Ben-Dror Yemini [email protected] Myths and Facts about the Middle East conflict Ben-Dror Yemini...
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Ben-Dror Yemini [email protected] Myths and Facts about the Middle East conflict Ben-Dror Yemini Israel is described as the great menace to the world peace. One must ask why. This presentation is divided to 3 parts: 1. What do public figures say about Israel. 2. What do public opinion polls reveal about Israel. 3. What are the facts about Israel. We could present plenty of negative views against Israel, mainly by academics from Jews and non-Jews, though here we present them in a nutshell. When I say expressions against Israel, I don’t mean any legitimate criticism against Israel, the occupation, and so on. I mean only something irrational, exaggerated, that demonstrates a kind of obsession against Jews and Israel, together and separately.
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Transcript of Ben-Dror Yemini [email protected] Myths and Facts about the Middle East conflict Ben-Dror Yemini...
Ben-Dror Yemini [email protected]
Myths and Facts about the Middle East conflictBen-Dror Yemini
Israel is described as the great menace to the world peace. One must ask why.
This presentation is divided to 3 parts:
1. What do public figures say about Israel.
2. What do public opinion polls reveal about Israel.
3. What are the facts about Israel.
We could present plenty of negative views against Israel, mainly by academics from
Jews and non-Jews, though here we present them in a nutshell.
When I say expressions against Israel, I don’t mean any legitimate criticism against
Israel, the occupation, and so on. I mean only something irrational, exaggerated,
that demonstrates a kind of obsession against Jews and Israel, together and
separately.
Ottoman Empire Territorial Division
James Parkes, Whose Land? A History of the Peoples of Palestine
Historical Palestine
The Partition Plan (1947) – The Green Line (1948-1967)
Arab Countries versus Israel
Israel versus the Arab & Muslim world
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Yitzhak Laor, an Israeli poet, and a regular contributor to Haaretz London Review of Books”, 9.5.2002 :
“Gas chambers are not the only way to destroy a nation. It is enough to develop high rates of infant mortality”
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Jose Saramago, the Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning writer (12.4.02):
"What is happening in Palestine is a crime as what happened at Auschwitz"
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Jostein Gaarder (author of "Sophie's World“) (5.9.06):
“We call child murderers 'child murderers‘ … We do not recognize the state of Israel [to exist]”
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QUOTESClare Short, former minister in Blair government, the British Labor party (13.9.07):
“The oppression of the Palestinian people is the major cause of violence in the world” As part of her obsession, Ms. Short charged:
"Israel undermines the international community's reaction to global warming"
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Arun Ghandi, grandson of India’s legendary leader “Mahatma” Gandhi (7.1.08):
“We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity”
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Gideon Levy, a leading Israeli Journalist (Haaretz):
“They shoot at the Palestinians, Straight at the head, on a daily basis””THE INDEPENDENT”, 24.9.2010
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Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (11.1.10):
“Israel threatening global peace”
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Germany• A 2004 comprehensive
poll, German University of Bielefeld reveals:
• More than 50% equating Israel's policies toward the Palestinians with Nazi treatment of the Jews
• 68% specifically believe that Israel is waging a "war of extermination" against the Palestinian People.
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Italy• The Italian daily
Il Corriere della Sera conducted a survey to ascertain anti-Semitic attitudes and public opinion on the Israeli conflict.
• Close to 40% agreed with the statement that:
• “The Israeli government is perpetrating a full-fledged genocide and is acting with the Palestinians the way the Nazis did with the Jews."
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רבעוןראשון
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Norway• The Center for Studies of the
Holocaust and Religious Minorities.
• Data were collected in November 2011 by TNS Gallup
• “38% believe that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is similar to Nazi treatment of the Jews during World War II"
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רבעוןראשון
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צפון
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The BBC poll:
A majority of people
believe that Israel
has the most
negative influence in
the world.
BBC, 2008
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The real Genocide
• Thousands of publications include the words “genocide” and/or “ethnic cleansing”, while describing Israel. Much fewer publications deal with the internal, continuing and much bigger genocide, which is taking place in the Arab and or the Muslim world.
• While Intellectuals, journalists, academics, put all the blame on Israel, Muslims and Arabs kill mainly, and almost only, their fellow Muslims and Arabs. The numbers are astonishing.
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The real Genocide
• In order to defy the argument, or the quite common assertion, that Israel is the main cause of violence in the Middle-East, we will present here the death toll, among Arabs and Muslims, only since the foundation of Israel.
