Learn the history
Sharon Burrell’s July 26 letter needs elaboration. Joan Peters’ book, “From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine,” meticulously documents Palestine’s history.
The Romans renamed the area “Palestine” in 135 CE (common era) to erase its Jewish heritage.
By the mid-19th century, the Ottoman Empire had overtaxed its people and plundered its resources, leaving it barren and largely depopulated.
Under British and French pressure, the Ottoman Sultan allowed European Jews to immigrate there and buy land to establish new farming settlements.
Concurrently, Europeans conquered North Africa, and native Christian populations reconquered Southeastern Europe, causing many Muslims to flee into the remaining Ottoman Empire. These refugees flooded into Jewish-settled areas to work for wages.
After World War I, the League of Nations created the Palestinian Mandate for a “Jewish National Home” with Britain supervising its creation. It included all of what are now Jordan, Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and Golan Heights. However, in 1922 the British unilaterally confiscated eastern Palestine for Muslims, renaming it Trans-Jordan.
A 1931 British census documented that these Muslims spoke 23 different languages and came from 24 different countries. Such were the “Palestinian people.”
The “two-state solution” already exists: Israel and Jordan.
Bob Strong
Spokane