No peace under occupation

Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that it was the Mufti of Jerusalem who told Hitler to exterminate the Jews elicited a sharp spontaneous response from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said that the Germans bear the full responsibility for the Holocaust and not the Palestinians.

Netanyahu’s statement is inconsistent with historical facts and events of the time, when Arabs and Jews lived peacefully in Palestine.

In 1945, after the Holocaust, increasing numbers of Jews, or rather Zionists, came to Palestine as terrorist groups, such as Irgun and Stern, massacring entire Arab villages, demolishing houses and attacking British Mandate institutions.

My own father was one of the victims at the explosion of the King David Hotel in 1946.

The present brutal military occupation of Palestine started in 1967. The usurpation of land and properties, and the illegal building of settlements prompted legitimate Palestinian resistance, propagated by Israelis as a terrorist act.

While European resistance against occupation during World War II was considered heroic, Palestinians are talked about as terrorists.

Only the application of international law and the end of occupation will bring peace about.

Lina Gress,
Amman