Facts Arab-Palestinians Would Rather Not Admit About Israel - Draiman

Facts Arab-Palestinians Would Rather Not Admit About Israel

Statue of Maimonides at Cordoba, Spain.

  

In doing my research and writing various articles about the Arab-Israeli Conflict I was asked some pointed questions about my conclusions in some of my recent articles, which dealt – as most of them do – with the history of Israel: biblical, post-biblical and international laws and treaties.

I had stated in one of my articles the following sentence: “Only one people has ever made Jerusalem its capital and only one people ever established their ancestral indigenous and biblical homeland between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea: the Jews.”

I had also added that: “the Jews were the remaining aboriginal indigenous inhabitants of the Land for two millennia before the Muslim religion was even created.”

The commenter, nevertheless, had correctly pointed out that most people, because they have been exposed for such a long time to anti-Israel Arab propaganda, falsely believe that there has not been a continuous Jewish presence in the Land of Israel for the last 2,000 years. Many also have the Miss-conception that the UN created the State of Israel, this is a farce.

The land of Israel has been in existence for over 3700 years and the Modern reconstituted State of Israel was decreed by post WWI international law and treaties executed by the Supreme Allied Powers which allocated the formerly occupied territory by the defeated Ottoman empire and they specified Mesopotamia, Syria and other territories to the Arabs and Palestine, the historical ancestral land of the Israelites to the Jewish people as their reconstituted homeland.

They are thus unaware that the historical territory of the land of Israel was never totally cleansed of Jewish presence. Thus, the Arabs would rather you forget also that Jews lived for two millennia in Mesopotamia and in what became later known as British created Iraq.

Indeed Jews had resided for over 3,200 years in that territory from the Babylonian Captivity 586 CE onwards. It was when International treaties executed by the Allied Supreme Powers in 1920 which incorporated the Balfour Declaration as international law and once the number of Jews in Palestine-Israel became substantial enough to merit the subsequent implementation of those international treaties and guarantees.

Furthermore, due to the haste-full departure of Britain in 1948 and the desertion of its commitment to implement the Mandate for Palestine as agreed by post WWI international law and treaties.

The Jewish leadership declared independence and Israel was re-established in 1948. The UN resolution to advance the sovereignty of the Jewish state, and was only carrying out some of the terms of the international treaties.

The post WWI League of Nations and the post WWII United Nations that took over from the League have no authority to create or modify international treaties.

The UN according to its charter can only recommend its resolutions and the same applies to the ICJ - International Court of Justice, thus, those recommendations must be adopted by the parties, if any of the parties rejects the resolution, it has no affect or validity.

In our case and point, the Arab Israeli Conflict. The Arabs rejected outright the UN resolutions that could of altered the conflict to a peaceful coexistence.

After the Declaration of independence of the Jewish state; the Iraqi Arabs persecuted and drove the Jews from their ancient homes of over 2400 years and confiscated all their assets, turning them into refugees who found sanctuary in Israel; at that time a fledging impoverished country barely able to support them at the time. A great number of Jewish refugees were created that it outnumbered the Arab refugees in a ratio of 2 to 1, as one Arab state after another in the Middle East and North Africa persecuted and drove out their Jewish populations who resided in those countries for over two millennia, while confiscating all their assets. A crime, which hardly is ever recognized.

Arab-Palestinians and their anti-Israel supporters try to delude, deceive and convince the world that the Jews just appeared in the early 20^th century after being dispersed for over two thousand years from their biblical ancestral homeland. That is a flat out lie and flies in the face of factual recorded history. But facts never seem to matter to Arabs and pro-Arabs. So the following brief history lesson will be for them an inconvenient truth.

Let me start by quoting from an article written in The Weekly Standard, May 11, 1998 by Charles Krauthammer:

"Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one today advertising ice cream at the corner candy store."

The Jewish People trace their origin to Abraham, he who is called the Holy Convert, the first Jew, who established the belief in only one God, the creator of the universe. Abraham, his son Yitzhak (Isaac), and grandson Jacob (Israel), are referred to as the patriarchs of the Israelites who lived in what was then the Land of Canaan which today do not exist; later to become known as the Land of Israel. They and their wives are buried in the Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, in Hebron, Judaism’s second holiest city. (Genesis Chapter 23).

The name, Israel, derives from the name given to Jacob (Genesis 32:29). His 12 sons were the ancestors of the 12 tribes that later developed into the Jewish nation. The name Jew derives from Yehuda (Judah) one of the 12 sons of Jacob. You will find the names of the tribes listed in Exodus 1:1. Yehuda (Judea) is also the biblical name of the southern region of what the world calls by its Arab name – the West Bank. Shomron (Samaria) is the northern half.

