Arabs in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza Scrambling to Create a History

Mudar Zahran: We Have a Palestinian State in Jordan

by Ryan Mauro Fri, April 18, 2014,
via @PaulConroy

 Palestinian-Jordanian opposition leader Mudar Zahran spoke to Clarion Project's Ryan Mauro about Palestinian opposition to Hamas.

Mudar Zahran

 Mauro: What’s a more long-term solution to the conflict? An independent Palestinian state? What would Palestinians accept as a solution?
Zahran: This is all a wakeup call that no other solutions exist besides a Jewish Israel and a Palestinian Jordan with the Jordan River in between.

The Jordanian citizenship law states that all non-Jewish Palestinians are natural-born Jordanians, so those Gazans are Jordanians. If the king was willing to let them in, they wouldn’t be under the bombings now.

We need a Palestinian state and we already have one in Jordan. The problem is that King Abdullah refuses to recognize that. I have been warning for years that unless the world tolerates a Palestinian state in Jordan, more trouble was ahead and I believe my words ring true now.

Mudar Zahran is a prominent Palestinian-Jordanian opposition leader that supports secular democracy and peace with Israel. In his new appearance on Hannity, Zahran spoke about Palestinians turning against Hamas (see below).
His parents were born in Jerusalem and moved to Jordan during the Hashemite occupation of the disputed territories west of the Jordan River (commonly referred to as the West Bank by Palestinians and Judea & Samaria by Israelis). His family is one of the most influential within Jordan’s Palestinian majority. 
An entire part of Amman is officially named “Zahran Area” in their honor. Before being forced into exile in the United Kingdom, Zahran was serving as the Economic Specialist and Assistant Policy Coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Amman. He also served the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. During his work with the U.S. Embassy, Zahran covered sensitive matters regarding Jordan, reporting to two U.S. Ambassadors. His reports were forwarded to the U.S. State Department, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, Treasury Department and, occasionally, to the FBI. He was a civil rights activist in Jordan and stood against the Jordanian government’s discriminatory policies towards Palestinians. He fled Jordan in 2010 and is a regular commentator for Middle Eastern media outlets. Zahran envisions a future Jordan that is an “armless welfare state that secures the rights of Jordanians from all heritages and origins and maintains the peace agreement with Israel.” He has previously written for the Clarion Prject on the Palestinian Authority. The following is Mudar Zahran’s interview with Clarion Project National Security Analyst Ryan Mauro: 

 For full article click here: Mudar Zahran: We Have a Palestinian State in Jordan

Who are the Palestinians? An Arab Invention. CBN.

Arab Immigration to Palestine

 

In the late 1800’s and the first half of the 20th century many Arabs were attracted to Palestine due to the prosperity brought about by Jewish development of the land: draining swamps, irrigating wastelands, building industries and towns, farms and cities, medical, and learning facilities, for example: in 1882 forty Jewish families, settled in the scorched sands of what is today known as Rishon LeZion (now a thriving city of over 250,000). By 1889 more than 400 Arab families had settled around these few Jewish families, enjoying full time employment and higher wages (300% higher than any area of the Middle East at the time) and medical facilities never before seen --where once Arab women saw half of their children die before the age of five years, the new Jewish medical facilities offered something they had never known or dreamed of.

This repeated itself in many Jewish areas in Palestine both during the Ottoman rule and the later British mandate. It must be remembered that at that time there existed not one Arab country – there were no borders till after WWI. Droves of Arabs arrived from all over the Middle East, Persian Gulf, and Africa. Muslims of other ethnicities arrived from Africa and even Europe (to become part of the Arab group “described” today as “Palestinians”). 

Of course Arabs also came from eastern Palestine -  what later became Jordan when the British partitioned Palestine in the early 1920’s. They continued to this "in-migration" from eastern Palestine until the '48 war (those that went back to eastern Palestine during the war now refer to themselves as refugees and are so recognized the UN).

The Myth of "Occupation"

 published by Yosef Rabin on Jan 09, 2016 

Even in UN General Assembly Resolution 181, the terms "Palestinian State" or "Palestinians" does not appear a single time

1. The Jewish communities of Judea-Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem* are not located in an “occupied territory.” The last binding international legal instrument which divided the territory of Israel, Judea-Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem*was the League of Nations Mandate, which explicitly recognized the

Jordan is Palestine: Debunking the Palestinian Narrative

The Legal Basis of Israel’s Rights in the Disputed Territories

by Amb. Alan Baker

via Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

1. Upon Israel’s taking control of the area in 1967, the 1907 Hague Rules on Land Warfare and the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) were not considered applicable to the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) territory, as the Kingdom of Jordan, prior to 1967, was never the prior legal sovereign, and in any event has since renounced any claim to sovereign rights via a vis the territory.

