More later.

I am relatively new to learning about this whole issue, so I would be grateful if you could provide me with some sources on land-ownership in the 1940s. I know little beyond the Ottoman land reforms in the 1850s, the division of Palestine into various various vilayets and sunjaks, of which Syria, Beirut and Jerusalem were significant.

I also thought that the land was owned by about 200 large, rich, and mostly absentee landowners and the sultan. I thought that Jewsih immigrants bought most of the land, which got the traditional serfs really mad.

So please point me in the direction of better data if I am off-course here!

I’d also love to learn more about “Palestinian” identity pre-al-Naqba. I was under the impression that the Pals thought of themselves as Syrians. No?

Ta.

Nah. Not crazy enough.

But when the otherside operates with an antisemitic bent, well, fuck them. You can’t reason with idoits like that.

Holy Crap! What have you done with the REAL Ibrahamav? Give him back to us!

While many of the refugees were tenent farmers, there certainly was a significant number of land owners. And, culturally, leaving a war zone was accepted, and they should not be penalized because of their culture.

But because of the unique definition of Refugee for this one situation, definitions not used before or since, it appears there will never be a solution which will satisfy the Arab side and keep Israel as a refuge for the world’s Jews, as it was recreated to be.

I don’t think it is really appropriate to describe Ilan Pappe an an “historian.” I have read his work and journalism. He is more a “commentator” than a reputable scholar.

Yes, the conditions of the “Palestinians” are not very nice. The issue is very complex. Personally, I lean more towards the view that the poor miserable ignorant “refugees” who have grown out of the landless peasants that fled Israel in 1948 are the victims of three things:

1. The 80% who landed in refugee camps were among the world’s most uneducated and unskilled people. The other 20% all fled to their mansions in Cairo, Damascus, or to well-paid lives throughout the Arab world. These 20% live very fine lives today, strutting the world-stage with the tired Muslim whinge of “we are victims.”

2.The “refugees” are victims of their bretheren. The United States offered Syria $400 million to accept the “Palestinians” in 1949. The Syrians almost accepted. Alas, the eternal inability of Muslim Arabs to organise viable states came to the fore and the Syrians just abandoned the “Palestinians.”

And let us all be very clear here. These “Palestinians” are no such thing. They are SYRIANS. The only people who were ever called “Palestinians” were Palestinian JEWS.

And let us NEVER forget that “Palestine” was divided into Jordan (80%), Syria, and Israel. In the end, israel was given about 10% of Mandatory Palestine, which it agreed to, even though it was clearly unjust and the British had screwed the Jews royally. And they continued to screw the Jews royally even after Hitler and al-Husseini’s gas pipes had been turned off.

3. Lastly, the Palestinian Arabs have never had legitimate leadership. At first, they refused to recognise Israel’s right to exist. They refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of UN resolutions from 181 to 242 to 303. Nowadays, they rely on the one that has the LEAST legal authority; the 1949 181.

The “Palestinians” should not be living the way they are. But a solution to their largely self-inflicted plight cannot be made at the expense of Israel’s legitinate and well-earned right to security.

Personally, I think the biggest mistake was the Soviet Union and the United States not letting them sort it out once and for all in 1948.

There is no legal requirement. It has to do with resolution 242.