Leon de Winter: Why The Palestinians? And Why The Jews?

In recent weeks at least as many people have died in violence on the borders of Congo and Sudan as during Israel’s recent operations in Gaza – yet a large part of Europe’s media has paid hardly any attention to the violence in Africa.

What do the Palestinians have that the Congolese and Sudanese don’t? Do Europeans love Palestinians for their extraordinary artistic and scientific contributions to the world?
There is one quality that Palestinians can certainly claim: for generations they have managed to preserve their status as refugees. Of the countless millions of displaced persons and peoples seeking refuge in the years following the Second World War, only the Palestinians have succeeded in remaining permanent refugees with their own exclusive United Nations organization. Sixty years on, Palestinian towns are still called refugee camps; four generations of Palestinians have been labeled refugee from birth.

What other qualities do Palestinian victims have that prompts Europe’s media to focus so much attention on them? Nowhere in Europe have demonstrators protested against the Arab terrorists who try to undermine Iraq’s burgeoning democratic process, even though the number of Iraqi victims of terrorist violence is many times greater than the number of victims in Gaza.

What is so special about the Palestinians that causes Europe – and by now, most media in the world - to focus on them so intensively? ...