The New Naqba

Canada Free Press ^ | 09/27/15 | Diane Weber Bederman

[Sean_Anthony]

Catastrophe. Not just the displacement of millions of people who have suffered under the hands of barbaric terrorism by Islamists, but the refusal of Muslims the world over to care for their own while blaming others for the displacement

In 1948, five Arab countries attacked the new country of Israel, sure of their success. They failed. But Jordan conquered part of Jerusalem in the war, annexed it, ethnically cleansed the Jews whose ancestors had inhabited Jerusalem for thousands of years, destroyed the Holy Sites just as today ISIS has destroyed the Holy Sites in lands they take. The Arabs demolished more than 50 synagogues and used the tombstones for sidewalks, having learned well from the Nazis.

And the war that the Arab world initiated led to hundreds of thousands of Arabs on the move. And no Arab country would welcome them, take them in, embrace them as brothers and sisters. And so, over time, the Muslims called this episode the Naqba, the Catastrophe. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Jews whose ancestors had lived in Muslim countries for thousands of years, from the time before Jesus, were thrown out, forced to leave their homes and businesses behind. There would be no home for them in Europe; not after the Nazis. They were welcomed in Israel. There are no Jewish refugees anywhere in the world. They are always welcome in Israel, embraced by their brothers and sisters.

[BlackVeil]

It is inaccurate to say that “no Arab country” would take the Palestinian refugees. Both Syria and Iraq took large numbers of Palestinians. In Iraq, Palestinians lived as Iraqis, and there were no refugee camps, until - ironically - they were installed in 2003, by the US forces. The Palestinians in Iraq suffered a great deal, and were forced to relocate.

Syria’s Palestinian “camps” are suburbs - in Damascus - quite a prosperous suburb. Palestinians in Syria have the right to freedom of movement, to own property, and circulate as they please. But now, they are under seige, like so many in Syria because of the foreign backed insurgency.

Syria took refugees from Iraq, and from other parts of the Arab world. Any Arab had the right to enter Syria, without even a visa. After 2003, thousands poured over their borders, mainly Christians from Iraq, and they helped them as best they could.