Saturday, May 17, 2008

al Nakba - The Word, The Myth, The Struggle

What is "Nakba"?

It is an Arabic word for catastrophe.

What is it's usage?
Wikipedia article:

The 1948 Palestinian exodus (Arabic: الهجرة الفلسطينية al-Hijra al-Filasteeniya), referred to by most Palestinians and Arabs as the Nakba, meaning the "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm," refers to the refugee flight of Palestinian Arabs during the last six months of the British Mandate of Palestine, the founding of the State of Israel, and the First Arab-Israeli War.


Why is the word "catastrophe" used by Palestinians and their supporters to describe Palestinian Arab fleeing Israeli Army (and terrorist organizations) in 1948?

Simply because the word "catastrophe" fits.

Israeli apologists spin their tales that before the Jews came into Palestine this was a land without people. and anyway, the land was bought from the Arabs fair and square, so what's the big deal (notice how both assertions are mutuallly exclusive, but that is beside the point...).

That is the Israeli political partisans meme and they will stick to it.

It is significantly at odds with the actual truth, with actual historical way the events of 1948 happened.

Again, going back to the Israeli historian Benny Morris interview in Counterpunch magazine:
Benny Morris is the dean of Israeli 'new historians', who have done so much to create a critical vision of Zionism--its expulsion and continuing oppression of the Palestinians, its pressing need for moral and political atonement. His 1987 book, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, chronicled the Zionist murders, terrorism, and ethnic cleansing that drove 600,000-750,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1948, thus refuting the myth that they fled under the orders of Arab leaders. A second edition of this book is due out this month, chronicling even more massacres, and a previously unsuspected number of rapes and murders of Palestinian women. Thus Morris continues to provide crucial documentation for Palestinians fighting the heritage of Al-Nakba, "The Catastrophe."

Got that?

Palestine WAS populated by Arabs, and these people were DRIVEN OUT by Israeli armed forces.

The Arabs were driven out because they have seen what happens when the Israeli Army comes into an Arab village - "massacres, and a previously unsuspected number of rapes and murders of Palestinian women".

The birth of Israel was ethnic cleansing, the same action for which the Serbs were so roundly condemned by the rest of the world in Bosnia.

Ethnic cleansing, to put it simply, is stealing land and property by a group of people from another group of people.

Simply put, if I came into your house, threatened violence and then told you to leave it because me and my family is now taking over - that is ethnic cleansing.

And this is the birth of Israel in 1948.

There is no way do spin this fact, no way to dance around it, no way to put up a screen of big, sanctimonious words to befuddle and draw attention away.

Israel was born of ethnic cleansing, of stealing other people's land and property.

FULL STOP.

What makes Benny Morris even more believable is that he is as great a historian as he is a Zionist. From the Counterpunch article, Benny Morris proves that in his view, all the massacres, rapes and ethnic cleansing - the Israelis kicking out original Arab inhabitants of Palestine - were a GOOD thing.

Counterpunch:
But in an astonishing recent Ha'aretz interview, after summarizing his new research, Morris proceeds to argue for the necessity of ethnic cleansing in 1948. He faults David Ben-Gurion for failing to expel all Arab Israelis, and hints that it may be necessary to finish the job in the future. Though he calls himself a left-wing Zionist, he invokes and praises the fascist Vladimir Jabotinsky in calling for an "iron wall" solution to the current crisis. Referring to Sharon's Security Wall, he says, "Something like a cage has to be built for them. I know that sounds terrible. It is really cruel. But there is no choice. There is a wild animal there that has to be locked up in one way or another."

He considers Arabs "wild animals" and agrees with the 1948 ethnic cleansing done by Israelis to carve out a country for themselves.

He is simply, as a historian, stating the facts - ethnic cleansing, massacres (as in multiple massacres, in many Arab villages) - and as a Zionist, he is agreeing with those actions done by Israel and Israelis.

So, this is, what is called "al Nakba", the catastrophe, in current news and political dialogue.

Why the word itself is important.
The Palestinians have noticed that Israel have used the suffering and the genocidal murder of Jews by the German nazis as a political tool, to accomplish political goals in the present.

A whole "industry" has sprung up, called derisively by many the "Holocaust Industry".
The "Holocaust Industry" is using the suffering of Jews during (and before) World War 2 for political and financial gain.