Modern Israel shares the same language, culture, tradition and Jewish faith passed through generations starting with the founding father Abraham and the Jews have had a continuous presence in the land of Israel for over the past 3,400 years.

Menorah plundered from the Temple, depicted on the Arch of Titus, Rome.

In 70 AD, Rome destroyed the Holy Temple and conquered the Jewish nation, yet only part of the population was sent into exile. Even after the Second Jewish Revolt against the continuing cruel Roman occupation, Jews, though banned from Jerusalem, survived for centuries in other Jewish towns including Rafah, Gaza, Yavne, Ashkelon, Jaffa and Caesarea as well as throughout Galilee and the Golan. Ruins of synagogues built in post-biblical Byzantine times are found scattered throughout the Golan and an epic act of Jewish resistance to the Roman legions took place at Gamla, high upon the Golan Heights. Here again, the Jewish presence predates the modern Syrian claims to the Heights by two millennia.

Interestingly, early seventh century battles raged between the Persians and the Byzantines over the Land of Israel. The Byzantines were oppressing the Jews and a Jewish general, Benjamin of Tiberius, was able to raise an army of twenty thousand Jewish men from villages and towns in northern Israel to support the Persian cause against the oppressors. This again points to extensive Jewish life in the land well after the erroneous and false Arab claim that Jews had not lived in the land during the last 2,200 years.

The height of Jewish prominence was again achieved in the tenth century. In Tiberius, by the shores of Lake Kinneret, the Sea of Galilee, a symbol system for Hebrew vowels was created which eventually gained universal acceptance. But with the advent of the Crusades in Israel during the 12^th century, and the massacres of thousands of Jews in Jerusalem and throughout the land, the Jewish population reached its lowest point. But Jewish populations again revived, strengthened by new Jewish immigrants arriving constantly from the Diaspora. Many such returnees settled in Safed, Tiberius, Hebron and Jerusalem.

These are the four Holy Jewish cities of the Land with Jerusalem, north, south, east and west, the eternal over 3,200 year old Jewish capital and veritable jewel in the crown. Jews traveling from Europe, such as the remarkable medieval explorer, Benjamin of Tudela, had to overcome immense perils while crossing lands at war with one another. They had to avoid death or capture by bandits, or at sea from North African pirates and Crusaders based in Cyprus or Malta. That they came at all, however, remains a tribute to the earliest efforts to keep Israel populated with its aboriginal and ancestral folk and abide by the religious commandments to go up to the land of Israel and reside there.

A brief list of Jews returning to the historical ancestral land reveals a constant arrival of people joining existing Jewish villages and communities, themselves always at the mercy of alien occupiers.

According to the Center for Online Judaic Studies, here are just a few of the names of early Jewish returnees consisting of some Rabbinical leaders:

1075:1141 Yehuda Halevi, poet.

1135: 1204 Maimonides, philosopher.

1210: Settlement in Israel of three hundred French and English rabbis.

1267: Nachmanides arrives in Israel.

1313: Estory Haparchi arrives: The first geographer of Israel.

1538: Renewal of rabbinic ordination in Safed.

1561: Joseph Nasi leases Tiberius from Turkish sultan.

1700: Yehuda HeChasid and his followers arrive in Jerusalem.

1777: Large Hassidic group settles in Galilee.

1797: Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav’s trip to Israel.

1808: Disciples of Elijah, Gaon of Vilna, settle in Jerusalem.

This very partial list of Jewish immigrants, who arrived well before the 20^th century, is an inconvenient truth to the Arab and pro-Arab propagandists who would have you believe their delusions and myth that the Jews only arrived much, much later.

The national coins, the pottery, the cities and villages, the ancient Hebrew texts…all support the empirical fact that Jews always had a continuous presence in that land for over 3,100 years and the fact that Jewish villages and towns were to be found in all parts of the ancient Jewish homeland and throughout all the preceding years, up until the present time, certainly dwarfs and debunks any claims that other people in the region may have; especially the Arabs who came from neighboring Arab countries and today call themselves Arab-Palestinians.

TIMELINE IN ISRAEL aka Palestine 1200 BC to 2015

PHILISTINES, JEBUSITES & ISRAELITES
1200 - 1020 BC

ISRAEL / JUDAH
1020 - 745 BC

ASSYRIANS
745 - 597 BC

EGYPTIANS III
609 - 605 BC

BABYLONIANS
604 - 538 BC

PERSIANS
538 - 332 BC

GREEKS
332 - 140 BC

HASMONAEANS - ISRAELITES
140 - 63 B.C.

