Hamas leader admits ‘Palestinian’ identity is invented
Tuesday, April 03, 2012 Ryan Jones

US Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has come under a lot of fire for saying that the “Palestinians” are an invented people. Most have ridiculed Gingrich by pointing out there are clearly millions of Arabs living in so-called “Palestine.”

But Gingrich wasn’t talking about the physical presence of those people today, but rather the national identity they have adopted and the fact that most immigrated to the land not so long ago.

In a televised address on Al-Hekma TV last week, Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security Fathi Hammad basically backed up Gingrich’s assessment, acknowledging that the roots of most “Palestinians” are elsewhere in the Middle East, and that the Palestinian label is only a thin veneer.

Those pushing for a Palestinian state try to paint the Palestinian Arabs as somehow distinct from the Arabs round-about, and therefore in need of their own state. Not so, said Hammad. “Every Palestinian, in Gaza and throughout Palestine, can prove his Arab roots – whether from Saudi Arabia, from Yemen, or anywhere. We have blood ties.”

More than that, Hammad stated that the true regional background of most “Palestinians” is not in “Palestine.”

“Brothers, half of the Palestinians are Egyptians and the other half are Saudis,” exclaimed the Hamas minister.

Hammad’s remarks were undoubtedly never intended for a Western audience. Rather, he was pleading with Egypt and other neighboring states to supply Hamas-ruled Gaza with free fuel, which Hammad said Hamas would use “in order to continue to wage Jihad.”

[h/t Elder of Ziyon]
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23179/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Clip Transcript
March 23, 2012 Clip No. 3389
Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security Fathi Hammad Slams Egypt over Fuel Shortage in Gaza Strip, and Says: “Half of the Palestinians Are Egyptians and the Other Half Are Saudis.”
http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/3389.htm

Middle East Media Sampler for April 6, 2012
http://www.gloria-center.org/2012/04/middle-east-media-sampler-for-april-6-2012/

The Eternal Liberation Movement – Caroline Glick – Townhall
Caroline Glick
Apr 07, 2012

Hamas terror boss Fathi Hamad is a notable figure. Hamad is both the director of Hamas’s al-Aksa television station and the terror group’s “minister” of the interior and national security. His double portfolio is a clear expression of the much ignored fact that for terrorists, propaganda is inseparable from violence.

Hamad’s key posts make him a man worth listening to. His statements necessarily indicate Hamas’s general direction.

On March 23, Hamad was interviewed by Egypt’s Al Hekma television station. The interview was translated by MEMRI.

Hamad made two central points. First, he claimed that the Palestinian war against Israel is the keystone of the global jihad. Second, he said the Palestinians are not a distinct people, but transplanted Egyptians and Saudis.

In his words, “At al-Aksa and on the land of Palestine, all the conspiracies, throughout history, have been shattered – the conspiracies of the Crusaders, and the conspiracies of the Tatars. At al- Aksa and on the land of Palestine, the Battle of Hattin was waged. The [West] does not want this noble history to repeat itself, because the Jews and their allies would be annihilated – the Zionists, the Americans and the imperialists.

“Thus, the conspiracy is very clear. Al-Aksa and the land of Palestine represent the spearhead for Islam and for the Muslims. Therefore, when we seek the help of our Arab brothers, we are not seeking their help in order to eat, to live, to drink, to dress, or to live a life of luxury. No. When we seek their help, it is in order to continue to wage Jihad.”

Hamad next explained, “Brothers, half of the Palestinians are Egyptians and the other half are Saudis. Who are the Palestinians? We have many families called Al-Masri, [Egyptians] whose roots are Egyptian. Egyptian! They may be from Alexandria, from Cairo, from Dumietta, from the North, from Aswan, from Upper Egypt. We are Egyptians.”

What Hamad’s interview tells us is that today Hamas – the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood – is more interested in unity with Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Egypt than with Fatah. Whereas in the past it joined Fatah in obscuring the direct link between the jihad against the Jews and the jihad against the non-Muslim world, today it seeks to emphasize the connection. To this end, Hamas is willing to abandon the myth of Palestinian nativism and acknowledge that the Palestinians are an artificial people, invented for the purpose of advancing the global jihad in the key battlefield of Israel.
http://townhall.com/columnists/carolineglick/2012/04/07/the_eternal_liberation_movement

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• As the 'director of the Institute of Women Today and founder and a member of the board of the National Coalition of American Nuns,' wrote in the Chicago Tribune (1983): The massive Arab immigration into Palestine during the Mandate period accounts for roughly 75 percent of the supposedly "Palestinian" population present at the time of the partition in 1948.



• Or as a Professor stated (1973): Obviously the great majority of "Palestinians" were themselves Immigrants or sons or grandsons of immigrants from other Arab lands, that came to partake of the prosperity generated by the Jews. Entire towns and villages in 1948 could trace their origins to other countries...



