pumpkinstrokemarrow

Been reading about what happened in what was Palestine in 1948, courtesy of an Israeli historian called Pappe. In very crude terms, it seems that at that time the Jews - around 500,000 or them - were 25% of the population and had 25% of the land. The Jews were mainly urban and the Palestinians mainly rural. But the Jews thought that having 75% of the land and no Palestinians would be a much better deal. The UK and the infant UN more or less went along with this, brains presumably paralysed by guilt over the holocaust. The Jews did a deal with the King of Jordan whereby he got the 25% - that is to say West bank of the Jordan (a very handy addition to his otherwise rather arid kingdom), thus neutralising the strongest Arab force in the region. They then proceeded to colonise the 75% using violent methods to persuade resident Palestians to leave. The UK army, present at the start of this process at least, stood by and did nothing.

Given the passage of time, turning the clock back is not going to happen. But maybe some admission of guilt of past misdeeds would do something.

I was vaguely aware of all this, but having it set out so clearly makes for depressing reading. But I am only a third of the way into the book so maybe there will be some less depressing end to the story.