Myths and Facts about the Middle East conflict
Ben-Dror Yemini
Israel is described as the great menace to the world peace. One must ask why.
This presentation is divided to 3 parts:
1. What do public figures say about Israel.
2. What do public opinion polls reveal about Israel.
3. What are the facts about Israel.
We could present plenty of negative views against Israel, mainly by academics from
Jews and non-Jews, though here we present them in a nutshell.
When I say expressions against Israel, I don’t mean any legitimate criticism against
Israel, the occupation, and so on. I mean only something irrational, exaggerated,
that demonstrates a kind of obsession against Jews and Israel, together and
separately.
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Ottoman Empire Territorial Division
James Parkes,
Whose Land? A
History of the
Peoples of Palestine
Historical Palestine
The Partition Plan (1947) – The Green Line (1948-1967)
Arab Countries versus Israel
Israel versus the Arab & Muslim world
Yitzhak Laor, an Israeli poet, and a regular
contributor to Haaretz
London Review of Books”, 9.5.2002 :
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The World Bank: infant mortality,
West Bank & Gaza Strip
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Jose Saramago, the Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning
writer (12.4.02):
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Jostein Gaarder (author of "Sophie's World“) (5.9.06):
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QUOTES
Clare Short, former minister in Blair government, the British
Labor party (13.9.07):
“The oppression of the
Palestinian people is the
major cause of violence
in the world”
As part of her obsession, Ms. Short charged:
"Israel undermines the
international community's
reaction to global warming"
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Arun Ghandi, grandson of India’s legendary leader
“Mahatma” Gandhi (7.1.08):
“We have created a
culture of violence
(Israel and the Jews are
the biggest players) and
that Culture of Violence
is eventually going to
destroy humanity”
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Gideon Levy, a leading Israeli Journalist (Haaretz):
“They shoot at the
Palestinians,
Straight at the
head, on a daily
basis”
”THE INDEPENDENT”, 24.9.2010
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Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan (11.1.10):
“Israel
threatening
global
peace”
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ISRAEL’S IMAGE IN WORLD MEDIA
•
."
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Germany
70
60
40
30
20
10
0
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Extermination
50
Nazis
• A 2004 comprehensive
poll, German University
of Bielefeld reveals:
• More than 50%
equating Israel's
policies toward the
Palestinians with Nazi
treatment of the Jews
• 68% specifically believe
that Israel is waging a
"war of extermination"
against the Palestinian
People.
Italy
•
Close to 40% agreed with the
statement that:
“The Israeli government is
perpetrating a full-fledged
genocide and is acting with
the Palestinians the way the
Nazis did with the Jews."
90
40
80
70
35
60
30
50
25
40
20
30
15
20
Extermination
•
The Italian daily Il Corriere della
Sera conducted a survey to
ascertain anti-Semitic attitudes and
public opinion on the Israeli conflict.
Nazis
•
10
0
5
‫רבעון‬
0 ‫ראשון‬
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‫רבעון‬
‫שלישי‬
‫מזרח‬
‫מערב‬
‫צפון‬
Norway
•
•
The Center for Studies of the
Holocaust and Religious Minorities.
Data were collected in November 2011
by TNS Gallup
“38% believe that
Israel’s treatment of
the Palestinians is
similar to Nazi
treatment of the Jews
during World War II"
90
40
80
70
35
60
30
50
25
40
20
30
15
20
‫מזרח‬
‫מערב‬
‫צפון‬
Nazis
•
10
0
5
‫רבעון‬
0 ‫ראשון‬
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‫רבעון‬
‫שלישי‬
The BBC poll:
A majority of people
believe that Israel
has the most
negative influence in
the world.
BBC, 2008
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The 2012 BBC poll: BBC, 2012
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The real Genocide
• Thousands of publications include the
words “genocide” and/or “ethnic
cleansing”, while describing Israel. Much
fewer publications deal with the internal,
continuing and much bigger genocide,
which is taking place in the Arab and or the
Muslim world.
• While Intellectuals, journalists, academics,
put all the blame on Israel, Muslims and
Arabs kill mainly, and almost only, their
fellow Muslims and Arabs. The numbers
are astonishing.
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The real Genocide
• In order to defy the argument, or the
quite common assertion, that Israel is
the main cause of violence in the
Middle-East, we will present here the
death toll, among Arabs and Muslims,
only since the foundation of Israel.
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WORLD FATALITIES
China (1949-1975)
40,000,000
Korean War (1950-53)
Rwanda and Burundi (1959-95)
Second Indochina War (1960-75)
Congo (1998 et seq.)
