| „Vorig: Beveelt het Joodse Congres van de wereld Eerste Minister Stephen Harper voor zich het terugtrekken van `Durban II.' aan | Daarna: Veranderingen in de Arabische Wereld? “ |
Eerstgeboorterecht Palestina
16 April 2008Zo, hebben de Palestijnen het succes van het programma van Israël van het Eerstgeboorterecht in het krijgen van jonge Joden die in Israël opgewekt opgemerkt en heeft hun eigen programma gelanceerd „om Palestijnen van de eerste generatie, de westelijk-geboren (over de leeftijd van 18 jaar oud) in hun voorouderlijk geboorteland te verzamelen, zodat zij uit de eerste hand herenigen en kunnen getuigen hoe hun brethren onder onwettige Israëliër leeft militair beroep.“ Volgens hun website (birthrightpalestine.com), werd het concept gecre�ërd door het „Centrum van Palestina voor Nationale Strategische Studies“. Ik let niet zo veel op dat de Palestijnse organisaties krediet voor de concepten nemen die niettemin ongeveer door Joden waren en toen aanpasten, maar wat ik me over ben het bericht ongerust maak dat deze jonge geitjes zullen krijgen. The PCNSS’s own website (pcnss.org) has in their symbol a map of a country that looks an awful lot like Israel - I’m guessing that this is the “Palestine” that they’re referring to.
So we’re going to jump to a conclusion here - these first generation non-Palestinians coming on their “Birthright” trip are NOT going to be taught about peace, tolerance and co-existence, and will likely be taught alot about “Israeli brutality”, the “illegal Israeli occupation”, etc. According to the birthrightpalestine.com website, the trip was “created to maintain Palestinian unity on an international level” and to “nurture relationships between participants of Palestinian ethnic
origin whom were born in different countries around the world”, with the hope of an exchange of ideas that will “possibly lead to a cohesive consensus on core issues of importance to the Palestinian Nation.”
Now, in the past we’ve been quite clear about our thoughts about the claim of “Palestinian Nationalism” - there is no Palestinian nation and there never was. The Arab Palestinian national movement began in the 1960s - before that, Arabs living in Palestine identified themselves as being South Syrian or simply as Arabs. In fact, before World War I, many of the Arab countries that exist now didn’t exist back then. Here’s a map:
So now, 100 years later, the Arabs who happened to live in “Palestine” when Jews began to move their, invent a nationalism that historically never existed and are using it as a cynical political tool. I expect this plan to run into some roadblocks, primarily getting people to come in the first place. To get to “Palestine”, the participants must fly into Tel Aviv, Israel, since there is no international airport in Palestine (for if there were, Israel would be in grave danger). In the FAQs on the site, the organizers site “security precautions” for not releasing a list of participants - surely the insinuation is that people participating have to be worried about their security from Israelis. They likely have a point - surely if a participant list was distributed ahead of time, Israel would get their hands on it and be able to investigate the participants before they land in Tel Aviv and deny entry to any with suspicious backgrounds.
Whatever the goal of “Birthright Palestine”, we don’t think it is going to be pushing for a two-state solution or a solution that leaves any Jewish presence in the Middle East. Surely peaceniks will love this concept, but will it bring about peace? Like everything the Palestinians do, that is unlikely.
As a follow-up to this story, we’d like to write about the “Palestine Center for National Strategic Studies”. Does anybody know anything about this organization and where it gets funding from?
Tags:Arab Muslim World , birthright palestine , Commentary , Israeli Technology , israeli security , land for peace , middle east maps
May 18th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I imagine they get their funding from, in part, the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been instrumental in granting money to various groups around the globe. Here in Seattle, the rumor is that they gave enough to local Islamist leaders in order to build several new mosques in the area.