Israel Matzav: A Native American pushes back against 'Palestinian' attempts to co-opt his stuggle

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

A Native American pushes back against 'Palestinian' attempts to co-opt his stuggle

One of the reasons why Joan Peters' From Time Immemorial is so controversial is that the author totally demolished the claim that the 'Palestinians' are indigenous people in this country. It's not politically correct to point that out.

The 'Palestinians' have attempted to push back against the book and its claims, in part, by trying to coopt every indigenous struggle in the world as their own.

Now a Native American (in Canada) has pushed back. Ryan Bellerose of Calgary is the founder of a Native American advocacy group in his local area. He's also a Zionist (Hat Tip: CAMERA).

Many claim that we Natives have more in common with the Palestinians, that their struggle is our struggle. Beyond superficial similarities, nothing could be farther from the truth. Beyond the facile co-opting of our cause, the comparison with the Palestinians is absolutely untenable. It trivializes our suffering.

Co-opting today’s native struggle to the Palestinian propaganda war is a fallacy. Though the Palestinians have undeniable ties to the land, first hand accounts by Mark Twain and countless other travelers to the Holy Land through the ages suggest that a large percentage of the Palestinian people immigrated to Palestine in recent decades. And for 65 years, the Palestinians have convinced the world that they are worse off than many other stateless nations, despite all evidence to the contrary. The Palestinians claim to have been colonized but it was their own leaders who refused to negotiate and who lost the land that they want by waging a needless war on Israel. They claim to have faced genocide but they suffered no such thing: their population has exploded from a few hundred thousand in 1948 to over 4 million today. They claim deprivation but their elites live in luxury while their people live in ramshackle poverty.

What’s more, the Palestinian leaders have never been interested in a peaceful solution for their people. They were given several opportunities to have their own state – for the first time in history -- and refused each time, choosing war over peace because the offers were never deemed sufficient. They have persistently used terrorism to bring attention to their cause and their leaders have celebrated the killing of civilians by naming parks and schools after murderers. And any Palestinian that questions the maximalist rhetoric or who suggests real compromise is immediately ostracized, branded a traitor, or killed.

The Palestinians are not like us. Their fight is not our fight. We natives believe in bringing about change peacefully, and we refuse to be affiliated with anyone who engages in violence targeting civilians. I cannot remain silent and allow the Palestinians to gain credibility at our expense by claiming commonality with us. I cannot stand by while they trivialize our plight by tying it to theirs, which is largely self-inflicted. Our population of over 65 million was violently reduced to a mere 10 million, a slaughter unprecedented in human history. To compare that in whatever way to the Palestinians’ story is deeply offensive to me. The Palestinians did lose the land they claim is theirs, but they were repeatedly given the opportunity to build their state on it and to partner with the Jews -- and they persistently refused peace overtures and chose war. We were never given that chance. We never made that choice.

I hope that other indigenous people will recognize that the 'Palestinians' struggle is not their struggle. The 'Palestinians' are not indigenous and they have turned down countless opportunities to settle their dispute. They are not deserving of anyone's support (and were it not for anti-Semitism. I doubt they would have much support).

Much more here.

Labels: Palestinian people