ROMANS
63 BC - 300 

BYZANTINES  - Christian
313 - 611

PERSIANS II
611 - 628

BYZANTINES II
628 - 636

CALIPHATES
636 - 661 (1099)

UMAYYADS
661 - 749

ABBASIDS
749 - 877

TULUNIDS
877 - 906

ABBASIDS II
906 - 935

IKHSHIDIDS
935 - 969

FATIMIDS
970 - 1079

SELJUKS
1079 - 1098

CRUSADERS - Christians they killed many Jews and Muslims
1098 - 1187

AYYUBIDS
1187 - 1260

MAMLUKS
1260 - 1517

OTTOMANS
1517 - 1917

BRITISH MANDATE
1920 - 1948

ISRAEL, JORDAN & EGYPT
1948 - 1967

ISRAEL
1967 - 1982 All of Territory west of the Jordan River and Sinai to the Suez Canal

OSLO ACCORDS I & II
1993 - 2000

DISENGAGEMENT, HAMAS OCCUPATION OF GAZA
2005 - PRESENT

How many holidays do the Arabs-Muslims celebrate due to historical events in the land of ancient Israel and Jerusalem.

The Jewish people celebrate most of their holidays and fast days in memory of Jerusalem and Israel since 70 AD (that is over 2,000 years).

Pleading the Jewish goal and aspiration to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem - where it was before it was destroyed and desecrated by the enemies of the Jews. Many of the Jewish prayers for thousands of years recite the love of Israel and the Jewish aspirations to return to their ancestral land and bring back its glory and holiness.

At Jewish weddings they break a glass in memory of Jerusalem and the aspiration to return and build the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

Every day at the end of the meal the Jews recite a blessing and thank G-d for providing sustenance and beseech G-d to return and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.

Most Jewish prayers mention our pleading to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

YJ Draiman

JEWS DISPLACED FROM ARAB COUNTRIES: A STORY OF COLLUSION

JEWS DISPLACED FROM ARAB COUNTRIES: A STORY OF COLLUSION

(League of Arab States)

JEWS DISPLACED FROM ARAB COUNTRIES: A STORY OF COLLUSION (League of Arab States)

Note: All documents are referenced and all source material is readily available in the United Nations Archives
Chronology of Events and Evidence
For over 2,500 years, Jews resided in North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf region in substantial numbers – fully 1,000 years before the advent of Islam. During the twentieth century, the uprooting of up to one million Jews from their ancient Jewish communities in ten Arab countries did not occur by happenstance.
State-sanctioned repressive measures, coupled often with violence and repression, precipitated the Jewish refugee problem in the Middle East.

There is ample evidence that points to collusion, a shared pattern of conduct amongst a number of Arab regimes that appeared intended to coerce Jews to leave, or to use them as weapons in the Arab world’s struggle against the State of Israel. This is evidenced from:
(a) The drafting of a Law by the Political
Committee of the Arab League that recommended a coordinated strategy of repressive measures against Jews;
(b) strikingly similar legislation and discriminatory decrees, enacted by numerous Arab governments, that violated the fundamental rights and freedoms of Jews resident in Arab countries;
(c) statements made by delegates of Arab countries at the U.N. during the debate on the ‘Partition Resolution’, representing a pattern of ominous threats made against Jews in Arab countries; and (d) newspaper reports from that period.
This Chronology provides a small sample, and not an exhaustive survey, of such of events and evidence.
* * * * *
In 1947, the Political Committee of the Arab League (League of Arab States) drafted a law that was to govern the legal status of Jewish residents in all Arab League countries (See attached Exhibit E). Arab diplomats at the UN sought to attribute blame for any danger to Jews on the Arab “masses” – indeed, even
to the UN itself – while, in fact, the Arab League was colluding to encourage state sanctioned discrimination against Jews in all of its member states – at the time, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, and Yemen.

