https://arab.news/ry9tq
One morning in early June 1967, when I was 14, I took the bus to school having read in the newspaper over breakfast that Egypt, Syria and Jordan were at war with Israel.
The first class of the day was history. Our history teacher, Mr. Ferry (teachers in those days did not have first names), was a fervent supporter of the still nascent state of Israel, which had existed for less than 20 years. Enterprisingly, he decided to scrap the lesson he had planned and instead devote the time to his favorite subject.
Jews, he told us, having endured discrimination and persecution in Europe for centuries, now had their own country, in which they could enjoy security and safety, thanks largely to their own indefatigable campaign for a Jewish state, but also due in part to the wisdom and munificence of the UN, based on an original proposal in 1917 by Britain’s own Lord Balfour. Warming to his theme, Mr. Ferry waxed lyrical about fit, bronzed and athletic young kibbutznikim, toiling daily under a hot sun to turn the dry and unforgiving desert green. It was all terribly inspiring.
Mr. Ferry omitted to mention that the territory then comprising the state of Israel had been obtained by means of driving, at gunpoint, about 750,000 Palestinians off the land they had inhabited for centuries, and sending into exile those who were not killed. Or that the “indefatigable campaign for a Jewish state” had been conducted by homicidal thugs from Irgun and the Stern Gang, who nowadays would be referred to as “terrorists” but who nevertheless went on to hold key ministerial roles in successive Israeli governments. Or that much of the “dry and unforgiving desert” was already green, thanks to generations of farming by Palestinian families who were now homeless and stateless.
