40 January 2, 1976
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Myth of a 'Democratic Palestinian Secular State'
(Continued from Page 1)
•
Atk
they found to be appealing
to the world but which, on
closer scutiny, has no real
foundation or-roots in Is-
lam.
Furthermore, the history
of the treatment of Jews in
Arab lands under Muslim
rule during the last 1,300
years clearly indicate the
kind of "secularism" or
"democracy" under which
they lived. The history of
massacres, imprisonments
without trial, confiscation
of property, deprivation of
any human rights, etc., are
too well known to need ela-
boration here.
Suffice to say that these
acts seem to be consonant
with Islamic traditions and
justified by Arab political.
thought throughout the
ages. Hardly any Arab or
Muslim thinker has ever
addressed himself to these
injustices and mistreatment
of minorities.
To ask the Jews from
Arab lands who found in
Israel a solace and freedom
from persecution to return
to their countries of origin is
tantamount to comminting
their fate to destruction.
Excerpts from addresses by
Arab leaders will shed light
on the value the Arabs at-
tach to human rights, the
treatment of minorities, or
how they utilize religion in
the service of hatred and
anti-Semitism.
In Libya, "The Revolu-
tion Command Council
(saw) its duty to prepare a
new generation of journal-
ists and writers who will
adhere to the Islamic
moral code and believe in
the principles of freedom,
socialism and unity."
On political parties, Libya
instituted a law in 1973
which "provides for the exe-
cution of any partisan."
Speaking at Zuwarah on
the Prophet Muhammad's
birthday, President Qaddafi
said:
Some sick people
speak about freedom of ex-
pression, freedom and de-
mocracy. You have noticed
that in the university semi-
nars some sick students . . .
when given the chance to
speak, dominated the scene.
The words they uttered had
no connection whatsoever
with Libyan reality . . .
They spoke about freedom
in the universities.
".
.
"The country must be
purged of all sick people.
Anyone who makes propa-
ganda for a Western coun-
try or advocates capitalism
is a sick man who is carry-
ing out subversive activity.
We will imprison him.
"We are Muslims and rule
by the Islamic Sharia . . .
"For the sake of Arab un-
ity, I do not mind even if a
civil war breaks out and
lasts 60 years. That is not
important . . . I do not
mind if all the masses turn
into a force which destroys
and breaks things until it
remains alone in the arena."
According to Tripoli Ra-
dio of April 16, 1973:
"Great people, tear up
all the imported books
which do not express Ar-
abism, Islam, Socialism
and progress — the social-
ism which emanates from
the Koran — not the mis-
leading socialism . . . We
must crush him and tram-
ple him under our feet, he
who seeks freedom for
himself or for his party
. . . he is the enemy of the
people."
On Nov. 21, 1972, David
Hirst, a correspondent for
the British Guardian re-
ports on the Coptic (Chris-
tian) minority in Egypt:
"Egypt's Coptic minority
are seriously worried at
what they regard as the
threat of persecution from
the Moslem majority . . .
There seems to be some
ground for Coptic charges
that the authorities are pan-
dering to the Qaddafist
brand of religious revival-
ism."
* * *
Another case of persecu-
tion of minorities in the
Arab world: the Kurds in
Iraq. According to Radio
Cairo, 40,000 Kurds living in
the south of Iraq were ex-
pelled in August 1972. It
was not too long afterwards
that Iraq "liquidated" once
and for all the "Kurdish
question" with unparalelled
brutality.
Tens of thousands of
Kurds are being displaced
from Syria's Jezira oil rich
area and forcibly Arabized
by that country's "dem'o-
cratic" regime.
In Egypt, allegedly the
most progressive country in
the Arab world, one reads in
its daily paper Al-Akhbar of
Sept. 11, 1972, the following
paragraph with regard to
Jews:
"Nobody finds the time
to say: The Jews are by
nature bloodthirsty
beasts. All their religious
books testify to that and
describes them as having
the meanest characteris-
tics . . ."
A well-known Egyptian
columnist, Anis Mansour,
cated when they left the
country?"
