Solomon2
BANNED
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2008
- Messages
- 19,475
- Reaction score
- -37
- Country
- Location
Point of No Return: Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries
One-stop blog on Jews from Arab and Muslim Countries and the Middle East's forgotten Jewish refugees, updated daily
MONDAY, OCTOBER 06, 2014
Forget the past, says Arab refugee's son
It's been billed "The best speech an Israeli diplomat ever gave."
Whatever its merits, what makes this 30-minute speech unusual is the giver: A Christian Arab-Israeli from Jaffa. George Deek is an Israeli diplomat posted in the prickly, if not downright hostile environment of Norway. Thankfully, the country still retains pockets of sympathy for Israel, such as the organisation MIFF, which hosted Deek's talk.
Deek's father was a Palestinian refugee in 1948 and his family are scattered all over the Arab world and the West. They responded to calls to flee Israel because of Arab warnings that the Jews would perpetrate a new Deir Yassin massacre. Deek sets his personal story in its context - the creation of millions of refugees as a result of 20th century conflicts...
Good morning!
When I walk along the streets of my city Jaffa, I am often reminded of the year 1948.
Alleys of the old town, the houses in the neighborhood Ajami, fishing nets on the harbor - they all seem to tell different stories about what happened that year that changed my city forever.
One of these stories is about one of the oldest families in this ancient city - Deek family - my own.
Prior to 1948 worked my grandfather, George, who I am named after, as an electrician at the Rotenberg Electricity Company.
He was not very interested in politics, and since Jaffa was a mixed city, he naturally enough also some Jewish friends and actually had some friends in the electricity company that he worked with, and even taught him Yiddish, which made him a of the first Arab ever to be able to speak the language.
In 1947 he became engaged to Vera - my grandmother - and together they had plans to start a family in the same town as Deek family had lived in about 400 years - Jaffa.
But a few months later changed those plans themselves, literally overnight.
When the United Nations approved the establishment of Israel and a few months later the state of Israel was established, warned the Arab leaders Arabs that the Jews plotted to kill them if they stayed at home, and they used the Deir Yassin massacre as an example, and said to all: "Leave your homes and flee away."
They said they would need only a few days, and five Arab armies promised to destroy the newborn Israel.
And my family - terrified of what would happen - decided to flee, along with most others.
So a priest was at full speed rushed to Deek-family house and he devoted George and Vera - my grandparents - the house in a hurry.
My grandmother did not even have time to get a proper wedding dress.
And after the sudden marriage, started the whole family fled northwards towards Lebanon.
But when the war was over, the Arabs failed to destroy Israel, and my family was now on the other side of the border, and it seemed as if the fate of brothers and sisters in Deek family was being spread around the globe.
Today I have relatives in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Dubai, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and more.
And the story of my family is just one - and probably not the worst - among the many tragic stories from the year 1948.
And to be honest - you do not need to be an anti-Israeli to recognize the humanitarian catastrophe that Palestinians experienced in 1948, ie Nakbaen.
The fact that I need Skype to talk with relatives in Canada who can not speak Arabic, or with a cousin in an Arab country that still do not have citizenship there, despite the fact that he is a third generation, is a living testimony to the tragic consequences of war.
According to the UN, about 711,000 Palestinians displaced. We've heard it before. Some of them fled and some of them were driven away by force.
And yet, because of the establishment of Israel, 800,000 Jews were forced to leave the Arab world, which meant that it was almost empty of Jews.
And as we've heard before [in the lecture of Professor Benny Morris], atrocities from both sides were not uncommon.
But it seems that this conflict was not the only one in the 19th and 20th century led to the expulsion and displacement.
From 1821 to 1922, five million Muslims expelled from Europe, mainly to Turkey.
In the 1990s, Yugoslavia broke up and it led to about 100,000 deaths and about 3 million were forcibly displaced.
From 1919 to 1949, during Operation Vistula between Poland and Ukraine, 150,000 people died and 1.5 million were forcibly displaced.
After the Second World War and the Potsdam Conference, was between 12 to 17 million Germans forcibly relocated.
When India and Pakistan were created, around 15 million people forcibly displaced.
And this tendency also exists in the Middle East, for example tvangsforflyttingen 1.1 million Kurds executed by the Ottomans, or 2.2 million Christians were expelled from Iraq.
Speaking today are Yazidis, Bahai Gardens, Kurds, Christians and even Muslims were killed and expelled in a total of 1,000 people per month after the rise of radical Islam.
The chance that any of these groups will be able to return to their homes is almost non-existent.
Why is it that the tragedies of Serbs, European Muslims, the Polish refugees or Iraqi Christians, are not marked?
How is it that tvangsforflyttingen of Jews from the Arab world was completely forgotten, while the tragedy of the Palestinians - Nakbaen - still alive in today's politics?
It seems to me to be so because the Nakba has been transformed from a humanitarian disaster to a political offensive.
Commemoration of the Nakba is no longer about remembering what happened, but to be appalled by the state of Israel's existence.