I wrote a post about it - I urge you to read it here, when you find the time. (To me, that is one of my better articles tackling a very controversial subject).

Some of the highlights from my article:
Minister for Pensioner Affairs Rafi Eitan (of Israel -AG)is seeking to reopen the 1952 reparations agreement between Israel and Germany (reparations for Holocaust, already paid for by the Germans -AG).

Eitan told Haaretz that the original reparations agreement, the Luxembourg Agreement, did not take into account many issues relating to Holocaust survivors and should therefore be reopened. That agreement stipulated that Germany would give Israel $833 million in money and merchandise, and Israel would look after the survivors, who would not be permitted to sue Germany directly.

The German deputy finance minister rejected the idea, and Eitan told him: "So just give us the money," Der Spiegel reported.


Yes.

"So just give us the money" is an actual quote from the Israeli official.

This was one example of the "Holocaust Industry."

Interview with Professor Hilberg, author of a landmark study on the Holocaust:
Q: Professor Hilberg, generally speaking would you agree with Professor Finkelstein when he denounces the American Jewish organizations and some class-action suit lawyers for "extorting" money from Europe in order to let's say "make a killing"?

Raul Hilberg: I would in substance agree with what he says because I have said much the same things myself and the methods of the World Jewish Congress and some other organizations or people allied with it in his campaign I feel are detestable. I don't subscribe to them. In sum and substance I agree with what Finkelstein says.

Got that?

Israel, and various organizations affiliated with that country (even if, laughably, some are based in America, and run by American citizens and so are considered "American") use the past to profit in the present.

It is hard to put a monetary compensation on people's suffering. And the Jews during World War 2 were victims of genocide - a mad man's attempt to kill all the Jews in Europe. I agree that some kind of compensation must be paid to the survivors and their families (and it WAS paid!).

But for Germany and other countries to give money to Israel (instead of individual victims), the country whose founding was based on ethnic cleansing, and which has different racial laws for Arabs and Jewish citizens, which uses its army to occupy the West Bank, is WRONG.


And how are the ACTUAL victims of the Holocaust doing in Israel?
From my article:
Survivors have long claimed that European countries treat them far better than Israel, where many elderly survivors live in poverty. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's announcement of the new allowance did nothing to change that impression. One survivor called the offer "absurd and insulting."

Six decades after the war ended, the remaining survivors are elderly, and many have been unable to provide for themselves in their final years, suffering chronic shortages of money for medical and psychological treatment and in some cases even food.

Israel TV showed video of an 85-year-old survivor who said the only meat he could afford was chicken necks.

Let me repeat the last paragraph - Israel TV showed video of an 85-year-old survivor who said the only meat he could afford was chicken necks.

Do you see why it is called an "industry"?
The use of the Holocaust has nothing to do with respecting history, but is outright making money off the Holocaust survivors, not for them.

Also, and perhaps more significantly, the Holocaust has been used as somehow justifying the founding of Israel and all its subsequent actions. I will not link to the myriad of articles and books which implicitly state this.

Suffice it to say, the memory of the Holocaust is now cynically used by the Israeli government to linking the horrors of Nazi Germany to the Iranian regime. So of course now we, America, MUST attack Iran (but I digress).

There is power in words, in a narrative.

The Holocaust makes Jews into victims, a people who deserve Israel, their own country in the world. It allows all kinds of scam artists to make money off other countries historical guilt, and then to NOT hand that money to the actual Holocaust survivors and their families.

And that is why al Nakba, the Arabic word for "catastrophe", is so important.

"Nakba" makes a new narrative, a new history, it puts the Palestinian Arabs as victims, and the Israeli Jews as the aggressors.

In other words, it is the truth, to be set upon the Israeli and Zionist "truth".

Reaction in Israel.
Israel and its apologists and "think-tank" activists must see the emergence of the "Nakba" narrative as a danger. After all, in the Zionist narrative, the Israelis are always the victims and the Arabs always the aggressors...

... even when in 1948 the newly arrived European Jews kicked the original Arab inhabitants of Palestine out

... even when Israeli soldiers treat the Arabs with contempt and are given orders to shoot Arab civilians in cold blood (see here)

... even when Israeli settlers throw stones at Arabs just passing by their house (see here).

