Afterward, we [will] have something to say, because the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages."

[Official Syrian Satellite TV Channel, Dec. 23, 2013]

The "phased plan" to destroy Israel was spelled out by the PLO in 1974, and has never been rescinded.

And there is evidence that Mahmoud Abbas subscribes to it as well.

Jews were the first to lose their homes in the Arab-Jewish conflict - in 1866

This comes from the The Occident and American Jewish Advocate, "the first successful Jewish serial in the United States," April 1867. It is a partial reproduction of "Sir Moses Montefiore's Report to the Board of Deputies of British Jews," apparently from the previous year or maybe even earlier.

On Saturday, April 14th, after the morning service, I took a walk round the garden, and was much pleased with the improvement of the place since my last visit to Jerusalem.

I regret, however, not being able to report the same of the land at Jaffa, which has been unfortunately let to persons who, being unable to resist the threatened attacks of the neighboring Arabs, deserted the place altogether. The consequence is, that the houses are completely demolished and the trees destroyed. I am at present, however, in communication with the Chief Haham of the Morocco congregation in Jerusalem in reference to the matter. If sufficient funds can be obtained for the purpose, I hope to see four or five families established at that now deserted place, who will apply themselves sedulously to the cultivation of the land, which is of considerable value, and ought to be immediately secured by a fence to mark its boundaries.

This is one of the earliest attacks I have seen by Arabs directly towards a Jewish community in Israel. (Previously, the earliest I was aware of was at Petah Tikva in 1886, at least twenty years later. There were also pogroms in Safed and Hebron in 1834 but the attacks on Jews then seem to have been more opportunistic during other intra-Arab fighting.)

Arabs attacking Jews in 1920

All from the Chicago (Jewish) Sentinel:

April 1, 1920:

April 15, 1920:

April 22, 1920:

June 24, 1920:

October 7, 1920:

Things got much worse in 1921.

Arabs want to bring back "Palestine Pound" currency. They don't know much history. (update x2)

From Ma'an, by Alex Shams:

In markets across historic Palestine, tourists can buy old coins and bills emblazoned with the phrase "Palestine pound."

The bills often catch visitors off guard, a stark reminder of a world that existed prior to the partitioning of the Palestinian homeland in 1948.

Indeed, the Palestine pound gives lie to the oft-repeated Zionist mantra that Palestine was a "land without a people for a people without a land" as it demonstrates the existence of a shared currency used throughout the British Mandate of Palestine for nearly 30 years by Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike.

The Palestine pound is an inconvenient reminder for many Israelis that a cosmopolitan and tolerant society thrived in Palestine before its dismemberment and exile by the emerging Israeli state.

But the creation of the State of Israel on the majority of mandate Palestine and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, alongside the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by Jordan and Egypt respectively in response, put an end to the currency's usage.

After Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, all of historic Palestine came under the rule of the Israeli lira (and later the shekel), while the Jordanian dinar and eventually the US dollar circulated alongside.

One Palestinian researcher, however, is determined to bring the Palestine pound back, this time as the currency of the newly emerging State of Palestine.

This is the illustration of the Palestine Pound used in the Ma'an article:

Would the revived Palestine Pound include Hebrew?

Now, let's look at the bank name. Hmmm. "The Anglo-Palestine Bank Limited." What is the history of that bank?

It was formed in 1902 - as a subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust, created at the Second Zionist Congress in 1899. Wikipedia notes "The bank opened its first branch in Jaffa in 1903 under the management of Zalman David Levontin. Early transactions included land purchase, imports and obtaining concessions. Branches were opened in Jerusalem, Beirut, Hebron, Safed, Haifa, Tiberias and Gaza. The Anglo-Palestine Bank offered farmers long-term loans and provided loans to the Ahuzat Bayit association which built the first neighborhood in Tel Aviv....During World War II, the Anglo-Palestine Bank helped to finance the establishment of industries that manufactured supplies for the British army. After the founding of the state of Israel, the bank won the concession to issue new banknotes. In 1950, the bank was renamed Bank Leumi Le-Israel (National Bank of Israel). "

The note illustrating the article is in fact the first currency of Israel, used for four years before the Israeli lira was established to replace it. It was not used by Palestinian Arabs who fled to Jordan.

The earlier Palestine Pounds, issued by the British - never by the Arabs - also featured Hebrew. This one had the Kever Rochel - an indisputably Jewish shrine - on the front:

The initials after the Hebrew "Palestine" stand for "Eretz Yisrael."

The adoption of a specifically Palestine currency was pushed not by Arabs, but by Jews, as early as 1917. Arabs complained when the first Palestine Pound notes were issued in 1927 and they wanted to continue to use the Egyptian Pounds that they were used to.

Indeed, the history of the Palestine Pound is nothing but a recent history of the Jews of Palestine, and it is what became the Israeli currency while Palestinian Arabs rejected it.

Alex Shams is a propagandist. The truth about the pound shows a slice of the history of Zionism, not of a "Palestinian people."

UPDATE: Shams is also the author of the bogus "Ukrainian girl claims to have killed kids as an IDF soldier" story. Ma'an must be proud to have hired him.

UPDATE 2: What a surprise - Ma'an silently changed the photo of the Palestine pound away from the one that was used in the new state of Israel and rejected by Palestinian Arabs.

Erasing history is par for the course for Palestinian Arabs. Literally.

They pretend they want to bring back "historic Palestine" but the Palestine they are talking about only thrived because of Zionists! Yes, Zionists created their sports leagues, orchestras, newspapers, tourism initiatives, and a pavilion at the World's Fair all proudly named after Palestine.