Israel's Peculiar Position (1968)
Context: The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese — and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab.
Arnold J. Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace.
“Any one who speaks in favor of bringing the Arab refugees back must also say how he expects to take the responsibility for it, if he is interested in the state of Israel. It is better that things are stated clearly and plainly: We shall not let this happen.”
Speech to the Knesset, reported in Ner (October 1961)
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Golda Meir 38
former prime minister of Israel 1898–1978Related quotes
G-d's Law: an Interview with Rabbi Meir Kahane https://web.archive.org/web/20090219141224/http://kahane.org/meir/interview.htm
Israel did not cause the Arabs to leave http://web.archive.org/20020604080915/holyland-isreal.tripod.com/pal-refugees.htm, Beirut Telegraph (September 6, 1948).
i.e., 'respecting' its Jewish supremacist concerns.
Ibid.
"The Ends of Zionism: Racism and the Palestinian Struggle"
From an article on Israel Hayom http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=23811
Interview with Washington Post. "We Do Not Wish to Throw Them Into the Sea" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022402317_pf.html. Washington Post. February 26, 2006
November 26, 1958, as quoted in Malik Mufti (1996), Sovereign Creations: Pan-Arabism and Political Order in Syria and Iraq.
Quoted from memory by Hirsh Goodman in Let Me Create a Paradise, God Said to Himself: A Journey of Conscience from Johannesberg to Jerusalem https://books.google.com/books?id=lUvqer1w-QcC&lpg=PP1&ots=NaV9ASJZPf&dq=Let%20Me%20Create%20Paradise%2C%20God%20Said%20to%20Himself&pg=PT90#v=onepage&q&f=false By Hirsh Goodman, page 90. The quote was checked by UK Media Watch against Ben Gurion's relevant diary, Ben Gurion archives and with historians Benny Moris, Martin Kramer, Zaki Shalom and Anita Shapira. Hirsh Goodman "stands by his recollection, but declined, when asked, to provide any further details on the interview, such as the name of the radio station or the name of the interviewer" Did the Independent just publish a fake Ben-Gurion quote? (Update) https://ukmediawatch.org/2017/03/29/did-the-independent-just-publish-a-false-ben-gurion-quote/
Misattributed