This morning I ran across a telling report about the cultural life of Palestinian Arabs in 1948, that appeared at Elder of Ziyon’s website in 2019. It does not date.
You can find more about it here: “1948 academic paper shows Palestinian Arab culture was essentially non-existent,” Elder of Ziyon, July 8, 2019:
Here are excerpts from The Cultural Life of the Palestinian Arabs, published in The Journal of Educational Sociology, Nov., 1948, pp. 232-239. published by the American Sociological Association:
The Palestinian Arab cannot boast of any marked creative ability in the field of the arts, such as the theater and music or, because of the opposition of the Islamic religion, in such arts as painting and sculpture. In recent years there have been signs of an artistic awakening in some of the countries, especially in Egypt. As yet this is not the case in Palestine. However, the theater, dance, and music are aspects of art that are closer to the Arab spirit. There are some groups that are attempting to create in these fields, but to date none of them has made an impression on the Arab community. When the Arabs in Palestine want to witness a professional play, they invite a group from Egypt.
The motion pictures shown in the Arab cinema are American and British imports. Such Arab films as are shown are imported from Egypt. In comparison with European standards, the Arab-produced motion pictures are technically poor and artistically primitive.
In the field of literature, too, there is more importing than creativity. The groups that want to read an Arab book turn to the literature of the other Arab lands, especially Egypt.
Since most of the educated among them read French and English, there is not too great a demand for native creativity.
…
Between 1919 and 1932, 54 Arab books (including magazines and pamphlets) were published, an average of less than 4 books a year. Between 1933 and 1944, 155 books (including all the propaganda literature dealing with the riots) were published, an average of less than 13 books a year.With the exception of textbooks, not one book had had a second edition. A first edition does not have more than 1,000 copies, sometimes even less….
And to add to the mental bleakness, among the Palestinian Arabs in 1948 there was no science, no philosophy (save Islam itself, if that faith can be considered a kind of “philosophy”), no desire to encourage free and skeptical thought, but only learning by rote. The summit of mental endeavor for the Palestinian Arabs, as for all Muslim Arabs, is that climbed by the hafiz, the one who has memorized the entire Qur’an. A googleplex of Arab brain cells have been wasted on that absurd and pointless undertaking. Imagine if those brains had been put to good use.
No art, no instrumental music, no literature to speak of among the Palestinian Arabs in 1948. The plays they sometimes watched were imported from Egypt. The books they wrote — and also read, aside from cheap Egyptian novelettes — consisted almost entirely of political tracts, especially anti-Zionist screeds.
In the 19th century, “Palestine” was described by so many visitors as a place of unsurpassed desolation. In 1835, Alphonse de Lamartine described the Holy Land thus: “Outside the gates of Jerusalem, we saw indeed no living object, heard no living sound. We found the same void, the same silence … as we should have expected before the entombed gates of Pompeii … a complete, eternal silence reigns in the town, on the highways, in the country … the tomb of an entire people.”
In 1867, Mark Twain saw the same: “There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country. A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action. We reached Tabor safely. We never saw a human being on the whole route….Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes.” And he concluded that Palestine was “a hopeless, dreary, broken-hearted land.”
The Jewish pioneers who returned to Palestine beginning in the first years of the 20th century to resurrect their ancient homeland, brought an upsurge of economic activity which caused more Arabs to move to the area, ready to take advantage of new opportunities that the Zionists provided. But the Jews, however much some of them tried, could do nothing to uplift culturally the Arabs who arrived in Palestine from all over the region. And those Arabs, alas, have remained in their mental wasteland ever since.
40 rounds says
“Arab brain cells,” that’s a good one!
࿗Infidel࿘ says
So intellectually, they are as barren as the desert they live on?
40 rounds says
I have more hope in sand
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Don’t dis sand: it’s the basis of silicon – most of the things that 21st century tech to date has been based on
somehistory says
Yes, and beautiful beaches.
gravenimage says
Yep…
MJ Raichyk, PhD says
I think it’s needed to put the publishing in perspective of population numbers…
Per Google AI..
1922:
The first official census recorded a total population of 757,182, including 590,390 Muslims, 83,694 Jews, and 73,024 Christians.
So that’s 4 ‘palestinian’ books per year [each with under 1,000 copies] among 600,000 Muslims… spending their life memorizing the q’oran
1947:
Before the United Nations partition of the Mandate for Palestine, the population had grown to nearly 1.8 million. This included 60% Muslims, 31% Jews, and 8% Christian
So those 1.1million Muslims produced an incredibly nothing 13 books per year, each with 1000 copies maz, and even then a portion being anti-zionist propaganda …..
Wow what a library they could offer….