It is clearly given to know the election date to select it:
Nakba Day is April 9 - the day of the Deir Yassin massacre, or on July 13 - the day of tvangsforflyttingen from Lod.
Nakba Day was set for May 15 - the day after Israel proclaimed its independence.
By doing so signaled the Palestinian leadership that Nakba catastrophe is not about tvangsforflyttingen, the abandoned villages or to live in exile.
Nakbaen - in their eyes - is the creation of Israel.
They are less sad about the humanitarian disaster that happened to the Palestinians and more over the restoration of the Jewish state.
In other words: They do not mourn that my cousins are Jordanians, they mourn the fact that I am an Israeli.
And by doing this, the Palestinians become slaves of the past, they are being held captive in chains of offense, trapped in a world of frustration and hatred.
But friends, the obvious and yet the simple truth is - to avoid resign in tears of sorrow and bitterness - we must look ahead.
And to put it even more clearly: To repair the past, you must first secure future.
This is something I learned from my music teacher, Avraham Nov.
When I was 7 years old, I joined a band in the Arab-Christian community center in Jaffa. It was there that I met Avraham, who was my music teacher. He taught me first to play the flute and clarinet later. I was good.
But Avraham is a Holocaust survivor, and his entire family were murdered by the Nazis. He was the only one who managed to survive because some Nazi officer thought he was gifted in playing the harmonica and took him home during the war to entertain their guests.
And when the war was over and he was left alone, he could easily have been sitting in endless weeping over the greatest crime that people have committed against others in human history and the fact that he was alone.
But he did not. He looked forward, not backward.
He chose life, not death. Hope instead of despair.
Avraham came to Israel, married, built a family and began teaching the same thing that saved his life - music. He was a music teacher for hundreds and thousands of children across the country.
And when he saw tension between Arabs and Jews decided this Holocaust survivor to spread hope through music to hundreds of Arab children, like me.
Survivors of the Holocaust, as Avraham, is among the most extraordinary people you can find.
I was always curious to understand how they managed to survive with what they knew and what they had seen. But over the 15 years I've known Avraham - and I was his student - he never spoke about his past, except once - when I demanded to know.
What I came to realize was that Avraham was not the only one, and that many Holocaust survivors did not talk about those years, the Holocaust, even to their families, some not over decades, or their whole life.
Only when they had secured the future, they allowed themselves to look back on the past. Just as they had built a future with hope they could allow themselves to remember back to the days filled with despair.
They built the future in their old-new home, Israel.
And under the shadow of their greatest tragedy were Jews able to build a country that leads the world in medicine, agriculture and technology.
Why? Because they looked forward.
Friends, this is a lesson for all nations seeking to overcome a tragedy - including the Palestinians.
If the Palestinians want to restore the past, they must first focus on ensuring a future, to build a world as it should be and that our children deserve it to be.
And the first step in that direction is, without doubt, to end the shameful treatment of the Palestinian refugees.
In the Arab world is the Palestinian refugees - including children, grandchildren and their great-grandchildren - still not settled, but are aggressively discriminated against, and in most cases denied citizenship and basic human rights.
Why is it that my relatives in Canada are Canadian citizens, while my relatives in Syria, Lebanon or the Gulf countries - who were born there and do not know anything home - still considered refugees?
It is obvious that the treatment of Palestinians in the Arab countries is the worst oppression they experience anywhere.
And minions of this crime, is none other than the international community and the United Nations.
Rather than doing their job and helping the refugees to creating a life, the international community concerned with maintaining their status as victims.
While it is one UN agency responsible for refugees in the world - UNHCR, was also another body established just to take care of the Palestinian refugees - UNRWA.
This is no coincidence. While the goal of UNHCR to assist refugees to establish a new home - establish a future and end the status of refugees, the goal is to UNRWA exactly the opposite; to preserve their status as refugees and prevent them from being able to start a new life.
The international community can not seriously expect that the refugee problem is solved when it is cooperating with the Arab world to treat refugees as political pieces and denying them the basic rights they deserve.
Wherever the Palestinian refugees were granted equal rights, they have flourished and contributed to society - in South America, the USA, and even in Israel.
In fact, Israel was one of the few countries that automatically gave full citizenship and equal rights for all Palestinians after 1948.
And we see the result: Despite all the challenges, the Arab citizens of Israel built a future.
Israeli Arabs are the most educated Arabs in the world with the best living standards and opportunities in the region.
Arabs serve as judges in the Supreme Court.
Some of the best doctors in Israel are Arabs who work in almost all hospitals in the country.
There are 13 members in parliament - Arab members of parliament - which may enjoy the right to criticize the government - a dish they utilize to the fullest - protected by freedom of speech.
Arabs have won the popular reality show.
You can even find Arab diplomats - and one of them stand before you.
Today, when I go in Jaffa's streets, I see the old buildings and the old port, but I also see children going to school and university, I see thriving business, and I see a vibrant culture.
In short, despite the fact that we still have a long road ahead of us as a minority, we have a future in Israel.
