By Latheef Farook –

Latheef Farook

At the turn of the 20th century, Palestine, now turned into Israel, was part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. About 95% of the population in 1896 were Arabs who owned 90% of the land. It was such a peaceful place that there was hardly anyone who spoke loud and using a dirty word was unheard of. In 1897, the first World Zionist Jewish Congress in the Swiss city of Basle decided to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. 10 years later in 1907 Britain decided at the London Colonial Conference to establish a hostile power which would keep the Middle East in turmoil.

This common conspiracy brought Britain and the Zionist Jews together. The two jointly manipulated and brought down the Ottoman Empire during World War I. As planned, Palestine was brought under British Mandatory Authority in 1917 paving the way for Jewish migration to settle in Palestinian lands.

Palestinians resisted. Migrant Jews responded by forming terrorist brigades such as Hagana, Stern, Irgun and Zvai Leumi, led by Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and Ariel Sharon, and started killing Palestinians village after village.

Designed to destroy the Palestinian resistance, Menachem Begin went on a murderous rampage and butchered hundreds of innocent Palestinian men, women and children – 254 in Deir Yassin alone – a village a few miles off Jerusalem. The Deir Yassin massacre has been one of the most barbarous crimes ever committed against humanity and could be coupled with the infamous “My Lai massacre in Vietnam”.

The helpless Palestinians rose up in protest and the British authority cruelly crushed the uprising.

Frightened Palestinians ran for their lives and ended up in refugee camps in neighbouring countries where they still languish in appalling conditions. Once sufficient numbers of Jews were brought in, the Zionists manoeuvred the UN to partition Palestine.

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations, blackmailed by US President Truman against the advice of several top US officials, passed a resolution partitioning Palestine offering migrant Jews a state in Palestine. In the proposed Jewish state too, the Arabs had a majority as of the total population of 1,008,900 the Arab-Jew ratio was 509,780 to 499,020.

On 14 May 1948, the British High Commissioner left Jerusalem to return to Britain, leaving the road open for the proclamation of the State of Israel the following day. Israelis did not wait until 15 May 1948. Just as the High Commissioner was leaving, at four ‘o’clock in the afternoon, Ben Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel in Tel Aviv, in violation of all accepted moral and legal norms, over a much larger part of the country than that was allotted to the Zionists by the UN Partition Resolution.

It was the upshot of inhuman force, created in violation of the principles of the UN Charter itself, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the very resolution under which the Israelis now claim sovereignty. 15 minutes after the proclamation of the Zionist state, recognition came from the White House followed by Kremlin both of whom, played a very crucial role in the creation of this entity.

Instead of directly engaging the Israeli forces, the Arab armies began to disarm the Palestinians. In addition, the combined Arab forces, comprising the Syrian, Jordanian, Lebanese and Iraqi armies did not exceed 24,000 soldiers, all of which were disorganised and equipped with old weapons that sometimes went off in their own faces.

On the contrary, the Jewish army numbered 70,000 soldiers who were trained and well-armed by European countries and the United States. Therefore it was a question of an unequal war in every respect. Up to that time and in spite of the Israeli military operations supported by the British, 82% of the territory still remained in Palestinians hands.

On 19 May, the Israelis seized Old Jerusalem and moved into the city, but owing to the intervention of Jordanian forces and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, the Israeli forces found themselves besieged.

On 22 May, the UN Security Council called for a ceasefire. The super powers exerted pressure on the Arab countries to accept it. The ceasefire was called with 100,000 Israeli soldiers besieged inside Jerusalem. Thus the Army of the Salvation of Palestine, under the auspices of the Arab League, pulled back, but the battle continued to be waged by Islamic soldiers and volunteers.

They had won a series of great victories. The Egyptian forces occupied Beersheba, Gaza and part of the Negev, while forces from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood had taken part in the siege of Jerusalem. The Iraqi army had recovered Jenin, while Jordanian troops controlled Old Jerusalem after surrounding the Israelis in the western sector. They also liberated Jericho, attacked Jerusalem and encamped near Lydda and Ramallah.

After the ceasefire, the British General Glub Pasha, commander of the Jordanian forces and general commander of the Arab forces in Palestine said, “If the Arabs had allowed their forces to finish the job and continue fighting on 15 May they would probably have annihilated the emerging state of Israel.”

Since then Israel turned the Middle East into a killing field with its repeated wars, massacres and invasions. In 1956 Israel invaded Egypt with Britain and France. In 1967 Israel, backed by the US, Europe and the former Soviet Union invaded and captured Sinai and Gaza, South Lebanon, West Bank and East Jerusalem and Golan Heights.

Since then Israel has violated all United Nations resolutions and it is also the most condemned country in the world. The UN appointed committee itself found Israel guilty of war crimes. However no UN sanctions on Israel, as in the case of Iraq, Libya and Iran, were implemented.

Israel gets away with all its crimes and lawlessness with the open support of the US and Europe. It is this very same Israel’s security, US Presidents claim, cannot be compromised. However Israel’s victims, Palestinians, are not allowed into most of these organisations. This speaks for overall Jewish control over the US and Europe. Israeli killing of Palestinians and destroying houses and grabbing lands continue unabated.

Today Israel, the most condemned country by the United Nations with more than 125 UN resolutions, has become the sole source of instability threatening the region and beyond. The UN remains ineffective in the face of Zionist crimes due to US and European support.

Palestinians have no one to turn to. They are betrayed by Arab dictators and demonised as terrorists by the Western media.