Have you heard the Palestinian Spokesmen Lately

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Have you heard the Palestinian Spokesmen Lately?
A bus is blown up in Jerusalem
Palestinian Masses are cheering and celebrating
the 9/11 tragedy
Its the occupation
Saeb Arikat
Terrorists are blowing up Gal, a 4 year old girl
The problem is the occupation
The occupation is the violence
Nasser Al-Kidwa
Nabil Shath
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What do the Palestinians mean by Occupation?
Was there ever a state called Palestine?
How did Israel get into the disputed territories?
What did the so-called Occupation do to the
people?
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Unlike what Westerners think, the Palestinians
have a very clear notion of the Occupation
For the Palestinian Ministry of Industry, all of
Israel is considered Occupied
http//www.industry.gov.ps
For the Palestinian Ministry of Parliamentary
affairs, all of Israel is considered Occupied
http//www.mopa.gov.ps
And for Arafat, displayed proudly on his arm,
Israel is the Occupied Palestine!
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Hanan Ashrawi, the most articulate exponent of
the Palestinian cause, has been even more
forthright in erasing the line between the
post-1967 and pre-1967 Occupation." Speaking in
the now-infamous World Conference Against Racism
in Durban, on Sep 2001, she maintained that the
original Occupation was the actual creation of
the state of Israel in 1948, only to be extended
in 1967! Ashrawi also charged that Rarely has
the human mind devised such varied, diverse, and
comprehensive means of wholesale brutalization
and persecution.
Some people may believe her
But the real facts are very different
Stay tuned for some amazing information
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1948
The State of Israel was founded based on the UN
resolution 181 of November 29, 1947, giving the
Jewish people self determination in a small part
of its ancient homeland.
The resolution also called for an Arab state in
the rest of the land. No Palestine existed
prior to this decision.
Instead of building their own land, the local
Arabs called all neighboring Arab states to
destroy the Jewish state at birth.
They failed. The nascent State of Israel, far
outnumbered, overcame seven Arab states and
forced an armistice.
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Had they won, would the Arab States really
establish a State called Palestine?
On 1947, The British High Commissioner for
Palestine, General Sir Alan Cunningham, informed
the Colonial Secretary, Arthur Creech Jones
The most likely arrangement seems to be Eastern
Galilee to Syria, Samaria and Hebron to Abdallah
of Jordan, and the south to Egypt."
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And indeed, the same Arab States, which today
call for a Palestinian State, have never
established one when they could, between 1948 and
1967
On April 4, 1950, Jordan annexed the West Bank.
Egypt ruled the Gaza Strip, until 1967, as an
Occupied military zone.
As late as 1974, Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad
openly referred to Palestine as "not only a part
of the Arab homeland but a basic part of southern
Syria"
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1967
Egypt closed the Tiran Straits (Israels only
opening to the Red Sea) and amassed its army in
the SinaiPeninsula.
Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser "Our
basic objective will be the destruction of
Israel."
Syrian Defense Minister (later President) Hafez
Al-Assad "Our forces are now entirely ready...
to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to
explode the Zionist presence in the Arab
homeland the time has come to enter into a
battle of annihilation."
Sinai
Tiran Straits
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• The Results
• Israel won again, capturing
• Sinai and the Gaza Strip from Egypt
• Judea and Samaria (The West Bank) from Jordan
• The Golan Heights from Syria

Golan Heights
West Bank
These are the disputed territories -A much more
apt name than the Occupied territories.
Sinai
Two key international decisions followed
Arab States (Khartoum, Sep 1st, 1967) decided
no peace, no recognition, no negotiations with
Israel.
The UN drew the often-cited Resolution 242 (Nov
22nd, 1967).
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Does UN Resolution 242 require a complete
withdrawal from the West Bank?
Legal scholar Eugene Rostow, US Undersecretary of
State for Political Affairs between 1966 and
1969, and one of the producers of the
Resolution
The decision calls on the parties to make
peace and allows Israel to administer the
territories it occupied in 1967 until 'a just and
lasting peace in the Middle East' is achieved.
When such a peace is made, Israel is required to
withdraw its armed forces 'from territories' it
occupied during the Six-Day War--not from 'the'
territories nor from 'all' the territories, but
from some of the territories."
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Does UN Resolution 242 envisage a Palestinian
State?
Actually, no. Since the Palestinians were still
not viewed as a distinct nation, it was assumed
that any territories evacuated by Israel, would
be returned to their pre-1967 Arab occupiers-Gaza
to Egypt, and the West Bank to Jordan. The
Resolution did not even mention the Palestinians
by name, affirming instead the necessity "for
achieving a just settlement of the refugee
problem"-a clause that applied not just to the
Palestinians but to the hundreds of thousands of
Jews expelled from the Arab States following the
1948 war.
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Did Israel execute Resolution 242 ?
As a result of the 1978 Camp David accords--in
which Egypt recognized the right of Israel to
exist and normal relations were established
between the two countries--Israel returned the
Sinai Peninsula, a territory three times the size
of Israel and 91 percent of the territory Israel
controlled as a result of the 1967 war.
Click on the map to see the results?
This action proves that Israel is ready to return
land for real peace!
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But what happened in the rest of the disputed
territories?
In the aftermath of the 1967 war, Israel found
itself, unexpectedly, in control of some one
million Arabs, inhabiting these territories.
Did it carry out, as Hanan Ashrawi claims, a
policy of wholesale brutalization and
persecution? Or was it the total opposite?
To counter these claims, we should review some
facts and figures.The next slides show the
amazing economic progress which occurred under
Israeli brutal oppression
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Palestinian Gross National Product (GNP) per
Capita, between 1968 - 1991
165
1715
During the 1970's, the West Bank and Gaza
constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in
the world - ahead of such "wonders" as Singapore,
Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of
Israel itself!
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Palestinian Life Expectancy1967 - 2000
Mortality rate in the West Bank and Gaza fell by
more than two thirds between 1970 and 1990, while
life expectancy rose from 48 years in 1967 to 72
in 2000!
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Palestinian infant-mortality rate (per thousand
births)1968 - 2000
60
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Under a systematic program of inoculation,
childhood diseases like polio, whooping cough,
tetanus, and measles were eradicated.
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Palestinian Standard of Living1967 - 1986
of houses equipped with basic utilities
In 20 years, Israel brought the Palestinian
population of the West Bank and Gaza into the
20th century!
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Palestinian Education1967 - 1991

