• MARTIN Sugarman is quite wrong to suggest that the Muslim invasion of 7th century CE resulted in the ethnic cleansing of most Jews, (How and why Israel defends itself, November 24).

Much recent historical research suggests that even by the time of the Roman conquest in 70 CE, most Jews lived outside ancient Israel / Palestine. They were traders travelling all over the Mediterranean area selling their wares.

Professor Jonathan Adelman estimated that during the Second Temple period (516 BCE to 70 CE) around 60 per cent of Jews lived in the Diaspora, perhaps five million. Professor Erich Gruen states that this was occasionally through expulsion, much more frequently through voluntary migration.

Moreover the Muslims did not expel the Jews from ancient Israel. Indeed the Byzantine ban on Jews living in Jerusalem ended after the Arab conquest in 635 CE.

Also Judaism and Islam share many common features, Islam having been strongly influenced by Judaism. Jews under Islamic rule were given the status of “dhimmi”, though second-class citizens and often persecuted they were nevertheless granted certain rights and protections as “people of the book”.

During waves of persecution in medieval Europe, many Jews found refuge in Muslim lands. Modern Israel was the creation of British colonialism, intent on creating a “Jewish Ulster” loyal to Britain, helping to defend its interests in the Middle East.

Finally, Jews and Arabs lived side by side in relative harmony until the ethnic cleansing of three-quarters of the Palestinian people by Zionist militia in 1948, around 720,000 with an additional 450,000 expelled in 1967 following Israel’s attack on Egypt and Jordan.

SABBY SAGALL
Chair, Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign
– in a personal capacity
Reports from on the ground