Where were your eyes on October 7th?

Israel and Palestine: A basic history lesson

Dedication:

For those who read political opinions off of the internet, but will never read the news or touch a history book.

Where were your eyes on October 7th? Were they glued to some TikTok trend or Instagram post, hash tagging “Free Palestine” without even knowing a thing about the region’s history?

There has been a new wave of “activists”, with little to no knowledge of history, and yet, they’re taking to the streets, fueled by misinformation. In UC Berkeley, students chant “Long live the Intifada” unaware that Intifada movements led to countless deaths and rampant violence. Take the second Intifada (2000-2005) for example, where Palestinian extremists launched thousands of attacks on Israeli civllians–suicide bombings, shootings, and stabbings–where they killed over 1,000 people, mostly women amd children.

At Harvard, a surge of anti-Israel petitions is cropping up, with students seeming more interested in joining the latest outrage bandwagon than actually knowing the facts. These are college students—allegedly the best and brightest—yet seem absolutely oblivious to history.

Some important history:

For starters, Judaism is native to the land of Israel. Jewish presence in the region predates the very existence of Islam by over a thousand years. The First Temple, built in Jerusalem by King Solomon, stood in 957 BCE-centuries before the Arab community even thought about arriving. The kingdoms of Judea and Israel existed long before Islam or even Christianity.

Contrary to popular belief, Arab violence against Jews is not a modern invention tied to Israel’s establishment in 1949. Arab hostility has remained constant throughout history. We can take the example of the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, where Arab mobs incited by hateful rhetoric from leaders like the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, went on a rampage, killing Jews in the streets of Jerusalem. This was long before the establishment of the State of Israel.

Then there was the Hebron massacre of 1929, where Jews were brutally murdered by Arabs in a city that had a Jewish community for centuries. The reason? Unfounded rumours that Jews were planning to take over the Al-Aqsa mosque (which, not to mention, was built on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, where the First and Second Jewish Temples once stood). The British, who were in charge of Mandatory Palestine did nothing to stop the violence, and in fact, continually appeased the Arab extremists by restricting Jewish immigration to the region even at a time when Jews were being slaughtered across Europe. The Holocaust.

Let’s not forget the MS St. Louis debacle in 1939. When Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution were being turned away country after country. This is in part why Israel exists. Jews had nowhere to go. The Jewish Agency in fact even purchased land in Mandatory Palestine from absentee Arab landlords. Only when Jewish immigration picked up in the early 20th century did Arab leaders resort to violence and terror to ban the Jews.

The British were quite complicit back then. Britain restricted Jewish immigration during World

War II, even while Germany was exterminating millions of Jews. There was no sympathy for European Jewish refugees then. It's interesting how refugees of the Arab world expect Europe and the rest of the world to open their borders, yet when Jews needed the same kind of refuge, doors were slammed right in their faces.

Arab hostility towards Israel - some significant instances:

1967

People, (in most cases, Gen Z), fail to acknowledge or conveniently ignore that the Arab world around Israel has always been hostile to the Jews. A very popular but conveniently ignored instance is when in 1967, Gamal Abdel Nasser mobilised Egyptian troops in the Sinai peninsula and called for the annihilation of Israel. It was a coordinated attempt by Syria, Jordan and Egypt. It is important to note however, that Jordan occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem from

1948-1967. Israel defeated all the three countries, and occupied the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem. Israel offered to return the captured territories in exchange for peace agreements. The Arab League however, responded with the infamous “Three No’s”, that is, no peace, no recognition, no negotiation, at the Khartoum Conference in August 1967.

Yom Kippur

Another instance would be the Yom Kippur War of 1973, a surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria, during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. Yet Again, the war resulted in an Israeli victory. It however hampered all the diplomatic progress that took place post-1967.

The Second Intifada (2000-2005)

The Second Intifada was quite bloody. It involved suicide bombings targeted at Israeli buses, markets and cafes. Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade used civilians as human shields, launching attacks from densely populated areas so as to maximise Palestinian casualties in the event of an Israeli retaliation (see Efraim Karsh, Arafat’s War)

Disengagement from Gaza

Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, where they dismantled settlements and removed military forces in a move to bring peace to the region. The withdrawal had been taken advantage of by Hamas, resulting in Hamas seizing control of Gaza and turning it into a rocket base. (see Jonathan Schanzer, Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine)

2014 Gaza War

In the 2014 conflict, Hamas launched over 4,500 rockets at Israel. Tunnels were built to infiltrate Israeli towns. Jeffrey White mentioned in The Gaza War 2014, that Hamas shielded their weapons in civilian buildings, hospitals and mosques.

The Anti-Semitic nature of Palestinian Rejectionism

The 1937 Peel Commission Plan

The British Peel Commission proposed a two-state solution in 1937, as a result of escalating tensions between Jews and Arabs. While Jewish leaders accepted the proposal, Palestinians and Arab leaders rejected it, as they were opposed to any form of Jewish sovereignty in the region.

The 1947 UN Partition Plan

The UN proposed a partition plan in 1947, creating separate Jewish and Arab states. Jewish leaders accepted the plan, however, Palestinian Arabs rejected the proposal and launched a war to stop the establishment of a Jewish state, the war that we now know as the 1948 Arab Israeli war.

The Camp David Summit (2000)

In 2000, Israeli PM Ehud Barak offered Yasser Arafat a peace deal, which included a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and Palestimians would approximately have 94% of the West Bank. Arafat walked away from the negotiations without making a counteroffer.

The Taba Summit (2001)

Israel offered almost 97% of the West Bank to Palestinians, which was met with refusal by the Palestinian Authorities yet again, with no justification whatsoever. The collapse of peace talks in fact resulted in the start of The Second Intifada.

The 2008 Offer by Ehud Olmert

Ehud Olmert offered a peace deal including a Palestinian state, which was rejected by Mahmoud Abbas, again, without any justification, or a counter-offer.

Anti-Semitism is still popular in Gaza

Hamas was democratically elected into power by Gazans. Hamas’ charter openly calls for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews. The organisation’s literature uses anti-Semitic tropes such as Jews having full control over the entire world (see 1988 Hamas Charter, Articles 7 & 22).

The rise of anti-Semitism today:

Fast forward to today, where we see the same story, where Israel is being condemned for defending itself. There was no outrage when Hamas kidnapped and killed Israeli teenagers in 2014, which sparked IDF’s Operation Protective Edge. Neither was there any outrage when Hamas stored rockets in schools and hospitals. As per an Anti-Defamation League Report on Social Media Incitement, Free Palestine movements are often emotionally charged, aa they feature videos and images stripped out of context, which effectively drew users to post about the issue with minimal knowledge of its complexity. The amplification of the anti-Israel sentiment has in an overwhelmingly high number of instances crossed into outright anti-Semitism.

The David Horowitz Freedom Center released reports on College Anti-Semitism, showing that Jewish students on campus feel more targeted and are likely to fall victim to attacks on campuses such as UC Berkeley, NYU, and Rutgers. Especially due to anti-Israel demonstrations organised by groups like Students for Justice in Palestine.

As these social media trends gain traction, they distort the historical and present-day realities, simply turning a geopolitical issue into a hashtag war devoid of nuance. These movements indirectly support a rejectionist agenda that has sabotaged any chance of a peaceful coexistence.

Don’t worry though, it’s just history repeating itself.