• Percentage of school children growth 102
• Number of classes growth 99 (population
  growth during the same period was only 28!)
• Seven Universities were established (none
  existed in 1967)
• 16,500 local high education students (up from
  zero)
• Adults over age 15 illiteracy rate dropped to
  14 Morocco 69 Egypt - 61 Tunisia
  - 45 Syria - 44

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Were the Jewish settlements in the disputed
territories an obstacle to peace?
Contrary to common misperceptions, Israeli
settlements--which constitute less than five
percent of the currently disputed
territories--almost never displaced Palestinians.
In fact, these very settlements, providing ample
employment, were one of the factors contributing
to the amazing improvement of the Palestinian
populations standard of living.
It should also be pointed out that Jews lived in
these areas for centuries before being massacred
or driven out by invading Arab armies in 1948-49.
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1987
With all the improvements Israel brought to the
life of the Palestinian population of the
disputed territories
Israel did make one big mistake
It let the PLO (Palestinian Liberation
Organization), headed by Yasser Arafat, exert its
influence on the territories from the outside
using a lethal network of intimidation and
bribery.
Amazingly, It took the PLO 20 years, until 1987,
to entice the Palestinians in the disputed
territories to engage in a violent struggle
against the Jewish state.
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1994
After promising to stop all forms of violence,
Arafat was allowed back into the territories, as
a part of the Oslo Accords, bringing with him a
small army of 50,000 policemen.
By January 1997, 99 of the Palestinian
population was under the control of Arafats
regime, but as the occupation ended the terror
and violence rose.
Suicide bombings were introduced soon after
Arafat shook hands with the late PM Rabin, in
1994.
178 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinian
terrorists between 1994 and 1996, while Israel
was handing over land for peace!
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2000
Ehud Barak offers the Palestinians a complete end
to the Israeli presence, ceding virtually all the
disputed territories
But Arafat wants the end of occupation, that is,
the elimination of Israel.His response is WAR!
The terrorist Palestinian Authority targets
mainly Israeli civilians, women and children
But in the process, it sends the nascent
Palestinian economy, to its lowest level in
thirty years.
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So here are the very difficult questions you
should ask the Palestinians who speak about
occupation
If the Occupation was the cause of terrorism,
why was terrorism sparse during the years of
actual occupation?
Why do many Palestinians in the West Bank and
Gaza, in private conversations, yearn for the
good life they had before 1987?
Why did terrorism increase dramatically with the
prospect of the end of the Occupation?
Why did terrorism escalate into open war only
after Israel's most far-reaching concessions?
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And the real, painful answers
The creation of Israel, not the 1967
Occupation, led to the Palestinians' rejection
of peaceful coexistence and their subsequent
pursuit of violence.
Palestinian terrorism started well before 1967.
Terrorism continued, and even intensified, after
the Occupation ended in all but name. Terrorism
threw the Palestinian economy into a downward
spiral, not the Occupation.
And behind this terror there is the reckless
Palestinian Authority, seeking Israels
destruction, while blaming it all on the
Occupation.
Until a different Palestinian Leadership arises,
the idea of peace with Israel will continue to
mean, for Arabs, little more than the
continuation of war by other means!
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The information in this presentation is based on
the following sources, to which we are
grateful What Occupation?Prof. Efraim karsh
Prof. EFRAIM KARSH is head of Mediterranean
studies at Kings College, University of London.
Link to the full article http//www.frontpagem
ag.com/media/cartoons/what_occupation.html Twenty
facts about Israel and the Middle EastBill
Bennett, Jack Kemp, and Jeane Kirkpatrick Link to
the full article http//www.empoweramerica.or
g/stories/storyReader515 For comments and
responses for-peace_at_graffiti.net