Oh how I wish I’d had this document in my hands back then! On second thought would it have made a difference?

More than a year ago I was part of a group of Israelis at a meeting in the Arab village of Abu Ghosh for discussion and debate with two Arab intellectuals. The man and woman were professors at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University and they were considered moderate in their point of view. The discussion of course centered upon the Israeli occupation and the Jewish affinity for Eretz Yisrael.

The Arab lecturers stated their case in a quiet suave manner in flawless Hebrew but their message was just another delivery of the tired revisionist Palestinian version of the history of Eretz Yisrael. According to them we Jews have no right to Eretz Yisrael and we never did have any such right. Until recently we never lived here. This is the homeland of the age-old Palestinian nation that was wrongfully expelled by the Israelis following World War II when the UN decided to compensate the Jews for their suffering during the Holocaust. These false claims have also been voiced by President Obama in his notorious Cairo speech and on other occasions.

We Israelis listened to them with polite restraint despite the provocative and spurious nature of their argument. But even the most “open-minded” of our delegation felt compelled to challenge the premise; an affirmed left-wing delegate was the first to come out and ask “Professor are you acquainted with Jewish history?”

The professor gave the classic answer: “I’m not interested in that subject.”

In other words the professor saw no need to deal with Jewish history. For him it does not exist. There is nothing to discuss. No Tanach no First or Second Temple nothing. There isn’t and never has been any such thing. All these ideas were made up after the Holocaust as an excuse to expel Palestinians from their homes and we Israelis are simply colonialists.

The female lecturer was kind enough to add in a conciliatory tone “Perhaps somewhere in the country there are remnants of an old synagogue but obviously that doesn’t constitute any proof of a Jewish connection to this land.”

Of course our counterarguments backed up by documents and other evidence that Eretz Yisrael was scarcely inhabited at the time of the modern return to Zion and that most of the Arabs living here today arrived only recently fell upon deaf ears. (See the excellent book From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters.) No no no none of it is true and even the nations of Europe never claimed that Eretz Yisrael is the Jewish homeland the professors patiently explained. It’s a story that’s been pieced together by manipulation of the facts; it was all made up after the Holocaust.

When we returned to Jerusalem that Friday the most distressing part of all was that some of the younger Israelis among us began arguing “They have a point. We need to rethink our position.”

That depressing conference came to mind again last week when I came upon a fascinating document I’d never known about before. Incredibly it was issued on April 20 1799 — the fifteenth of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar — by Napoleon Bonaparte.

In April 1799 while laying siege to the city of Acre in the Holy Land Napoleon intended to advance inland hoping to conquer Jerusalem on the following day. His plan was that upon seizing Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire he would declare an independent state for the Jewish people. He even prepared an official proclamation to that effect. But British troops overpowered his army and forced him to retreat and Napoleon’s plan was never carried out. The proclamation is preserved in the archives of French historical documents.

Here is the text of the original document translated and condensed:

Announcement to the Jewish Nation
General Headquarters Jerusalem April 20th 1799
in the seventh year  of the French Republic
From Napoleon Bonaparte Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the French Republic in Africa and Asia

To the Rightful Heirs of Palestine the Children of Israel a unique nation who have been robbed of  their ancestral land for thousands of years by conquests and tyranny but no conqueror has succeeded in robbing them of their name and endurance as a nation.
Careful and impartial observers of the destinies of nations although lacking the prophetic abilities of such prophets as Isaiah and Joel recognize the truth in the words of the great prophets who foretold on the eve of the destruction of Zion that the children of G-d would return to their homeland with joyous song and that their sadness and sighing would disappear forever.
Arise then with gladness exiled ones!

This war unparalleled in all of history is waged in self-defense by a nation whose hereditary lands were regarded by its enemies as plunder to be divided. This nation is now avenged for two thousand years of ignominy. Although it may seem as though the time and the circumstances are unsuitable to this declaration or even to any expression of your demands this war offers you today against all expectations your heritage as Israelites.
Providence has sent me here with a young army guided by justice and accompanied by victory. My headquarters are in Jerusalem and in a few days I will be in Damascus whose proximity no longer poses a threat to the City of David.
Rightful heirs of Palestine !
The great nation which does not trade in men and countries in the manner of those that sold your ancestors to any of the nations does not call upon you to conquer your ancestral land but only to take from her what she has already conquered and with that nation's support and permission to continue to possess this land and to guard it against all adversaries.
Arise! Demonstrate that all the might of your oppressors has not succeeded in destroying the courage of the descendants of those heroes who would have brought honor to Sparta and Rome. Prove that two thousand years of subjugation have not succeeded in stifling that courage.
Hasten! This is the moment which may not return for another thousand years to claim the restoration of civic rights the restoration of your place among the peoples of the world. You have every right to political existence as a nation among the rest of the nations. You have the right to worship your G-d in accordance with your faith. 

In the end Napoleon’s campaign was unsuccessful. He was turned back at the border and never took Jerusalem. He Who sees all of history sent him the signal that the time was not ripe for the return to Zion and this fascinating document never became well known. It lies tucked away in France’s national archives in Paris. But at least it tells us what they thought two hundred years ago although the Arabs of our day deny it.

Would it do any good if I were to show our scholarly Arab neighbors this document today? I doubt it.