Israel At 71. Quiz #2

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In April 1948, one month before Israel declared independence, Robert Kennedy, then 22, traveled to Palestine to report on the conflict for the Boston Post. His four dispatches from the scene were published in June 1948. The newspaper closed in 1956, and for decades the reports were virtually forgotten. Kennedy was liberal in his praise of the Palestinian Jews (only one month later did the name “Israel” and the term “Israelis” come into being). “The Jewish people in Palestine who believe in and have been working toward this national state have become an immensely proud and determined people,” Kennedy wrote. “It is already a truly great modern example of the birth of a nation with the primary ingredients of dignity and self-respect.” One of his dispatches was headlined, “Jews Make Up for Lack of Arms with Undying Spirit, Unparalleled Courage.” In one of his accounts, Kennedy describes his traveling with Haganah fighters in a convoy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  

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Not a single Palestinian tribe identifies its roots in Canaan; instead, they all see themselves as proud Arabs descended from the most notable Arab tribes of the Hejaz, today’s Iraq, or Yemen. Even the Kanaan family of Nablus locates its origins in Syria. Some Palestinian clans are Kurdish or Egyptian in origin, and in the Mount Hebron region, there are traditions of Jewish origins. What is the source of the name “Palestine?” It is not Arab; it is derived from the name “Palestina,” by which the Roman Emperor Hadrian chose to call the land after the defeat of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 135 CE. His aim was to erase “Judea” and negate any connection of the land’s history and identity with the Jews. This ancient denial of the land’s Jewish roots has regrettably been continued to the present day by today’s Palestinians. The term “Palestine” was Western and was regularly used by Jews who immigrated to the country; the Zionists called themselves Palestinians, while the Arabs simply identified themselves as Arabs. Zionist institutions – such as the Anglo-Palestine Bank, the Palestine Post, and so on – were “Palestinian,” whereas Arab institutions, such as the Arab Higher Committee, were simply “Arab.”

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The PA payment of salaries to imprisoned terrorists and to the families of dead terrorists is anchored in a series of Palestinian laws and government decrees, chiefly Laws No. 14 and No. 19 of 2004, and Law No. 1 of 2013 (see Appendix 5). These laws describe the prisoners as “a fighting sector and an integral part of the weave of Arab Palestinian society” and proclaim that “the financial rights of the prisoner and his family” must be assured. They also state that the Palestinian Authority will provide the allowance to “every prisoner, without discrimination.” Prisoners’ years of imprisonment are calculated as years of seniority of service in PA institutions. Whoever was imprisoned for five years or more is entitled to a job in a PA institution and the longer he is imprisoned he is entitled to a higher rank in the government apparatus and a higher salary. In March 2018, the U.S. Government tried to put a stop to these payments by passing a law called the Taylor Force Act. This act, named after a non-Jewish U.S. citizen murdered in a terror attack in Jaffa Port in 2016, will halt U.S. funding to the Palestinian Authority until the Authority stops paying the families of terrorists. The only exception to this rule is U.S. funding for Palestinian water and childhood vaccination programs and for east Jerusalem hospitals, which will still continue.

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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1949 as a distinctly temporary entity to assist in reintegration, repatriation, or resettlement of Arab refugees from Palestine with a view to furthering peace. But according to UNRWA’s mandate, refugee status extends to cover all future generations of Palestinians, and specifically “descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948.” Rather than narrowing the problem, this definition has expanded it, with refugee status now applying into the fourth generation of Palestinians. This has exploded the number of registered refugees from an estimated 700,000 in 1949 (per UNRWA’s claims) to a claim of 5,000,000, which is actually the number of persons served by UNRWA, including citizens of Jordan. This UNRWA mandate goes far beyond the accepted international definitions and criteria for refugees that are the basis for the much more successful model for international refugee relief – the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), formed in 1950. The UNHCR seeks to resettle refugees, not perpetuate their refugee camp existence. The UNHRC operates on the basis of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which does not say a word about passing refugee status to descendants. Refugee status, according to the convention, is not permanent. Recent Congressional legislation instructed the State Department to report to Congress on the actual number of people receiving UNRWA's refugee services, as well as what their place of residence during the conflicts that led to the 1948 establishment of Israel.

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On March 28, 1921, British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill met and heard from a former mayor of Jerusalem, Musa Kazim el Husseini, who denounced the Balfour Declaration. Husseini petitioned Churchill to stop the immigration of Jews into Palestine and claimed that life for the Arabs was better under the Ottomans. Churchill responded, defending the Balfour Declaration and the reestablishment of the Jewish homeland. Churchill’s response: …You have asked me in the first place to repudiate the Balfour Declaration and to veto immigration of Jews into Palestine. It is not in my power to do so, nor, if it were in my power, would it be my wish. The British Government have passed their word, by the mouth of Mr. Balfour, that they will view with favour the establishment of a National Home for Jews in Palestine, and that inevitably involves the immigration of Jews into the country. This declaration of Mr. Balfour and of the British Government has been ratified by the Allied Powers who have been victorious in the Great War; and it was a declaration made while the war was still in progress, while victory and defeat hung in the balance. It must therefore be regarded as one of the facts definitely established by the triumphant conclusion of the Great War. It is upon this basis that the mandate has been undertaken by Great Britain, it is upon this basis that the mandate will be discharged. I have no doubt that it is on this basis that the mandate will be accepted by the Council of the League of Nations, which is to meet again shortly. Winston Churchill in a doorway receiving Mousa Kasim Pasha el Husseini at a reception at Government House, Jerusalem. Emir Abdullah of Jordan stands on the left, behind Mrs. Churchill. (Library of Congress) Moreover, it is manifestly right that the Jews, who are scattered all over the world, should have a national centre and a National Home where some of them may be reunited. And where else could that be but in this land of Palestine, with which for more than 3,000 years they have been intimately and profoundly associated? We think it will be good for the world, good for the Jews and good for the British Empire. But we also think it will be good for the Arabs who dwell in Palestine, and we intend that it shall be good for them, and that they shall not be sufferers or supplanted in the country in which they dwell or denied their share in all that makes for its progress and prosperity.

Explanation
Although Ofra Haza's "Hi" is considered an Israeli classic, it only reached second place in the 1983 Eurovision song contest.