Barbara D. Martin says
A whole people, so focused on terror, destruction and death that their very souls are stripped of any beauty, any joy, any love; only fanaticism remaining And they want to spread this perversion of life around the world. Peoples of the world, take note!
gravenimage says
Ys–this is what Muslims want to *do to us all*.
Daniel Bielak says
There is hope:
EXLUSIVE: Explosive Gaza Protests Reject Hamas Terrorism [The Free Press]
youtube.com/watch?v=vUpcE8jvRT8
Daniel Bielak says
The previous link I listed may not work. Here is a link that will probably work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUpcE8jvRT8
gravenimage says
Thank you for that link, Daniel–but how many of these Muslims are actually rejecting Jihad terror–and how many just wish that Hamas was bettter at it?
Then, Hamas is torturing and murdering protesters–so they are not apt to make much progress there in any case, I’m afraid…
࿗Infidel࿘ says
The day they explicitly declare that they reject all of islam, or at least the jihadist aspects of it, I’ll consider the possibility of hope. MbS seems to be doing it in Saudi Arabia: let’s see other Arabs follow suit
Lady of the Lake says
“Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes”. The greatest American author who will ever live. Mr Twain’s “O Shah” is a masterpiece of his wit.
But in reference to the article at hand… the upside is the fact that the Palestinians have advanced somewhat and have recently learned how to use pagers…
gravenimage says
🙂
Winston 101 says
🤣 Well said, Lady of the Lake.
gravenimage says
The Arabs in Palestine in 1948: The Cultural Dimension
………………………………….
Grimly spot on.
In a similar vein, there are more books translated into Spanish *every year* than into Arabic *in the past thousand years*. Shocking, but very telling.
Aneta says
This gang must not be exiled to Egypt because it will destroy Egypt and the Copts will be under the Muslim Brotherhood again. When Morsi led Egypt, there were headless Copts lying everywhere, but as soon as Sisi put Morsi in prison, not a single Copt was left without a head.
Garry Pollack says
The reality is that Arabs, B they moose 🫎 limb, Christian ✝️ or Jew ✡️ R generally as dumb as a rock!
Garry Pollack says
The reality is that Arabs, B they moose 🫎 limb, Christian ✝️ or Jew ✡️ R generally as dumb as a rock!
Garry Pollack says
The reality is that Arabs, B they moose 🫎 limb, Christian ✝️ or Jew ✡️ R generally as dumb as a rock!
Garry Pollack says
The reality is that Arabs, B they moose 🫎 limb, Christian ✝️ or Jew ✡️ R generally as dumb as a rock!
abu taleb says
So, they are Arab ethnics, not Palestinian ethnics, because there is no Palestinian ethnics. They are called Palestinians because they live in a land named Palestine just like,for example, Singaporeans, they are called Singaporeans, but there is no Singaporean ethnics, only Malays, Chinese, Indians or others.
WPM says
Palestine was the derogatory name the Romans used for the area just before the time of Christ’s birth .It was at that time only Jews and some pagans living there (Islam was only invented 800 -900 years later) .The Romans did not want to call the area it’s true name Jerusalem ,that call it Palestine to give it a non-Jewish name to put the Jews as the Romans did to all people they conquer to put them in their place .The so called “Palestinian people ” where only started to be called the in the 1960s.It was a marketing idea to have these people invent a country that never exited ,has no borders ,and is populated by nomads from many different countries ,whose only united goal is the destruction of the Jews and Israel .They manufacture nothing ,they grow little food ,depend on hand outs from many countries world wide. They have no real central government. Their so call leaders rob them blind taking much of the money sent to help them , to buy off shore real estate ,off shore accounts ,investments outside the land they rule for themselves ,their families and friends.
Tony Rice says
Is it any wonder that the 20% of Israel’s population, who are Arab, wish to remain where they are and NOT go to live in an Arab run country. I understand in previous wars carried out by Muslim countries trying to destroy the Jewish State, the Arab population actually fought FOR Israel and against their invading brothers in Islam.
Tony Rice says
I read that when Jews took over what became Israel, it had been allowed to become a malaria ridden swamp. Such is Arabic husbandry. And now ?
Alkflaeda says
The article is further proof that Palestinian Arabs are not indigenous – if they were, they would have some cultural riches, even if they were the little that had survived Islamization.
Sister Alberti says
The tyranny of genetics destroyed followers of Islam. Dozens of people can have one grandfather. Men often marry their nieces to conserve family wealth. For nearly two thousand years, the genetic diversity of a large proportion of men disappears (say 80%) – instead of being passed on. Marriage to cousins can be as high as 50%. Ibn Saud has tens of thousands of direct heirs. Osama bin Laden was the 56th child. For wealthy Palestinians, a man with 50 children bestows bragging rights. All this guarantees the dissolution of inheritance as well as genetic diversity. They all look alike.