 |
| NYC Councilman, Kalman Yeger (New York Post) |
The issue at hand is a twitter comment he made. Which said Palestine does not exist. He doubled down on that in a later tweet after being criticized for it and asked to apologize.
The truth is that Palestine does not exist. As of now there is no Palestinian state. If there ever will be is up to disputants themselves - Israel and the Palestinians. If and when the two peoples agree then there will be. Until then Yeger is technically correct.
Had he said there is no such thing as a Palestinian people that might have better merited some from of sanction. Palestinians clearly do exist. That is an undeniable fact. Even though that term did not exist as currently used.
Palestine did however exist before Israel declared statehood. This is what that area was called after ancient Israel was conquered by the Romans. (Palestine is a corruption of the word Philistine.) I even recall my own mother calling Israel 'Palestine' when I was a very young child. It took a while for even the Jewish people to get used to calling it 'Israel'. Even the Jerusalem Post was then called the Palestine Post.
During the war for Israel’s independence, many of Israel’s Arab residents fled to the West Bank of the Jordan River. Palestinians living there were under the control of the Hashemite kingdom of Trans-Jordan (the biblical 'Eiver HaYarden' - now called Jordan). Then they were simply called Arab refugees. There were Israeli Arabs who were citizens of Israel and prospered - and Arab refugees on the West Bank. Why they fled and whose fault it was is beyond the scope of this post. The point is they did.
Those refugees were used as pawns by the entire Arab World. Jordan refused to absorb them even though many if not most Jordanians are Palestinian themselves. They were kept in camps in the hopes of reclaiming their homes in some sort of Arab conquest of Israel. Returning that area to its original name: Palestine.
In 1964, Yassir Arafat founded the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) whose goal was to accomplish exactly that.
After the 67 war Israel took control of the West Bank. A few years after that Jordan relinquished any claim to that area - ceding it to Palestinians. That is about the time they started calling themselves Palestinians.
What we should all recognize is that they have the right to choose any name they want. And they chose the name of that country before it became Israel in 1948.
Understandably, Palestinians see comments like Yeger’s as a denial of their very existence as a people and as a nationality. Even though it is technically true that Palestine as currently used does not exist at the moment.
Yeger had every right to express his views, even if they are hurtful. But so do his colleagues have the right to criticize him for what they consider a bigoted comment. No different than criticism of Congresswoman Ilan Omar for her antisemitic comments.
But Omar has retained her seat on the House Foreign Relations committee. Yeger on the other hand was stripped of his seat on City Council Immigration committee. With the blessing of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Now it’s true that those are two different government bodies. But the political party in control is the same. They are Democrats.
Double standard, anyone?
But still, as I said at the outset, Yeger was unwise for saying that. He gained nothing but animosity from his colleagues and has lost any influence he might have had as a legislator. Or at least most of it. Nor does he gain anything tangible from former New York City Councilman Dov Hikind who has vigorously defended him - blasting Yeger’s Democratic critics as virtual antisemites. Other that moral support. Which - along with a $3.75 will buy you a mini Caramel Frappuccino at Starbucks.
Sometimes it’s just better to leave things unsaid. You need to work with your colleagues in order to get things done for your constituents. Getting them upset at you doesn’t help. That at the very least is what the art of politics are all about. Unless of course you’re the President.