Whose land?
Sir: Mark Corby (`Israel as Crusader', 11 July) gives the impression that Islam has occupied Palestine since time immemorial with transient interruptions by Crusaders and now by 'Israeli-Zionists'. He conve- niently forgets that Islam was itself an invad- ing colonialist power that conquered Pales- tine and other areas in the 7th century. At that time the area was occupied by Jews and Christians and before that by Jews. Even after the Arab conquest, Jews continued to occupy the land in great numbers until the massacres accompanying the Crusades. After that date Jews constituted a substan- tial minority right up to modern times.
Corby states that 'the Israelis employed the tactics of "ethnic cleansing" to drive 800,000 of them [Arabs] from the land'. What a travesty! The flight of Arabs took place in a time of war when the Jews were fighting for their lives against five Arab nations and very few observers in the West- ern world gave the Jews much chance of surviving. They received no help from the United States at this time and had to rely on chance purchases of arms, mainly from Czechoslovakia, to continue the struggle. If 'ethnic cleansing' has taken place, why do 750,000 Arabs still remain in Israel, having full citizenship and representation in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament?
Corby looks forward to the arrival of an Islamic Saladin who will take the war to America by the use of nuclear weapons. A far more likely (not to say desirable) sce- nario is that peace will be concluded between Israel and the Islamic world with the result that economic prosperity will be gained by all parties concerned. The differ- ence between the present world and the time of the Crusades is that people today, in increasing numbers, detest fanaticism and all the suffering it brings. Why is it impossible for the Middle East to contain populations with different cultures and reli- gions living peacefully together?
Corby says that the 'Israeli/Zionist' claim to Israel is based on the Bible and the divine 'covenant'. No, it is based on three thousand years of a Jewish majority and sovereignty in the area and a continuous maintenance by the Jews of their olaim to their ancestral land, a claim which even their enemies did not deny. This age-old claim was ratified by the United Nations in their decision of 1947 in favour of the parti- tion of Palestine between Jews and Arabs. This decision, accepted by the Jews, was rejected by the Arabs who thus precipitated 50 years of unnecessary conflict.
Hyam Maccoby
115 Mortlake Road, Richmond, Surrey
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