Friday, June 14, 2013 9:20:37 AM
(cont) In the The Hope-Simpson Report, John Simpson wrote "They paid high prices for the land, and in addition they paid to certain of the occupants of those lands a considerable amount of money which they were not legally bound to pay."
If you want to know who stole the palestinians land it was Winston Churchill. In 1921 he severed 76% of Palestine, nearly 35,000 square miles to create an Arab entity, Transjordan. The borders were chosen so that the British could build and control an oil pipeline from their Mandate of Iraq through Transjordan to seaports in the Palestine Mandate. In 1946, the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan became an independent country recognized by the UN, with a few protests from Russia. Most people just call it Jordan though.
Briton saw this as a way to erode their influence. They began crafting anti-Jewish policy and propaganda and even forbid Jews from moving there because "economic capacity of the land could not support more than a million people." Yet if you paid the British Government 500 pounds per person they would let you in but they had to pay 75% of all your money in taxes to the British occupiers.
This lead people like David Ben-Gurion, leader of The Histadrut trade union (encompassing 75% of the entire Jewish Palestine labor force) to write "under no circumstances must we touch land belonging to fellahs or worked by them." He advocated helping liberate them from their oppressors. "Only if a fellah leaves his place of settlement, should we offer to buy his land, at an appropriate price."
Friday, June 14, 2013 7:56:34 AM
@paperduck: That accusation first began after the anglo-egyptian war. The British wanted control of the Suez canal and Palestine was seen as a buffer against the Ottoman Empire.
At this time in Palestine the Muslim religious leaders, even the Mufti, were openly friendly with the Jews. Seeing them as a path to modernization and a buffer against becoming a puppet state. In May 1918, Dr. Chaim Weizmann and Hussein of the Hejaz met in Cairo where the latter spoke of mutual cooperation between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. In early l9l9 a Treaty of Friendship was signed to provide for "the closest possible collaboration in the development of the Arab state and the coming Jewish Commonwealth of Palestine. On March 3, l9l9, another Arab leader, Feisal, son of Sherif, wrote: "We wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home."
Friday, June 14, 2013 7:55:47 AM
@5cats: "No real guns... No religious indoctrination (that I'm aware of)."
You`re right that in the simulations no real guns are used (although low caliber real guns are used marksman competitions) and if I remember correctly you had to be over 15 so you`re right there. But you have to be religious, it can be any religion, but Boy scouts are not supposed be an atheist or agnostic. I was agnostic, and people sort of knew it, no one ever challenged me on it or gave me a conversion talk, but I couldn`t become an Eagle scout because I did not have a pastor or priest whos church I belonged to and could sign my paperwork for me. I still completed my Eagle project and paperwork, and my troop leaders sent it all off, but National didn`t approve it. Didn`t care much, didn`t need to have their approval, I still had fun.