From: rayes@Snake.mcs.kent.edu (Sandra Rayes)
Subject: Re: Fair Swap
Organization: Kent State University
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 07:39:25 GMT

In article <18oep2INNsu8@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> bx573@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Alan H. Stein) writes:
>
>In a previous article, rayes@Snake.mcs.kent.edu (Sandra Rayes) says:
>
>>Who's this nut??? What tinker-box did he pop out of?
>>
>>Arabs from the southern Arabian peninsula--roughly today's Yemen--migrated
>>to Palestine in the Fourth Millenium BC...that's two thousand years
>>*before* Abraham got there.  That sounds pretty permanent to the majority
>>of sound people.
>
>Nobody's claiming that no Arabs were around for a long time.  But the
>simple fact of the matter is that Arabs have come and gone, with no great
>attachment to the place, and a large portion of the Arabs who today call

This is pure and simple, B.S., and I know that you want to believe this
to alleviate Israeli sins against Palestinians.  But you have got to get
rid of the blinders and realize, whether you like it or not, that 
Palestine has been tended to by Arabs for six thousand years.  Maybe
the have changed the name they identify themselves as, but they have
been there nonetheless.  Palestinians love their country, just as I
love mine.  I know (and visit with often) little old ladies who
dream of being buried with their relatives in Palestine--nothing
political about that....they want to rest with their ancestors.  Surely
a Jewish person can understand that sentiment.

>themselves Palestinians (itself a rather recent phenomenom, basically the
>result of the Arab war against the Zionist cancer in the otherwise Arab
>Middle East) are either recent immigrants themselves, or come from families
>which themselves came to Palestine to benefit from the economic
>opportunities that came about with the Zionist influx they hate so much.

More hogwash.  As I have pointed out innumerable times, but many of you
want to close your eyes and plug your ears, Palestinians have a very
distinct culture, language, food, etc...from other Arabs.  Cultures 
do not become invented over night, but develop over time.  The Arabs
of Palestine have identified themselves as Palestinians for at least
2000 years.  I have recently talked to an elderly lady and asked her
what nationality her parents were....she was stunned and said to me
'Palestinian, what else?'  So I said, 'I mean, what town were they
born in?' She said 'The same town I was born in (Tul Karam)...and
my grandparents were born there.  Everyone I knew was born there".
Hardly sounds like a migrating people.  

In fact, I would point out that Palestinians, on the whole, were 
*less* migratory than *other* Arabs.  Other countries, such as
Saudi, had and still have very large migrating populations known
as badu.  Palestinians, on the other hand, while having some
Bedouin clans, were known to be Hadhar (townspeople) who are
settled in a single village and Felaheen (farmers) who
were tied to their lands.

>
>>As for institutions...ever heard of Al Aqsa???  It USED to be...before
>>occupation, that is...a powerful religious center...it is mentioned in
>>the Qur'an and many students of Islamic Shariah were educated there
>>throught the years.
>
>An oasis in a desert.  Little attention was paid to it until the
>reestablishment of Israel became a realistic possibility.
>
Baloney....it is mentioned in the Qur'an...Prophet Muhammad visited
there and many Muslims from the Sham and even further used to go there
in lieu of Hajj in Mecca (since they didn't have money and Jerusalem
was closer).  Al Aqsa is tied with the BEST personalities in Islamic
history.  I have met a lady who was educated there (pre '67).

>>
>What ever happened to the claim of one Arab people?  Or do you throw out
>propaganda ploys when another is more convenient, and then retrieve them
>when it suits your whim?

Throwing out and retrieving convenient slogans is your trick, not ours.
Palestinians have always stressed their love for their land and culture.
Palestinians were traditionally peaceful (at a time when other Arabs
were fighting) and settled farmers who enjoyed their pace of life and
were blessed by the proximity of Al Aqsa, a holy site in Islam.
That has never changed.  What has changed is the fact that Europeans
have taken their land from them, treated them like animals, and
assigned to them the role of victim.

Sandra.

>
>-- 
>bx573@cleveland.freenet.edu----Alan H. Stein----stein@uconnvm.uconn.edu


Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast