Responding to Southwest Booster letter last week

In response to the letter by Mukarram Zaidi, Calgary, here are a few facts.

1. “Palestinians” are actually Muslim Arabs who moved into the British Mandate of Palestine when the Zionist movement back to Israel started gathering steam in the very early 1900’s.

Roman Emperor Hadrian re-named Israel Palestine as an insult to the Jewish people. Palestine comes from the name of the Philistines who were enemies of Israel for many years in ancient times. Jews and Arabs living in that area were both called Palestinians until the end of the British Mandate in 1947-8.

2. The Nakba of 1948 was really an attack on Israel by Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt with help from Saudi Arabia the day Israel was recognized as a state May 15, 1948.

Under the British Mandate, the people were not legally allowed to have weapons so when the Arabs attacked the Jews upon the refounding of their nation, the Jews were basically defenceless.

The Arabs were armed by their neighbours. It was truly a miracle if thousands of Arabs “were expelled or massacred to make way for an illegal settler colonial project.” Jews were the ones massacred.

3. In 2006 Israel gave up Gaza for peace. Gaza has been independent since then. No oppression by Jews as they all left. There were attacks on Israel from Gaza by rockets, by setting fires to farms, and other things. These were intermittent but never stopped. The Israelis held their peace.

4. October 7, 2023, Hamas and Gazan civilians carried out a terrorist attack on Israel committing heinous atrocities on mostly civilians, including babies and the elderly. Over 240 were taken hostage and over 1400 killed.

5. Since Israel set out to get rid of Hamas in Gaza, they have literally begged civilians in the north around Gaza City to move south and have tried to make safe passage for them, but Hamas keeps preventing them because Hamas uses civilians as human shields.

Hamas has operation centers, rocket launchers, etc. underneath hospitals, mosques, and schools. Israel has the military capability to utterly wipe out Gaza from the air, but in an effort to spare civilians, they are doing it the hard way.

Also, humanitarian aid must pass through the Hamas hands first and they take what they need and store it in the tunnel network they have built under civilians.

6. There is no apartheid in Israel. Arabs (“Palestinians”) living there enjoy the same rights as the Jews, including representation in the Israeli government.

Although history is being re-written, you can still find the truth if you look for it. These facts are just the tip of the iceberg.