The foregoing statements
are only samples which de-
scribe the climate of the -
countries in which Jews
have been living and to
which they have now been
invited to return. Should
these Jews take a lesson
from the Maronites in Leba-
non, the Kurds in Iraq and
Syria, the Copts in Egypt,
the Kabyl in Algeria or the
Italians and the Greeks in
Libya, who have been either
persecuted, expelled or liq-
uidated.
The conditions of Jews in
Arab countries today, what
is left of them, are a living
monument to the real inten-
tion of the Arab states.
Since the Arab world has
failed to destroy Israel as it
is known today, the Arabs
and the Palestinians plan
to achieve their goal by dis-
membering the state
through an appeal to the Or-
iental Jews in Israel to leave
Israel.
It is reminiscent of the
call of the Arab states to the
Palestinians in 1948! Israel,
they reckon, with one half
of its population recalled to
the Arab states and only
one half left in the state, an
absurdity in itself, the Jews
can be easily liquidated.
It is a matter of tactics,
is_ the PLO puts, it, since
it has become impossible
and unwelcome to world
public opinion to throw the
Israelis into the sea!
In a long symposium con-
cerning the meaning of the
slogan "The Democratic
State" which was held in
March 1970, a representa-
tive of the as-Saiqa said: "It
should be made clear that
the Arabs initially blocked
the way for Jews to return
to their countries. If the
Arab governments had
treated these situations
from the start, the problem
would have "budged" by
now. There are a number of
over 2,000 years hanging on circumstances which point
to something we didn't have. to this . . ."
We hung on because we
In the worlds of the orien-
knew how to pray for it and talist, Georges Vajda, as
reported in D.G. Littman's
go to our death for it."
paper, "Jews and Arabs —
Myths and Realiies":
Kissinger said that in
his seven years in Wash-
. . it seems to us that,
ington as a U.S. govern- short of denying its princi-
ment official, "no person ples, or rudely offending the
has moved me more and no profound sentiments of its
one's association has co-religionists and of ques-
meant more to me than tioning its own raison
Mrs. Meir."
d'etre, no Moslem state,
however "liberal" it would
He said "Mrs. Meir has al- like to be (we say "However
ways symbolized that sur- it would like" and not
vival of a country is serious "however much it may pro-
business and nothing is claim itself to be"), could so
more important than the depart from the line of con-
spirit of the people." Declar- duct followed in the past
ing that "the most reliable and in effect pursued at pre-
guarantee for Israel is not sent, as to allow its Jews
diplomatic agreements nor anything but a status of
reassurances but Israel's "protection" forever, "pa-
spirit," Kissinger added pered over" to a certain
that "the confidence that extent by a poorly affected
this little state represents is Western phraseology, and
of the greatest importance in no wise a status of inte-
to the spirit of man and the gration.
"This, moreover, applies
spirit of freedom."
in like manner to the Chris-
tian minority, whatever the
He hailed Mrs. Meir as
higher
anti-Jewish bid (if
"this great representative of
one bears in mind the recent
a country whose freedom,
independence and security Vatican Council) that it may
are of vital importance to have recourse to, be it out of
political necessity or by vir-
the United States."
wrote in the same paper on
Aug. 19, 1973, on the Jews
as follows:
"The Jews are real wild
beasts interested only in
taking revenge on the op-
pressor and oppressed, i.e.
all mankind. They are the
enemies of mankind and
what they do in the occupied
land Hitler did not manage
to do. Therefore people all
over the world have begun to
think kindly of the genius
who did not burn the re-
maining Jews . . . because
treason is the nature of the
Jews."
On Dec. 29, 1972, Ar-Ra'y
al-'Aam of Kuwait writes:
"If we believe what we say
and proclaim again and
again that Oriental Jews (in
Israel) suffer from the ar-
rogance of Western Jews, if
we realize the danger from
the Oriental Jews who look
like us and speak Arabic
fluently because they have
lived among us— then, why
don't we take a bold step,
which will gain the admira-
tion of the world and deal a
catastrophic blow to Israel?