Now, "Nakba" is threatening to change all that, by making Palestinian Arabs into victims.

If, as is likely, the Palestinians will use the "Nakba" as cynically (and as effectively!) as did Israel and its apologists and activists, can you imagine what will happen? Palestinians asking for compensation for their murdered, raped and "ethnically cleansed", just like Israel and the Jewish organizations have done for the Holocaust!

This must not be allowed to pass.

Here's coverage from israelnationalnews.com about a demonstration of Arabs living in Israel, who marked the anniversary of the "Nakba".

IsraelNN.com) Arab and Jewish students at Hebrew University squared off against each other on campus this Tuesday, despite the ongoing student boycott of classes, when a group of Arab students staged a march and demonstration condemning the foundation of the State of Israel as "the catastrophe," or "Nakba" in Arabic. This was the ninth year that Arab students at the Jerusalem university have so marked Israel's establishment on May 15 in the civil calendar.

This year, the Arab students' event was particularly inflammatory, as it fell on the eve of Jerusalem Day, which marks the re-unification of the capital under Israeli sovereignty during the 1967 Six Day War.

Yes, demonstrating on al Nakba day is inflammatory.

The Zionist student group called Im Tirtzu ("If You Will It") organized an active patriotic counter-demonstration to greet the Arab student protesters. The Jerusalem police department, which had been warned of potential clashes, deployed a heavy presence at the campus entrance, where it eventually managed to keep the sides separate.

In the morning, dozens of Arab students took an organized trip to the ruins of an abandoned Arab village in the Jerusalem area. Afterwards, when the students returned to Hebrew University for a pre-planned anti-Israel demonstration, they were greeted by an equally large crowd of patriotic Jewish students waving Israeli flags and chanting pro-Israel slogans. Arab students claimed that some of the Jewish students attempted to beat them, leading campus security to separate the two groups and force them off campus grounds.

Outside the school, the pro- and anti-Israel demonstrations continued, with the street, police and physical barriers dividing the two groups from one another.

Arab students chanted pan-Arab and anti-Israel slogans, including the Palestinian Authority anthem Biladi, "Palestine is Arab" and chants linking Beirut, Gaza and Jenin. The Arab demonstrators also denigrated Israel as a "police state," and called for "national unity" over the "Syrian Golan Heights," terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails and what they called "the right of return" for Arab refugees currently outside Israel.

So, the police separated the two groups, the Zionists and the Arabs, and kept the peace.

Here's what really happened, from kabobfest.com:
Thousands of people converged Thursday on the land of Safuria to mark the anniversary of the Nakba and to demonstrate for the right of return of the refugees. The crowd included mainly Palestinian citizens of Israel, and some Jewish citizens. Chants included "Long live Palestine," "Gaza is Palestinian and Golan is Syrian," and "We are all one people" invoking the West Bank, Gaza and Arab countries along with the people of the Galilee, and "The White House is the biggest terrorist." Some people released hundreds of black balloons into the sky to fly over the 60th Birthday of Israel celebrations and barbecues to remind them of those who were forced out 60 years ago.

Safuria was a town that was cleared of its residents and destroyed in 1948. It was larger than Nazareth at the time of its destruction. Many of the descendants of the former residents of Safuria now live in nearby Nazareth, while others fled to refugee camps in the West Bank and surrounding countries. The Jewish community that now lives on the land of Safuria is called Tsippuri. Each year for the last ten years, these Nakba commemoration demonstrations in the Galilee have been at the site of a different destroyed village.

When I left the demo, I saw riot police waiting across the street. However they seemed relaxed and simply there to make sure no confrontations took place with the Jewish people celebrating in the field on the other side. Then, the next morning, I saw this image of Member of Knesset Wasel Taha:



I learned that after a couple hours of the demonstration, the police moved in, some on horseback, and attacked people with tear gas and sound bombs, brilliantly setting the fields on fire. My coworker was there with her small girls still at the time the police and army came into the crowd.

"My older daughter was so afraid. She never wants to go again, though I told her no, the police are just trying to make us afraid. There were people with blood, and smoke and bombs and gas. We are not used to this and we didn't expect anything like it. There had been no problem- the police and the army came in and made the problem."


