On May 12, The New York Times published a guest essay by Peter Beinart, Palestinian Refugees Deserve to Return Home. Jews Should Understand, in which he states that the “expulsions” of Palestinians is the root cause of the escalating conflict between Gaza-based terrorists and Israel.
According to Beinart, the Jewish state should “repent” for the “crime” of its creation, by allowing Palestinian refugees to “return.” Only by honestly “facing the Nakba of 1948” can Israel “embolden” Palestinians to reconcile with its existence, he asserts.
What this self-proclaimed ‘liberal Zionist‘ does not note is that Nakba Day is an annual event during which many participants blatantly incite violence against Jews living in Israel and elsewhere. Beinart is also seemingly unaware of what the Palestinian ‘Right of Return’ would entail for Jewish self-determination.
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Millions of Palestinian ‘Refugees’ Pose No Threat to Israel
The writer claims that “allowing Palestinian refugees to return — requires imagining a different kind of country, where Palestinians are considered equal citizens, not a demographic threat.“
Two points are worth noting. First, Arabs living in Israel are already equal citizens. Making up approximately 20 percent of the Jewish state’s population, this group has the right to move freely, obtain an education, vote, receive health care, work in the most prominent positions. Their civil rights are guaranteed under Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
Second, regarding Palestinian “refugees,” Beinart claims that they should be allowed to move to Israel since they would not comprise a threat. This, however, comes from the same writer who promotes the creation of a bi-national state in what is presently Israel — a scheme that would effectively erase the country’s Jewish character.
Moreover, he does not mention that the United Nations treats Palestinians differently from the rest of the world’s refugees. Palestinians are under the auspices of UNRWA, an entity created uniquely for them that has transformed the concept of refugee into an inherited characteristic. As a result, UNRWA today counts four generations of Palestinians as “refugees” — more than 5 million people. This totally new definition is not supported by international law.
And while in every other conflict around the world, refugee populations decrease over time, the number of Palestinian refugees has continued to rise – a phenomenon that has been weaponized against Israel. In fact, according to US government estimates, less than 200,000 Palestinian refugees from the 1948 War of Independence are still alive.
Related Reading: Not Again: NYT Op-Ed Pushes Utopic, Unrealistic Israel/Palestine Vision
Nakba Has “Evicted Justice From Jewish Life”
The working thesis of Palestinian Refugees Deserve to Return Home. Jews Should Understand. is summed up in the opening paragraph:
Why has the impending eviction of six Palestinian families in East Jerusalem drawn Israelis and Palestinians into a conflict that appears to be spiraling toward yet another war? Because of a word that in the American Jewish community remains largely taboo: the Nakba.”
According to Beinart, once Palestinian refugees are allowed to return, the Jewish people would experience “…a kind of return as well, a return to traditions of memory and justice that the Nakba has evicted from organized Jewish life.”
Waxing philosophical in such a manner serves to distract readers of this piece from an inconvenient truth. Nakba Day, which occurs on May 15, is an annual event marking the “disaster” of Israel’s rebirth in 1948 that invariably descends into violent protests by Palestinians who reject the existence of the Jewish state.
The event is also an antisemitic dog whistle, triggering a torrent of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish hate speech around the world. So while Beinart exhorts Jews to begin a process of repair by acknowledging the legitimacy of Nakba Day, he neglects to note that the holiday is a known rallying cry for activists and organizations affiliated with the Hamas terrorist group that this week has launched over 1,500 rockets towards Israel.
Related Reading — The War of Independence: The Sin of Israel’s Creation?
End the Gaza Conflict… By Ending the Jewish State?
Curiously, Beinart’s piece does not include a single reference to “violence,” “incitement,” “antisemitism,” or “destruction.” Indeed, only by removing any trace of decades of Palestinian violence against the Jewish state can he then claim that Israel’s creation is a “crime.”
Yet, the historical record is irrefutable. Jewish leaders accepted the UN’s partition plan. Specifically, they agreed to an independent Jewish state alongside an Arab one. On the other hand, the local Arab leadership, along with surrounding Arab countries, rejected any compromise with the Jews, demanding a complete end to all Jewish migration, a halt in the sale of land to Jews and the cancelation of the Balfour Declaration.
In other words, the Palestinians could long ago have had a country.
Featured Image: IDF soldiers in position at the Yemin Moshe neighborhood in Jerusalem during War of Independence, via Government Press Office.
