When you say 'Of course israelis did bad things but it has to be put in context.', you can as easily replace 'israelis' with 'indigenous' and have the statement remain equally true and relevant ... notwithstanding the fact that far more indigenous have died in this struggle than have israelis, that it was the indigenous who were having their lands taken from them
Of course you have to put it into context, it never makes sense to recite only one side of a war, as if one group of hostiles were attacking peaceful people unprovoked.
Also, the Arabs are not indigenous to Palestine, they are are indigenous to Arabia. To the extent that the Palestinians are really indigenous, they are descended from the Jews who used to live there. Furthermore, a large minority of the Arabs of Palestine had moved only recently into the area for the sake of employment from other regions in Syria, Transjordan or Egypt. That's one reason UNWRA defines a refugee as someone who lost a residence of two years standing, instead of 20 as does the UNHCR.
So they lost their homes, they became refugees, but let's cut the "poor indigenous people" crap, shall we? The Jews have older claims on indigenous status than the Arabs do, if you want to play that game.
Furthermore, while most estimate that Arab losses were heavier than Jewish losses in 1949, it is hardly overwhelming: the Jews lost 6,000, 1% of the population, the Arab losses were estimated at 5,000 to 15,000 (they didn't publish any numbers). |