Israeli government reaction
Finally, in a surreal twist to the tale, I will now tell you of the official Israeli government reaction to this whole "Nakba" business.

As I have said before, the word itself is important. Just like "Holocaust", "Nakba" is loaded with a psychological charge, able to in one word encapsulate a whole people's struggle, suffering and (perhaps, ultimately) redemption.

This "Nakba" has (and perhaps will soon) change the narrative from "Jewish victims, Arab aggressors" into the more current, truthful "Arab victims, Jewish aggressors".

This one word is, perhaps, more of a danger to the Israeli government and the Zionist state (i.e. Jews-only state) than the PLO, Hamas, Fatah and all the other armed fanatical organizations opposing Israel militarily put together.

Israel has already taken a step to combat this.

It is a surreal, incredibly strange action, but here it is.

From my friend's vineyardsaker's blog, quoting ynetnews.com:

Israel is demanding that the UN strike the word 'Nakba' from its lexicon, this after the world body's spokeswoman uttered it, apparently by mistake, in a press briefing she held Thursday night.

'Nakba', or 'catastrophe', refers to the refugee flight of Palestinian Arabs that followed Israel's inception in 1948.


The spokeswoman told reporters that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "phoned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to stress his support for the Palestinian people on Nakba Day".


An Israeli reporter present at the briefing asked the spokeswoman whether Ki-moon also congratulated Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the Jewish State's 60th anniversary. She said the UN chief spoke with Olmert a week ago.


Ki-moon himself was also surprised by the controversy created by his gesture, as he was not aware that the use of the term was unacceptable to Israel and is a part of the Palestinian propaganda against it.

I am speechless.

Nakba is, per the Israeli narrative, simply "a part of the Palestinian propaganda against it". And using this word, loaded with historical references, which makes Arabs the victims of Israeli Jewish aggression, is unacceptable - "the use of the term was unacceptable to Israel"

What really gets me is that this Israeli popinjay screeching is taken seriously.

What next, will the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have to apologize?


Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday afternoon in her speech at the president's conference in Jerusalem that "with the establishment of a Palestinian state, we wish to see the end of the conflict. The Palestinians will be able to celebrate their independence if on that same day they also strike the word 'Nakba' from their lexicon."

What the Israeli foreign minister is saying here is that the Palestinian version of history is forbidden, illegal, unacceptable. Only the Israeli version is correct and proper.

This is equivalent of a German government telling Israel "The Israelis will be able to celebrate their independence if on that same day they also strike the word 'Holocaust' from their lexicon."

The only rational response by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to this would be, to tell the Israelis to fuck off.

But I expect an apology shortly, and the word "Nakba" to be NEVER used by the UN.

And so the Israeli version of events of 1948...

...without the massacres, rapes, murders and ethnic cleansing

...the one where Israelis simply came into Palestine and bought the land from the Arabs, and after all there were no Arabs living there and if there were they left (not that they were forced to leave by Israeli soldiers pointing machine guns at them, that is a lie, a lie I tell you!)

is the only proper, true and acceptable in polite company history.


Words are important.
Don't let them get away with falsifying history (again!).

The last is a genuine plea, as I am an amateur historian and whitewashing history makes me livid.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A Letter of Introduction from T. Herman Zweibel

By T. Herman Zweibel
Publisher Emeritus (photo circa 1911)
The Onion
January 21, 2008 | Issue 44•03

The school-educated busy-bodies who manage my media properties inform me that it is almost time to appoint a new President. I almost cannot believe it is time for the suet-brained populace of this flagging Republic to be once again herded into the voting-booths to allegedly choose precisely which bloody-handed butcher will crack their bones and suck the marrow over the next few years. Futility, I say, rank and base futility! Does the grist choose the mill, the rabbit the hawk, the innocent 12-year-old Atlantic City orphan girl the lusty mob of beefy, drunk, vacationing coal-oil sales-men? They do not, and neither do the Citizens choose their Leaders. However, if The Onion news-paper can further the illusion that an individual vote has more potential to change the world than a lamb's last bubbling bleat in a crowded slaughter-house—and furthermore, if we may turn a hand-some profit by doing so—than let The Onion be the Judas goat to the milling herd of democratic cattle!