WORLD FATALITIES40,000,000 China (1949-1975)
3,000,000 Korean War (1950-53)
1,350,000 Rwanda and Burundi (1959-95)
4,200,000 Second Indochina War (1960-75)
3,800,000 Congo (1998 et seq.)
2,000,000 Ethiopia (1962-92)
1,650,000 Cambodia, Khmer Rouge (1975-1978)
1,000,000 Nigeria (1966-70)
… … … … … …
86,000,000 Total After the Second War World
MUSLIM & ARAB WORLD FATALITIES
400,000-1,000,000 Algeria (1954-1962)
100,000-150,000 Yemen Civil War (1962-1975)
1,400,000-3,000,000 Bangladesh (1971)
80,000-130,000 Chechnya Wars (1995, 1999)
1,900,000 Sudan Genocide (Nuba 1983-2003)
100,000-200,000 Algeria Civil War
900,000-1,400,000 Iraq-Iran War (1980-1989)
400,000 Somalia Civil war (since 1977)
130,000 Lebanon Civil War (1975-1990)
2,500,000 Afghanistan Wars (1979-2001)
200,000-400,000 Darfur Genocide (2003-2008)
12,000,000 Total
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DEATH TOLL (MUSLIMS & ARABS)
1,400,000
1,540,000
2,500,000
60,000
7,400
2,600,000
100,000
80,000
130,000
400,000
450,000
500,000
600,000
Israel occupation
Israel
Chechnia
Yemen
Lebanon
Somalia
Iran
Indonesia
Algeria
Bangladesh
Iraq
Afghanistan
Sudan
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PROPORTIONThe no. of Palestinians who were killed during more than 40 years of occupation is:• Less than the no. of Palestinians killed by King
Hussein of Jordan in the “Black September”, 1970 – 10,000-25,000.
• Less than 25,000, the death toll in the 1982 Hama massacre in Syria carried out against Muslims by Hafez al-Assad.
• Less than the no. of Bosnian Muslims killed in a single massacre perpetrated by Serbs in 1991 at Srebrenica, in which over 8,000 murders were committed.
1912-1995BALKANS7,000,000
1948INDIA-PAKISTAN
14,000,0001984-1994
Armenia- Azerbaijan
1,050,000
1974CYPRUS25O,000
1941-1943FINLAND
(KARELIA)600,000
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India Pakistan
During the foundation of India, 1948, the just born entity separated to 2 states, according to religious lines.
The violence that erupted caused not only a huge number of casualties, but also a transfer of 7 millions of Hindus, from Pakistan, and the same number of Muslims, from India.
7,000,000 Hindus from
Pakistan to India
7,000,000 Hindus from
Pakistan to India
14,000,000
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Balkans
7,000,000
Endless waves of population exchanges, began in 1912 and 1915, and then a big wave following WW1, 1923, that took place under some regional settlements. The last wave was during the 90’s.
Fridtjof Nansen, who initiated the population exchange between Turkey and Greece, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.
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Germans
12,000,000
Following World War II , ethnic Germans were forced to leave all the neighboring countries. Most of them as a result of post-war agreements, like Yalta and Potsdam.
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Sudan
Since the foundation of Sudan, the civil war, mainly between the Arab-Muslim north and the south, has never stopped.
The last wave is the genocide, and ethnic cleansing, in Darfur.
3,000,000
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Poland-Ukraine
The multi-ethnic area at the eastern border of Poland caused several waves of population exchanges, mainly following the 2 world wars. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to move.
1,400,000
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Armenia- Azerbaijan
The majority of Azerbaijan is MUSLIM. But the majority in Nagorno-Karabakh region was Armenian Christian. In 1988, this semi-autonomous region sought to be joined to Armenia. That request triggered widespread killings of Muslims in Armenia and Armenians in Azerbaijan. Fighting ended with a ceasefire in 1994, but the conflict gave rise to one million new refugees: 740,000 Muslims fled Armenia for Azerbaijan, and 360,000 Armenians made the opposite direction.
1,000,000
360,000 Armenians to Armenia
740,000 Muslims to Azerbaijan
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Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill was convinced that the only way to alleviate tensions between populations was the transfer of people, to match the national borders. As he stated in a speech to the House of Commons in 1944:
“Expulsion is the method which will be the most satisfactory and lasting.
There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble…
A clean sweep will be made.
