Reply #102: You wrote that my responses were nothing but excuses used by dishonest, immoral Zionists....

[shira]

You don't believe that was a slur on my integrity and worthy of apology?

You believe it was wrong for Jews to immigrate during the 1930's in mass numbers to Palestine, just as Al Hussayni did. In fact, you believe as Hussayni did that Zionists coming over had the worst of intentions for the indigenous Arab population and that Palestinians were innocent and justified in resisting these Jews. Am I wrong about you?

If so, then answer this:

If you were in charge instead of Al Hussayni would you have strongly "resisted" all the colonialist Zionists coming in to rob, dispossess, and disenfranchise the indigenous population? Or would you have insisted that hundreds of thousands of MORE Jews come to Palestine to be saved from antisemitic Europe? You have a choice now, either to save hundreds of thousands of innocents from Nazi fascism or assign them to their deaths by turning these "colonialist robbers" away. For the record, what would you have done? I await your response.

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"In 1931, Lewis French conducted a survey of landlessness and eventually offered new plots to any Arabs who had been "dispossessed." British officials received more than 3,000 applications, of which 80 percent were ruled invalid by the Government's legal adviser because the applicants were not landless Arabs. This left only about 600 landless Arabs, 100 of whom accepted the Government land offer."

Avneri, pp. 149-158; Cohen, p. 37; based on the Report on Agricultural Development and Land Settlement in Palestine by Lewis French, (December 1931, Supplementary; Report, April 1932) and material submitted to the Palestine Royal Commission.

Now do the math. About 600 dispossessed families out of 61,408 is roughly 1%.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Hope_Simpson.html

That link to the Hope-Simpson report repeats the claim of 61,408 families from the French/Jewish source. Putting the Lewis French survey results together with Hope-Simpson gives us roughly 1%.


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Your claims of dispossession and disenfranchisement have now been proven false. While some Arab families were dispossessed in some land deals, that's a FAR CRY from insisting Zionists were intent on dispossessing the Arabs from the very start, or that that was the policy of the Zionist movement. Generally speaking Zionism resulted in Arab families coming into possession of more agricultural land during Mandate times than what an increase in their numbers would suggest. While the Arab population doubled during Mandate times, Arab families came into possession of more than twice the amount of land they were tending in 1922. Thus, your claims of Zionism resulting in significant Arab dispossession are false (it was the opposite actually).

I note you didn't comment at all on the fact you were proven wrong WRT disenfranchisement (when the indigenous Arab Palestinians refused to be represented in government during the Mandate era).


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Lastly, in a response to Obeliner above, you say Israelis owe the indigenous of Palestine an apology for depriving them of self-determination. I called you on that claim above and you didn't respond. How can you say Zionists or Israelis deprived Palestinians of self-determination given that at every opportunity, Palestinian leadership turned down each offer?