This brings me to my next point:
It is time to put an end to UNCULTURE with sedition and hatred - because anti-Semitism, I believe, is a threat to Muslims and Christians, as much as it is against the Jews.
I came to Norway, as you were told, about two years ago, and here it was the first time ever that I met Jews as part of a minority. I'm usually used to seeing them as a majority. And I must say, it looked very familiar.
I grew up in a similar environment in the Arab-Christian community in Jaffa. I was part of the Orthodox Christians, who are part of the Christian community, which is part of the Arab minority in the Jewish state of Israel in the Muslim Middle East. So it's like Russian dolls, you open the big and find smaller dolls inside. I am the smallest part.
And, for a Jew in Norway or an Arab in Israel, being a minority means that you are part of a small community where everyone cares about each other and support each other.
It's a beautiful thing to know that whatever happens you will always have a community that cares about you.
And, being part of a minority has been a blessing to me throughout my life.
But friends, the life of a minority is also a life of constant struggle for fair treatment.
Sometimes you are discriminated against and can even be a victim of war crimes.
Even in a democracy like Israel is to be an Arab minority is not always easy.
Just over one year ago, a bunch of "Price Tag" bowls into the Arab-Christian cemetery in Jaffa and the desecrated tombstones by typing "Death to the Arabs". And one of the graves in this cemetery was my father.
So being a minority, my friends, is a challenge everywhere, because being a minority means being different.
And no nation has ever paid a higher price for being a minority, to be different than the Jewish people.
The history of the Jewish people, has added many words to the human vocabulary. Words: deportation, forced conversion, inquisition, ghetto, pogrom and to not mention the word Holocaust.
And Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks explains it concisely in an article that the Jews suffered throughout history because they were different.
Because they were the most significant non-Christian minority in Europe.
And today the most significant non-Muslim minority in the Middle East.
But friends, the fact is; are not we all different?
The truth is that being different is what makes us humans.
Every person, every culture, every religion is unique and therefore irreplaceable.
And a Europe, or the Middle East, which has no room for Jews, has no room for humanity.
Because, friends, let us not forget: Antisemitism starting perhaps with the Jews, but it never ends with the Jews.
The Jews were not the only ones who were forcibly converted during the Inquisition.
Hitler made sure that Gypsies and gays, among others, also suffered beside Jews.
And it's happening now, once again, this time in the Middle East.
The Arab world seems to have forgotten that its most glorious days the last 1400 years when it showed tolerance and openness towards those who were different.
Mathematics genius Ibn Musa el-Khawazmi were Uzbek, the great philosopher Rumi was Persian, the brilliant leader Saladin was a Kurd, founder of Arab nationalism was Michel Aflaq, a Christian, and that brought the Islamic rediscovery of Plato and Aristotle to the rest of the world was Maimonides, a Jew.
But instead of renewing the successful approach of tolerance, the Arab youth still taught to hate Jews and uses antisemitic rhetoric of medieval Europe, mixed with Islamic radicalism.
And yet again, what began with hostility toward Jews has been hostility towards anyone who is different.
Just last week fled more than 60,000 Kurds from Syria to Turkey, afraid of being killed.
Same day drowned 15 Palestinians from Gaza into the sea in an attempt to escape the clutches of Hamas.
Bahaier and Yazidiere is in danger.
And to top it all, the ethnic cleansing of Christians in the Middle East is the greatest crime against humanity in the 21st century. In just two decades, Christians - like me - have been reduced from 20% of the population in the Middle East to just 4% today.
And when we see that the biggest victims of Islamist violence are Muslims, then it becomes clear to all; that will ultimately destroy the hated hater.
So friends; if we want to succeed in protecting our right to be different, if we are to have a future in the region, I believe we must stand together - Jews, Muslims and Christians.
We will fight for the right of Christians everywhere to live out their faith without fear, with the same passion that we will fight the Jews the right to live without fear.
We will fight against Islamophobia, but we also need our Muslim partners participating in the fight against Christian phobia and Judeophobia.
Because what is at stake is our common humanism.
I know this may sound naive to some, but I think that it is possible and the only thing standing between us and a more tolerant world, is fear.
When the world changes, people start to worry about what the future will bring.
This fear makes people reduce themselves to a passive victim who deny the reality and goes in search of a scapegoat to blame for all this.
It is as true today as it was true in 1948.
The Arab world can overcome this mentality, but it takes courage to think and act differently.
This amendment requires that the Arabs realize that they are not helpless victims.
And it requires that they open up for self-criticism, and that they agree to be responsible.
To date, not a single history of the Arab world questioned historical mistake it was to reject the creation of a Jewish state.
No prominent scholar in the Arab world have come forward and stated publicly that if the Arabs had accepted the idea of a Jewish state, it would be two states, there had been no wars and there had been no refugee problem.
I see Israelis, like Benny Morris, who is with us today, who dare to challenge the storytelling that was mediated by their leadership in Israel, and takes a personal risk in the search for truth is not always comfortable for their own people.
But I can not find the corresponding Arabic.
