Truth Harbourers

In 1947, following Britain's transformation of 3/4 of Palestine into "Trans Jordan"(in 1923), the United Nations partitioned western Palestine between Jewish and Arab residents of the land (eastern Palestine was already called Trans-Jordan). The Arab residents and the Jews of Palestine had no real problem with this. The surrounding Arab countries, on the other hand not only rejected the U.N. partition, but attacked Israel from all sides in 1948, with designs on dividing the "liberated" Palestine between themselves. There was no "Palestinian" issue as the Arab world had not yet heard of such a nation. In 1948 the Arab Armies attacked the newly-born Israel thinking they would wipe them into the sea. The local Arab residents were told by the Arab invaders to leave their homes for "a few days" to make the job easier for their armies, promising them a share in the spoils. It was actually by orders of their Arab bretheren that the Palestinian residents picked up and left - orders often cloaked in the shadow of threats. That is how most of the refugees became refugees. Small was the number of residents that were chased out by Israeli defenders. The opposite is true. Many Israelis chased ofter the Arab residents asking them not to leave.

The declaration (below) was made by the uncle of the present "Faisal Husseini, who has recently been crowned 'Minister ' responsible for Jerusalem affairs of the Palestinian 'nation' ."

ARAB LEADER DECLARATIONS:

On the day that Israel declared its independence, the Arab League Secretary, General Azzam Pasha declared "jihad", a holy war. He said, "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades".(1) The Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al Husseini stated, "I declare a holy war, my Moslem brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!" (2) The armies of lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq invaded the tiny new country with the declared intent of destroying it.(3)

Map of attacking Arab Forces in 1948

Note: the blue color on the map indicates the land the Israelis held - it was a lot smaller than even the June 1967 borders - why did they attack then and why should we think they are any different today? - especially when in November 2000 the Palestinian Authority speaks publicly of creating their country within the '67 borders.

1. Howard M Sachar, A History of Israel (New York: Knopf, 1979), p. 333.

2. Leonard J. Davis and M. Decter (eds.). Myths and facts 1982; a Concise Record of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Washington DC: near east report, 1982), p. 199

3. In a formal cablegram to the UN Secretary General on May 15, 1948, the Secretary general of the Arab League declared that the Arab states rejected partition and intended to set up a "United State of Palestine." For a full text of the cablegram, see John N. Moore (ed.), The Arab-Israeli Conflict; Readings and Documents (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, abridged and revised edition, 1977), pp. 938-943.