Dear Letter to the editor:
Hillary Burns demonstrates a bias against the Jewish people of Israel by referring to "Palestine" when in recorded history there has never been a country called Palestine. ("The 'Palestinian exception to Free Speech': Students and Scholars Feel Muzzled on College campuses over tense topic).
“Palestine” was a Roman designation of an area, not a country, a designation designed to obliterate 2000 years of indigenous Jewish culture. For one thousand years up until nearly World War I the name “Palestine” did not appear on any map. There was the British Mandate for Palestine (1920-1948) — a trust, not a country.
On November 30, 1947 the Arabs of Mandatory Palestine rejected an independent state of Palestine when it was offered on that proverbial silver platter by the United Nations General Assembly. Their leader, Nazi war criminal the Grand Mufti Amin al- Husseini, when he rejected “Palestine” simultaneously commanded the Arabs to “Murder the Jews. Murder all of them.” Since then the Arabs have — to use the Grand Mufti’s terminology — murdered over 27,000 Jews.
The Arabs have also proceeded to expressly reject an independent state, under any name, in 1948, 1967, 1994, 2000, 2008, 2019 and 2020. The Palestinian Authority does not rule a country and is not a country.
Ms. Burns may write about" Palestine", but it is unlikely she knows as much about "Palestine" as a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Zuheir Mohsen, a member of the Executive Committee of the PLO, in 1977 in an interview with the Dutch newspaper "TROUW" declared the Palestinian people to be a propaganda invention.
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism.
"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we claim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan".
One of the most famous (infamous?) examples of this fiction of the "Palestinian Arab" is Edward Said. He spent his entire childhood, boyhood and young adulthood in Cairo. Yet throughout his career he constantly wrote and spoke with mendacious enthusiasm that he was "Palestinian" -- practically right up until his death. He knew that without "Palestinian" gravitas, his opinions were worthless. The New York Timeshas had to correct this "error" at least three times... including in his original obituary.
Edward Said's "leadership" in creating fictional Palestinian Arab narratives has infected much of American higher education. . Of course, today with many journalists ' assistance one can easily create fictional Palestinian Arab narratives to promote antisemitic agendas.
Richard Sherman