I can not find a debate that questions the wisdom of the devastating leadership of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Hussaini; or the unnecessary war that was started by the Arab League in 1948, or any of the wars against Israel in the years that followed until today.
And I can not find self-criticism among the mainstream of the Palestinian people today about the use of terrorism, the start of the second intifada or rejection of at least two Israeli offers the last 15 years to end the conflict.
Self-reflection is not weakness, it is a sign of strength.
It produces our ability to overcome fear and confront reality.
It requires us to look sincere in our decisions, and take responsibility for them.
Only Arabs themselves can change their reality by stop relying on conspiracy theories and blaming outside forces - America, the Jews, the West or whoever it may be - for all the problems.
By learning from past mistakes, and taking wiser decisions in the future.
Just two days ago was the American president Obama at the UN rostrum in front of the General Assembly and said. And I quote:
"The task of rejecting sectarianism and extremism is a task for generations. A task for the people of the Middle East itself. No external power can force a transformation of hearts and minds. "
I recently read a very interesting article written by Lord Sacks about rivalry among brothers in the Bible.
There are four stories of rival brothers in Genesis. Every story ends differently.
It is the story of Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph with his brothers.
In the case of Cain and Abel; at the end of it is Abel's death.
In the case of Isaac and Ishmael are together at his father's grave.
In the case of Jacob and Esau meet the hugging each other and go their separate ways.
But the story of Joseph ends differently.
For those not familiar with the story: Joseph was one of Jacob s twelve sons and they lived in the land of Canaan.
At one point, because of jealousy towards him, choosing the brothers to sell him into slavery.
But after a while Josef rising the ranks until he becomes one of the two most powerful people in Egypt next to Pharaoh.
And when famine struck Canaan came his family down to Egypt and there he meets them.
And there, instead of punishing them for what they had done to him, deciding Josef himself to forgive them.
This was the first recorded case of forgiveness and reconciliation in the literature or anywhere.
And not only forgives his brothers Joseph. He makes sure to cover all the brothers' needs. They progress, they increase in number and they are a great nation.
At the end of the story says Joseph to his brothers, "You intended to harm me, but God meant it for good to accomplish what is now being done, namely to save many lives."
By this he meant that our actions today can shape the future, and thereby redeem the past.
Now, Jews and Palestinians: We may not be religious brothers, but we are certainly brothers in a common destiny.
And I think that just as in the story of Joseph that through making the right choices, by focusing on the future, we can redeem our past.
Yesterday foes can be tomorrow's friends. It happened between Israel and Germany, Israel and Egypt, Israel and Jordan.
And it's time to start creating a beam of hope in the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians, so that we can finish up old grievances and focus on our future and the exciting possibilities it holds for us, if only we dare.
I have not yet told you the rest of my family's history in 1948.
So after a long journey to Lebanon, mostly on foot, reached my grandparents George and Vera until Lebanon. They stayed there for many months. And while they were there gave birth to my grandmother her first son, my uncle Sami.
And when the war was over, they realized that they had been lied to.
The Arabs did not win as they had promised. And while the Jews did not kill all Arabs as they were told would happen.
My grandfather looked around and saw nothing but a dead end in a life as a refugee.
He looked at his young wife Vera - not turned 18 yet, and his newborn son, and knew of a place that is locked to the past and without the ability to look ahead, there was no future for his family.
While his brothers and sisters saw their future in Lebanon or other Arab countries or in the West, he thought otherwise.
He would return to Jaffa, his hometown.
Because he had worked with Jews and was friends with some of them, he was not brainwashed with hatred.
My grandfather George did what few others would have dared. He contacted the society saw as his enemies.
He got hold of one of his old friends from the electricity company, and asked for his help to get back.
And this friend, who I have heard from my father's stories, but without knowing his name, was not only able and willing to help my grandfather to come back, but in an extraordinary action helped him to obtain the old job back in what had been the Israeli Electricity Company. It made him one of very few Arabs who worked there.
And today, among my cousins, we have accountants, teachers, insurance agents, engineers in high technology, diplomats, factory managers, university professors, doctors, lawyers, investment advisers, managers of leading Israeli companies, architects and even electricians.
And the reason why my family has succeeded in life and why I stand here before you today as an Israeli diplomat and not as a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon, is because my grandfather had the courage to take a decision that was unthinkable for other .
Rather than collapse in despair he found hope where others dared to look. He chose to live among those who were considered to be his enemies and turn them to his friends.
And for that I owe him and my family and my grandmother eternal gratitude.
History of Deek family should serve as a source of inspiration for the Palestinian people.
We can not change the past.
But we can ensure a better future for the next generations if one day we want to reconcile us with the past.
We can help Palestinian refugees to achieve a normal life.
We can be sincere about our past and learn from our mistakes.
And we can cooperate - Muslims, Jews and Christians - to protect our right to be different and thus preserve our humanity.
In fact we can not change the past, but if we work together we will change the future.
Thank you.
[Google translated from original]
One-stop blog on Jews from Arab and Muslim Countries and the Middle East's forgotten Jewish refugees, updated daily
MONDAY, OCTOBER 06, 2014
Forget the past, says Arab refugee's son
It's been billed "The best speech an Israeli diplomat ever gave."
