Monday, April 13, 2009

Early 20th century in Tel Aviv

An article from JPost up at Point of No Return argues that that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict goes back further than "the occupation."
In 1913, to counter already rife judeophobia and incendiary agitation in the Arab press, Yosef-Eliahu, along with other Arabic-speaking Tel Avivians, founded Hamagen (the shield), an organization dedicated to persuading Arabs that they and Jews share economic and cultural interests and can only improve each other's lot.
I'm afraid a lot of the earliest conflicts have been forgotten, buried under the claim that even early antisemitism among Palestinians was a response to Zionism and particularly the 1919 Balfour declaration. Though it's not quite as infuriating as the claim that the conflict goes back thousands of years, I'm amazed at how many people don't know how far back things go.

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