3,000,000
1,350,000
4,200,000
3,800,000
Ethiopia (1962-92)
Cambodia, Khmer Rouge (1975-1978)
Nigeria (1966-70)
2,000,000
1,650,000
1,000,000
………………
Total After the Second War World
86,000,000
MUSLIM & ARAB WORLD FATALITIES
Algeria (1954-1962)
400,000-1,000,000
Yemen Civil War (1962-1975)
100,000-150,000
Bangladesh (1971)
1,400,000-3,000,000
Chechnya Wars (1995, 1999)
80,000-130,000
Sudan Genocide (Nuba 1983-2003)
1,900,000
Algeria Civil War
100,000-200,000
Iraq-Iran War (1980-1989)
900,000-1,400,000
Somalia Civil war (since 1977)
400,000
Lebanon Civil War (1975-1990)
130,000
Afghanistan Wars (1979-2001)
2,500,000
Darfur Genocide (2003-2008)
200,000-400,000
Total
12,000,000
DEATH TOLL (MUSLIMS & ARABS)
2,600,000
Sudan
2,500,000
Afghanistan
1,540,000
1,400,000
600,000
Iraq
Bangladesh
Algeria
500,000
Indonesia
Iran
450,000
Somalia
400,000
Lebanon
130,000
100,000
Yemen
80,000
Chechnia
60,000
7,400
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Israel
Israel occupation
PROPORTION
The no. of Palestinians who were killed during
more than 40 years of occupation is:
• Less than the no. of Palestinians killed by King
Hussein of Jordan in the “Black September”,
1970 – 10,000-25,000.
• Less than 25,000, the death toll in the 1982
Hama massacre in Syria carried out against
Muslims by Hafez al-Assad.
• Less than the no. of Bosnian Muslims killed in a
single massacre perpetrated by Serbs in 1991 at
Srebrenica, in which over 8,000 murders were
committed.
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1912-1995
1941-1943 1948
BALKANS
FINLAND
INDIA-PAKISTAN
7,000,000
(KARELIA)
14,000,000
1984-1994
600,000
1974
ArmeniaAzerbaijan
1,050,000
CYPRUS
25O,000
India Pakistan
7,000,000
Hindus from
Pakistan to India
14,000,000
7,000,000
Hindus from
Pakistan to India
During the foundation of India, 1948, the just
born entity separated to 2 states, according to
religious lines.
The violence that erupted caused not only a
huge number of casualties, but also a transfer
of 7 millions of Hindus,Ben-Dror
from Pakistan,
and the
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same number of Muslims, from India.
Balkans
7,000,000
Endless waves of population exchanges,
began in 1912 and 1915, and then a big wave
following WW1, 1923, that took place under
some regional settlements. The last wave was
during the 90’s.
Fridtjof Nansen, who initiated the population
exchange betweenBen-Dror
Turkey
and Greece, won
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the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.
Germans
12,000,000
Following World War II , ethnic Germans were
forced to leave all the neighboring countries.
Most of them as a result of post-war
agreements, like Yalta and Potsdam.
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Sudan
3,000,000
Since the foundation of Sudan, the civil war,
mainly between the Arab-Muslim north and the
south, has never stopped.
The last wave is the genocide, and ethnic
cleansing, in Darfur.
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Poland-Ukraine
1,400,000
The multi-ethnic area at the eastern border of
Poland caused several waves of population
exchanges, mainly following the 2 world wars.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of people
were forced to move.
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Armenia- Azerbaijan
740,000
Muslims to
Azerbaijan
360,000
Armenians
to Armenia
1,000,000
The majority of Azerbaijan is MUSLIM. But the
majority in Nagorno-Karabakh region was Armenian
Christian. In 1988, this semi-autonomous region
sought to be joined to Armenia. That request
triggered widespread killings of Muslims in Armenia
and Armenians in Azerbaijan. Fighting ended with a
ceasefire in 1994, but the conflict gave rise to one
million new refugees: 740,000 Muslims fled Armenia
for Azerbaijan, and
360,000 Armenians made the
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opposite direction.
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill was convinced that the only
way to alleviate tensions between populations
was the transfer of people, to match the national
borders. As he stated in a speech to the House
of Commons in 1944:
“Expulsion is the method
which will be the most
satisfactory and lasting.
There will be no mixture of
populations to cause
endless trouble…
A clean sweep will be made.