Whatever its merits, what makes this 30-minute speech unusual is the giver: A Christian Arab-Israeli from Jaffa. George Deek is an Israeli diplomat posted in the prickly, if not downright hostile environment of Norway. Thankfully, the country still retains pockets of sympathy for Israel, such as the organisation MIFF, which hosted Deek's talk.
Deek's father was a Palestinian refugee in 1948 and his family are scattered all over the Arab world and the West. They responded to calls to flee Israel because of Arab warnings that the Jews would perpetrate a new Deir Yassin massacre. Deek sets his personal story in its context - the creation of millions of refugees as a result of 20th century conflicts...
Good morning!
When I walk along the streets of my city Jaffa, I am often reminded of the year 1948.
Alleys of the old town, the houses in the neighborhood Ajami, fishing nets on the harbor - they all seem to tell different stories about what happened that year that changed my city forever.
One of these stories is about one of the oldest families in this ancient city - Deek family - my own.
Prior to 1948 worked my grandfather, George, who I am named after, as an electrician at the Rotenberg Electricity Company.
He was not very interested in politics, and since Jaffa was a mixed city, he naturally enough also some Jewish friends and actually had some friends in the electricity company that he worked with, and even taught him Yiddish, which made him a of the first Arab ever to be able to speak the language.
In 1947 he became engaged to Vera - my grandmother - and together they had plans to start a family in the same town as Deek family had lived in about 400 years - Jaffa.
But a few months later changed those plans themselves, literally overnight.
When the United Nations approved the establishment of Israel and a few months later the state of Israel was established, warned the Arab leaders Arabs that the Jews plotted to kill them if they stayed at home, and they used the Deir Yassin massacre as an example, and said to all: "Leave your homes and flee away."
They said they would need only a few days, and five Arab armies promised to destroy the newborn Israel.
And my family - terrified of what would happen - decided to flee, along with most others.
So a priest was at full speed rushed to Deek-family house and he devoted George and Vera - my grandparents - the house in a hurry.
My grandmother did not even have time to get a proper wedding dress.
And after the sudden marriage, started the whole family fled northwards towards Lebanon.
But when the war was over, the Arabs failed to destroy Israel, and my family was now on the other side of the border, and it seemed as if the fate of brothers and sisters in Deek family was being spread around the globe.
Today I have relatives in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Dubai, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and more.
And the story of my family is just one - and probably not the worst - among the many tragic stories from the year 1948.
And to be honest - you do not need to be an anti-Israeli to recognize the humanitarian catastrophe that Palestinians experienced in 1948, ie Nakbaen.
The fact that I need Skype to talk with relatives in Canada who can not speak Arabic, or with a cousin in an Arab country that still do not have citizenship there, despite the fact that he is a third generation, is a living testimony to the tragic consequences of war.
According to the UN, about 711,000 Palestinians displaced. We've heard it before. Some of them fled and some of them were driven away by force.
And yet, because of the establishment of Israel, 800,000 Jews were forced to leave the Arab world, which meant that it was almost empty of Jews.
And as we've heard before [in the lecture of Professor Benny Morris], atrocities from both sides were not uncommon.
But it seems that this conflict was not the only one in the 19th and 20th century led to the expulsion and displacement.
From 1821 to 1922, five million Muslims expelled from Europe, mainly to Turkey.
In the 1990s, Yugoslavia broke up and it led to about 100,000 deaths and about 3 million were forcibly displaced.
From 1919 to 1949, during Operation Vistula between Poland and Ukraine, 150,000 people died and 1.5 million were forcibly displaced.
After the Second World War and the Potsdam Conference, was between 12 to 17 million Germans forcibly relocated.
When India and Pakistan were created, around 15 million people forcibly displaced.
And this tendency also exists in the Middle East, for example tvangsforflyttingen 1.1 million Kurds executed by the Ottomans, or 2.2 million Christians were expelled from Iraq.
Speaking today are Yazidis, Bahai Gardens, Kurds, Christians and even Muslims were killed and expelled in a total of 1,000 people per month after the rise of radical Islam.
The chance that any of these groups will be able to return to their homes is almost non-existent.
Why is it that the tragedies of Serbs, European Muslims, the Polish refugees or Iraqi Christians, are not marked?
How is it that tvangsforflyttingen of Jews from the Arab world was completely forgotten, while the tragedy of the Palestinians - Nakbaen - still alive in today's politics?
It seems to me to be so because the Nakba has been transformed from a humanitarian disaster to a political offensive.
Commemoration of the Nakba is no longer about remembering what happened, but to be appalled by the state of Israel's existence.
It is clearly given to know the election date to select it:
Nakba Day is April 9 - the day of the Deir Yassin massacre, or on July 13 - the day of tvangsforflyttingen from Lod.
Nakba Day was set for May 15 - the day after Israel proclaimed its independence.
By doing so signaled the Palestinian leadership that Nakba catastrophe is not about tvangsforflyttingen, the abandoned villages or to live in exile.