• Or as a professor/author stated (2004) ...the so-called Palestinians, which actually consist of diverse clans from various Arab states.



• Or as others have phrased it (2007): Eighty per cent of current 'Palestinians' are illegal immigrants or the children or grandchildren thereof who were quietly welcomed by the British administrators of the Mandate. Any Arab peasant or job seeker found a ready welcome in unadministered "refugee camps", becoming a 'Palestinian' overnight.



• Or as respected Jurist who lectured at the Academy of International Law in the Hague asserted (1944): the Arabic-speaking inhabitants of Palestine, as we shall see later, are not the descendants of the conquerors. That 75% of the Arab population of Palestine at that time were either immigrants themselves or descendants of immigrants who arrived in Palestine mainly after 1882, coinciding with the development of modern Jewish settlement which made the country more attractive for Moslem and Arabic-speaking newcomers..



• Or as a scientist has put it (2003): The absolute majority of the so-called Palestinians are descendants of the Twentieth Century Arab immigrants who searched for a rewarding chunk of the economical boom engendered by the returning Jews.



• Or in the words of renowned researcher: There is no age-old Palestinian people. Most so-called Palestinians are relative newcomers to The Land of Israel.



• Or, as an author wrote (1992): Most of the Arabs living there are in fact relative newcomers. "Palestine" is the entire area now covered by Israel, including Judea/Samaria (the so-called " West Bank") and what is now the Kingdom of Jordan.



• Or, as former Speaker of the House pointed out (2011): that the Palestinians are a fictional invented people. They are simply Jordanians and Egyptians who fled terror from their fellow Arabs. So do realize many analysts and commentators who have stated there are no Palestinian people and that most of them are of Jordanian and Egyptian decent.

BRITISH PARLIAMENT 1930-1947:

• ON 'UNCHECKED' ILLEGAL ARAB IMMIGRATION
• THE 'UNFAIR' "WHITE PAPER" RESTRICTING ONLY JEWISH IMMIGRATION
• ON JEWISH IMMIGRANTS INHABITING MOSTLY THE DESERTED SWAMPY LAND
• AND ACTUALLY BENEFITING ARABS IN PALESTINE

_____________

PALESTINE. (Hansard, 17 November 1930)
Mr. LLOYD GEORGE I wish to... This White Paper is a one-sided document. It is biased. Its whole drift is hostile to the spirit of the mandate... Jewish capital has been flowing into that country since the Peace, and Jewish capital has improved Arab conditions. You cannot pour capital into a country and simply confine its benefits to one section of the community.... you cannot restore a land so let down as this without a good deal of loss, and if these people, who have got an historic affection for this land, are prepared to sink their capital there, and to lose it—they are not people who will do It in every land as a rule—but if they are prepared to do it out of natural love and affection for this country, why should we hinder them?...

The Jews are 20 per cent. of the population, and their contribution to the revenue of Palestine is between 40 and 50 per cent. That is what enabled the Palestine Government to raise a loan of £4,000,000 or £5,000,000 85 —[Interruption]—£4,500,000 was raised as a development loan, most of which provided labour for the Arabs, it was not spent upon the Jewish settlements there. We are told the Jews are using their wealth for the purpose of driving the poor Arab fellaheen from the soil of their fathers. It is not true. Most of the land cultivated by the Jews is land which they have reclaimed from the wilderness. Here and there, no doubt, upon the fringe of a morass, a little squalid Arab village may have been disturbed, but there have only been 700 taken out in order that it might be possible to drain the land. Half of them have been put back on the land and the others have found some other work. Here is a phrase which I will quote to the House: ‘Most of the land acquired by the Jews was swampy and malarial and required heavy expenditure on drainage before it could be made habitable. Much of the rest was sand dunes.’ What is the result? Not merely can you settle more people on the land, but you have improved the health of the community. Malaria is a very serious disease there, and it was slaughtering these poor people, and by this enormous expenditure of Zion and the other associations, such as the Colonisation Society, great tracts of territory have been drained in these areas and malaria has been eliminated. I would like somebody to take the trouble to read the eloquent description given by my right hon. Friend the Member for Darwen (Sir H. Samuel) when he was Commissioner of Palestine of this area. Its condition before the Jews went there was a swamp, a morass, created by the famous brook of Kishon. There were just a few miserable Arab villages right up on the hillsides, and not very many people there. The Jews spent £900,000 on draining about 50 square miles, and now there is a population of 2,600—probably it is more now. There are 20 villages, there are schools, there is a little forest in what was a treeless waste—this is very important in Palestine, as T shall point out—there is a training college for women for agriculture, and there are hospitals. That is a description of one valley.

