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Not So in the Middle East!
In the Middle East, however, land
carries a much broader significance.
The roots of the majority of the
people who call these arid bilis and
plains their home run deep.
To families in this area of the
world, the land is tightly interwoven
into almost every facet of their daily
lives. For many, of course, the often
parched, barren earth of the Middle
East is the source of their very
means to survival. Even the most
affluent urban Arab shares this
iil
common with the poorest rural
fel–
/ah.
The very essence of their na–
tional .ídentity, the roots of their
religion, culture and uniting sense of
shared destiny are firmly embedded
in the very soil of this timeless land.
" One's Own Land"
For these and other social and
economic reasons, the factor of land
is of central importance to the often
etbnically diverse peoples today
known collectively as Arabs.
Asan example, land held by indi–
vidual families has frequently been
in those families through many gen–
erations. Parents and other close
relatives may well be buried within
its boundaries. To those living
today,
it
is regarded an honor to
bequeath,
in
tum, this normally
modest but richly treasured inher–
itance to their chi ldren, and those
after them.
One Arab put it this way in ex–
plaining the complex, heartfelt de–
sire " to live on one's own land":
"We buried our dead there fifty
years ago, two hundred years ago. 1
do not understand how anyone can
say we should accept land in some
other place [as compensation] when
we are tied to this land. We have a
spiritual tie. Our souls are bound to
this land. Our traditions are bound
to this land."
Because of this intensely emo–
tional, unifying, identity-supplying
bond the Arab has with bis land, it
is inevitable that the
struggle
for
land - specifically the land of Pales–
tine - líes at the core of the ex-
PLAIN TRUTH February 1974
plosive drama now unfolding
between the Arab peoples and their
Israeli neighbors.
Who " Owns" Palestina?
Until this present century, Arabs
were the primary residents of Pales–
tine. Sweeping into the Levant in
the seventh century A.D. during the
initial outward spread of Islam from
the Arabian península, the Arabs
proceeded to settle and develop a
loose-knit society while vigorously
converting the oeighboring commu–
nit ies to their newly found faith . As
Islam swelled across North Africa
aod the Eastern Mediterranean,
widely diverse peoples became
united - first by the common thread
of religion, today by the additional
thrust of Arab nationalism.
Even though Arabic-speaking
peoples - Moslem and Christian -
have comprised the bulk of Pales–
tine's population since the Jews'
diaspora
began in the second cen–
tury A.D., the area has never been
completely devoid of Jewish resi–
dents. The Jews in Palestine have
waxed aod waned according to the
political and military climate
through the centuries, moving in
and out of the region as necessity
required.
The attraction of Palestine for the
Jews through the centuries has basi–
cally been religious. But in the
middle to late 1800's, new political
aspirations were being expressed by
a long-dispersed people seeking a
secure national homeland.
However, a Jewish return
en
masse
to Zion, or Palestine, whether
on religious grounds of divine grant
or on legal claims of prior own–
ership, has provided an insur–
mountable obstacle to Arab s
seeking an essentially Arabic society
in the Middle East. The result has
been today's enmity between na–
tiooalistic Israelis and equally na–
tionalistic Arabs.
The Saudi Arabian ambassador
to the U.N. , Jamil Barood y,
summed up the Arabic view during
the October Middle East fiareup:
"Zionism [the Israelí political desire
to establish a national homeland in
Palestine) was predicated on the
premise that God gave Palestine to
the Jews. And time and time again 1
have said that God was not in the
real estate business." Israelis view it
quite differently.
The Rallying Point
For an Arab "nation" tradition–
ally toro by rifts and infighting from
Morocco to the Persian Gulf, the
"Palestinian question" has proved
in many ways a successful - and
convenient - rallying point. The
more idealistic among the Arabs
still cherish the dream of a future
Nahda,
or Arabic renaissance, unit–
ing the massive lands of the Middle
East and southern Mediterranean
coasts under common banners of
language, culture and religion.
There is simply no room for a state
of Israel in the midst of this idealis–
tic vision. Thus the localized issue of
the Palestinian problem has blos–
somed into a widespread, fervent
marshalling of pan-Arabic emotions
throughout the Arab world.
Also entering the picture is the
intense religious attachment of the
Arabs to Palestine. Though most in
the Westerp world might assume
the Holy Land to be important only
to Christians and Jews, the area of
Palestine and especially Jerusalem
is of major sign ificance to Moslems
as well. Sorne of Islam's most sacred
shrines are in Jerusalem, and the
impact of having those holy places
under the control of non-Islamic
peoples has added greatly to the en–
tire Middle East dilemma.
Who ls to Decide?
Thus, to Arabs as well as to
Israelis, the enigmatic question of
"Who will decide?" remains pivota! .
After all,
who
will finally deter–
mine the boundaries of nations and
peoples so that all can live at peace?
Who
really owns the earth and
who
really determines the destinies of
the Arab and Israelí peoples?
Statesmen and diplomats seem to
have forgotten the answer - if they
ever knew.
o
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