I am told that our new War of the White House section will contain the vetted and censored life stories of each candidate; white-washed and simplified versions of their heinous plans to drain the life and wealth of each and every tax-payer; a schedule denoting the appearances of every aspirant, so that one may go and be covered in unspeakable fulminating lies in person instead of hearing them over the crystal-set. I should God damned well hope that there will also be prettily-colored pictures, or else the average American citizen will not be able to keep his eye on it for more than a few heart-beats, and it would be better yet if there were accompanying photos of ample heaving bosoms. Sadly, the man in the street becomes affronted whenever he feels his supposed dignity is being besmirched. Why is this? The man in the street is, for all his puffery, standing there in the God damned street!

In any case, there will also be a section on how our Democracy works, despite even the simplest boor suspecting in his secret heart of hearts that it is a sham. Which it is. I have not voted since becoming a wealthy industrialist, having figured out some time ago that it is much wiser to employ the organ grinder than vote for the monkey. Still, I hope this special section is of some amusement to all. I understand that one of the candidates is campaigning in a dress this year, and yet another in a minstrel's blackface, which I must say was unexpected; but as long as there are no Catholics on the ballot, I see no reason to summon the marksmen.

Now get back to work!

Anonymous said...

I Got What America Needs Right Here
By Jimmy Carter
January 9, 2008 |
The Onion Issue 44•02
Sometimes I'm a little stupid, maybe, a little slow in the head, so I'm wondering if you can help me get something straight. Maybe you can help me understand one fucking thing right now, America, and explain to me what in the Christ is going on here. 'Cause, unless I'm missing something, this country is in the middle of a motherfucking shitstorm, and I have no fucking idea what you're gonna do to get out of it. I mean, are you seriously considering voting for one of these shitbags you got here in '08? Fat fucking chance.
Way I see it, America needs a president who's gonna somehow un-royally screw up the Middle East, do some serious cleaning up after you dropped your pants and took a steaming dump all over the fucking environment, and—boom!—restore dignity, honor, and all that shit to these United States.
See, I got solutions to all your problems—I got 'em right here in my big, hairy ballsack.
You better get down on your hands and knees and kiss Jimmy Carter's rosy-red Georgia-peach-picking ass and beg me to run your fucking country again, because there's no way I'm ever gonna come to you fuck-knobs and politely ask you if I might please be a presidential candidate in your precious fuckin' election. So you can just bite my cock. I've had it with you jerkoffs and your jerkoff candidates.
You actually seem to think one a' these assholes is gonna prance in and wave a magic wand and make everything all nice again. Look at you, sitting there like a common fucking schnook and eating all their bull about bi-fucking-partisanship, and how they have all the goddamn answers. Let me tell you something: These fags are dogshit compared to Jimmy fucking Carter, all right? I was arbitrating Mideast crises when this bunch was still sucking on their mamas' titties.
But who comes to me, huh? Fucking nobody. Why ask old Jimmy anything? What the fuck could he know about peace in the Middle East? It's not like he fucking won the Nobel Peace Prize for that shit. You myopic pricks. Back in '79, I sat Sadat and Begin right down and made those two dicklicks shake hands. It was beautiful—I had all the pieces lined up and I smiled and waved in my best fucking suit and tie right there on TV. And what do you do, you pieces of shit? You screw the whole goddamn pooch.
Cocksuckers.
Oh, what's that I hear? The weather's all screwy? You got a global warming problem? Boo-fucking-hoo! I was telling you morons to turn off your lights and unplug all your shit at night to conserve energy in 19-fuckin'-75, for chrissake. Gee, I wonder what woulda happened if we'd all switched to solar power like I fucking did back when we had a fucking chance to do something about it. Think we'd still be sucking Saudi Arabia's dick like a five-dollar whore? I sure as fuck didn't get no fancy Oscar for that little spiel, though, did I? No. But Al Gore, that cum-sucking pig, steals the shit from me and now he's the greatest thing since Jesus Christ made a fucking sandwich.
Well, he can lick my asshole right after George W. Bush, that fuck.
You want compassion? Somebody who's looking out for the little guy? Why don't you take a look at Jimmy Carter, 'cause unlike, oh, every motherfucking candidate out there, he spent the last fucking quarter-century building houses for the homeless. And what does he get for it? A fucking hernia. Some fucking gratitude, you selfish twats. You talk to me about compassion? I'll shove a crucifix so far up the Democrats' asses they'll be asking me to buy them dinner and kiss them good night.
Funny thing about me: I actually fucking know shit! Not like these goombas trying to weasel their way into the White House. I practically wrote the book on collapsing bridges, inflation, and the working poor, fuck-o. I even got a degree in nuclear engineering or some shit. You know how easy I could swoop down right now like a guardian angel and solve all your fucking problems? Snap. Bam. Do it in my fucking sleep. Just fucking try me.
So you want me to run for president again? Yeah, sure, absolutely, I'll do it. I'd be honored to do it—with my fucking dick in your mouth, you worthless scumbags.
You had your chance with Jimmy Carter, and you fucking blew it. So get fucked. Fucking country.