Nakbaen - in their eyes - is the creation of Israel.
They are less sad about the humanitarian disaster that happened to the Palestinians and more over the restoration of the Jewish state.
In other words: They do not mourn that my cousins are Jordanians, they mourn the fact that I am an Israeli.
And by doing this, the Palestinians become slaves of the past, they are being held captive in chains of offense, trapped in a world of frustration and hatred.
But friends, the obvious and yet the simple truth is - to avoid resign in tears of sorrow and bitterness - we must look ahead.
And to put it even more clearly: To repair the past, you must first secure future.
This is something I learned from my music teacher, Avraham Nov.
When I was 7 years old, I joined a band in the Arab-Christian community center in Jaffa. It was there that I met Avraham, who was my music teacher. He taught me first to play the flute and clarinet later. I was good.
But Avraham is a Holocaust survivor, and his entire family were murdered by the Nazis. He was the only one who managed to survive because some Nazi officer thought he was gifted in playing the harmonica and took him home during the war to entertain their guests.
And when the war was over and he was left alone, he could easily have been sitting in endless weeping over the greatest crime that people have committed against others in human history and the fact that he was alone.
But he did not. He looked forward, not backward.
He chose life, not death. Hope instead of despair.
Avraham came to Israel, married, built a family and began teaching the same thing that saved his life - music. He was a music teacher for hundreds and thousands of children across the country.
And when he saw tension between Arabs and Jews decided this Holocaust survivor to spread hope through music to hundreds of Arab children, like me.
Survivors of the Holocaust, as Avraham, is among the most extraordinary people you can find.
I was always curious to understand how they managed to survive with what they knew and what they had seen. But over the 15 years I've known Avraham - and I was his student - he never spoke about his past, except once - when I demanded to know.
What I came to realize was that Avraham was not the only one, and that many Holocaust survivors did not talk about those years, the Holocaust, even to their families, some not over decades, or their whole life.
Only when they had secured the future, they allowed themselves to look back on the past. Just as they had built a future with hope they could allow themselves to remember back to the days filled with despair.
They built the future in their old-new home, Israel.
And under the shadow of their greatest tragedy were Jews able to build a country that leads the world in medicine, agriculture and technology.
Why? Because they looked forward.
Friends, this is a lesson for all nations seeking to overcome a tragedy - including the Palestinians.
If the Palestinians want to restore the past, they must first focus on ensuring a future, to build a world as it should be and that our children deserve it to be.
And the first step in that direction is, without doubt, to end the shameful treatment of the Palestinian refugees.
In the Arab world is the Palestinian refugees - including children, grandchildren and their great-grandchildren - still not settled, but are aggressively discriminated against, and in most cases denied citizenship and basic human rights.
Why is it that my relatives in Canada are Canadian citizens, while my relatives in Syria, Lebanon or the Gulf countries - who were born there and do not know anything home - still considered refugees?
It is obvious that the treatment of Palestinians in the Arab countries is the worst oppression they experience anywhere.
And minions of this crime, is none other than the international community and the United Nations.
Rather than doing their job and helping the refugees to creating a life, the international community concerned with maintaining their status as victims.
While it is one UN agency responsible for refugees in the world - UNHCR, was also another body established just to take care of the Palestinian refugees - UNRWA.
This is no coincidence. While the goal of UNHCR to assist refugees to establish a new home - establish a future and end the status of refugees, the goal is to UNRWA exactly the opposite; to preserve their status as refugees and prevent them from being able to start a new life.
The international community can not seriously expect that the refugee problem is solved when it is cooperating with the Arab world to treat refugees as political pieces and denying them the basic rights they deserve.
Wherever the Palestinian refugees were granted equal rights, they have flourished and contributed to society - in South America, the USA, and even in Israel.
In fact, Israel was one of the few countries that automatically gave full citizenship and equal rights for all Palestinians after 1948.
And we see the result: Despite all the challenges, the Arab citizens of Israel built a future.
Israeli Arabs are the most educated Arabs in the world with the best living standards and opportunities in the region.
Arabs serve as judges in the Supreme Court.
Some of the best doctors in Israel are Arabs who work in almost all hospitals in the country.
There are 13 members in parliament - Arab members of parliament - which may enjoy the right to criticize the government - a dish they utilize to the fullest - protected by freedom of speech.
Arabs have won the popular reality show.
You can even find Arab diplomats - and one of them stand before you.
Today, when I go in Jaffa's streets, I see the old buildings and the old port, but I also see children going to school and university, I see thriving business, and I see a vibrant culture.
In short, despite the fact that we still have a long road ahead of us as a minority, we have a future in Israel.
This brings me to my next point:
It is time to put an end to UNCULTURE with sedition and hatred - because anti-Semitism, I believe, is a threat to Muslims and Christians, as much as it is against the Jews.
I came to Norway, as you were told, about two years ago, and here it was the first time ever that I met Jews as part of a minority. I'm usually used to seeing them as a majority. And I must say, it looked very familiar.
