On October 1, 2006, the Boston Globe published
an article by Rashid Khalidi, “Unwritten History,”
bemoaning the lack of a comprehensive Palestinian
national historical narrative, before and after the
so-called “Nakba” of the creation of the state of
Israel. Khalidi offers a feeble excuse for the
absence of historical records:
“There is no Palestinian state to create
and maintain a Palestinian state archive. There
is no central repository of Palestinian records,
and a vast quantity of private Palestinian
archival material—a considerable portion of the
patrimony of an entire people—has been either
irretrievably lost in 1948 or was carried off by
Israel, to be deposited in the Israeli national
library and national archives.”1
Khalidi repeats the classic Palestinian mantra:
“The Jews” stole all their history. If, as he
claims, the Palestinians lost all their “history”
because they had no state of their own in which to
maintain an archive, he has no explanation for the
detailed and comprehensive archival history
maintained by Jewish communities throughout the
Diaspora for two millennia, even during the
Holocaust. He envies the existence of unassailable
historical documents, without which it is impossible
to create a “revisionist” history (Mr. Khalidi seems
to think that “revisionist” history is a “good
thing”), and he admits that all the “Palestinian
history” available is pure mythology.
One of these myths is the claim that before the
beginning of the dreaded Zionism in the last 1800’s,
the Arabs and Jews of Palestine lived together in
neighborly multicultural peace and contentment, with
none of the persecutions and massacres that annoyed
the Jews who had to live among nervous Christians.
However, the historical accounts contradict this
fairy tale.
156 years ago, a Palestinian undertook the task
of compiling a “History of Palestine” from documents
available at the time. He too complained,
“It is true that some few Arabic historians have
written something concerning Palestine, such as
Abulfeda and Serif ibn Idrus; but their works have
almost entirely disappeared, as was to be supposed
would be the case under a government which had not
and suffered not a free press. It was only with the
greatest trouble that I could obtain here and there
an historical document…” 2
Nevertheless, he accomplished his task, and his
book Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical
Sketch of Palestine provides a glimpse into the
lives of Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the Holy
Land prior to the influence of “Zionism.” It is
necessary to mention, at this point, that this
Palestinian historian was a Jew, Rabbi Joseph
Schwarz, for at that time only Jewish and Christian
residents of the Holy Land referred to and thought
of themselves as “Palestinians,” whereas Arabs and
Muslims identified with the “Ummah” and their
various tribal clans.
Rabbi Schwarz meticulously documents every city
and town where a Jewish community existed, and the
property and land they possessed, as well as
acknowledging those districts which were regarded as
belonging to Christians and Muslims. Whenever the
Jews were left alone and allowed to live in peace,
it was due to the intervention of a benevolent and
powerful ruler, based in Egypt or Constantinople,
who prevented the local Arab tribes from molesting
the Jews and the Christians. The Jews suffered the
most when the foreign ruler was weak or indifferent
and left them to the whims of the constantly feuding
tribal sheikhs or fanatical muftis.
Rabbi Schwarz describes the arbitrary process by
which Jews were stripped of their property by Muslim
overlords, an injustice which today is commonly
blamed on “settlers,” and yet it would appear from
these earlier accounts that the Jews have the prior
claim:
“[...in the year...] 5346 (1588 AD), the Muphti
of Jerusalem, a very great enemy of the Jews, caused
the Synagogue to be closed, and had it changed into
Al Maraga; and to this day we have not been able to
obtain possession of it again; and this holy place
is unfortunately transformed into one of a degraded
and profane use. At the present time (in the year
5386, 1628 AD), the Cadi, a terrible extortioner,
was prepared to cause several shops to be
constructed out of the hall and front of the
Synagogue, in order to rent them out to Mahomedans,
and to make a mill out of the closed Synagogue, Al
Maraga. When the officers of the congregation were
informed of this, they presented a petition to the
Cadi, that he might not so desecrate the holy place,
the more especially as it was their lawful property,
obtained by purchase, and exhibited to him at the
same time the legally signed documents in their
hands; but he did not desist from his intention till
he had made them give him 1000 grosh=250 ducats=500
dollars. Thereupon he himself gave them another
legal testimonial that this Synagogue had been
already, for more than one hundred years, perfectly
legalized property of the Jews, by whom it was built
up for a Synagogue, wherefore no one is empowered to
contest it with them, or to disturb them in their
possession of it.”
There is nevertheless no doubt but that,
notwithstanding the 1000 grosh and the title deed of
the Cadi, this proposition was nevertheless carried
into effect at a later period; since the formerly
closed Synagogue, Al Maraga, was turned into a mill,
as it is even now; and in the outer hall, all along
the front side, were erected a number of shops,
although they happen to be at present the property
of the Jews. 3
The plunder of Jewish property in Jerusalem
continued:
The Mahomedans suddenly assailed the Synagogue on
Sabbath, the 8th of Marcheshvan, 5481 (about 1st of
November, 1721), set it on fire, and burnt up
whatever was combustible, together with all the
books and the rolls of the law (ספרי תורות), of
which there were forty in the buildings, which
latter also would surely have fallen likewise a prey
to the fearful conflagration, had they not been
constructed out of large and heavy stones. They also
seized the officers and the most respectable members
of the congregation, and threw them into prison;
they then took possession of all the buildings,
driving the Ashkenazim away out of them. These
unfortunate people, driven to despair, fled
precipitately, in all directions, some to Hebron,
some to Zafed, and others beyond the limits of
Palestine. Thenceforth no Ashkenazi durst to show
himself in Jerusalem. The Mahomedans, the creditors
of the congregation, took possession of everything:
they made use of the outer court of the Synagogue as
a dung and rubbish heap, so that there arose here by
degrees a natural dung and rubbish hill. All the
cellars and other subterranean structures, likewise,
were filled up completely with dung and rubbish.
