Not strictly true. But when I went to work for ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia my first boss Saeed Al-Jerbi was a Palestinian refugee, married to a Saudi woman. He was a deeply religious Muslim who treated me with respect, and helped me to settle down in Riyadh without my wife and family. He was always concerned about the enforced separation and the effect on my family. Not surprising considering he had been banished from his Homeland.
In contrast, my dentist was a Christian Palestinian, and a niece of George Habash, the brilliant young medical doctor who founded the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization. He too was banished from his Homeland after his town was destroyed by the Israelis, and he spent his life working in refugee camps.
I cannot understand anybody with a single brain cell supporting Israel’s policy of ethnic-cleansing in the Holy Land. They have absolutely no intention of allowing the creation of a Palestinian state. And if you think my view is extreme then read:
PALESTINIAN TWILIGHT by Edmund Fox
A MONTH BY THE SEA and BETWEEN RIVER AND SEA by Dervla Murphy
And,
PART THREE, Arenas of Conflict in Dan Smith’s THE PENGUIN STATE OF THE MIDDLE EAST.
And if you believe the many Arab friends I made in Saudi Arabia – even moderates like Hesham Al-Turki, who is the son of a diplomat and spent the first 11 years of his life in Geneva – the Israelis don’t just want the Holy Land, they want the whole of the Middle East. Once they have gobbled up the West Bank (and they already occupy 30%) they will want Jordan for “Reasons of Security” to protect their borders. After all 2 million Palestinian refugees live in Jordan, and need to be “contained”. Etc., Etc., Etc.
Separation from your Homeland, and being forced to live as an alien in somebody else’s land affects everybody in some way. It imposes a metaphysical loneliness, and it makes people hyper aware of their surroundings.
My book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” is set against events in the Middle East from the early 1970s until 2001. But it is written from the hyperaware points of view of archetypal expatriates who washed up in the Arabian/Persian Gulf. They were victims of power-mad politicians’ proxy wars,(The Buraimi Oasis, the Dhofar Campaign, the Viet Nam War), greedy finance house excesses (IOS, BCCI, Lonrho, Lloyds of London etc.) – and in some cases just victims of avaricious Western wives, and out-of-control, drug-crazed teenage children.
You can preview my book on AMAZON’s Kindle Websites for the USA and UK, Germany and Spain, and download it if you have a Kindle.
If you prefer a real book in your hands, order the paperback direct from my publisher:
http://www.feedaread.com