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In 1993, Abbé Pierre gave an interview, saying that it was Catholic Christians who committed the Holocaust, and who gave Palestine to the Jews because they were ashamed of what they did. A staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, Abbé Pierre said Christians made the Muslims, who did nothing to the Jews, pay the price of Hitler’s actions. “Not a single Muslim had participated in the Holocaust, nor had any responsibility. And we deceived the Palestinians,’ he said. ‘We lied to them.’”
Let’s take those assertions one by one.
First, It was not “Catholic Christians” who committed the Holocaust, but the Nazis, most of whom were of Lutheran background, and who can hardly be called “Christians” in any reasonable sense of that word.
Second, no one “gave” Palestine to the Jews. The Jews had been living in the Land of Israel uninterruptedly for 3500 years. It is where Jewish history was made. The League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine recognized that historic claim, and urged that the Mandatary, Great Britain, “facilitate Jewish immigration” to the land and “encourage close Jewish settlement on the land.” Jewish immigrants returned to the Land of Israel, to settle on both “state and waste” lands and on land they bought — at exorbitant prices — from Arab and Turkish landowners. After 1949, they continued to buy land and also took over lands that been abandoned by Arabs who had heeded broadcasts to leave Mandatory Palestine/Israel while the war was going on, assured that they would soon return with the victorious Arab armies. It didn’t turn out that way.
Third, the Jews of Israel have repeatedly had to fight to keep their land from those who would destroy them. They fought three wars for their very survival, in 1948, 1967, and 1973. The Israelis are fighting a fourth such war for their survival today, a seven-front war in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran. Many Israelis have died in defense of their land. Their blood, like that of the Maccabees thousands of years ago, is on the title deed.
Fourth, Abbé Pierre claimed that “not a single Muslim had participated in the Holocaust, nor had any responsibility.” What could he have been thinking? Had he forgotten that the leader of the Palestinian Arabs, Hajj Amin el-Husseini, spent the war years in Berlin, met with Hitler and congratulated him on how he was dealing with the Jews, visited Auschwitz with his friend Adolf Eichmann, made broadcasts in Arabic on behalf of the Nazis throughout the war, and recruited several battalions of Bosnian Muslims to serve in the Waffen-SS, where they helped round up and murder Jews? Husseini was not the only Arab leader to spend the war years in Berlin broadcasting pro-Nazi propaganda to Arab audiences in the Middle East. So did the former Iraqi prime minister Rashid Ali al-Kailani, and the Syrian guerrilla leader Fawzi al-Qawuqji.
Fifth, Abbé Pierre claimed that “we” — the Western powers “deceived the Palestinians. We lied to them.” How did the Western world “deceive the Palestinian Arabs”? They were well-treated by the West; it was the Jews who were ill-treated by the Western powers. The “Palestinians” in 1921 were handed all of Palestine east of the Jordan River, 78% of the territory that had originally been intended to be part of the Mandate for Palestine, and thus to become part of a future Jewish state. Instead, that territory was handed over to the Hashemite Emir Abdullah, so that he would have a state of his own, just like his younger brother Feisal, whom the British had put on the throne of Iraq.
Western Palestine thus became the Emirate of Transjordan (and in 1946 turned into the Arab Kingdom of Jordan). The Jews protested against this betrayal, but to no avail. And later on, the British would ignore their solemn obligations as holders of the Mandate, and instead of “encouraging Jewish immigration” and “facilitating close Jewish settlement on the land” they tried to prevent Jews from coming to Mandatory Palestine. They prevented ships loaded with Jewish refugees from disembarking in Palestine before and during the war, when up to a million might have been saved; after the war they continued to keep boats carrying Jews, fresh out of concentration and DP camps, from landing in Palestine. In fact, in 1939 the British government’s infamous White Paper limited the number of Jews allowed into Mandatory Palestine to 15,000 a year for five years, after which the Arabs could exercise a veto — meaning, of course, that no more Jews would be allowed into Palestine. None of that appears to have made an impression on Abbé Pierre. But it should make an impression on us.
Larry says
Don’t forget the offer of splitting the land west of the Jordan into Jewish and Arab parts made by the Balfour Commission in the mid 1930s – all that did was trigger the “Arab Uprising” as they tried to murder all the Jews in the Mandate.
Or the partition of the land west of the Jordan by the UN – all that did was trigger an invasion of Israel by 5 muslim nations as the tried to murder all the Jews in the new state of Israel.
The muslims have made no bones about it, going back even prior to the establishment of the Muslim Brotherhood, they want to murder all the Jews, and have been trying for over 100 years.
cedar9 says
Yeah well a little salt on both sides huh ? But truth and facts always seem to slide south when the cult of islam is thrown into the mix something your ilk are loath to spell out. It’s Arabs not muslim ..right R ?
owensgate says
What dd the Creator of EVERYTHING say about His “Chosen People”? “I will BLESS those that Bless thee, and I will CURSE those that curse thee”. That’s all you need to know. Who is getting “Blessed” (currently no one) and who is getting Cursed (Couple of back-to-back severe Hurricanes, Political unrest)!
TruthLaser says
The facts of Arab states calling for Arabs to leave was well known at the time. No study is needed. Arab Israelis confirm that they refused to leave. The Arab states were imperialistic, They opposed both a Jewish state and an Arab state in the former Mandate of Palestine.
STJOHNOFGRAFTON says
“First, It was not “Catholic Christians” who committed the Holocaust, but the Nazis, most of whom were of Lutheran background, and who can hardly be called “Christians” in any reasonable sense of that word.”
Martin Luther hated the Jews. The Nazis were particularly enamored of Luther’s 1543 work, “On The Jews And Their Lies.” Whilst Luther started the Reformation which opened up Bible truths about salvation to the public, his hatred of the Jews at that time because they wouldn’t convert to Christianity is an egregious blot on his character which had deadly consequences for Jews in future times. Luther should have known that his job was to faithfully preach the Gospel, not convert people to Christianity and then hate them when they would not convert. According to Ephesians 1:13-14 (ESV) The Holy Spirit leads people to Christ: “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
Gabrielle says
I refer you to the 7-year research and subsequent book by Joan peters called, “From Time Immemorial The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine”.