Do the "Palestinian" people actually exist?

[Account Closed]

Not according to this PLO official caught off guard making the following statement back in 1977:

From the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan"

Gee, thanks for the uncharacteristic candor Mr. Palestinian Terrorist official, Sir. That clears up a lot for me! So how exactly is Israeli occupying "palestinian" lands if "Palestine" and "Palestinians" don't exist?

The above quote came from an excellent article that anyone interested in getting a different perspective on the Israeli-?Palestinian? issue might find interesting:

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28222

Yes, a very hot topic but given the recent dastardly attack of Israeli ruffians on poor knife and lead pipe wielding "free gaza" humanitarians", I thought it might be relevant.

I'll go to my fox hole now.
:lol:

TC

[Bienes Raices]

"Now you're more educated. :mrgreen: It's a lot more than 2000 years. It's more like 3,000-4,000. One of the earliest conflicts was when Israel was ruled by the prophet Samuel and basically during his reign, every Palestinian invasion attempt failed. Samuel crowned Saul. After Saul was king of Israel, David was king. Remember David and Goliath? Goliath was a Palestinian."

Again I don't see what trying to connect dubious events from the Old Testament with a present day Middle East conflict accomplishes.
"I'm discrediting their claims."

Sorry Tim, I don't think you did discredit them successfully. There were centuries old villages there that taken over by the Israelis in 1948 and afterwards. The Palestinians weren't nomads who just popped up after the Israelis arrived. And I think a lot of people in the world were probably nomadic back in Biblical times.

"The Jews invaded Rome? When was this?"

No, I was referring to them being kicked out of Jerusalem while it was a part of the Roman empire.

"You can't think of the Middle East in terms of Western politics. Everything there is from eons ago, the buildings, the languages and the grudges. "

I don't know why so many people seem to think that Muslims and Jews and have been enemies for centuries. It isn't true. Their relations with each other in Jerusalem weren't perfect at all times, but it was way better than either group in relation to the Christians. Today's conflict started in the early 20th century. I think Zionism was started with good intentions, but things went terribly wrong after the six day war.