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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Judaea-Samaria's Turn to Terrorism with Arafat

Nadene Goldfoot

Jews always lived in 'Palestine".  In the 1920's and 30's there was an Arab who hated Jews.  He was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini, who was the one who instigated and led the massacre of Jews.  He was a collaborator with Adolph Hitler.  Arabs attacked Jews in 1947 when the British were getting ready to leave and turn the country over to the Jews in 1948. 

Judaea and Samaria (West Bank of the Jordan) was a territory until 1948 and also part of the British Mandate of Palestine.  Between 1948 and 1967 it was ruled by Jordan, which annexed it in 1950 illegally.  They just took it over.  It was not a British decision. 

I:n 1967 the massed Arab armies that menaced Israel's frontiers attacked but again lost the war. The territories came under Israel's administration because of this defeat, and were in 4 different areas.


By 1972 almot 640,600 Arabs lived in Judaea and Samaria which covered 2,270 Sq mi.  Until a peace settlement was attained, Israel's policy tried to achieve certain objectives which were:
   1. Have security for both Israelis and Arabs
   2. Inhabitants to live normal lives without losing contact with Arabs in other countries
   3. Rapid economic development
  4.  Encourage co-existence and cooperation between Arabs of the areas and Israelis as an example for relations to come between the two peoples. 

At the time the administered areas were tranquil and thriving.  Local affairs were administered by local population.  There were open bridges on the Jordan to allow movement in either direction between the areas and the Arab states.  Arabs and Israelis up to 1967 lived in mutual separation and estrangement, but were then enjoying the beginnings of a peacful and fruitful co-existence.  The hope was that this would transform Arab-Israeli relations from conflict into cooperation. 

There were 23 municipalities and 31 rural councils in Judaea and Samaria.  Israeli laison officers from the Ministry of Interior approved their budgets, arranged to lend them funds at low interest, and audit their finances and administration. 

Municipal elections were held in 1972 according to Jordanian law.  They had a lively election campaign and candidates were on TV.  75% of the voters turned out to vote.  The result was that about 1/2 the mayors were replaced with new ones. 

Since 1967 Israel instituted an Open Bridges policy allowing movement of people and goods between the areas and Arab countries.  From having a stagnanat economy with high unemployment, they were transformed into one of growing prosperity as they had been suffering 11% unemployment.  By 1972 less than 2% were unemployed of a force of 134,000.  At first work came from schemes of public undertakings like road building and afforestation.  Later, they found employment in Israel and labour exchanges were opened. 

517,500 acres were under cultivation in Judaea and Samaria with only 4% irrigated.  In September 1967 over 40% of homes, half of the total population, were engaged in farming which meant that an average of 30,000 men and 13,000 women.  In March 1971Israel brought in a staff to improve yields which did improve from 50% yields to 100%. 

In all, life was improving from 1967-1972 after Israel  became the administrators instead of Jordan. The PLO changed the people's attitudes. 

After 1967's defeat, the Arabs turned to Yasser Arafat.  This man became chairman of the PLO terrorists, who was born in Egypt but did live in Jerusalem with his uncle.  Yasser's real name was Abd al-Rahman abd al-Rauf Arafat al-Qud al-Husseini.  He was a close kinsman of that hateful man, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem ! 

He managed to increase membership of the PLO and wreck havoc on the Israelis.  All that Israel was trying to accomplish seemed to go by the wayside because of this group.  The PLO today are Fatah, run by Abbas.  They are still a group of terrorists. 

Resource: Facts about Israel-book, Division of information, ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem
http://www.scottishfriendsofisrael.org/arafat_plo.htm

1 comment:

Nadene Goldfoot said...

The head of t he Military Operations Department of the PLO, Zuheir Muhsein, declared on March 31, 1977, "Only for political reasons do we carefully underline our Palestinian identity....The existence of a separate Palestinian identity is there for tactical reasons." Only after the State of Israel was established in May 1948 did the term "Palestinian" become exclusively used in referring to Arabs in the area.