'In Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country...Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long tradition, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.' Lord Arthur James Balfour, British Foreign Secretary, 1919.
'I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.' Sir Winston Churchill, discussing the fate of the Palestinians, 1937.
'Palestinians do not exist.' Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister, 1969.
'(They are) two-legged beasts.' Menachem Begin, Israeli Prime Minister, on the Palestinians.
'They are grasshoppers who can be crushed.' Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli Prime Minister.
'The Palestinians must be made to understand, in the deepest recesses of their consciousness, that they are a defeated people.' Moshe Yaalon, Israeli army chief, 2002
Source: 'The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire' by Arundhati Roy (pub. Harper Perennial)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment