Why Arabs fail to understand the unique and special connection Jews have to ‘Eretz Yisrael’?
Many Christian and Muslim Arabs find it difficult to understand the “unique and special connection” many Zionists claim to have for Palestine for the following reasons:
1- Since Zionism, as an ideology, evolved in response to the rise of European nationalism and anti-Semitism in the late 19th century, especially in Tsarist Russian ruled Poland, Latvia, and Ukraine, and in France during the Dreyfus affair, the question which begs to be posed: Is there a connection between Tsarist Russia’s pogroms (or the Nazi holocaust) and the “unique and special connection” many Zionist Jews claim to have to “Eretz Yisrael”?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/18/invention-land-israel-shlomo-sand
(The pdf version of the book can be found at the end of the article).
2- For the moment, let’s assume that this “unique and special connection” has always existed amongst Zionists, then: Where were the world Jewry when their “Eretz Yisrael” was raped and pillaged by the Christian Crusaders? Why wasn’t the Bible used to save the promised land ?(There is no denial that Jews fought and tried to defend themselves for example in the Jerusalem massacre that has befallen on Muslims , Christians ,and Jews. We are referring to the fact , that there was no call for Jews all around the world , nor the use of the Bible like what Zionists did or series of conquests to reclaim their promised land ) It should be noted that hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Arabs died while cleansing “Eretz Yisrael” from the Crusaders between 11th-13th centuries, even Ben-Gurion recognized this whole point. Is it possible that many Muslims and Arabs had a kind of a “unique and special connection” to “Eretz Yisrael” as well?
3- Since “Eretz Yisrael” historically spanned the borders of the occupied West Bank (inclusive of occupied East Jerusalem), western parts of Jordan, the occupied Golan Heights, the Sinai peninsula, southern Lebanon, and southern Syria, does that imply that: Israel must never relinquish “Jewish sovereignty” over the occupied West Bank, the occupied Golan Heights, and the liberated southern Lebanon? Israel must reoccupy and reinvade southern Lebanon? Israel eventually must nullify the peace treaties it has signed with Egypt and Jordan since “Eretz Yisrael’s” borders span some of Egypt’s and Jordan’s borders?
4- Let’s assume that the above arguments are nonsense to the average Zionist, then:What makes this “unique and special connection” different from the one that German, Polish, Greek, Italian, Egyptian, … etc. Christians have towards Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem? Ironically, once upon a time the Catholic Christians felt a similar “unique and special connection” to “Eretz Yisrael”, and we all know how that turned out to be! Why must this “unique and special connection” imply Palestinian dispossession?Why cannot this “unique and especial connection” continue to flourish without “transferring” the Palestinian people out of their homes, farms, and business? Why Christians’ “unique and special connections” to “EretzYisrael” flourished without Palestinians being “transferred” or dispossessed?
5- Again, assuming that the above arguments are still nonsense to the average Zionist, then: Would you advocate perpetrating war crimes (such as massive ethnic cleansing, dispossession, massacres or even committing genocides) against non-Jews to make “Eretz Yisrael” a country under “Jewish control”? In Biblical times, Israelites’ conquest of Jericho contained many documented cases of mass killings and looting, could such Biblical events be used as a precedent to “redeem Eretz Yisrael” from the “gentiles”?How do you know where, when, and how to draw the line?
(Continuing from this argument)
There is no question of the fact that many Jews do feel a “unique and special connection” toward “Eretz Yisrael”, which we neither seek to diminish nor nullify. However, to claim that this “connection” is stronger, different, or even more divine than the way Muslims and Christians feel toward Palestine, is nothing but a false claim. This fact was very well articulated by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the father of the Israeli political Right, in 1923. He wrote:
“They [Palestinians] look upon Palestine with the same instinctive love and true favor that Aztecs looked upon Mexico or any Sioux looked upon his prairie. Palestine will remain for the Palestinians not a borderland, but their birthplace, the center and basis of their own national existence.” (Righteous Victims p.36)
The hard truth that Zionists refuse to contemplate is that Zionism evolved to European anti-Semitism, and it had little to do with the Biblical “connection” many Zionists claim to have to Palestine. As with its predecessor, the Christian Crusade, the Old Testament is being used to confuse and distract attention from the core issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It’s tragic that often the words of God are used to justify perpetrating war crimes against others.
The invention of the land of Israel : From holy land to homeland by Shlomo Sand.