Palestinans Rally in Dearborn

Detroit-area Palestinians staged "Palestine: We Will Return," in Dearborn Friday night, a “commemoration” of the 40th anniversary of the “occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza strip” by Israel. ("West Bank, Gaza Strip occupation marked in Dearborn").

Local accountant and Palestinian activist Sharif Shamroukh was quoted to say, "These were historical events that changed the whole map of the area in the Middle East.”

Speaking of historical events, the historical event of the complete withdrawal of Israel from Gaza and delivery of that piece of land to Palestinian Authority lawlessness in summer 2005 would make the 40th anniversary of an occupation that ended after 38 years a bit of nonsense.

But, as Detroit News reporter Gregg Krupa relays, “While Israel says it pulled forces out of the Gaza Strip and yielded the land to the Palestinian Authority, many Palestinians-- including residents of Metro Detroit -- assert that security arrangements by the Israelis are tantamount to occupation.”

While Israel says it pulled forces out? We've noticed before that Krupa likes to be as helpful as possible while acting as a mouthpiece for local Muslim activists, but even he couldn’t seriously challenge that Israel really did withdraw from Gaza, as it was widely reported even in the pro-Palestinian press like the BBC. ("Israel completes Gaza withdrawal"). Then again, perhaps Krupa was depending for his information on tidbits picked up at Friday’s rally.

Along similar lines of historical voodoo, Palestinian poet and activist Hasan Newash said, "We wanted to do something that marked the disappearance of Palestine as a political entity.”

The problem being, that in order to disappear as a political entity, a political entity must first exist, and no such political entity as Palestine ever did exist, except in the feverish imaginations of anti-Semitic professors and revisionist Middle Eastern propagandists.