I am not alarmed by these
transferences”
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POPULATION
TRANSFERS
IN EUROPE
1944-1951:
20,000,000
Prof. Joseph
Schechtman
Israel-Arab, Jews and Palestinians
711,000
Arabs to the
neighboring
countries
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850,000
Jews from the
Arab countries
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Jews in Maabara (Refugees Camp) 1951
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POPULATION EXCHANGES
1913-1995
PALESTINIANS 2010
5,000,000
SUM
42,000,000
Cyprus
250,000
850,000
Jews
711,000
Palestinians 1948
Armenia-Azerbaijan
1,050,000
Balkans
7,000,000
India-Pakistan
14,400,000
Europe
20,000,000
45,000,00 40,000,00 35,000,00 30,000,00 25,000,00 20,000,00 15,000,00 10,000,00 5,000,000
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
ARAB LANDS
Algeria
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Libya
Mauritania
Egypt
Somalia
Yemen
Morocco
Iraq
Oman
Syria
Tunisia
Jordan
United Arab Emirates
Djibouti
Kuwait
Qatar
Lebanon
Palestine
Comoros
Bahrain
2,381,741
2,149,690
1,861,484
1,759,540
1,025,520
919,595
830,000
718,723
679,360
395,960
18.10%
16.40%
14.20%
11.40%
7.80%
1,002,000
637,657
527,968
446,550
435,244
309,500
185,180
163,610
89,342
83,600
23,200
17,818
11,586
10,452
6,020
2,235
758
387,000
246,201
203,850
172,410
168,049
119,500
71,500
63,170
34,495
32,300
9,000
6,880
4,473
4,036
2,320
863
293
7.60%
4.90%
4.00%
3.40%
3.30%
2.40%
1.40%
1.20%
0.70%
0.60%
0.10%
0.10%
0.08%
0.08%
0.05%
0.01%
0.01%
13,130,195
sq km
13,130,695
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ARAB LANDS
340,000,000
People
3,400,000
People
13,130,195
sq km
20,770
sq km
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REFUGEES
The UN has two agencies:
United Nations
United Nations
High Commission Relief and Works
for Refugees)
Agency)
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WHO IS A REFUGEE?
UNHCR
Every person who, owing
to external aggression,
occupation, foreign
domination or events
seriously disturbing public
order in either part or the
whole of his country of
origin or nationality, is
compelled to leave his
place of habitual residence
in order to seek refuge in
another place outside his
country of origin or
nationality
UNRWA
Palestine refugees are
persons whose normal
place of residence was
Palestine between June
1946 and May 1948,
who lost both their
homes and means of
livelihood as a result of
the 1948 Arab-Israeli
conflict
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THE PARADOX OF UNRWA
UNHCR
UNRWA
helps people out of their
refugee status
helps people to preserve
their refugee status
Status of refugee is not
given to all offspring
Status of refugee is given
to all offspring
refugee status is
dependent on economic
condition
refugee status is not
dependent on economic
condition
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THE PARADOX OF UNRWA
UNRWA
UNHCR
“Helped
50,000,000
people to restart their
life”
They are not refugees
anymore”
http://www.unhcr.org.ua/main.php?article_id=4&view=full
http://www.unhcr.org.ua/main.php?article_id=4&view=full
711,000
refugees in 1948
The number now is
(according to UNRWA)
5,000,000
http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=47
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“The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect
the Palestinians, but instead they abandoned
them, forced them to emigrate and to leave
their homeland, imposed upon them a political
and ideological blockade and threw them into
prisons similar to the ghettos in which the
Jews used to live in Eastern Europe…"
“For 17 years the Arab radio stations
broadcasted their intention of throwing the
Jews to the sea and returning the refugees to
their homes… They didn’t throw the Jews into
the sea, and they didn’t return the refugees”
“… refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors
should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation
should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or
damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be
made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.
Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement
and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of
compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations
Relief for Palestine Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organs and
agencies of the United Nations;
“… the reintegration of the refugees into the economic life of the Near East,
either by repatriation or resettlement is essential ... for the realization of
conditions of peace and stability in the area”
“... the Governments concerned to undertake measures to ensure that refugees,
whether repatriated or resettled, will be treated without any discrimination either
in law or in fact”
4. … to explore with the governments concerned arrangements looking towards their
assuming administration of reintegration projects at the earliest possible date;
5. Requests the UNRWA to explore with the governments concerned the
transferring the administration of relief to those governments at the earliest
possible date … UNRWA should continue to carry the cost”
The Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Muhammad Saleh ed-Din:
In demanding the restoration of the refugees to Palestine, the
Arabs intend that they shall return as the masters … More
explicitly: they intend to exterminate the state of Israel”
Alexander Galloway, UNRWA official 1951-52:
“The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They
want to keep it as an open sore … as a weapon against Israel.