4
The Jewish community of Hebron fared no better
before “pernicious Zionism” than after:
In 5594 (1834), Hebron met with a heavy calamity,
since it was taken by storm on the 28th day of Tamuz
(July), by Abraim Pacha, and given up to his
soldiers for several days. One can better imagine
than describe the scenes which were then enacted.
Nearly all the Mahomedan inhabitants fled into the
depth of the mountain range, but the Jews could not
do this; besides which, they entertained but little
fear, since they could not be viewed as rebels and
enemies by Abraim, wherefore they fell an easy prey
into the hands of the assailants. When the Pacha
marched out to take Hebron, a petition was presented
to him by the officers of the Jewish congregation in
Jerusalem to take these unfortunate people under his
protection, which he faithfully promised to do; but,
notwithstanding this, they were not spared at the
taking of the town, so that five Jews were purposely
murdered, and all their property which had not been
buried under ground was either stolen or destroyed
in the most wanton and cruel manner. Abraim did then
indeed place a guard around their quarter of the
town, but it was too late; and he said, "Whatever is
already in the hands of the conquerors, the
soldiers, cannot be demanded back again of them;"
wherefore the whole Jewish community was sunk into
poverty. 5
And in Safed:
In the year 5594 (1834), during the rebellion of
the Arabs and Bedouins against Abraim Pacha, Zafed
suffered from a fearful calamity. On Sunday, the 8th
of Sivan (June), a very large number of Arabs and
Bedouins from the environs of Zafed, aided by those
from the east of the Jordan, suddenly surprised the
Jewish quarter of the town, and wasted and destroyed
everything to such a degree that I am not able to
paint accurately the scene of devastation which then
ensued. Everything was carried off which could
possibly be removed, even articles of no value;
boxes, chests, packages, without even opening them,
were dragged away; and the fury with which this
crowd attacked their defenceless victims was
boundless. One of the Bedouins in his eagerness
dragged off so heavy a box that he was a corpse
after a few hours in consequence of the violent
exertions he had made. A good old Arab woman, who
lived near the Jewish quarter, reproved her son for
his barbarous proceedings against his worthy
neighbour, who had always shown himself so friendly
towards him, and begged him to spare the same. But
the Arab became so incensed at this reproof, that he
gave his own mother such a blow that she soon after
expired.
The Jews in consequence left everything behind,
and fled into the open country, some going to Birieh,
others to En Setun, and others to Miron, where they
found here and there some old acquaintances among
the Arabs, who had compassion enough on them to
permit them to take shelter for the moment in their
courts, although it was merely under the bare sky,
naked as they were, and deprived of all their
possessions. There lay thus a crowd of several
hundred men and women, old and young, nay, women who
were expecting to become mothers, or who had just
given birth to a child, all intermixed, with
scarcely any garments to cover their bodies, since
even their clothes had been stripped from them by
the savages, and with scarcely a drink of cold water
to quench their thirst. Nevertheless, on account of
the very old acquaintance subsisting between them
and many of their protecting Arabs, who at the same
time were probably moved by the hope of a
hundred-fold return, they received here and there in
a few days a little Bedouin bread, the so-called
Pitta, which is scarcely fit to eat, and this in
such small quantities, that each individual obtained
daily as much as the size of three fowls' eggs.
6
From this, and similar accounts of plundering in
other locations, the sack of Joseph’s Tomb 6 years
ago is part of a long established pattern of
behavior. The Palestinian Arabs, when not under the
iron control of “foreign occupiers,” whether
Egyptian, Ottoman, Mongol, or European, were
constantly at war with one another and regarded
their Jewish and Christian neighbors as objects of
plunder and extortion. Joseph Schwarz’s historical
account also provides an accurate description of how
Palestinian Arabs conducted themselves before they
had the excuse of “Zionism” and “occupation,” which
is to say, exactly the same way in which they are
behaving now in Gaza. Their claims to property, in
the absence of any legal title, are based on
previous looting and conquest.
Just as it is impossible to turn back the clock,
a robber should not be entitled to claim the return
of stolen loot. Since, as it has been admitted at
the beginning of this essay, there is no narrative
to contradict the documentation provided by Joseph
Schwarz in his history, the behavior of the
Palestinian Arabs from 1948 until the present, would
confirm rather than refute the notion that they have
ever conducted themselves any differently.
The entire text of A Descriptive Geography and
Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine can be read
online at http://www.jewish-history.com/Palestine. |
