In his column “The words of Hamas”, Christian Rioux attributes to the much hated Hamas concepts developed rather by the jurists of the United Nations (UN) and he rewrites the history of Palestine in a sense that even Zionists among the most inventive do not claim!
Mr. Rioux affirms that “Jews have always inhabited Palestine, of which they were the only ones to use the name until the creation of Israel”. Even the most demagogic Zionists recognize that they have been essentially absent from this land for 19 centuries. Israeli historian Shlomo Sand claims that today’s Jews are not descendants of the Jews who inhabited Palestine 20 centuries ago, before the Roman conquest. According to his thesis, the diaspora was not born from the expulsion of the Hebrews from Palestine, but from successive conversions in North Africa, Southern Europe and the Middle East.
The Jewish Virtual Library confirms that although the Jewish people have maintained links with this territory, their presence there was for a long time marginal. Based on numerous studies, it gives the following figures: during the 16th centurye century, 3.2% of the population of Palestine was Jewish. In 1882, Jews constituted 8% of the inhabitants of Palestine. In 1914, 17 years after Theodor Herzl formulated a plan to establish a state for Jews in Palestine, Jews comprised only 13.6 percent of Palestine. This is the historical reality.
It was only after the 1948 war, during which more than 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes manu militari, that the Jewish population of Palestine became the majority in the areas occupied during that war. In addition to serious historians like Avi Shlaïm and Ilan Pappé, even Zionist historians such as Benny Morris recognize that the expulsion of the Palestinians was carried out violently and against their will. Would Mr. Rioux say that Hamas has infiltrated Jewish and Zionist institutions, which have forgotten the truth and adopted the historical statistics put forward by Hamas?
When the columnist asserts that “Israel cannot “return” these territories either (to whom?) without a peace agreement, which Hamas will never accept, whose aim is to throw the Jews into the sea” , one could believe that he knowingly forgot the Oslo Accords, signed in 1993. There was indeed a peace plan there, and it was planned that only a small part of historic Palestine, the 22% that constitutes the West Bank and Gaza, be returned. Whose ? To the Palestinians!
At the time these agreements were signed, Hamas’s popularity was almost at zero, because the Palestinians wanted peace. Subsequently, Hamas itself agreed to recognize Israel if there was genuine peace. But the Oslo Accords turned out to be a scam: colonization has intensified during these 30 years and, today, Israel controls and occupies the Palestinian territories more intensively than when the Accords were signed, in 1993.
As for the status of the occupied territories, if we go to the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, we can read the following: “Canada does not recognize the permanent control exercised by Israel over the occupied territories in 1967 (the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip). […] The Fourth Geneva Convention applies in occupied territories […]. As noted in UN Security Council Resolutions 446 and 465, Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. »
So, Canada talks openly about occupied territories and settlements! Could Hamas have infiltrated the Canadian government to whisper these words? On this account, it must be assumed that Hamas has also infiltrated all UN bodies that say the same.
Finally, on the notion of apartheid, we must also believe that Hamas infiltrated Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, as well as the offices of President Jimmy Carter. Indeed, the first speaks of the “crime of apartheid and persecution” committed by the Israeli authorities, and the second titles its analysis: “Israel’s apartheid against the Palestinian population: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity.” As for the former President of the United States, he titled his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Amazon, undoubtedly infiltrated like him by Hamas, distributes this book.
An advertisement from Duty states that “when the news gets complicated, The duty enlightens you.” That’s not what he’s doing with this column.
Columnist’s response
I have never claimed that Palestinians were not violently expelled from their lands or that before the 1930s there were many Jews in Palestine. Rather, I am pointing out the intellectual laziness – which seems partly yours – which consists of placing narrow concepts on Israel describing it as an apartheid regime and a colonial system practicing nothing less than genocide. To justify such gross exaggerations, it will take more than appealing to a few NGOs who bargain with the powers that be. Nothing in Israel today corresponds to what colonialism was historically. As for the supposed Israeli “apartheid”, it would be necessary to explain why most Gazans would trade the tyranny of Hamas for the equal rights enjoyed by Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. Israel’s detestable policy in the West Bank does not need such caricatures to be criticized. Its vigorous democracy is worth, by far, all the UN jurists.
Christian Rioux