I am not alarmed by these transferences”
POPULATION
TRANSFERS
IN EUROPE
1944-1951:
20,000,000
Prof. Joseph
Schechtman
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Israel-Arab, Jews and Palestinians
711,000 Arabs to the neighboring
countries
850,000 Jews from the Arab countries
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20,000,000
14,400,000
250,000
1,050,000
7,000,000
711,000
850,000
42,000,000
5,000,000
05,000,00010,000,000
15,000,000
20,000,000
25,000,000
30,000,000
35,000,000
40,000,000
45,000,000
Europe
India-Pakistan
Balkans
Armenia-Azerbaijan
Palestinians 1948
Jews
Cyprus
SUM
PALESTINIANS 2010
POPULATION EXCHANGES1913-1995
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ARAB LANDS Algeria 2,381,741 919,595 18.10% Saudi Arabia 2,149,690 830,000 16.40% Sudan 1,861,484 718,723 14.20% Libya 1,759,540 679,360 11.40% Mauritania 1,025,520 395,960 7.80%
Egypt 1,002,000 387,000 7.60% Somalia 637,657 246,201 4.90% Yemen 527,968 203,850 4.00%Morocco 446,550 172,410 3.40% Iraq 435,244 168,049 3.30% Oman 309,500 119,500 2.40% Syria 185,180 71,500 1.40% Tunisia 163,610 63,170 1.20% Jordan 89,342 34,495 0.70% United Arab Emirates 83,600 32,300 0.60% Djibouti 23,200 9,000 0.10% Kuwait 17,818 6,880 0.10% Qatar 11,586 4,473 0.08% Lebanon 10,452 4,036 0.08% Palestine 6,020 2,320 0.05% Comoros 2,235 863 0.01% Bahrain 758 293 0.01%
13,130,695
13,130,195 sq km
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ARAB LANDS
13,130,195 sq km
20,770 sq km
340,000,000 People
3,400,000People
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REFUGEES
The UN has two agencies:
United Nations
Relief and Works Agency)
United Nations High Commission
for Refugees)
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WHO IS A REFUGEE?
UNHCREvery person who, owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of his country of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his country of origin or nationality
UNRWA Palestine refugees are
persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict
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THE PARADOX OF UNRWA
UNRWA UNHCRhelps people to preserve
their refugee statushelps people out of their
refugee status
Status of refugee is given to all offspring
Status of refugee is not given to all offspring
refugee status is not dependent on economic
condition
refugee status is dependent on economic
condition
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THE PARADOX OF UNRWAUNHCR“Helped
50,000,000
people to restart their life”
They are not refugees anymore”
http://www.unhcr.org.ua/main.php?article_id=4&view=full
UNRWA
711,000
refugees in 1948The number now is
(according to UNRWA)
5,000,000http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=47
http://www.unhcr.org.ua/main.php?article_id=4&view=full
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader:
“The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians, but instead they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, imposed upon them a political and ideological blockade and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live in Eastern Europe…"
“For 17 years the Arab radio stations broadcasted their intention of throwing the Jews to the sea and returning the refugees to their homes… They didn’t throw the Jews into the sea, and they didn’t return the refugees”
UN General Assembly Resolution 194, December 11, 1948:“… refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United Nations;
UN GA Resolution 393, December 2, 1950:“… the reintegration of the refugees into the economic life of the Near East, either by repatriation or resettlement is essential ... for the realization of conditions of peace and stability in the area”
UN GA Resolution 394, of December 14, 1950 called upon:“... the Governments concerned to undertake measures to ensure that refugees, whether repatriated or resettled, will be treated without any discrimination either in law or in fact”
UN GA Resolution 513, of January 26, 1952 called upon:4. … to explore with the governments concerned arrangements looking towards their assuming administration of reintegration projects at the earliest possible date;5. Requests the UNRWA to explore with the governments concerned the transferring the administration of relief to those governments at the earliest possible date … UNRWA should continue to carry the cost”
The Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Muhammad Saleh ed-Din:
In demanding the restoration of the refugees to Palestine, the Arabs intend that they shall return as the masters … More explicitly: they intend to exterminate the state of Israel”
Alexander Galloway, UNRWA official 1951-52:“The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore … as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don't give a damn whether the refugees live or die”
Refugee conference in Homs, Syria, 1957: “… any discussion aimed at a solution of the Palestine problem which will not based on ensuring the refugees' right to annihilate Israel will be regarded as desecration of the Arab people and an act of treason”
