Actually, creation of an independent Polish state involved displacement, dispossession, and plain killing of large numbers of ethnic Ukrainians, Lithuanians and Germans. The Italian wars of independence were not a picnic either for the mixed population of what’s now Northern Italy. I can also mention creation of the independent Greek state and and independent Bulgarian state that resulted in mass exodus of Muslims from the respective areas. Let’s not forget the close-to-home example of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, which was created by carving a big chunk out of India – a processes that resulted in displacement and dispossession of roughly 15 million people. I can go on and on. As I’ve mention in another post, you can hardly find a nation whose path to independence was not accompanied by hostilities, displacements and dispossessions.
I should also remind you that in your original statement you have questioned the legitimacy of the Jewish state as a nation state of the Jews, because a nation state “paves the way for entrenched discriminatory policies”. I’ve given you a few example of self-proclaimed nation states, whose legitimacy has never been questioned based on this argument. I can provide a very long list of such states if you wish.
Not entire world, not to mention the professionals. However, the fact that a whole lot of people have very distorted notion of what’s happened there is no news to me.
In fact all the territories that ended up under the Arab control were 100% ethnically cleansed of all Jewish presence. I guess the best example would be Jerusalem.
About half a century before the rise of Zionism the Jews already made up a majority of Jerusalem population. In fact in 1896, the year when Herzl first published his “The Jewish state”, 2/3 of Jerusalem population (what is called East Jerusalem now) were Jews. The Muslims and Christians together made up another 1/3. Yet, when the Old Jerusalem was occupied by Jordan in 1948, all Jewish population of Jerusalem was expelled. It was the first time for over a millennium that the Jewish presence in the Old City of Jerusalem was eliminated. The Jordanians went on and destroyed or turned into stables around 50 ancient synagogues. The 2500-years old Jewish cemetery on the Olive mount was destroyed and the headstones were used for road pavement.
However, when 19 years later the Jews returned to the East Jerusalem the “international community” labeld them as “illigal settlers”! Oh, well…
I understand. It’s called confirmation bias. People frequently tend to selectively trust and accept evidence, which confirms their preconceptions. This, in turn, makes their preconceptions even deeper.