“Look at a map of Palestinian territory in 1949” – A Response

I responded today to someone on social media who was attacking Israel, someone who accepts the Palestinian narrative and talking points as fact.  After accusing Israel of driving the Palestinian people out of their homes and businesses and stealing their land she added, “Look at a map of Palestinian territory in 1949 and learn.” I wish she’d take her own advice.  Here is my response to her with some minor editing:

A map from 1949 would show zero Palestinian territory, as in none. The West Bank (Judea and Samaria) were occupied illegally by Jordan. No attempt was made to create the Arab state envisioned by the 1947 UN partition plan for the British Mandate of Palestine. Nobody complained the lack of a Palestinian state at the time because the Arabs did not call themselves Palestinians. That ethnicity or identity had not been invented yet. West Bank Arabs traded referring to themselves as Syrians for referring to themselves as Jordanians.

Gaza was occupied by Egypt and later annexed. Egyptian rule was  brutal, unlike the Israeli occupation (1967-2005), The Egyptians at that time had no regard for human rights or individual freedoms whatsoever.

Jerusalem was divided, barbed wire separating the parts controlled by Jordan from those controlled by Israel. It wasn’t a clean east/west split either. There were two Israeli islands surrounded by Jordanian controlled territory. One was where Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital are (Mt. Scopus) and the other was the area around Government House.

I suggest if you want to look at a 1949 map, an honest one, you look at one that was printed then, not one created to illustrate the Palestinian narrative, which is almost pure fiction. Finally, take off the left wing blinders and read some real history. The reporting by Robert F. Kennedy in 1948 was excellent. I’d also recommend the more recent writing on the subject by Benny Morris, a liberal historian, about what happened at the time. Clue: people were not driven from their homes. Nothing was stolen. Most left at the urging of their leaders who promised to drive the Jews into the sea.  Some fled in fear of what Jewish rule would mean.

I’m sure you received a fine indoctrination masquerading as history at UW (University of Wisconsin) Madison. Open your mind to that reality and educate yourself.