In 1941 the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al Husseini, a supporter of Hitler, invited him to come to Palestine and “eliminate all the Jews.” In a letter he wrote in 1921 to Winston Churchill, who was Colonial Secretary at the time, Al Husseini asked that restrictions be put on Jewish immigration and that Palestine be reunited with Syria and Transjordan. Palestinian independence and nationalism was absent from his request.

Today the world finds itself, as Ofir Falk, an Israeli foreign policy adviser said, “in a test for moral clarity.” The barbarous surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians broke every attempt by the Geneva Convention to limit the scope of man’s evil inclination. Who would have thought it possible that innocent children, women, the elderly would be targeted as victims for massacre, or that young people attending a concert would be murdered, raped, brutalized or kidnapped. Who would have thought precious infants could be murdered or beheaded? The brutality that occurred defies most of our low expectations for the worst in human behavior. Yet it was only 78 years ago that World War II ended and the full extent of the barbarity of the Nazi genocide against the Jews was revealed to the world.

In its charter, (Article 7) Hamas, the terrorist organization in control of Gaza who carried out the attack on Israel, makes it clear that it remains faithful to the words of the prophet Mohammed who was quoted as saying: “The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O’ Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” In 1937, Saudi Arabia’s King Ibn Saud told British Colonel HRP Dickson–for a Muslim to kill a Jew or for him to be killed by a Jew ensures him an immediate entry into Heaven and into the august presence of God almighty.

Religious intolerance today is fomented by the mullahs in Iran who suppress their own people — by Isis, Hamas, Hezbollah and other extremist groups around the world. They do not represent all of Islam.

Many Muslims living inside and outside Israel have good relations with their Jewish and Israeli neighbors and do not want to kill them. We all need to honor our common humanity.

The Pro-Hamas rallies, calls for a Day of Rage, we are seeing today on college campuses, around the country, and the world, are chilling reminders of Hitler youth gatherings. There has been a disinformation campaign about Israel and Palestine going on for many years. Chants of, “no peace on stolen land,” is a mantra we hear from these young protestors who sadly believe the lies they have been indoctrinated with since birth.

Palestine has never existed as an autonomous entity since the Jewish kingdom of Judea was conquered by the Romans in 70 C.E. and the Jews expelled in 135 C.E..

The Romans changed the name to Palaestinia, a reminder of the Philistines, the Aegean people who settled along the southern coast of Israel and Egypt in 12th century B.C.E. and warred with the Jews. It was the southern portion of what is now called the West Bank.

It was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, (the first Muslim invasion was in the 7th century), by the Ottoman Empire from the late 14th century to the early 20th century, and by the British after World War I. “Over the last two thousand years between invasions, crusades, the plague and other man made or natural disasters that killed off most of the local people, entire populations have been replaced many times over.”

Mark Twain visited Palestine in 1867. He described it as “neglected” and “desolate.”

Other visitors in the 19th century said likewise. Some Arabs living in the hill country west of Judea and Samaria and parts of the coastal plain have lived there for generations. However, the “indigenous population of the plains was migratory, subject to marauding Bedouins whose constant raiding discouraged permanent rural settlement or rural development.”

Arab urban and rural settlements were found mainly in the hill country west of the Jordan River in Judea, Samaria and parts of the Galilee, avoiding the coastal plain which was swamp like and malaria-ridden. Jews, prior to purchasing and developing the barren coastal plains had a significant urban presence in and around Jerusalem, Tiberias, Safed, Jaffa and other small towns. Jews had begun returning to those areas in the 9th century.

There were also considerable Egyptian and other Arab population movements into and out of Palestine that contributed to the population dynamics.

As late as 1882 the Arab population of Ottoman Palestine had barely reached 260,000. In 1919 the following resolution passed at the First Congress of the Muslim-Christian Association in Jerusalem to choose representatives to the Paris Peace Conference. “We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic, and geographical bonds.”

In 1947 the United Nations General assembly voted to partition Palestine into an Arab and Jewish state. The Jews accepted the terms of the partition plan, even though the size of land was greatly reduced from that proposed by the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate, with about 60% being in the Negev desert. The demographic of the plan also insured that a sizable Arab population would live in the Jewish state. The Arabs rejected the partition plan and on May 14, 1948, the British left Palestine and the Jews declared independence and the State of Israel was born. The next day five Arab armies, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon invaded Israel. Before and during the War of Independence between 472,000-650,000 Arabs fled their homes in Israel. A small percentage was driven out. Approximately 160,000 Arabs remained in Israel. Those who fled to neighboring countries still live in U.N. refugee camps. They were never integrated into the local populations though many of them fled just a few miles from over the border from where they lived.

Over 820,000 Jewish refugees also fled for their lives from the Arab countries they lived in. Their properties were confiscated by the Arab governments they fled.. About 586,000 were resettled in Israel at great expense. Some Arabs have been compensated for their properties by Israel. Not so the Jewish refugees.

In 2005 the Palestinians were given, by Israel, with no conditions, the entire Gaza strip. They replied by launching thousands of rockets into Israel. Article 13 of the Hamas charter says: “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except for Jihad.”

The Holocaust officially began in 1942 when the hierarchy of Nazi Germany made the unprecedented policy decision to eradicate the eleven million Jews living in Europe. It was the first time in history a government attempted to engineer the face of humanity through the extermination of a specific population they deemed “a biological enemy not worthy of life.”

While Israelis and Jews desire peace, this is a war of survival. “Hamas leaders living in 5 star hotels in Qatar and Lebanon invited reporters to document them during the special prayer they held to thank God for the Oct. 7 massacre of Jews.” This radical Islamist movement, begun in Iran aspires to a global jihad. Israel is just first on their list.

Linda Dunn is a Fredonia resident and president of Temple Beth El in Dunkirk.