TWENTY BASIC FACTS ABOUT THE PALESTINE PROBLEM
DID YOU KNOW:
THAT, when the Palestine problem was created by Britain in 1917, more than 90% of the population of Palestine were Arabs? And that there were at that time no more than 56,000 Jews in Palestine.
2. THAT, more than half of the Jews living in Palestine at the time were recent immigrants, who had come to Palestine in the preceding decades in order to escape persecution in Europe? And that less than 5% of the population of Palestine were native Palestinian Jews?
3. THAT, the Arabs of Palestine at that time owned 97.5% of the land, while Jews (native Palestinian at recent immigrants together) owned only 2.5% of the land?
4. THAT, during the thirty years of British occupation and rule, the Zionist were able to purchase only 31/2% of the land of Palestine, in spite of the encouragement of the British Government? And that much of this land was transferred to Zionist bodies by the British Government directly, and was not sold by Arab owners?
5. THAT, therefore, when Britain passed the Palestinian problem to the United Nations in 1947, Zionists owned no more than 6% of the total land area of Palestinian?
6. THAT, notwithstanding these facts, the General Assembly of the United Nations recommended that a "Jewish State" be established in Palestine? And that the Assembly granted that proposed "State" about 54% of the total area of the country?
7. THAT, Israel immediately occupied took (and still Occupies) 80.48% of the total land area of Palestine?
8. THAT, this territorial expansion took place, for the most part, before 15 May 1948; i.e., before the formal end of the British mandate and the withdrawal of British forces from Palestine, before the entry of Arab armies to protect Palestinian Arabs, and before the Arab-Israeli war?
9. THAT, the 1947 recommendation of the General Assembly in favor of the creation of a "Jewish State" was outside the competence of the Assembly under the Charter of the United Nations?
10. THAT, all attempts by the Arab States and other Asian countries to have the Assembly submit the question of constitutionality" of its recommendation to the International Court of justice for an "advisory opinion" by the Court were rejected or ignored by the Assembly?
11. THAT, when the Assembly began to experience "second thoughts" over the matter and convened for its second special session in 1948, it failed to reaffirm the 1947 recommendation for the partition of Palestine-thus destroying whatever dubious legality that recommendation for the establishment of the "Jewish State" had had?
12. THAT, that original 1947 recommendation to create a "Jewish State" in Palestine was approved, at the first vote, only by European, American and Australian States For every Asian State, and every African State (with the exception of the Union of South Africa) voted against it? . And that, when the vote was cast in plenary session on 29 November 1947, urgent American pressures, to abandon their declared oppositions? And that, in other words, the Jewish State was planted at the point intersection of Asia and Africa without the free approval of any Middle Eastern, Asian or African country except that Union of South Africa, itself ruled buy an alien minority?
13. THAT, Israel remained, ever since its inception, a total stranger in the emerging World of Afro-Asia: and that Israel has been refused admission to any inter-state conference of Asian, African, Afro-Asian or Non-aligned states ever held?
14. THAT, since the General Armistice Agreements were signed in 1949, Israel has maintained an aggressive policy of waging military attacks across the Armistice Demarcation lines, repeatedly invading the territories of the neighboring Arab states . And that Israel has been duly rebuked, censored, or condemned for these military attackers by the Security Council of the General Assembly of the United Nations on eleven occasions-five times by the security Council and six ties by the General Assembly?
15.THAT, no other country in the world, weather member of the United Nations or non member, has been so frequently condemned by the United Nations?
16. THAT, no Arab State has ever been condemned by any other organ of the United Nations for military attacks up Israel?
17. THAT, besides expelling the bulk of the Arab inhabitants of Palestine, and besides constantly attacking the neighboring Arab states, Israel has also consistently harassed the United Nations observers and other personnel stationed along the Armistice Demarcation line: It has assassinated the first United States mediator and his military aide: it has detained some truce observers; it has militarily occupied and illegally searched the Headquarters of the United Nations personnel; and it has boycotted meeting of the Mixed Armistice Commissions? ..
18.THAT, Israel has additionally imposed a system of apartheid upon the Arabs who stayed in their homeland? .. More than 90% of these Arabs live in "security zones": they alone live under martial law, restricting their freedom to travel from village to village or from town to town: their children are denies equal opportunities for education: and they are denied decent opportunities for worm and the right to receive "equal pay for equal work".
19.THAT, notwithstanding the forging facts, Israel always been, and still is widely portrayed in the Western press as the "bastion of democracy" and the champion of peace in the Middle East?
20.THAT, the Western powers have persisted in declaring their determination to ensure a so-called "arms balance" in the area, as between Israel, on the one hand, and the two-hundred fifty million inhabitants of the twenty three Arab States, on the other hand? And this unilateral Western doctrine of so called " Arm balance" is or reasonable than the suggesting that, in the Cuba-USA conflict, there should be arms balance between Cuba and the USA conflict, there should be "arms balance" as between USA and Cuba or that the whole continent of Africa should bot be allowed to acquire more arms than South Africa .. or that Mainland China should not be permitted to have allowed to acquire more arms than South Africa, and that only thus can peace be safeguarded in the Western Hemisphere, in Africa, in Asia or in Europe?
Source: Islamic Association for Palestine in North America. |