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Herbert Samuel's 1915 'The Future of Palestine'
No Briton except perhaps Winston Churchill did more than Herbert Samuel to establish Zionism in Palestine during the British Mandate (colony) from just after the First World War til 15 May 1948. A Liberal Party grandee very committed to his Judaism and Zionism, this tract, which more or less ignored the indigenous Palestinians who then made up 92% of Palestine's population, was in fact the blueprint for Palestine's future, kicked off by Samuel himself as High Commissioner of Palestine 1920-1925. Essential reading for whoever wants to understand Britain's pre-creation of Israel on the Palestinians' land.
Samuel The Future of Palestine.pdf
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'Report on the State of Palestine' of the 3rd Palestine Arab Congress
During the Mandate the Palestinians said and wrote a lot of things to the British, but this hard-to-come-by document 'says it all', or rather said it all already in the winter of 1920-21. Members of the Executive Committee elected by the 3rd Palestine Arab Congress in December 1920 - led by Musa Kazem al-Husseini - gave it personally to Colonial Secretary and anti-Arab racist Winston Churchill in Jerusalem in late March 1921 - but of course it didn't interest him. This is entry #99 in my 2021 book 'The Rape of Palestine: A Mandate Chronology', which contains 490 entries ending with 15 May 1948.
Report on the State of Palestine of the
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Malcolm MacDonald's White Paper of 17 May 1939
This White Paper - the fourth fundamental one, following those of Churchill (1922), Passfield (1930) and Peel (1938) - renounced the British goal of furthering Zionism in its Palestine colony. It, in turn, was remounced in 1946 by the Attlee government. The refusal on the part of deciding elements of the Palestinian elite to accept it, and proceed to hammer out a constitution as long as MacDonald remained Colonial Secretary, was in my humble opinion the biggest mistake made by the Palestinians during the Mandate. It is accessible on a United Nations website: https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/eb5b88c94aba2ae585256d0b00555536?OpenDocument&Highlight=0,macdonald,white,paper Also on Yale's Avalon site: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/brwh1939.asp
MacDonald White Paper 17 May 1939.pdf
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Anthony Crossley MP supporting MacDonald's White Paper in the Commons
Anthony Crossley's Commons speech on 22 May 1939 in support of the new, pro-Palestinian White Paper is remarkably radical for a British politician - although the Palestinians did have many other British friends all during the Mandate, such as Lord Islington, High Commissioner John Chancellor or Ralph Beaumont MP.
Anthony Crossley MP spoke in favour of t
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Elias Koussa's letter to High Commissioner MacMichael of 6 November 1942
Heartfelt plea for respect and freedom from a Haifa lawyer. It contains many of the themes running through Palestinians' messages to the British during the Mandate.
Koussa letter.pdf
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29 OCTOBER 2023 Gaza Battle

 

The press where I live - Zürich, Switzerland - has failed both professionally and morally since 7 October 2023. The NZZ, the Tages-Anzeiger, the Weltwoche, 20 Minuten are all HASBARA organs whose coverage is one-sided and is based on the unstated premise that a Jewish-Israeli life is worth (much) more than a Palestinian-Arab life. Disgusting. They apply a double standard in judging the actions of Hamas and the actions of the colonial-apartheid state in effect ruling Gaza, namely Israel. Unfortunately the two rather 'left' papers - Republik and the WochenZeitung - are only marginally better. As Daniel Binswanger, editor of Republik, titled his main article: 'We are all Israelis.' This is repulsive.

Example 1: Tages-Anzeiger published a list of 17 books (10 non-fiction, 7 'Belletristik') to help people understand the background to Gaza 2023. Guess how many Palestinian authors there were? One and a half, both not non-fiction: 1) Ghassan Kanafani's 83-page novella of 1969, Return to Haifa. That author was murdered by Mossad in 1972. 2) Samir El Youssef, who collaborated with Etgar Keret for a book of short stories. And these 'culture' editors call themselves journalists. Ridiculous.

Example 2: Big articles when Yocheved Lifschitz, the 85-year-old Israeli hostage released by Hamas, talked to the press. The things she said about 'going through hell' and the tunnels' being 'like a spiderweb' were duly recorded, but not her clear statement that she was in all respects treated very well by her captors. And no mention of how she turned and thanked and shook the hand of a Hamas soldier behind her before being led away by her daughter. Any sacrifice of journalistic and human integrity for the sake of HASBARA.

Example 3: The NZZ's Oliver Camenzind 'reported' on the demonstration/march in Zürich on Sat. 28 October. I was there. I saw and heard nothing remotely anti-semitic. The article claimed anti-semitic stuff was chanted, with no proof. That claim dominated the article, which means: even if there were two people who said something anti-semitic, or carried such a banner, focussing on that is a distortion. And of course the definition of 'anti-semitism' used is the absurd, morally dastardly one of equating anti-Israel with anti-Jew.

For me NZZ, Tagi, Weltwoche, WoZ and Republik are Zionist rags most likely unreliable on other topics. On this topic, they are both immoral and uninformed.

28 OCTOBER 2023 Gaza Battle

 

I stand unequivocally on the side of the Palestinian people in their fight against the colonial, apartheid state of Israel. Congratulations to this group who in its 'Statement of Solidarity with Palestine' on 13 October wrote, "The Feminist Library stands unequivocally with the Palestinian people in their long-enduring resistance to settler colonialism, apartheid, and occupation." Yes, with no ifs and buts.