"What will happen if
those Arab states, from
which Jews were expelled
or emigrated to Palestine,
proclaim that they will
welcome back all their
Jewish citizens and prom-
ise them freedom of reli-
gion and expression and
all Other liberties includ-
ing the same right to work
as is granted to Arab citi-
zens? What will happen if
Arab states declare that
they want a UN committee
to supervise the implemen-
tation of these obligations
towards returning Jews,
will restore all their
money and property which
were left behind or confis-
Golda Reiterates Israel's Plea for Peace
BY JOSEPH POLAKOFF •
(Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)
WASHINGTON — For-
. mer Israeli Premier Golda
Meir, facing 100 distin-
guished Americans, includ-
ing Secretary of State and
Mrs. Henry A. Kissinger
and AFL-CIO President
George Meany, declared
that "the one thing I wish"
is to stand before "an audi-
ence anywhere in the world
and be able to say — well,
it's all over; no more wars."
"No one, no one in the
world, wants peace more
than Israel," she empha-
sized in a moving address
Dec. 19 at a luncheon at the
National Portrait Gallery-
where an oil painting of her
by Raphael Soyer was un-
veiled. The 78-year-old
stateswoman said that
when she was accused of
"intransigance and stubbor-
ness" in the Middle East
diplomatic process, she re-
membered Auschwitz and
Buchenwald.
Yes, I plead guilty," to
those charges, she added,
because "we can't afford
another risk." The Jewish
people, she said, speaking of
their homeland, "lived for
tue of the odium theologi-
cum implanted much more
deeply in the Eastern
Church than in the West-
ern, and long before the
birth of Islam."
Commenting on the
Iraqi invitation to the ex-
iled to return to Iraq, a
survivor of the Iraq atroci-
ties, Adel Dalial, de-
scribed the plight in a let-
ter published in the New
York Times, Dec. 20, as
follows:
"In reference to the Dec.
12 news article "Iraqi
to Let Jews Return F
Stir Much Enthusiasm I
have this to say:
"I was only three years
old when in 1947 my father,
a Jewish merchant in Bas-
rah, Iraq, was imprisoned.
His large property was con-
fiscated and he was almost
killed. Our family was lucky 1
to escape. The leader of the
Basrah Jewish community
was hanged, and countless -7
others were killed, for no I
reason.
"We not only cost our
rights. We fled for our lives
and gave up all possessions.
This is true of countless
Jews who lived in Arab.4
countries and committed no ;-
crime but that of being 4
Jews. We never got the spot-
light that the Palestinians I
get with Arab oil money,
and we never tried to exploit II
our persecution for political
reasons.
"Now I read about this
charade by the Iraqi Gov-
ernment of giving back d
Iraqi Jews their rights. It
was only six months ago
that I and two of my broth-
ers wrote Iraqi authorities
in New York asking for ac-
cess to our birth records.
They would not even an-
swer a logical inquiry
from a dispossessed Iraqi
Jew so he could lead an or- , .1
ganized life somewhere
else.
"I am not a political per-
son, and I would not even
bother writing this letter if
I were not sickened to read
such outrageous lies by a ,
government that has had no 1
compassions for a Jew ex-
cept for the compassion of a 9
rope to hang him."
In a letter published in
the London Observer, Dec.
14, as a comment on the
Iraqi invitation to the Jews
to return to the land that ex-
iled them, an Iraqi business-
man, writing in behalf of
the Committee of Iraqi Jew-_ A
ish Refugees, stated in part.'
"We were already there
1,000 years before the Arabs
first invaded Iraq and
tory records that 9E
Jews went out to welcome
the Imam Ali when he vis-
ited the Jewish town of Pal-4.4
lughta (Falluja).
"The Jewish community .1
in Iraq then numbered
over one million. Jews
should be able to return to
Iraq and to our holy places
there, as of right and not
by invitation, after an 141
overall peace settlement
recognizing the national 4
rights of all ethnic and re-
ligious groups belonging
to the region, resulting in
the freedom of movement
and residence of all con-
cerned."
-