Anonymous said...

That was deep. I really think this is what's going on in his head. Because it's fucking true...

Anonymous said...

Nakba...... I've got to say the Palestinians aren't the only ones, just look around the region and you'll find worse examples, Armenians, Kurds, Copts, Assyrians, Chechens etc.

I just wonder how close international Jewry is to the whole Jewish homeland saga. Are they two distinction or different heads to the same coin.

As bad as the situation in Palestine is, it most certainly doesnt warrant the massive attention it receives.

Ooooohhh I've got a headache, you make me think too much AmericanGoy..........

Ojalanpoika said...

Could you kindly comment, whether my details are correct in a dissident essay concerning the recent scaling up of production in the Israeli high Tech companies in:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Expelled-Jews-statistics.htm ?

However, if you are only after Jihad against Eretz Israel by the means of media war after the conventional weapons were not succesful, please do not bother. I don't want to have anything to do with any holy war - wars are not holy. No matter if they are won or lost.

E.g. "...Before the Second Intifada, there were nearly 200 Israeli companies listed in the Nasdaq, at the Intifada the count dropped to 70. (The number is still greater than from all the European countries combined). It is said that the dollars are green since the Americans pull them down from the tree raw and fresh. The start-ups are imported straight from the garage, and scaling up of production in the "conflict hotspot" has been considered impossible. But the new Millennium has brought a change in tide.

As an example, the supranational Intel transferred the mass production of Centricon-processors to Israel, where ~20% of citizens possess university decrees (ranking 3rd in the world) but where the environment respects patents and are not plagiating every item they produce to others like the rocketting China. Intel was also offered an overall tax rate of 10%, which is about three times lower than that of US.

Also, the biggest generic drug factory in the world was recently established in Israel. Generating US$7 billion in annual revenues, Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) is the world's largest generic pharmaceutical company. That is: to cure people with less money. TEVA makes generic versions of brand-name antibiotics, heart drugs, heartburn medications, and more - in all close to 200 global generic products, 700 compounds, and more than 2800 dosage forms and formulations. TEVA's pharmaceuticals are used in some 20% of U.S. generic drug prescriptions. Examples of TEVA's generics include lower-cost equivalents of such blockbusters as anti-depressant Prozac and cholesterol drug Mevacor. Nevertheless, in biotechnology and original drug development, about 400 experimental Israeli drugs have been approved or accepted in clinical phases.

The population of Arabs under the Israeli government increased ten-fold in only 57 years. Palestinian life expectancy increased from 48 to 72 years in 1967-95. The death rate decreased by over 2/3 in 1970-90 and the Israeli medical campaigns decreased the child death rate from a level of 60 per 1000 in 1968 to 15 per 1000 in 2000 at the Westbank. (An analogous figure was 64 in Iraq, 40 in Egypt, 23 in Jordan, and 22 in Syria in 2000). During 1967-88 the amount of comprehensive schoold and second level polytechnic institutes for the Arabs was increased by 35%. During 1970-86 the proportion of Palestinian women at the West Bank and Gaza not having gone to school decreased from 67 % to 32 %. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in West Bank and Gaza increased in 1968-1991 from 165 US dollars to 1715 dollars (compare with 1630$ in Turkey, 1440$ in Tunis, 1050$ in Jordan, 800$ in Syria, 600$ in Egypt. and 400$ in Yemen)..."

Pauli Ojala, evolutionary critic
Biochemist, drop-out (MSci-Master of Sciing)
Helsinki, Finland