OPINION:
I recently wrote in this section that anti-Israel war protesters are seemingly ignorant of history.
As I pointed out earlier, the protesters who want to free “Palestine” are apparently unaware there are no “Palestinian” people. There has never been a country called Palestine. No government with elected officials. No country borders. No official currency, etc. The borderless area referred to was known by many other names throughout history, including Judea and Samaria, Canaan, and Israel. When the Romans took their turn invading the area, they renamed it Syria Palaestina.
The indigenous Jews fought against Roman control in three separate wars over 66 years while continuing to call their home Israel. The Arabs created the term “Palestinians” for themselves in 1964 when Yasser Arafat established the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Conversely, there is no denying some Arabs had homes in that area. But they rejected the 1948 international settlement of their claim and subsequent peace offerings. After those rejections and the lost spoils of several failed Arab-initiated wars, any entitlement of the land from the “river to the sea” is a nonstarter.
Reports often refer to “Palestinian refugees.” The children and grandchildren of those who lost or left their homes in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War are not refugees.
There are no current or historic examples where refugee status becomes an inherited birthright. Children and grandchildren of Jews who lost their homes to the Nazis or descendants of American Indians forced off their land are not legally entitled refugees.
The children of the Japanese who trace their roots back to Tokyo are not afforded refugee status despite the 1945 atomic bombing that left 1 million people homeless.
In short, words matter. Words create ideas. And those ideas have consequences.
One such consequence is the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, known as UNRWA. It was established in 1948 and, without unique justification, continues today. Last year, the U.S. gave $153 million to UNRWA for these “Palestinian refugees.”
There is no such special U.N. agency for families who have lost homes in Ukraine, Somalia, Sudan, Niger, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya or other war-torn countries.
Such twisting language continues when some reporters state that the people in Gaza have been living in cramped quarters. Reality check: The population density of the Gaza Strip is equal to that of London, Tel Aviv and many other cities.
Before this war, most residents of Gaza were not living in so-called refugee camps. News videos of the war show neighborhoods (not camps) of multifloor apartment buildings. Many have been destroyed as Hamas terrorists hide there, as well as in 300 miles of tunnels. Before the Hamas attack, these neighborhoods had upscale shopping malls, a Mercedes-Benz dealership, entertainment venues, and a “world-class zoo,” as described by the mayor.
Gaza has been described as an “open-air prison.” The 25-mile-long Gaza Strip along the Mediterranean Sea is twice the land area of Washington, D.C. The prison reference suggests the land bordering Gaza with Egypt and Israel is sealed. While selective crossings are allowed, the Israeli blockade reflects the Hamas charter to destroy Israel’s government and people.
Egypt is also unwilling to provide open access given Hamas’ connection to the Muslim Brotherhood, another terrorist group. In “Through the Looking-Glass,” Alice is admonished by Humpty Dumpty, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
Hamas apologists reflect that sentiment with fake imagery and by twisting terms into new definitions.
“Apartheid” is another term hijacked into a new customized definition. It was first used to define racial segregation in South Africa. By any normal definition, there is no racial or religious segregation in Gaza by Israel.
And of the 2 million Arabs who live freely in Israel, some serve in government in elected positions. They work in schools. In the public health sector, 25% of doctors, 30% of nurses and 60% of pharmacists in 2021 were Israeli Arabs.
The current war will end at some point with the arbiters of peace reviving the “two-state solution.” This is another idea that lacks a universal definition. When the original 1947 two-state solution with fixed boundaries was suggested by the United Nations was rejected by the area’s Arab governments, no country claimed a colorable title to that land. The current two-state advocates suggest a truce while leaving Hamas intact.
If you want a two-state solution, you can’t do both. There is no possibility that Israel will make a deal with a terrorist group committed to its destruction. And protesters with slogans on signs won’t change these facts.
• Rick Berman is president of RBB Strategies.
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