(Note. I have previously posted about Mamdani on July 4, 2025 (a 2 part post), July 27, 2025 and January 18, 2026. These posts can easily be located by typing "Zohran Mamdani" in the search bar of the web version of the blog. This post deals with a very recent event of a couple days ago.)
On this past Friday, just before the beginning of the Jewish Shabbat, Mayor Mamdani saw fit to use the Mayor's office to post the following: "Today marks Nakba Day, an annual day of remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed." Along with his comments is a link to a video. It is a story told by an elderly woman of having to leaving her home in Jerusalem. She tells us that she had to flee her home because "the Zionists were coming into Jerusalem."
The video also tells us that "The Haganah, Irgun and Lehi militias, among other others, destroyed more than 400 Palestinian villages and cities, killing thousands of Palestinians and carrying out dozens of massacres. May 15 is the annual commemoration of the Nakba. For Palestinians, their displacement and Nakba continue to this day." (The Haganah later became the IDF - the Israeli Defense Forces. The Irgun and Lehi were more aggressive and controversial offshoots of the Haganah.) I admit that I do not have all the details of the war. But when Mamdani says thousands of Palestinians were killed and villages were destroyed - it was a war! Started by the Arabs.
What's missing in this sad tale? The truth. But first, some history. After the Allied victory in WWI, the League of Nations gave a mandate to Britain to control the area known as Palestine. Prior to the war, the Ottoman Empire controlled the area for about 400 years. There was never a country called Palestine. In November, 1947, with the British having turned over control of their mandate to the UN, the UNGA voted what came to be known as a "partition" plan - dividing the mandate area into a Jewish state and an Arab state. But let's be clear. The Arabs said they would never accept the existence of a Jewish state, so they refused to accept the partition plan. The Jewish people accepted the partition plan.
What the Arabs did was attack and kill Jews after the UN voted for the partition plan - even before Israel declared their independence on May 14, 1948. When people like Mamdani say Nakba, it means catastrophe. In other words, the creation of Israel was a catastrophe. When Mamdani says the Nakba continues to this day, he is saying that Israel's existence is unacceptable. What else do we know? When Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, announced Israel's independence on May 14, 1948, this is what he said: "WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel, to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions."
Imagine that. In the midst of attacks on the Jewish people, Ben Gurion offered an olive branch. The Arabs refused. On May 15, 1948, at least five Arab countries attacked Israel, in an effort to wipe the new State of Israel off the map and kill all the Jews. The Arab countries told the Arabs of Israel to get out, saying they would be able to return after the Arab victory. The Jews were badly outnumbered. And their weapons were few. But they prevailed, and the new country of Israel survived. It was, indeed, a miracle. After their defeat, the infuriated Arab countries either expelled their Jewish citizens, or made it so unpleasant for them to stay that the Jews left. Over 800,000 Jews were displaced.
Does Mamdani mention the 800,000 Jews displaced? No. Does he mention the thousands of Jews killed during Israel's war of independence? No interest. Does he point out that the UN has made these Palestinian Arabs "permanent refugees," and that no other group has ever been designated "permanent refugees?" Of course not. Because every other refugee group, in every war, has simply had to move on and make new lives for themselves elsewhere. Just like the Jews who had lived for centuries in the Arab countries had to move on. They received no "permanent refugee" status. Does Mamdani care about any of this? Obviously not.
Does Mamdani mention that the Arabs were given a state by the UN but they refused? No. Does he say that the Arabs could have had their own state now for 79 years had they accepted the partition plan? No again. And, of course, he makes no mention of the offer by Ben Gurion to the Arabs. Nor does he ask this woman why she didn't return to Jerusalem in 1949 when the war ended. Because from 1949 until the Six Day War of 1967, Jordan controlled Jerusalem. So why didn't she return? Mamdani can reasonably be called not just an antisemite, but a Jew hater.
No comments:
Post a Comment