Holy Land history steeped in religious hatred

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Flag Day is usually a joyful celebration in many countries, when citizens express pride in the most obvious symbol of their homeland. This was not the case on May 18, when many thousands of flag-waving ultra-nationalist Israelis marched through the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City taunting and abusing Arabs, and throwing missiles at members of the media who were on hand to report the event.

They seemed more emboldened than usual this year by the presence of leading ministers from the latest coalition government of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Not to be outdone, thousands of Palestinians gathered behind fences at the border with Gaza to wave their flags, while burning tyres to create a smokescreen, making it difficult for Israeli armed forces to see any targets.

Only four days earlier was the 75th anniversary of Israel establishing statehood, and this year it also marked an Egyptian-brokered truce to end five days of bombing in Gaza which killed 33 Palestinians, while two people died in Israel as a result of rockets launched from Gaza. For those of us viewing from afar, there’s always the question: can peace ever prevail in what some people refer to as the ‘Holy Land’ ?

A brief glance back about a century ago may enlighten some; that’s when parts of the Ottoman Empire were divided up at the end of World War One, with the victors taking the spoils, as usual. England was represented by Mark Sykes and France by François Georges-Picot to produce the ill-fated Sykes-Picot Lines. The two aristocratic bureaucrats agreed on how to divide just about every part of the Middle East, except the thriving province of Palestine in what was then Greater Syria. The relationship of Palestine and the Jewish populations in Europe had been earlier miscategorised as “a land without people, and a people without a land”.

The Sykes-Picot agreement to put Palestine under a British Mandate, coupled with the San Remo Conference and the Balfour Declaration of British support of a Jewish homeland, all played a part that, in ongoing tragedies, we see every day in today’s Israel. Only months after achieving statehood, the fledgeling Israeli government waged the Palestine War, causing about 700,000 Arabs to either flee their homes or be expelled. About half of the pre-war Muslim population ended up in refugee camps, as over 500 of their villages were destroyed, with water wells poisoned, in what became known as The Nakba.

Holy Land history is steeped in tribal and religious hatred, dating from biblical times to the present day – as witnessed on Israel’s Flag Day.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada