It says: "…a state is not
entitled to transfer inhabitants against their will, whether they are Arabs,
Jews or Druse. This is a violation of the most basic human rights."
Oh yea? When Israel conquered the
area which was, until then, called by everybody "the Syrian heights", some
120 thousand inhabitants fled from the battle zone or were driven out. The
great majority of them were innocent tillers of the soil. Their forefathers
have been living on this land for hundreds, if not for thousands of years.
Muslim-Arab populations double
themselves every 18 years. This means that these deportees and their
offspring number now about 400 thousand souls.
It seems that in the eyes of the
signatories, these 400 thousand souls are not considered human beings. If
not, what are they? Sub-humans, according to well-known racist theories?
Rats, as in the films of the infamous propaganda minister?
They are human beings, families. They
have lost everything in a few hours: their human dignity, their homes, their
livelihood, all that makes life worth living. They were indeed "transferred
against their will" (and without compensation!). They vegetate since then in
miserable refugee camps.
The horrible indifference to the fate
of these human beings, men, women and children, puts the signatories next to
the worst of racists.
The statement ignores the deportees so
much, that it does not even takes the trouble to repeat the routine mantra:
"They attacked us, so we owe them nothing…" They know, of course, that
nobody asked these fellaheen whether or not to attack Israel, and that no
reputable historian denies nowadays that nearly all the pre-1967
border-incidents ("they shelled us from above") were initiated by Israel.
By the way, more than a million French
settlers (called "pieds noirs") left Algeria within weeks after that country
attained independence.
The statement continues: "Real peace
cannot include the eviction of the Jewish population, the destruction of 33
civilian settlements, the demolition of industrial enterprises and the
drying-up of fields and plantations…"
The Golan settlers sit on the ruins of
nearly one hundred Arab villages. Anyone who makes the effort can find them
easily. The soldiers who were ordered to dynamite them did a sloppy job. The
remnants are everywhere, as are the fruit-trees planted by generations of
villagers, whose fruit are eaten by the settlers.
It has to be said clearly: the Golan
settlers are living on the ruins of those driven out. Every single person
who settled on the Golan knew that he builds his home on the ruins of a
human being living in misery a few dozen miles away. His wonderful "quality
of life" is based on the misery of someone else.
As to the "drying-up of fields and
plantations" - well, nobody needs to worry. Quite on the contrary. The
lawful owners will return and till these fields, as they did before the
transfer. The plantations will bear their fruit, the fields will yield their
blessing. The heirs of Arial Sharon must not be allowed to demolish Katzrin,
as he demolished Yamit in North Sinai. Everything, including the industrial
enterprises, should be sold to the Syrians, to help pay the compensations
that will be paid to the settlers.
Further: "If the Syrian ruler
refuses to make a peace that guarantees the continued existence and security
of the Jewish settlements on the Golan, for the benefit of the two peoples,
we shall wait as long as needed for a regime and a society in Syria that
will be ready for real peace."
Speaking about "the Syrian ruler"
is sheer demagoguery. No Syrian is ready to give up the Golan, as no Israeli
is ready to give up the Negev, and as no Egyptian was ready to give up
Sinai. Nobody demanded at the time that "the Egyptian ruler" allow the
Jewish settlers to stay there, nor that he change the regime in his country
to suit Israeli tastes. Even if Syria will become a model Sweden-like
democracy, it will not agree to leave the settlers on the Golan. The Messiah
will come before the arrival of the kind of peace the settlers dream about.
But do they indeed dream about it? That
is the greatest lie of all. The leaders of the settlers, who organized this
cynical propaganda gimmick, know full well that not a single settler is
ready to live under a Syrian government, the same as not a single settler
will be ready to live under a Palestinian government. If there is a
so-called leftist who believes this lie, he is indeed a political half-wit.
[Visit
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