Saigon
Gold Member
No where does it talk about enormous differences. People build over their property all the time - and does war break out?
And for the third time now - I don't consider Palestine ca. 1930 and Detroit ca. 2012 to be a valid comparison, and neither do you.
We are not talking a foot over a fenceline here - we are talking several hundred metres of land "annexed", including in some cases water sources.
Few in number? Every pro-arab poster here like to mention how the minority jews were VASTLY outnumbered in the mandate by several times.
Yes, Jews were vastly outnumbered nationwide, but not in all areas at all times. This is fairly simple stuff to get your head around if you actually try and put the politics to one side and consider the issue with an open mind.
The finger of Galilee area was swampy land, some distance from the major Palestinian population centres of Akko, Nazareth or Nalbus (to the west, south-west and south-east respectively). Some Palestinians lived in the area, but not many.
Obviously Jewish settlers chose land they knew was not densely populated. Land titles were not always clear, and no doubt in some cases it was not clear who owned what. I'm sure Jewish settlers sometimes bought land in good faith from people who had no right to sell it as well.
But it's fairly clear why Palestinians felt aggrieved - certainly all the Israelis on my kibbutz understood it, and felt some sympathy for Palestinians concerning the way the kibbutz had been settled.
Mediation or legal action is a nice idea - but to whom would the Palestinians have protested?