We are all influenced by the way the media tells a story–whether the telling is accurate or not. Most of us have a tendency to accept what we hear. I am often guilty of that. I have heard a lot of stories about the “right of return” and the role it plays in the negotiations for a Palestinian State, but I must admit the following story is an angle I have never considered.
Steven Plaut posted a story at Front Page Magazine which asks the question, “What if the Tories who supported the British during the American Revolution had been treated by Britain the way the Arab countries have treated the Palestinians?”
The article points out:
“Like all wars of independence, both the Israeli and American wars were in fact civil wars. In both cases, religious sectarianism played an important role in defining the opposing forces, although for Americans, taxation was even more important. (Israelis suffered under abominable taxation only after independence.) Among the causes of the American Revolution was the attempt to establish the Anglican Church, or Church of England, as the official bishopric of the colonies. Anglicans were the largest ethnic group opposing independence in the 1770s, as were Palestinian Muslims in the 1940s, although in both cases, other religious/ethnic groups were also represented in the anti-independence movement.”
The story continues:
“In both the Israeli and American wars for independence, anti-independence refugees fled the country in order to live in areas under the control of their political allies. Many who opposed independence nevertheless stayed put. After the wars ended, these people generally found the devil was not as bad as they had feared, and were permitted to live as tolerated political minorities with civil rights. (This in spite of the fact that many refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new states, sometimes for decades.)”
Then the similarities between the two groups begins to break down:
“The Tory refugees were regarded by all as the problem of Britain. The American patriots allowed small numbers to return. Others attempted to return illegally and were killed. But most languished across the partition lines in eastern British Canada, mainly in what would become Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The refugees would never be granted the “right to return.” In most cases, they would never even be granted compensation for property; Benjamin Franklin was among the leading opponents of any such compensation.
“At this point, the similarity between the Palestinian refugees and the Tory Loyalists breaks down. The British, unlike the Arabs, did a great deal to settle their refugees, rather than force them into festering camps, and allotted $20 million for their resettlement. The Tory refugees quickly became a non-problem, and never played any subsequent role in British-American relations.”
Please follow the above link to the article and read the rest of the story. We have forgotten how we came to be America, and if we don’t quickly remember, we will make some really dumb mistakes internationallly.