This Draft Law of the Arab League provided that “…all Jews – with the exception of citizens of non-Arab countries – were to be considered members of the Jewish ‘minority state of Palestine,'; that their bank accounts would be frozen and used to finance resistance to ‘Zionist ambitions in Palestine; Jews believed to
be active Zionists would be interned as political prisoners and their assets confiscated; only Jews who accept active service in Arab armies or place themselves at the disposal of these armies would be considered ‘Arabs.'” 1
From the sheer volume of subsequent state-sanctioned discriminatory measures, replicated in so many Arab countries and instituted in such a parallel fashion, one is drawn to the conclusion that such evidence suggests a common pattern of repressive measures, – indeed collusion – against Jews by Arab governments
(See attached “State Sanctioned Persecution of Jews in Egypt {Exhibit K} and Iraq {Exhibit L}).
1 Text of Law Drafted by Political Committee of Arab League (See attached Exhibit E)
The following official statements demonstrate a pattern of ominously similar threats made against Jews in Arab countries:
November 24, 1947
In a key address to the Political Committee of the U.N. General Assembly on the morning of November 24, 1947, just five days before that body voted on the Partition plan for Palestine, Heykal Pasha, an Egyptian delegate, made the following statement:
“The United Nations … should not lose sight of the fact that the proposed solution might endanger a million Jews living in the Muslim countries. … If the United Nations decided to partition Palestine they might be responsible for very grave disorders and for the massacre of a large number of Jews.” 2
November 24, 1947
In an afternoon session of the Political Committee of the U.N. General Assembly on November 24, 1947, the Palestinian delegate to the UN, Jamal Husseini, representing the Arab Higher Committee of Palestine to the UN General Assembly, made the following threat:
“It should be remembered that there were as many Jews in the Arab world as there are in Palestine whose positions might become very precarious.” 3
November 28, 1947
Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fadil Jamali, at the 126th Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly stated:
“Not only the uprising of the Arabs in Palestine is to be expected but the masses in the Arab world cannot be restrained. The Arab-Jewish relationship in the Arab world will greatly deteriorate.” 4
January 19, 1948
A memorandum was submitted to the U.N. Economic and Social Council by the World Jewish Congress, warning ECOSOC that “all Jews residing in the Near and Middle East face extreme and imminent danger.” The memorandum referred to the Text of Law Drafted by Political Committee of [the] Arab League (See attached Exhibit E) which was already adopted by Egypt, Saudi Arabia
and Iraq. This law recommended discriminatory treatment against Jewish residents in all Arab League countries. The Memorandum went on to report on recent incidents of violence and other anti-Jewish measures in a variety of Arab countries. Due to the “extreme urgency” of this matter, the WJC requested that this matter be placed on “the agenda of the forthcoming” meeting of the
U.N. Economic and Social Council.
2 U.N. General Assembly, Second Session, Official Records, Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question, Summary Record of the Thirteenth Meeting, Lake Success, N.Y., November 24, 1947 (A/AC.14/SR.30). This comment was made at 10:30 am.
3 U.N. General Assembly, Second Session, Official Records, Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question, Summary Record of the Thirty-First Meeting, Lake Success, N.Y., November 24, 2947 (A/AC.14/SR.31) This
comment was made at 2:30 pm.
4 U.N. General Assembly, Second Session, Official Records, Verbatim Record of the 126th Plenary Meeting, November 28, 1947, p. 1391.
February 16, 1948
A second Memorandum was submitted by the World Jewish Congress to the ECOSOC President, citing cases of serious violence, economic discrimination and “anti-Jewish excesses” that had occurred in Syria. Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Bahrain, urging the Council “to take up the situation of these Jewish populations as a matter of immediate international concern.” 5
March 5, 1948
Item 37 on the agenda of the UN Economic and Social Council, supported by Document E/710
(See attached Exhibit J) was to deal with the “extreme and imminent danger” to Jews in Arab countries. The Council’s President, Dr. Charles H. Malik (Lebanon), utilized a procedural maneuver that resulted in the matter never being addressed.
March 11, 1948
When the Council was ready to resume its deliberations, Mr. Katz-Suchy (Poland) requested that the matter of Document E/710 (See attached Exhibit J: The World Jewish Congress Memorandum that alluded to “The extreme and imminent danger to Jews residing in the near and Middle East) be
reconsidered. He charged that “agreement had been reached among the five major Powers not to discuss document E/710″ and argued that “usual” Council procedure was not followed. Mr. Kaminsky (Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic) declared that “he could not condone a practice whereby items on the agenda were allowed to disappear from the agenda.” A resolution
recommending that this matter be discussed in full at the next Council meeting (July 1948) was adopted by a vote of 15 – 1. The lone dissenting vote was cast by the representative of Lebanon who stated that the resolution “was tantamount to prejudging the issue.”
May 16, 1948
A New York Times article reported on Law drafted by the Political Committee of the Arab League and revealed some of its provisions:
“It [the law] provides that beginning on an unspecified date all Jews except citizens of non-Arab states, would be considered “members of the Jewish minority state of Palestine.”
Their bank accounts would be frozen and used to finance resistance to “Zionist ambitions in Palestine.” Jews believed to be active Zionists would be interned and their assets confiscated.” 6
June 21, 1948
The Council referred this matter back to the NGO Committee of ECOSOC which met and reviewed document E/710 (i.e. The World Jewish Congress Memorandum that alluded to “The extreme and imminent danger to Jews residing in the near and Middle East). A resolution “concluded that it should not make specific recommendations regarding the substance of the consultation (WJC Memorandum) unless specifically requested by Council” 7. This circuitous
‘buck passing’ ensured that the matter was never addressed.
5 Report on the Activities of the Political Department (November 15, 1947 – May 15, 1948)
6 New York Times May 16, 1948 “Jews in Grave Danger in All Muslim Lands, Nine hundred thousand in Africa and Asia face wrath of their foes.” by Mallory Browne.
7 Report on the Council NGO Committee (Item 31) (E/940) August 9, 1948

