‘Moderate Palestinian’ syndicated columnist Ray Hanania writes today:
Israel’s defenders assert Palestinians expelled by Israel in 1948 and in 1967 were replaced by Jews fleeing Arab countries.
But that’s not true. Most Jewish Arabs were urged by Israel to leave in a highly publicized and ongoing program to settle them in Israel. For example, Israel also urges Jews to leave America and settle in Israel. But, is Israel saying that America is forcing Jewish residents to flee as they claim Arab countries are forcing Jews to flee?
‘Jewish Arabs’? A non-existent social category. And what about the decades of Arab persecution of Jews? Not exactly aliya from Long Island.
Then, after accusing Israel of ‘a policy of stealing Palestinian land’, Hanania gets personal:
My family owns 10 acres in East Jerusalem that has 160 ancient olive trees. We are not allowed to build on it or to develop it. We are discouraged from visiting it. To visit the land, I must travel through several Israeli military checkpoints, at gunpoint, and submit to humiliating treatment from the soldiers and settlers who live in Gilo, the Jewish settlement that overlooks my property.
The thing is, Gilo is nowhere near ‘East Jerusalem.’ Gilo is located in southern Jerusalem (see map) — more accurately even, southwestern Jerusalem. So where exactly is that family plot, Mr. Hanania?
UPDATE: Hanania’s been talking about this family plot for quite awhile. Here and here he locates it near Gilo, but here it’s ‘near Jaffa Road’ (that’s in central Jerusalem), and here it’s ‘on the northern border of Jerusalem.’
UPDATE: Mr. Hanania has personally reponded in the comments section below.