Israel's Trojan Horses

Democracy, in Israel, as far as survival goes, has become at best a ludicrous bad dream, or, worse and most probable-- a nightmare -- a weapon used by Fifth Columnists aimed at destroying Israel as a democratic Jewish country. Israeli politics, like in the rest of the Western world, has become driven by one-sided Political Correctness - as if in an alternate world; a "twilight zone" has taken root in Israel, the USA, and the EU. Yes indeed, we have entered the Era of  #ScienceFictionPolitics.

Israel's biggest threat is not from the might of foreign armies, but rather from an enemy within, an enemy that is using the privileges of democracy to bring about its very demise.

Israel, a country the size of a ranch in the US or Australia, and whose very existence sits on a fence -- a pointy picket fence -- wishes to be a super-power in the Science Fictional World of Political Correctness, so adamantly, that she is willing to risk Her very existence.

So in the spirit of this ever-emerging absurd "Russian Roulette" style of law, a style that takes democracy to its outer limits, Israel welcomes into Her parliament (aka Knesset), those that fight daily to destroy Her. Yes, they are paid Members of Knesset that rake in their annual salaries and benefits, paid by Jewish taxpayers of Israel -- paying for their daily activities aimed at bringing Israel to disaster.

And as weird as it may seem, I may get into trouble for describing the situation as it is -- such is the status of "freedom of speech" these days. Much like in the USA today where one is considered a racist for describing the ongoing atrocities around the globe as "Islamic terror" - even when the terrorists themselves claim it is. The alternative to speaking one's mind about this, is to go silently into the night - so I speak, que sera sera.


 Horse #1 Achmad Tibi Former Adviser to Arafat


 Israel pays Arab Knesset members to lecture in the halls of the enemy, to say things such as:

 > "...Welcome to the thousands of shahids (martyrs)..."

> "...and blessings to our shahids within the Greenline..."

> "...those that the occupiers call terrorists while we say there is nothing more admirable than those that die for the homeland..."

Hard to believe? Here, take a gander: Ahmad Tibi - Israeli Arab MP, former adviser to Father of Modern Terrorism, Yasser Arafat, giving this speech:

 

Israeli-Arab Parliament Member 'Achmad Tibi'

Horse #2  Haneen Zoabi

 "...I don’t consider myself just a member of Knesset. We are part of the national project..."

"...Arab Knesset members are part of the 'Palestinian national project,' not Israel's political system..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hanin Zoabi tells Lebanese media she doesn't feel part of the Knesset, and her only role is to represent Palestinian 'struggle.'

Is Jordan Palestine? by Daniel Pipes and Adam Garfinkle

 Excerpts 1988 Article, Middle East Forum

. . ."nobody ever considered the two sides of the Jordan River anything but integral parts of a single land called Palestine." Many American supporters of Israel accept the Jordan-is-Palestine argument. Joan Peters premises her study, From Time Immemorial, on this notion. She routinely calls Israel a "corner of Palestine" and "Western Palestine," while "Eastern Palestine" is her term for Jordan. George F. Will states that "Jordan is Palestine-historically, geographically, ethnically."

A substantial body of opinion has developed in Israel and elsewhere which favors the snappy argument that Jordan is Palestine. Although closely associated with Ariel Sharon, the enfant terrible

Jordan is Palestine - The Myth of "Occupation"

 by Yosef Rabin on Jan 09, 2016

 Even in UN General Assembly Resolution 181, the terms "Palestinian State" or "Palestinians" does not appear a single time.

1. The Jewish communities of Judea-Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem* are not located in an “occupied territory.” The last binding international legal instrument which divided the territory of Israel, Judea-Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem*was the League of Nations Mandate, which explicitly recognized the right of Jewish

San Remo's Mandate: Israel's 'Magna Carta' By Chris Mitchell

By Chris Mitchell

CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief

Monday, April 25, 2011

"The U.N. General Assembly exceeded its authority, exceeded its jurisdiction. It did not have the power to divide the country,"

JERUSALEM, Israel - This year marks the 91st anniversary of the resolution that transformed the Middle East and laid the groundwork for the formation of the modern state of Israel.