The Arab League, 1959, Resolution 1457:“The Arab countries will not grant citizenship to applicants of Palestinian origin in order to prevent their assimilation into the host countries”
Egypt’s President, Gamal Abdul Nasser, 1960:“If the refugees return to Israel, Israel will cease to exist”
• Lord Peel Commission - 1937• The Partition Resolution - 1947• The Khartoum Decision (Arab League) - 1967• The Bill Clinton Proposal - 2000• The Arab Initiative - 2002• The Olmert Proposal - 2008
“If we lose this opportunity, it is not going to be a tragedy. This is going to be a crime"
The New Yorker" March 24, 2003
The Clinton Proposal
“The deal was so good I couldn’t believe anyone would be foolish enough to let it go …
Arafat’s rejection of my proposal after Barak accepted it was an error of historic proportions…”
Bill Clinton, “My Life”, 2005, 936-946
Condoleezza Rice “No Higher Honor”, 2011
Condoleezza Rice, about the Olmert proposal:
BEST. DEAL. EVERMay 2008, Abu-Mazen:“I can’t tell four million Palestinians that only five thousand of them can go home”
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Condoleezza Rice “No Higher Honor”, 2011
Condoleezza Rice, about the Olmert proposal:
BEST. DEAL. EVERThe President took Abbas into the Oval Office alone and appealed to him to reconsider. Abbas stood firm and the idea died”
The Olmert Proposal:
Mahmoud Abbas: large-scale resettlement of refugees
The Olmert Proposal:
“In the West Bank we have a good reality ... the people are living a normal life"
The People Voice Initiative:
Sari Nusseibeh:“Palestinian refugees will return only to the State of Palestine”
The Hamas Charter, Article 17
"The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Muslim)
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Abbas Zaki:
Abbas Zaki:• When we say that the settlement should be based upon
the borders of June 4, 1967, President [Abbas] understands, we understand, and everybody knows
that the greater goal cannot be accomplished in one go.
• If Israel withdraws (to the 67 borders- B.Y) – what will
become of Israel? It will come to an end.
• [...] If one says that one wants to wipe Israel out... C'mon, it's too difficult. It's not [acceptable] policy to say so. Don't say these things to the world. Keep it to yourself.
)Fatah Central Committee Member Abbas Zaki, Al-Jazeera Sep. 2011
(
Palestinian Authority Mufti(Highest religious authority at Fatah event, Jan. 15, 2012):
“Muslims' destiny is to kill Jews”
Moderator at Fatah event:
“Our war with the descendants of the apes and pigs (i.e., Jews)
is a war of religion and faith"
AHMEDINJAD – “DEATH TO ISRAEL”
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HAMAS: “KILL THE JEWS, THE CHRISTIANS, THE COMUNISTS, TO THE LAST ONE”
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HAMAS: “KILL THE JEWS, THE CHRISTIANS, THE COMUNISTS, TO THE LAST ONE”
ROME STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT*• Article 7• Crimes against humanity• 1. For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the
following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
• (a) Murder; (b) Extermination; (c) Enslavement; (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population; (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture; (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; (i) Enforced disappearance of persons; (j) The crime of apartheid; (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.
• “The crime of apartheid" means inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime”
The Apartheid Lie
Moshe Katsav, the eight presidentof Israel, was sent to 7 years in jail
George Kara,The Presiding Judge
According to the Democracy Index 2011, nearly 53 percent of Israeli Arabs are
“Proud to be Israelis”
The survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute
42 percent of Jerusalem Arabs say they would try to move to Israel if their
neighborhood became part of a new Palestinian state
These findings are from a survey sponsored by The Washington Institute and conducted by Palestinian pollster Dr. Nabil Kukali of the Bethlehem-based Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO), in
partnership with the Princeton-based Pechter Middle East Polls
FLOTILA TO GAZA
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GOLDSTONE A“I have not
investigated the US army”
GOLDSTONE B“The US army gone to extremes to protect innocent civilians”
IRAQ, FALUJJAH
2004
(1,200)
2,000-6,000
ISRAEL: CAST LEAD2009
(700) 500-700
PAKISTAN SWAT VALLEY
2009
(1,200) 6,000
THE SECOND CHCHEN WAR1999-2001
30,000-100-000
SRI-LANKA2009
10,000-40,000
THE FIRST CHCHEN WAR1994-1996
50,000-200,000
NATO-KOSOVO WAR1999
(500) 1,100-2,500
BATTLES DEATH TOLL (COMBTANTS & CIVILIANS)
10
1
1
0.5
0.6
30
6
3
2
0.1
1.2
0.8
1.6
0.8
0.7
051015202530354045
SRI LANKA
USA FALLUJAH
PAKISTAN SWAT
NATO BELGRAD
ISRAEL GAZACOMBATANTSCIVILIANS?CIVILIANS
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GOLDSTONE C:“If I had known then
what I know now, the Goldstone Report
would have been a different report” (Washington Post,
April 1, 2011)