Exhibit E
Text of Law drafted by Political Committee of Arab League

1. Beginning with November 28, 1947, all Jewish citizens of (Name of Arab Country) will be considered as members of the Jewish minority State of Palestine and will have to register with the authorities of the region wherein they reside, giving their names, the exact number of members in their families, their addresses, the names of their banks and the amounts of their deposits in these banks. This formality is to be accomplished within seven days.

2. Beginning with (November 28, 1947), bank accounts of Jews will be frozen. These funds will be utilized in part or in full to finance the movement of resistance to Zionist ambitions in Palestine.

3. Beginning with (November 28, 1947), only Jews who are subjects of foreign countries will be considered as “neutrals”. These will be compelled either to return to their countries, with a minimum of delay, or be considered as Arabs and obliged to accept active service with the Arab army.

4. Jews who accept active service in Arab armies or place themselves at the disposal of those armies, will be considered as “Arabs”.

5. Every Jew whose activities reveal that he is an active Zionist will be considered as a political prisoner and will be interned in places specifically designated for that purpose by police authorities or by the Government. His financial resources, instead of being frozen, will be confiscated.

6. Any Jew who will be able to prove that his activities are anti-Zionist will be free to act as he likes, provided that he declares his readiness to join the Arab armies.

7. The foregoing (para.6) does not mean that those Jews will not be submitted to paragraphs 1 and 2 of this law.

• 
  
• 
  
  Greater Israel belongs to the Jewish people under International Law!
  

  • The Jewish People’s historical right to the land of Greater Israel had been recognized by the international community and upheld by the rule of public international law.

  Any view that contradicts this statement is pure distortion of the facts and history.

  Israel is not obliged to support the creation of an Arab state west of the Jordan river alongside Israel and it must not concede to any such arrangement or the security and survival of Israel will be compromised.

  The Oslo Agreements were made with a view to enhance “a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.” Yet, since their coming into effect the Middle East has witnessed not peace but violence of the worst kind in recent history. As of today the Oslo agreement is null and void. The Arab Palestinians have not lived up to any of the agreement. The Arab Palestinians promote, preach and teach their children and the masses to create terror, violence and suicide bombing. Their only goal is the destruction of the Jewish State, read the Palestinian and Hamas Charter.

  The establishment of the Palestinian Authority should serve as a “guide to the bewildered” of the grave risks posed by such an Arab State, which may eventually lead to the destruction of the Jewish State. Any land for peace compromise by Israel has made the situation worse. Sadly, appeasement and concessions by Israel only aggravated the situation and increased violence. Israel must stand its ground, resist unjust world pressure and protect its citizens at all costs. Any concessions by Israel will only make the situation worse and bring about more violence and death, as the past experience has proven.

  Under public international law, Israel is entitled to diligently encourage and promote close Jewish settlement of the land of Israel, thereby realizing the principles set out by the San Remo Treaty of 1920 and the League of Nations in the original Mandate document. In 1922 in violation of the treaty, the British gave away 80% of the land allocated to the Jewish people and gave it to the Arabs to set-up a state that never existed in history. (The British wanted to protect their oil interests).

  In addition at that time, the Allied powers also set up 21 Arab States and one Jewish State. If you questions Israel’s borders, you must question the 21 Arab States borders and Jordan.

