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| Different histories of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict | Different histories of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict |
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| Like Mahmoud Abbas, my father came from Safed, and on behalf of his family I have no intention of renouncing claims arising from our expulsion from the town in 1947-48 (Abbas sparks Palestinian fury after waiving right of return, 5 November). In describing massacres in the Safed area, the Israeli Meron Benvenisti wrote: "These atrocities which … are regarded as libel, invented by the enemies of Israel … were, at the time they took place, known to ministers in the Israeli government, military commanders, and even the general public." | Like Mahmoud Abbas, my father came from Safed, and on behalf of his family I have no intention of renouncing claims arising from our expulsion from the town in 1947-48 (Abbas sparks Palestinian fury after waiving right of return, 5 November). In describing massacres in the Safed area, the Israeli Meron Benvenisti wrote: "These atrocities which … are regarded as libel, invented by the enemies of Israel … were, at the time they took place, known to ministers in the Israeli government, military commanders, and even the general public." |
| The rights of the expelled Palestinians have not evaporated with the passage of time. The houses they lived in and the valuables they left behind were all stolen by the Jews who moved in. When I tried to visit one of my family's houses in Safed a few years ago – a house mentioned in Mahmoud Abbas's memoirs – the door was slammed in my face by the Russian-Jewish owner. The issue that has to be addressed is how the undeniable right of return of Palestinian refugees is to be managed. Having visited Safed many times, I am in two minds about whether I would actually return there. From having been a vibrant town with a majority Arab population, but a significant centuries-old Jewish presence, it has now become a dump. The former Arab part of town has been turned into a so-called "Artists Quarter", where there is little sign of art, just tawdry paintings and cheap knick-knacks that no one buys. But it is for me to decide whether I want to return or accept compensation, not for the Israelis, or indeed the president of Palestine, to deny that right on my behalf. Karl Sabbagh Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire | The rights of the expelled Palestinians have not evaporated with the passage of time. The houses they lived in and the valuables they left behind were all stolen by the Jews who moved in. When I tried to visit one of my family's houses in Safed a few years ago – a house mentioned in Mahmoud Abbas's memoirs – the door was slammed in my face by the Russian-Jewish owner. The issue that has to be addressed is how the undeniable right of return of Palestinian refugees is to be managed. Having visited Safed many times, I am in two minds about whether I would actually return there. From having been a vibrant town with a majority Arab population, but a significant centuries-old Jewish presence, it has now become a dump. The former Arab part of town has been turned into a so-called "Artists Quarter", where there is little sign of art, just tawdry paintings and cheap knick-knacks that no one buys. But it is for me to decide whether I want to return or accept compensation, not for the Israelis, or indeed the president of Palestine, to deny that right on my behalf. Karl Sabbagh Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire |
| • The letter from Ghada Karmi and others (UK's responsibility to the Palestinians, 2 November) deserves correction. Only a fully truthful account can render justice to the Palestinians. The Balfour declaration made explicit that its implementation should not prejudice the rights of the indigenous inhabitants. In no way did it give the Zionist movement "carte blanche to transform the overwhelmingly Arab state of Palestine into a Jewish one". Leaving aside the question of whether Palestine was a state in any modern meaning of the word after the removal of the Ottoman empire, how the terms of the Balfour declaration were observed was a matter for the British government exercising its responsibilities under the mandate. I doubt very much that Britain "encouraged the mass immigration into Palestine of hundreds of thousands of European Jews". Rather the reverse. | • The letter from Ghada Karmi and others (UK's responsibility to the Palestinians, 2 November) deserves correction. Only a fully truthful account can render justice to the Palestinians. The Balfour declaration made explicit that its implementation should not prejudice the rights of the indigenous inhabitants. In no way did it give the Zionist movement "carte blanche to transform the overwhelmingly Arab state of Palestine into a Jewish one". Leaving aside the question of whether Palestine was a state in any modern meaning of the word after the removal of the Ottoman empire, how the terms of the Balfour declaration were observed was a matter for the British government exercising its responsibilities under the mandate. I doubt very much that Britain "encouraged the mass immigration into Palestine of hundreds of thousands of European Jews". Rather the reverse. |
| Until the 1930s, Jewish immigration, motivated more by religious belief than Zionist nationalism, was at a fairly low level and often tolerated by the Palestinian population. It was in the 1930s that this all changed. The pressure of European antisemitism motivated Jews to seek refuge outside Europe and the only place open to most of them (and which their faith told them was the land promised to them as their ultimate destiny) was Palestine. The doors of other nations, Britain and the US in particular, were shut to them. But it was the culmination of European antisemitism in the Holocaust which led to an international crisis. In postwar Europe there were several million displaced survivors unable to return to their original countries. Had Britain admitted up to 1 million of the displaced Jews, and the US up to 2 million, the crisis in Palestine would have been solvable. Instead Britain invited in thousands of Ukrainians, among them SS war criminals. Thus to the tragedy of the Shoah was added the tragedy of the Nakba. Lionel Burman West Kirby, Wirral | Until the 1930s, Jewish immigration, motivated more by religious belief than Zionist nationalism, was at a fairly low level and often tolerated by the Palestinian population. It was in the 1930s that this all changed. The pressure of European antisemitism motivated Jews to seek refuge outside Europe and the only place open to most of them (and which their faith told them was the land promised to them as their ultimate destiny) was Palestine. The doors of other nations, Britain and the US in particular, were shut to them. But it was the culmination of European antisemitism in the Holocaust which led to an international crisis. In postwar Europe there were several million displaced survivors unable to return to their original countries. Had Britain admitted up to 1 million of the displaced Jews, and the US up to 2 million, the crisis in Palestine would have been solvable. Instead Britain invited in thousands of Ukrainians, among them SS war criminals. Thus to the tragedy of the Shoah was added the tragedy of the Nakba. Lionel Burman West Kirby, Wirral |
| • Re the Arab exodus from Palestine: there is no mention of the UN resolution which divided Palestine between Arab and Jew, which Israel accepted and the Arabs did not. Nor is there any reference to the war which followed, when six Arab nations invaded the new Israeli state with the declared aim of its elimination. Without that rejection and invasion of Israel there would have been no Arab refugees. Paul Miller London | • Re the Arab exodus from Palestine: there is no mention of the UN resolution which divided Palestine between Arab and Jew, which Israel accepted and the Arabs did not. Nor is there any reference to the war which followed, when six Arab nations invaded the new Israeli state with the declared aim of its elimination. Without that rejection and invasion of Israel there would have been no Arab refugees. Paul Miller London |
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