From: Ismail Zayid
To: Globe & Mail

Sent: Friday, November 03, 2000 12:42 PM

Subject: Zionist Mythology.

The Editor
The Globe & Mail

3 Nov. 2000

Dear Editor:

Mr. Peter Teitelbaum, in his letter, Nov. 3, is reproducing old Zionist mythology of making the desert bloom. He states that when Jewish immigrants came to Palestine in the late 19^th. and early 20^th. century, "The region was barren and unpopulated". This is ofcourse a total falsehood. Let me quote to you the accounts of prominent Zionist leaders and thinkers:

Sir Moses Montefiore, who traveled to Palestine in 1839, to look for agricultural land to acquire for Jewish immigration, described the eastern Galilee as covered with "groves of olive trees, I should think more than five hundred years old, vineyards, much pasture, plenty of wells and abundant excellent water; also fig trees, walnuts, almonds, mulberries, etc... The inhabitants were good farmers and possessed horses, cows, oxen and goats in great abundance." [Diaries of Sir Moses Montefiore and Lady Montefiore, p. 169, 175-176].

When Ahad Ha’am, a leading Zionist thinker, visited Palestine in 1891 he wrote : " We abroad have a way of thinking that Palestine today is almost desert, an uncultivated wilderness... But this is not in fact the case. it is difficult to find any uncultivated land anywhere in the country."

Yours sincerely

Ismail Zayid, M.D.