On April 25, 1920, delegations from the Allied nations that triumphed in World War I met in San Remo, Italy, to divide the Middle Eastern lands they had conquered.

That historical meeting transformed the Middle East because, for the first time in nearly 2,000 years, the world's nations called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the land that was then called Palestine.

That decision effectively answered a fundamental issue that still plagues the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks today: whether Israel is an occupying power or it has a rightful claim to the land.

Dividing an Empire

 

In San Remo - England, France, Italy, and Japan, with the United States as an observer, divided the Ottomam Empire empire into three mandates: Iraq, Syria and Palestine.

Until its defeat in World War 1, the 400-year-old empire had spread itself throughout the Middle East. Now, France would oversee Syria, while Iraq and Palestine fell under Great Britain.

The resolution also included the Balfour Declaration, written by England's Lord Balfour in 1917. The declaration called for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." One British diplomat, Lord Curzon, called it Israel's "Magna Carta."

Arab's Lion-Share, Israel's Niche 

 

"Chaim Weizman said, at the time, you can say that the Israeli state was born on the 25th of April in San Remo because that was the significance of it," Sandell said.

Howard Grief said the resolution, which was adopted by the League of Nations, established several important precedents.

In his book, The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law, Grief explains that the resolution gave the Jewish people exclusive legal and political rights in Palestine. It also gave the Arabs the same rights for the remainder of the Middle East.

"The Arabs got the lion's share….I mean they got Syria, which was subsequently divided between Syria and Lebanon," Grief said.

"They got all of Mesopotamia and all of Arabia. This is what Balfour himself said. 'Why are you complaining? You are getting all these lands and we're granting a niche - he called it a niche - to the Jewish people who were going to get Palestine," he said.

Immutable Law

 

Grief also explained that the 1920 San Remo resolution supersedes later U.N. resolutions.

"There is a doctrine in international law," Grief said. "Once you recognize a certain situation, the matter is executed. You can't change it."

"The U.N. General Assembly exceeded its authority, exceeded its jurisdiction. It did not have the power to divide the country," he said.

Settling Contested 'Settlements'

 

But what about all those contested Israeli "settlements" in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) that many people - including U.N. Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon - say are illegal?

"Settlements are covered in Article 6 of the mandate for Palestine," Eli Hertz, president of Myths and Facts, explained to conference participants.

"Again the legal international document of the mandate for Palestine and [it] clearly says that not only [do] the Jews have the right to settlement, but the world has the obligation to help them to settle," Hertz explained.

This legal right of the Jews to build in Judea and Samaria or in east Jerusalem neighborhoods is little understood in the world today.

Sandell said he hopes to remedy that problem.

"We feel that we have an historical duty to just bring the facts to the table," Sandell said. "Because we are here dealing with historical facts and this should be known and this should be taken into consideration in the public debate."

Watch More:

Watch expanded interviews with some of the participants in this historic event commemorating the 90th anniversary of the San Remo resolution: 

• Tomas Sandell, the founding director of the European Coalition for Israel, helped organize the 90th anniversary event.  ECI seeks to education European leaders "about the complex realities of the conflict in the Middle East by acknowledging the right for Israel, as the only democracy in the region, to exist within secure borders."  Click here for more from Sandell.  
• Eli Hertz is the president of Myths and Facts, a research organization focused much on the Middle East. Hertz has written a short pamphlet on this subject called "This Land is My Land: Mandate for Palestine, Legal Aspects of Jewish Rights," an excellent primer and succinct explanation of the legal foundation of the Jewish state.

Palestine Mandate Granted by League of Nations

The Council of the League of Nations:

Art. 5  The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign Power.

Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have agreed, for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, to entrust to a Mandatory selected by the said Powers the administration of the territory of Palestine, which formerly belonged to the Turkish Empire, within such boundaries as may be fixed by them; and
Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing
non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country; and Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country; and
Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have selected His Britannic Majesty as the Mandatory for Palestine; and Whereas the mandate in respect of Palestine has been formulated in the following terms and submitted to the Council of the League for approval; and Whereas His Britannic Majesty has accepted the mandate in respect of Palestine and undertaken to exercise it on behalf of the League