Look back at history

Letters

Editor: The Bulletin published, at last, a comprehensive analysis ("Exposing 'lying propaganda,' " Bulletin Opinion, June 21) dismantling the nonsensical myth about the so-called "occupied territories," a subject dear to the hearts of the perennial "just peace activists."

Strangely enough, while the article documents the legal status of the lands under Israeli control, no one ever mentions the real "occupied territory" of the original Palestine, which is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, artificially created by the British diplomacy more than 80 years ago, with no respect for historical facts and international treaties and obligations. I wonder why none of the so-called Middle East specialists dare to tell the truth about the formation of the kingdom.

Every history book, every almanac, every international document, clearly shows that the territory, entrusted in good faith to Great Britain at the end of the First World War, was as a mandate only, and not as a colony or part of the United Kingdom, and had two very clear and specific items:

First, the mandate included both sides of the Jordan River and, second, it was supposed to be, in its entirety, the new home of the Jewish people, as spelled out by many previous official declarations and resolutions.

Great Britain, however, had a different agenda and a pressing problem in 1921. Knowing that there was plenty of oil under the Arabian peninsula, which they wanted to control and exploit, they were confronting a bitter dispute among several powerful nomadic tribes there, including the Saudis and the Hashemites. With typical British treachery, they solved the matter by supporting the Saudis in their fight to take over the Arabian peninsula and by carving out almost three quarters of the historical Palestine, the land east of the Jordan River, and giving it to the Hashemites as compensation.

It did not matter to them that Saudis represented the most menacing, oppressive, uncompromising, fanatical faction in Islam, the Wahhabis, as long as they could count on future supplies of oil.

The official history of the Kingdom of Jordan calls the takeover of more than 70 per cent of historical Palestine by the Hashemites a "conquest," which it surely was.

According to their own version of the events, Al Hussein (1853-1935), apparently a direct descendent of the prophet Mohammed, was, until then, the chief of the Hashemites clan, a nomadic Arab tribe, but he was also the hereditary emir of the holy city of Mecca, in what is now Saudi Arabia.

As such, a thorn in the side of the other nomads, the Wahhabi Saudis, who wanted them removed from the area, allowing the House of Saud to have full control of the two most sacred Muslim shrines.

For further information about the way this land was carved out of the Palestine Mandate, one can read in the official biography of his son, King Abdullah bin Hussein (1882-1951), as it can be found in the Web page of the government of Jordan (www.kinghussein.gov.jo):

"Under the Hashemite banner and his father's inspiration, Abdullah led the Arab forces of the Great Arab revolt,... and by the end of the First World War they had liberated Damascus, modern Jordan and most of the Arabian Peninsula.
"Following this conquest, emirs Abdullah and Feisal assumed the thrones of Transjordan and Iraq respectively. Transjordan was formed on April 21, 1921, when King Abdullah established the first centralized governmental system out of a mostly tribal and nomadic society."

Very interesting, but full of inaccuracies.

The formation of Transjordan was done after the League of Nations had given the mandate over all of Palestine to Britain, almost three years following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, and was fully facilitated by London.

Furthermore, in another official Web site of the Jordanian government, dedicated to the late King Hussein, we can find the following additional revealing historical facts:

"In 1923, Britain formally recognized the emirate of Transjordan as a state under the leadership of King Abdullah. This angered the Zionists as it effectively severed Transjordan from Palestine and so reduced the area of any future Jewish national home in the region."

It is therefore very clear that, after the Arab invasion, and after the new country called Transjordan was "severed" with full British complicity, what was left, even including Judea and Samaria, accounted for less than 30 per cent of the territory originally given by the world body to Britain to create a Jewish homeland.

It is fascinating, however, to read this open admission in the official Web sites of the government in Amman and, as mentioned above, that this was not a "returning home," but a "conquest," and it is furthermore clear that there was no organized Arab society or administration in the area, besides the tribesmen and the nomads.

Finally, the same official Web site puts the number of Arabs who left Israel, at the end of the War of Independence, at about 500,000, a far cry from the 700,000 to 900,000 now claimed by the Arabs and their Jewish "peace" supporters. But that is a topic for another discussion.

Jack Chivo
West Vancouver

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