This is just an ignorant line of thinking. Do you think the people who were living there just vanished after the conquest of Palestine?
I don't think you really understand the history of Palestine. Arabs conquered the land 1,200 years ago, but the people already living there were Palestinians. Do you somehow believe when the land was conquered, that was when Palestine was formed? Illegal according to the laws of the people who were in control of Palestine at the time (the British). I suggest reading the White Paper of 1939 and what Aliyah Bet was.
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I'm sure this has been posted before, but it's an interesting perspective, nonetheless. The speaker is Miko Peled, the son of a former Israeli general. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0FHGlTqTjIY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I would argue that i have a better grasp on it than you. The land has been conquered over and over again throughout history, dozens of people can lay claim to that being their homeland at different times. As to when "Palestine was formed", it's merely the name of the land, not a people until very modern times. About 1200 years ago is when the people who today call themselves "Palestinians" conquered the land from those who held it before them. Trying to talk about when "Palestine was formed" is a whole lot like trying to say when "Europe was formed" or when "Australia was formed", it says nothing about any specific people. Also to something being against British law, that's not really relevant today is it? Neither side payed any attention to British law, that's why they finally gave up on the region and left.
Yet the bible makes frequent mention of "the Philistines"...which to me sounds just like the Arabic pronunciation of Palestinians.
If we called the indigenous people of America "Americans" instead of "Indians" because they were in fact the people of the land called America, would that mean that they are the same people who are "Americans" today?
With your simplistic, narrow-minded view, every single human being alive today could lay claim to East Africa as that is where our MRCA originated from. Just blatantly inaccurate. The people today who call themselves Palestinians are descendants of the Semitic people who have lived in that particular region for thousands and thousands of years. This is a fact that has been proven by genetic analysis. You're the one who asked 'illegal according to whom'. If you were going to completely disregard the legality of it, why even bother asking in the first place? Oh, probably because your only argument is "oh it's illegal, well no one follows the law really". Get a grip
I get the problem here, you seem to think that as the land was conquered time and time again over the course of history that the native population was never displaced. I mean, it's funny that you would think that and incredibly naive, but it would explain the rest of your views. Apparently, in your mind, the only time the "Palestinians" were displaced was when the state of Israel came to be. Honestly, that's such a foolish take on history that I can't even argue with it. I wouldn't even know where to begin. Depends on what you mean by "thousands of years" if you mean over a thousand years, then you are right, if you mean like 20 thousand years, then you are wrong. The current "Palestinians" were not the ancient "Philistines". The reason I asked is because a law is unimportant without authority. If there isn't a valid authority with the power to enforce the law, then there isn't really a law. Bringing up "illegal" actions from the time of the Mandate today is the very definition of asinine. It's just more silly rhetoric for the propagandists.
Selective Indignation TUESDAY JULY 29, 2014 My point is not that it is less tragic or wrong to kill 1000 innocent civilians in Gaza than half million civilians killed in Iraq by USA, EU and fellow Muslims. Death is always sad and horrible and more so of non combatants. I don’t want to trivialize what Israel is doing as small in comparison to all the other mass killing of civilians in the Middle East. My argument is that anti-Semites have selective indignation with Jews.They are horrified at what Israel does in Gaza but do not react in similar ways to the far greater civilian killings that are occurring in neighboring Syria where 150,000 civilians have recently been murdered or with Iraq where ISIS is mass killing Christians. Or when US uses drones and kills so many innocent people. Or when Spain builds a fence around its African colonies and so many die trying to cross it. My point is not that Jews do no wrong, but that if you are only demonstrating against the wrongs of Jews, you are an anti Semite. And there is a lot of this selective indignation going on these days. http://martinvarsavsky.tumblr.com/post/93228653599/selective-indignation Case in point: houstonhoya, adeelsiddiqui, trustme, Hydhypedplaya, et al.
Funny, this is the exact thing a dozen posters have accused you of with Islam and Muslims. Too bad you're so oblivious to see that.
Yeah.... except that even the monstrous inhumane ISIS has not killed Christians as far as I've read. They have allowed them to leave, stay and be subject to their oppressor's laws, or convert to their oppressor's ideology, or if they don't want to do any of those things then be killed - which is a horrifying situation that Palestinians have also endured. ISIS is killing Muslims first and foremost, and this is something that has been almost unanimously criticised by Muslims of all creeds all over the world. IDF, on the other hand, has murdered dozens if not hundreds of children as a predictable consequence of their actions in just this one operation, which is a copy of a number of previous operations. Further making this a silly comparison is that ISIS is what the Israeli government was roughly 70 years ago. To have equal expectations from these two entities has nothing to do with race/religion, and everything to do with what we expect from an established leadership vs a genocidal homicidal militant rebellion leadership. The cherry on top is a nugget which you like to trumpet so often: Israeli government is at least somewhat democratic and therefore a product of the wishes of its people, and therefore its actions are roughly the responsibility of its people. ISIS is hated universally by everyone, and obviously does not even intend or pretend to have democratic values and therefore neither Iraqis or Arabs nor Muslims share any responsibility for their actions. In fact as a lawyer and a German, you should know very well that by the principles with which the Nazis were executed, the aggressor is responsible for all that arises as predictable outcomes of their aggression. ISIS is a product of the annihilation of Iraqi institutions and the sectarian conflict which was - amazingly - inflamed more by the US intrusion into Iraqi sovereignty than was ever done by the evil Saddam himself. And mind you, Saddam actually brutally put down a Shiite rebellion. To denounce ISIS and the IDF at this moment is happening right now because they are both in direct conflict with Middle Eastern popular opinion and of course the sovereignty of all nations involved.