I grew up in a similar environment in the Arab-Christian community in Jaffa. I was part of the Orthodox Christians, who are part of the Christian community, which is part of the Arab minority in the Jewish state of Israel in the Muslim Middle East. So it's like Russian dolls, you open the big and find smaller dolls inside. I am the smallest part.
And, for a Jew in Norway or an Arab in Israel, being a minority means that you are part of a small community where everyone cares about each other and support each other.
It's a beautiful thing to know that whatever happens you will always have a community that cares about you.
And, being part of a minority has been a blessing to me throughout my life.
But friends, the life of a minority is also a life of constant struggle for fair treatment.
Sometimes you are discriminated against and can even be a victim of war crimes.
Even in a democracy like Israel is to be an Arab minority is not always easy.
Just over one year ago, a bunch of "Price Tag" bowls into the Arab-Christian cemetery in Jaffa and the desecrated tombstones by typing "Death to the Arabs". And one of the graves in this cemetery was my father.
So being a minority, my friends, is a challenge everywhere, because being a minority means being different.
And no nation has ever paid a higher price for being a minority, to be different than the Jewish people.
The history of the Jewish people, has added many words to the human vocabulary. Words: deportation, forced conversion, inquisition, ghetto, pogrom and to not mention the word Holocaust.
And Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks explains it concisely in an article that the Jews suffered throughout history because they were different.
Because they were the most significant non-Christian minority in Europe.
And today the most significant non-Muslim minority in the Middle East.
But friends, the fact is; are not we all different?
The truth is that being different is what makes us humans.
Every person, every culture, every religion is unique and therefore irreplaceable.
And a Europe, or the Middle East, which has no room for Jews, has no room for humanity.
Because, friends, let us not forget: Antisemitism starting perhaps with the Jews, but it never ends with the Jews.
The Jews were not the only ones who were forcibly converted during the Inquisition.
Hitler made sure that Gypsies and gays, among others, also suffered beside Jews.
And it's happening now, once again, this time in the Middle East.
The Arab world seems to have forgotten that its most glorious days the last 1400 years when it showed tolerance and openness towards those who were different.
Mathematics genius Ibn Musa el-Khawazmi were Uzbek, the great philosopher Rumi was Persian, the brilliant leader Saladin was a Kurd, founder of Arab nationalism was Michel Aflaq, a Christian, and that brought the Islamic rediscovery of Plato and Aristotle to the rest of the world was Maimonides, a Jew.
But instead of renewing the successful approach of tolerance, the Arab youth still taught to hate Jews and uses antisemitic rhetoric of medieval Europe, mixed with Islamic radicalism.
And yet again, what began with hostility toward Jews has been hostility towards anyone who is different.
Just last week fled more than 60,000 Kurds from Syria to Turkey, afraid of being killed.
Same day drowned 15 Palestinians from Gaza into the sea in an attempt to escape the clutches of Hamas.
Bahaier and Yazidiere is in danger.
And to top it all, the ethnic cleansing of Christians in the Middle East is the greatest crime against humanity in the 21st century. In just two decades, Christians - like me - have been reduced from 20% of the population in the Middle East to just 4% today.
And when we see that the biggest victims of Islamist violence are Muslims, then it becomes clear to all; that will ultimately destroy the hated hater.
So friends; if we want to succeed in protecting our right to be different, if we are to have a future in the region, I believe we must stand together - Jews, Muslims and Christians.
We will fight for the right of Christians everywhere to live out their faith without fear, with the same passion that we will fight the Jews the right to live without fear.
We will fight against Islamophobia, but we also need our Muslim partners participating in the fight against Christian phobia and Judeophobia.
Because what is at stake is our common humanism.
I know this may sound naive to some, but I think that it is possible and the only thing standing between us and a more tolerant world, is fear.
When the world changes, people start to worry about what the future will bring.
This fear makes people reduce themselves to a passive victim who deny the reality and goes in search of a scapegoat to blame for all this.
It is as true today as it was true in 1948.
The Arab world can overcome this mentality, but it takes courage to think and act differently.
This amendment requires that the Arabs realize that they are not helpless victims.
And it requires that they open up for self-criticism, and that they agree to be responsible.
To date, not a single history of the Arab world questioned historical mistake it was to reject the creation of a Jewish state.
No prominent scholar in the Arab world have come forward and stated publicly that if the Arabs had accepted the idea of a Jewish state, it would be two states, there had been no wars and there had been no refugee problem.
I see Israelis, like Benny Morris, who is with us today, who dare to challenge the storytelling that was mediated by their leadership in Israel, and takes a personal risk in the search for truth is not always comfortable for their own people.
But I can not find the corresponding Arabic.
I can not find a debate that questions the wisdom of the devastating leadership of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Hussaini; or the unnecessary war that was started by the Arab League in 1948, or any of the wars against Israel in the years that followed until today.
And I can not find self-criticism among the mainstream of the Palestinian people today about the use of terrorism, the start of the second intifada or rejection of at least two Israeli offers the last 15 years to end the conflict.
