Palestine, a Homeless People

Danilo Antón

It is the 69th anniversary of the "naqba", the "catastrophe" that occurred in 1948, the year the Palestinians lost their country and became a dependent and discriminated population.
A homeless people, a consequence of the geopolitical agreements of the main western powers during the postwar period, and of the massive economic and military support of the United States. From these agreements was established the state of Israel which settled in Palestine displacing the people who had occupied it for tens of generations. The "catastrophe" still continues in the face of international indifference.

Demographic history of Palestine

In 1922 the population of Palestine was predominantly Arab. It is estimated that Palestine was populated by about 750,000 inhabitants. Approximately 88% were Arabs, of whom 10% were Christians and 78% were Muslims. The Jewish community consisted of only 12%.
In 1931 the population had grown to 1 million inhabitants. Of these the Arabs were 85%, (Muslims 76%, Christians 9%) and the Jewish community had increased to 17%.
Immediately after World War II, prior to the first Jewish-Arab war, in Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel, the population of Palestine amounted to 2 million inhabitants, 60% of whom were Muslims, 7% Christians and 30 % Jews.
After several decades of clashes between Arabs and Israelis, the entire territory of Palestine became directly or indirectly controlled by the Israeli state.
At present the total population under Israeli rule is over 11 million. Some 6,400,000 Jews and 1,800,000 Arabs live in Israel proper  There are 2,800,000 Arabs and 370,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank of the Jordan. In Gaza there are 1,850,000 people, virtually all Arabs. In total in the conglomerate guarded by Israel there are about 6,800,000 Jews (including the colonists in the West Band) and 6,450,000 Arabs.
In addition, the Israeli occupation of Palestine generated refugee camps and Palestinian communities resulting in a Palestinian diaspora of more than 5 million in refugee camps in countries bordering Palestine and in colonies of Palestinians in the rest of the world.
In total, the Palestinians are about 12 million. Of these, just over half are still in the territory of ancient Palestine which today is occupied or controlled by Israel.

The future

It will not be easy for the State of Israel to complete the task of completely eliminating the Arab population from ancient Palestine, including the territory officially ruled by Israel.
More than 6 million Palestinians live a daily life of controls, restrictions, discrimination, economic exploitation, and when necessary, repression, imprisonment and death.
The Palestinian people lost most of the traditional lands and are on the way of losing the remaining ones.
But this process does not seem sustainable. It may happen that the State of Israel and its supporters in the US, Europe and other parts of the world will not be able to prevent this shameless apartheid situation from continuing too long.

An important part of the Jewish communities in Israel and other parts of the world, which retain the memories of Nazi apartheid, are beginning to recognize that this situation is unacceptable.
Surely the main vulnerability of the State of Israel is neither military nor economic, but of an ethical nature, which sooner or later will be expressed in the political developments of the future.

D.A.