... Surely with such an increase of population there must have been a great increase in the employment available for the Arab population. The large increase of population has been due undoubtedly, apart from a considerable Arab immigration, to the measures we have taken, in which the Jews have helped, to improve the health of the country, ...
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1930/nov/17/palestine

PALESTINE (IMMIGRATION). (Hansard, 26 March 1934)
Mr. RHYS DAVIES asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether His Majesty's Government's policy of restricting immigration into Palestine includes measures to control and restrict Arab immigration from Transjordania; and whether any increase in Arab immigration is accepted as a reason for restricting Jewish immigration?
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1934/mar/26/palestine-immigration
Your Democracy - Housing
http://yourdemocracy.newstatesman.com/parliament/housing/HAN3312744

PALESTINE LOAN [GUARANTEE]. Colonel Josiah Wedgwood Commons — May 11, 1934
Yet I think the worst illustration of all is in the question of immigration. You have these frightfully heavy restrictions upon Jews who go into the so-called Jewish National Home, and at the same time you have Arabs immigrating into that country without any check or restriction and without any possibility of knowing how many are going in except when the census is taken. The census figures have shown a far larger numerical increase of Arabs than of Jews, and that 1369 in the last year when the cry for labour has been so great. It has led to a large immigration of Arab labour. That labour is unskilled and is gradually driving Jewish labour out of all the unskilled trades and the heavy manual trades in the country. When I was in Haifa last I saw Jews, driven from Salonica, six feet high and broad-shouldered men, doing the stevedore work in the port, and their complaint was that they were offered precisely the same wage as the Arabs who came in. There again, you have the same discrimination against Jewish labour. Unless you can get the working class in Palestine Jewish it will never be a Jewish country. If you are to go on allowing the capitalist to go in—the merchant and the middleman—you will have repeated in Palestine what has happened in the rest of the world. One hope of making Palestine a Jewish country is to allow the workers to go in and to see that they are not driven out by inferior labour and paid a sweated wage on which the Jew cannot live free.
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1934/may/11/palestine-loan-guarantee
Immigration.: 26 Jul 1939: House of Commons debates - TheyWorkForYou
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1939-07-26a.1454.2

PALESTINE (REFUGEES).Mr Malcolm Macdonald Commons — May 24, 1939
Mr. Herbert Morrison Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that in the White 2295 Paper it is set out that it is Jewish immigration that will be discounted to the extent of any illegal immigration into Palestine, and that in that connection there is no mention of Arab illegal immigration?

Mr. MacDonald It will clearly be unfair to the Jews to deduct from their immigration quota the number of illegal Arab immigrants. The question, as I understood it, was what was to happen with regard to illegal Arab immigration, and I answered that steps would be taken to prevent it equally with steps to prevent illegal immigration of Jews.
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1939/may/24/palestine-refugees

IMMIGRATION. Sir Geoffrey Mander Commons — July 26, 1939
Mr. Mander asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the extent in numbers during each of the last three years and for the last three months of illegal Arab immigration into Palestine, and what steps are being taken to prevent it?
[...]
Will the right hon. Gentleman give an assurance that at least the same energy will be shown in preventing illegal Arab immigration into Palestine as in preventing illegal Jewish immigration?
[...]
Miss Rathbone asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, in the matter of immigration into Palestine, he will consider making a concession on behalf of the elderly dependants of already established Jewish immigrants from the countries of persecution,..
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1939/jul/26/immigration
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1939-07-26a.1454.2

Illegal Immigration (Hansard, 19 November 1947)
Mr. Janner Can my right hon. Friend give to the House the total number of Arabs residing illegally in Palestine, and can he say whether reductions are made from the monthly quota for Arab immigration on that account?

Mr. Creech Jones That does not arise on this Question.

Mr. Stokes rose —

Mr. Speaker It is quite obvious that we could go all over the place if we went on with this Question.

Mr. Stokes On a point of Order. As I have been unable to pursue this matter, Sir, I beg to give notice that I shall raise it on the Adjournment at the earliest possible moment.

Mr. Janner On a point of Order. With respect, Sir, the main Question referred to illegal immigration into Palestine, and I was referring to illegal immigration over 1121 the borders of Transjordan, Egypt, and so on, by Arabs.

Mr. Stokes Further to that point of Order. As my supplementary question would have dealt with where the money comes from, and representations to the United States, would it be in Order to ask it now, Mr. Speaker?
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1947/nov/19/illegal-immigration
19 Nov 1947: House of Commons
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=1947-11-19a.1120.6

1983 article: 'Palestine's Lies and Facts'

[...]
But a lie is still a lie.
Lie No. 1: The Palestinians were a sovereign people and nation until they were "expelled" in 1948.