  It is also important to address the expulsion of over a million Jewish people from the Arab countries and the confiscation of land owned by Jewish people in the Arab countries, totaling 120,000 sq. km. (4 times the size of Israel) valued at over 15 trillion dollars and other personal assets confiscated by the Arabs totaling over 990 billion dollars.

  The Jewish people resettled the million Jewish refugees from the Arab countries. It is about time the Arab countries who expelled the million Jewish people, must settle the Arab-Palestinian refugees once and for all without compromising Israel and bring about peace and tranquility to the region.

  Neither the U.N. nor any Country in the world has the authority to create a state or dissolve a state, (check the U.N. charter and international law.)

  A true peace will bring about an economic boom to the region of which the world has never seen before. It will raise the standard of living for all the people in the Middle East and accelerate peace and harmony.

  It will also divert the billions of dollars invested in war materials to be used to advance the economy, medical and social services and more.

Pierre Loti on Hebron circa 1895

Pierre Loti on Hebron circa 1895

Pierre Loti, the famous French writer, came to Israel near the end of the 19th century. We have already quoted and translated part of his description of Jerusalem here and here. He also visited Hebron, one of the four holy cities of the Jews according to Jewish tradition. A sizable Jewish population lived there [sizable in proportion to the town's total population] until 1929, when Arabs made a pogrom and massacre against the Jews there. This pogrom was conducted with British acquiescence, if not British approval and encouragement, even instigation.

Here we quote from a published translation into English of Loti's book:

. . . Hebron is still without hotels; it remains indeed one of the most fanatical Mussulman towns of Palestine and will scarcely consent to lodge a Christian under its roofs [Pierre Loti, Jerusalem (trans. W P Baines; London: T. Werner Laurie, n.d.), p10]
Arabs and Jews move in a crowd about the streets . . . Hebron is one of those towns that are not marred by a building of modern or foreign appearance.[p 12]

In regard to the Cave of Machpelah [Makhpelah] or Tomb of the Patriarchs, he writes:

. . . To Christians and Jews the mosque itself[Muslims call the tomb Masjid Ibrahimi = Mosque of Abraham] is proscribed [= forbidden]; influence, stratagem, gold, are powerless to gain them admittance to it -- and when, some twenty years ago, it was opened for the Prince of Wales on a formal order from the Sultan, the population of Hebron was on the point of armed revolt [p 14]

Almost on a level with the ground, there is a fissure through which Christians and Jews are allowed to pass their heads so that, crawling, they may kiss the holy stones. And this evening some poor Israelite pilgrims are there, prostrate, stretching out their necks like foxes running to earth, in an effort to touch with their lips the tomb of their ancestor; while Arab children, charming and mocking, who are allowed within the enclosure, watch them with a smile of high disdain.
This place is one of the most ancient venerated by mankind and there has never been a time when men have ceased to come and pray here. [p15]

And this surely is a thing unique in the annals of the dead: the sepulchre, originally so single, which reunited them all [= the Patriarchs and Matriarchs], has never ceased to be venerated -- while the most sumptuous tombs of Egypt and Greece have long since been profaned and empty. [p16]

Loti recognizes that the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is a Jewish tomb taken over by Muslims, by Arabs. The tomb in its present form was built by King Herod in the late Second Temple period, although there are some Crusader and Muslim additions that mar the structure's simple beauty. The attribution to Herod is because he was a great builder of monumental buildings, including the Temple destroyed by the Romans and their auxiliary troops, including Arabs [see here]. Certain similarities of construction with the remnants of Herod's Second Temple are also evident. Jews were allowed by Muslim rulers to enter the Tomb and pray inside until Baybars the Mamluk forbid Jewish entry --as Loti describes-- in the year 1263, approx. After the Six Day War, Jews were again allowed to enter and pray in the Tomb, after the passage of slightly more than 700 years!!
The pogrom/massacre of 1929 has been described in many publications in Hebrew and other languages. Those who want a non-Jewish perspective could consult the reports of the famous journalists [at that time], Pierre van Paassen and Albert Londres. For Van Paassen, seeForgotten Ally, Days of Our Years, and other works. For Londres, see --in French-- Le Juif errant est arrive'. Note that the Arab-Muslim children show disdain towards the humiliated Jews, no doubt this is what they were taught. Jews and other non-Muslims in Muslim states [Dar al-Islam] were kept in a state of humiliation according to Islamic law [for instance, see Qur'an 9:29 (verse numbers vary in some editions)] and called dhimmis[See previous posts on this blog on dhimmis].

- - - - - -
Coming: more on peace and its follies, carter/baker and their follies, Jews in Jerusalem, etc.