RAMLEH

Sunday, August 3, 2014

RAMLEH

Ramle was established around 716 and was the only town founded by Arabs during the 1400 years of Arabs living in the country. From the very beginning and in the early part of its history, Ramle had thriving Jewish, Samaritan, and Karaite communities. It was also one of the stopping points for the Radhanites, convoys of Jewish merchants who crossed the land routes from Europe to Asia and back again. A period of expulsions took place during the Crusader era and in the 12th century, only 3 Jews lived there. The community was, eventually reestablished, but often went through periods of prosperity and decline between the 14th and 17th centuries. By the end of the 19th century, the town’s Jewish population was about 66.

Ramleh, c. 1875

The Arab riots in the 1920s forced some Jews to leave the town. In the 1930s Ramleh still had five Jewish families; even this small population bothered the Arabs and they were forced to leave during the ourtbreak of new riots in 1936.

Today, Ramle is a town where 80% of its population is Jewish, but many anti-Jewish incidents still occur among the 20% Arab minority.

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INTRODUCTION

For the record, I am Jewish, I don’t live in Israel (I’d rather live in a country where the government’s priority is actually to protect me from terrorism). I just want to make that clear.

Ever since the Balfour Declaration in 1917 from which Great Britain supposedly recognized Palestine as the national homeland of the Jewish people, numerous Palestinian Arab riots broke out and many Jews were attacked. These Palestinian Arabs claimed they were protesting the massive Jewish immigration to the country, but if that was true, then why were they also attacking the native-born Palestinian Jews as well?

The popular perception of Israeli history is one of the evil Jews coming from Europe, especially refugees from the Holocaust, settling in Palestine and taking land away from the Palestinians. It's an image that's a culmination of centuries of these types of images as depicted by such literary characters as Shylock, Svengali, and Fagan. Most everybody in the world considers the Arabs of Israel/Palestine to be indigenous to the region because they look indigenous to the region. And the Zionist movement actually helped to spread this type of perception: Jews coming to an empty land after a 2000 year absence, fighting the indigenous Arab marauders, and making the desert bloom.

The problem with that is, both these narratives are lies. Well, at least the Zionist narrative is a half truth – Jews did fight marauding Arabs and make the desert bloom. But let's take a look at the facts. There has never been a 2000 year absence. Jews have lived in Israel/Palestine for almost 4000 years, and those Jewish/Israelite families who have constantly lived in the country since Biblical times, the Mustarabim and the Samaritans, are the indigenous Palestinians.

It took years for the Israeli government to acknowledge that there were Jewish refugees from Arab countries (which was like extracting teeth) but it has yet to acknowledge that there were Jewish refugees from Palestine as well. For decades, Israelis have tried to make peace with the noble and deserving Arabs, while totally ignoring the indigenous and centuries-old Palestinian Jewish communities as if they didn't exist. In the rare cases when they were acknowledged, they were often characterized as lazy sub-humans.

Since no Israeli government or Jewish institution in Israel or the Diaspora has any intention of recognizing these Palestinian Jewish refugees, this blog will be dedicated to that purpose. There simply is no other choice and it’s the moral thing to do.

While one can go back to the 16th and 17th centuries to read about Palestinian Arab intifadas, pogroms, and persecutions causing a Palestinian Jewish refugee problem, this blog will deal with the period since the end of World War I up to today (with emphasis on the Arab intifadas/pogroms of 1920/1, 1929, 1936-1939, and the War of Independence 1947-1949) along with a short history of the various communities before that time. Just click on any community below for a brief description of events.

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