Arab leaders don't give a damn whether the refugees live or die”
Refugee conference in Homs, Syria, 1957:
“… any discussion aimed at a solution of the Palestine problem
which will not based on ensuring the refugees' right to annihilate
Israel will be regarded as desecration of the Arab people and an
act of treason”
The Arab League, 1959, Resolution 1457:
“The Arab countries will not grant citizenship to applicants of
Palestinian origin in order to prevent their assimilation into the
host countries”
Egypt’s President, Gamal Abdul Nasser, 1960:
“If the refugees return to Israel, Israel will cease to exist”
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• Lord Peel Commission - 1937
• The Partition Resolution - 1947
• The Khartoum Decision (Arab League) - 1967
• The Bill Clinton Proposal - 2000
• The Arab Initiative - 2002
• The Olmert Proposal - 2008
The Clinton Proposal
Bill Clinton, “My Life”, 2005, 936-946
Condoleezza Rice,
about the Olmert proposal:
Condoleezza Rice “No Higher Honor”, 2011
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Condoleezza Rice,
about the Olmert proposal:
Condoleezza Rice “No Higher Honor”, 2011
The Olmert Proposal:
The Olmert Proposal:
The People Voice Initiative:
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“Kill the Jews”
(the Grand Mufti with Hitler) 1941
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The Hamas Charter, Article 17
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Abbas Zaki:
Abbas Zaki:
•
When we say that the settlement should be based upon the borders of
June 4, 1967, President [Abbas] understands, we understand, and
everybody knows that
cannot be
accomplished in one go.
the greater goal
•
If Israel withdraws (to the 67 borders- B.Y) – what will become of
Israel?
.
•
[...] If one says that one wants
...
C'mon, it's too difficult. It's not [acceptable] policy to say so. Don't say
these things to the world. Keep it to yourself.
It will come to an end
to wipe Israel out
(Fatah Central Committee Member
Abbas Zaki, Al-Jazeera Sep. 2011)
Palestinian Authority Mufti
(Highest religious authority at Fatah event, Jan. 15, 2012):
Moderator at Fatah event:
AHMEDINJAD –
“DEATH TO ISRAEL”
HAMAS: “KILL THE JEWS, THE CHRISTIANS,
THE COMUNISTS, TO THE LAST ONE”
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HAMAS: “KILL THE JEWS, THE CHRISTIANS,
THE COMUNISTS, TO THE LAST ONE”
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•
•
•
•
•
ROME STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT*
Article 7
Crimes against humanity
1.
For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the
following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack
directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
(a) Murder; (b) Extermination; (c) Enslavement; (d) Deportation or forcible
transfer of population; (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical
liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture; (g) Rape,
sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or
any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) Persecution against
any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural,
religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally
recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act
referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
(i) Enforced disappearance of persons; (j) The crime of apartheid; (k) Other
inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious
injury to body or to mental or physical health.
“The crime of apartheid" means inhumane acts of a character similar to those
referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of
systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial
group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime”
The Apartheid Lie
Moshe Katsav, the eight president
of Israel, was sent to 7 years in jail
George Kara,
The Presiding Judge
According to the Democracy Index 2011,
nearly 53 percent of Israeli Arabs are
“Proud to be Israelis”
The survey conducted by the
Israel Democracy Institute
42 percent of Jerusalem Arabs say they
would try to move to Israel if their
neighborhood became part of a new
Palestinian state
These findings are from a survey sponsored by The Washington
Institute and conducted by Palestinian pollster Dr. Nabil Kukali of the
Bethlehem-based Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO), in
partnership with the Princeton-based Pechter Middle East Polls
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FLOTILA TO GAZA
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THE FIRST CHCHEN WAR
1994-1996
50,000-200,000
IRAQ,
THE SECOND CHCHEN WAR
FALUJJAH
1999-2001
2004
30,000-100-000
(1,200)
SRI-LANKA
2009
PAKISTAN
SWAT VALLEY
2009
2,000-6,000
NATO-KOSOVO WAR
1999
10,000-40,000
(500)
1,100-2,500
ISRAEL: CAST LEAD
2009
(1,200) 6,000
(700) 500-700
BATTLES DEATH TOLL
(COMBTANTS & CIVILIANS)
0.8
1.6
0.8
40
30
35
ISRAEL GAZA
2 0.5
NATO BELGRAD
1
PAKISTAN SWAT
1
USA FALLUJAH
0.1
0.6
1.2
45
0.7
COMBATANTS
CIVILIANS?
CIVILIANS
30
25
3
6
SRI LANKA
10
20
15
10
5
0
GOLDSTONE C:
“If I had known then
what I know now, the
Goldstone Report
would have been a
different report”
(Washington Post,
April 1, 2011)
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