Self-reflection is not weakness, it is a sign of strength.
It produces our ability to overcome fear and confront reality.
It requires us to look sincere in our decisions, and take responsibility for them.
Only Arabs themselves can change their reality by stop relying on conspiracy theories and blaming outside forces - America, the Jews, the West or whoever it may be - for all the problems.
By learning from past mistakes, and taking wiser decisions in the future.
Just two days ago was the American president Obama at the UN rostrum in front of the General Assembly and said. And I quote:
"The task of rejecting sectarianism and extremism is a task for generations. A task for the people of the Middle East itself. No external power can force a transformation of hearts and minds. "
I recently read a very interesting article written by Lord Sacks about rivalry among brothers in the Bible.
There are four stories of rival brothers in Genesis. Every story ends differently.
It is the story of Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph with his brothers.
In the case of Cain and Abel; at the end of it is Abel's death.
In the case of Isaac and Ishmael are together at his father's grave.
In the case of Jacob and Esau meet the hugging each other and go their separate ways.
But the story of Joseph ends differently.
For those not familiar with the story: Joseph was one of Jacob s twelve sons and they lived in the land of Canaan.
At one point, because of jealousy towards him, choosing the brothers to sell him into slavery.
But after a while Josef rising the ranks until he becomes one of the two most powerful people in Egypt next to Pharaoh.
And when famine struck Canaan came his family down to Egypt and there he meets them.
And there, instead of punishing them for what they had done to him, deciding Josef himself to forgive them.
This was the first recorded case of forgiveness and reconciliation in the literature or anywhere.
And not only forgives his brothers Joseph. He makes sure to cover all the brothers' needs. They progress, they increase in number and they are a great nation.
At the end of the story says Joseph to his brothers, "You intended to harm me, but God meant it for good to accomplish what is now being done, namely to save many lives."
By this he meant that our actions today can shape the future, and thereby redeem the past.
Now, Jews and Palestinians: We may not be religious brothers, but we are certainly brothers in a common destiny.
And I think that just as in the story of Joseph that through making the right choices, by focusing on the future, we can redeem our past.
Yesterday foes can be tomorrow's friends. It happened between Israel and Germany, Israel and Egypt, Israel and Jordan.
And it's time to start creating a beam of hope in the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians, so that we can finish up old grievances and focus on our future and the exciting possibilities it holds for us, if only we dare.
I have not yet told you the rest of my family's history in 1948.
So after a long journey to Lebanon, mostly on foot, reached my grandparents George and Vera until Lebanon. They stayed there for many months. And while they were there gave birth to my grandmother her first son, my uncle Sami.
And when the war was over, they realized that they had been lied to.
The Arabs did not win as they had promised. And while the Jews did not kill all Arabs as they were told would happen.
My grandfather looked around and saw nothing but a dead end in a life as a refugee.
He looked at his young wife Vera - not turned 18 yet, and his newborn son, and knew of a place that is locked to the past and without the ability to look ahead, there was no future for his family.
While his brothers and sisters saw their future in Lebanon or other Arab countries or in the West, he thought otherwise.
He would return to Jaffa, his hometown.
Because he had worked with Jews and was friends with some of them, he was not brainwashed with hatred.
My grandfather George did what few others would have dared. He contacted the society saw as his enemies.
He got hold of one of his old friends from the electricity company, and asked for his help to get back.
And this friend, who I have heard from my father's stories, but without knowing his name, was not only able and willing to help my grandfather to come back, but in an extraordinary action helped him to obtain the old job back in what had been the Israeli Electricity Company. It made him one of very few Arabs who worked there.
And today, among my cousins, we have accountants, teachers, insurance agents, engineers in high technology, diplomats, factory managers, university professors, doctors, lawyers, investment advisers, managers of leading Israeli companies, architects and even electricians.
And the reason why my family has succeeded in life and why I stand here before you today as an Israeli diplomat and not as a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon, is because my grandfather had the courage to take a decision that was unthinkable for other .
Rather than collapse in despair he found hope where others dared to look. He chose to live among those who were considered to be his enemies and turn them to his friends.
And for that I owe him and my family and my grandmother eternal gratitude.
History of Deek family should serve as a source of inspiration for the Palestinian people.
We can not change the past.
But we can ensure a better future for the next generations if one day we want to reconcile us with the past.
We can help Palestinian refugees to achieve a normal life.
We can be sincere about our past and learn from our mistakes.
And we can cooperate - Muslims, Jews and Christians - to protect our right to be different and thus preserve our humanity.
In fact we can not change the past, but if we work together we will change the future.
Thank you.
[Google translated from original]
Drop the daily assault on Palestinian dignity? The destruction of their homes? The theft of their ancestral properties? The speaker in the OP seems to be under some false impression that such things, are all in the past. They are not. They are on-going. Look, I am not a radical on the issue. I believe Israel has the right to exist and has the right of reasonable self-defence. What I also believe is that Israel's current security dilemma is one of her own making and is the result of that inevitable conflict between wanting to be a Jewish state and wanting to adhere to democratic values.