Facts: The area known as Palestine was a province of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th Century until the British took control in 1917. From 1917 until 1948, the area was under British operational control and, later, mandate.

There was never a Palestinian nation.

Further, the population of the entire area, according to a 1879 Encyclopedia Britannica, was never substantial and was ethnically diverse. Any inhabitants there were concentrated in two cities, Jerusalem and Jaffa, and in the nomadic Bedouin tribes.

There was also a constant Jewish community. From the time of the first census in 1844 to the present, there have always been more Jews in Jerusalem than Moslems. Large-scale Jewish immigration during the Ottoman period made the Jewish community. From the time of the first census in 1844 to the present, there have always been more Jews in Jerusalem than Moslems. Large scale Jewish immigration during the Ottoman period made the Jewish community a significant presence.

It was only after the Jewish settlers bought land and made the area economically productive that the Arabs returned in significant numbers. Between the World Wars, the Arab population in predominantly Arab towns rose only insignificantly, e.g. 16,000 to 23,000 in Nablus. The population trends in the three major Jewish cities show a different story. The Arab population increased in Jerusalem by 97 percent, from 28,500 to 56,400, in Jaffa by 134 percent, from 27,400 to 62,600 and in Haifa by 216 percent, from 18,400 to 58,200.

The massive Arab immigration into Palestine during the Mandate period accounts for roughly 75 percent of the supposedly "Palestinian" population present at the time of the partition in 1948.

Lie No 2: Israel occupies historical Palestine.

Facts: Israel only covers roughly 25 percent of what used to be the province of Palestine. In 1922, the British government violated its League of Nations Mandate over Palestine by partitioning the territory into a truncated Palestine and a nebulous entity called "Transjordan."

In 1947, the United Nations voted to form two states out of what was left of Palestine, and the Jewish leadership pledged to abide by the borders. The Arab world refused and invaded.

As the world knows, Israel won its war and the ensuing armistice lines resulted in Israeli sovereignty over 20 percent of the land within the 1917 borders of Palestine. The remainder, the so-called West Bank, was grabbed by the Bedouin King Abdullah. For 19 years, he and his successor and grandson, Hussein, controlled the territory; at any time during that period either could have returned this so-called birthright to the Palestinians. They did not, and since none of the other Arab countries would grant full refuge to the refugees, they were dumped into policed camps.

Meanwhile, Jordan (the name was changed In 1950 is more than 75 percent Palestinian in population. Palestinians are prospering in that nation-in-an area comprising most of historical Palestine.

Lie No. 3: The PLO is a freedom-seeking, democratic organization.

Fact: Anyone who witnessed the tragedy of Lebanon from 1975 through last summer's invasion by Israeli forces saw the true face of the PLO. At best, it is a shadow organization in chaos.

The Lebanese gave refuge to the Palestinians and the PLO, and in "gratitude," the PLO established a state within Lebanon, mocking its sovereignty, murdering its citizens and slashing its social fabric.

The Lebanese have suffered enough from PLO democracy and freedom. They consider themselves somewhat lucky-a few more years of PLO freedom and guarantees and Lebanon might not have survived.

An American wit once said, "Trust everyone, but cut the cards yourself." Through all of the lies, the truth is coming out, and right will triumph.

By Sister Margaret Ellen Traxler:- is director of the Institute of Women Today and founder and a member of the board of the National Coalition of American Nuns, both based in Chicago.

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Related:

Greensboro News & Record: JEWS DIDN'T DISPLACE ARABS‎
Date: November 8, 1991
Page A12


JEWS DIDN'T DISPLACE ARABS

Column: Letters to the Editor The ''Palestinian hoax'' is obvious in the Oct. 30 story in the News & Record. James Weiner states that ``Palestinians have been without a homeland since Israel became a state in 1948.'' This is the big-lie technique. The displaced Arabs who lay claim to Israeli lands took a new name in the 1960s. This was a great victory for the Arabs. By one word, Palestinian, a geographic description became a proper noun... Early Jewish settlers brought development, which created massive Arab immigration. Jews did not displace Arabs. Consult your British and Turkish histories. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Early+Jewish+settlers+brought+development,+which+created+massive+Arab+immigration%22&tbs=nws:1,ar:1&source=newspapers

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Letters to The Times; Costs of Production Computing Them...‎ Situation in Palestine Position of the Revisionists and the Zionists Explained
New York Times - Aug 1, 1938
Palestine's "grave problem" arose from an overwhelming Arab immigration in 1936 and earlier, when three or four times as many Arabs as Jews were permitted to enter the country... ISADORE SOLKOFF
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Palestine's+%22grave+problem%22+arose+from+an+overwhelming+Arab+immigration+in+1936+and+earlier,+when%22&tbs=nws:1,ar:1&source=newspapers