Israel Information Center

Volume 1, Issue 1

Page 2

Notable Quotes

Some of the below quotes are taken from web articles of enduring value.  If there is a link to an article, it is the source of the quote and recommended reading.  Comments are after each quote.
                  -Ed.

On Arab Refugees:
The Jordanian daily Falastin wrote on February 19, 1949:

"The Arab states...encouraged the Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies."
    -The Refugee Issue

This totally refutes the false statements made by some, including some Jews, that no Arabs ever asked their fellow Arabs to leave.  They did so

ask, don't let the revisionist history blind you to the real history.

On Jerusalem:
"According to contemporary records, Jews comprised the majority  of the population of the Old City from 1860 until 1936. Although the  pro-Arab British, who ruled Palestine from 1917 until 1948,  designated the largest part (60 percent) of the Old City as the 'Moslem Quarter,' their own census of 1920 revealed that 70 percent of the "Moslem Quarter" inhabitants were Jews."
    -Loving and Loosing Jerusalem

Amazing, isn't it, Jews a majority in what became known as the Moslem quarter because the British government decided 30%

Moslem made it so?  How about those who say Jews have no right to live in the Moslem quarter today?  Is that not again ignoring the historical realities in favor of rewarding those who made that quarter free from Jews by force?

Sparking the Violence?
Al-Ayyam, the Palestinian Authority daily newspaper (December 6, 2000):

"Speaking at a symposium in Gaza, Palestinian Minister of Communications Imad el-Falouji confirmed that the Palestinian Authority had began preparations for the outbreak of the current intifada from the moment the Camp David talks concluded,
this in accordance with instructions given by Chairman Arafat himself. Mr.

(Continued on page 4)

"...their own census of 1920 revealed that 70 percent of the 'Moslem Quarter' inhabitants were Jews"

A Glimpse through Time -- The Golan in Roman Times

By Alyza

The Golan Heights was home to part of the half tribe of Manasseh in the Tanakhic (Biblical) period, long before there was a Roman Empire.  In fact, the entire region is named after one of their cities, Golan (Deut 4:43).  Though Assyria eventually exiled that tribe, and the first Temple fell, when some of those exiled to Babylon returned to Israel (rejoining those few who never left), they eventually returned to the Golan also.

In the Roman era, and the era of the Talmud, Jews were living in the Golan still. 

There are many remains of synagogues there and houses of learning from that period.   

Gamla, a city in the Talmudic era, is a location of major excavations.  In fact, it was a site of major battles between the Romans and the Jews in what is called the first Jewish war in 67 BCE.  A beautiful villa of a wealthy Jew was found there, as well as a synagogue.(1)

Life in the Golan in the Roman era, like life in all of the rest of the land of Israel, was precarious.  A stream of procurators, all demanding different things, all demanding that the people,

who as a whole were very poor, not only pay taxes but support the Roman soldiers assigned to the land, lay a heavy burden on the people.(2) 

Jewish life, however, went on in the Golan during the Roman era.  People studied, prayed, engaged in commerce, and raised food for their families. 

As of  August 8, 2001, 25 synagogues from the Mishnaic and Talmudic period have  been unearthed, while no significant non-Jewish remains have been found  in the Golan until the Turkish period 400 years ago.

The Golan as viewed from Lake Kinneret