“Al-Ihtilal” (The Occupation)
It really bothers me when Arabic news calls
#Israel simply “the occupation”, al-ihtilal.
In Arabic, this is not just criticism of policy or borders. It is a rejection of Israel’s very existence.
Why does this bother me so much?
Because the narrative they have built about Israel “stealing the land”, about the Nakba, and about endless “Zionist hostility” is not what actually happened historically.
Not even close.
In the 1920s and 30s, the Arab community in the land was politically dominated by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini.
A man who later became a Nazi collaborator, met with Hitler, supported the Final Solution, recruited Muslims for SS units, and aligned himself with Nazi war aims in the Middle East.
At the same time, his main Arab political rivals, the Nashashibi family, had cooperative relations with the Jewish Agency and favored coexistence.
Those voices were silenced.
Husseini ruled through intimidation and violence, including against his own people.
Anyone who supported compromise with Jews was branded a traitor.
In 1929, under his influence, Arab mobs massacred the Jewish community of Hebron.
These were not Zionist immigrants.
They were Jews whose families had lived there for centuries.
Then came the Arab Revolt of 1936 to 1939.
The goal was not building independent institutions, but terror, economic sabotage, and attacks on Jewish civilians to stop Jewish national revival.
As violence escalated, many Arab elites and moderates left the country, not because Jews expelled them, but because they saw where extremist leadership was taking their society.
Those who remained were largely those aligned with the Mufti’s radical line.
By 1948, Arab society in the land was politically broken, socially fractured, and terrified.
When surrounding Arab armies prepared to invade, Arab leaders urged civilians to leave temporarily, promising that once the Jews were defeated, they could return and take Jewish homes and property.
Those who stayed, they warned, would be treated as collaborators.
This is how the refugee crisis began.
In Haifa, Jewish leaders publicly begged Arab residents to stay and promised full protection and equal rights.
Many still fled, not because Jews chased them out, but because they feared Arab retribution if they did not.
That tragedy was the Nakba.
But it was not caused by Zionist “ethnic cleansing”. It was caused by reckless, extremist leadership that sacrificed its own people for a war of annihilation it could not win.
So when people say today that Israel is “the occupation”, what they are really saying is that Jewish sovereignty itself is illegitimate.
And that is not about borders.
That is about denying the Jewish right to exist in our own homeland.
Do not blame those who accepted compromise again and again.
Blame the leaders who chose rejection, violence, and disaster for their own people.
📷 The Nation of Israel Lives