In colonial historiography, the victims are almost always silent
By Ramzy Baroud
Al-Ahram Weekly
"Last week Americans observed Thanksgiving commemorating a romanticised era in their nation's record, celebrating the supposed solidarity and brotherhood enjoyed by the first settlers and the indigenous people of what is now called the United States. However, this fantastic tale of friendship contradicts the candid remarks of many notable personalities in US history.
Few can be as blunt regarding the legacy of the United States towards the native people as the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. In his narrative, The Winning of the West, Roosevelt spoke about the "spread of the English-speaking peoples over the world's wasted spaces". He wrote: "The European settlers moved into an uninhabited waste... the land is really owned by no one... The settler ousts no one from the land. The truth is, the Indians never had any real title to the soil."
In an interview with the British Sunday Times on 15 June 1969, former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir made similar claims, stating, "There was no such thing as Palestinians. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country from them. They did not exist."......"
By Ramzy Baroud
Al-Ahram Weekly
"Last week Americans observed Thanksgiving commemorating a romanticised era in their nation's record, celebrating the supposed solidarity and brotherhood enjoyed by the first settlers and the indigenous people of what is now called the United States. However, this fantastic tale of friendship contradicts the candid remarks of many notable personalities in US history.
Few can be as blunt regarding the legacy of the United States towards the native people as the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. In his narrative, The Winning of the West, Roosevelt spoke about the "spread of the English-speaking peoples over the world's wasted spaces". He wrote: "The European settlers moved into an uninhabited waste... the land is really owned by no one... The settler ousts no one from the land. The truth is, the Indians never had any real title to the soil."
In an interview with the British Sunday Times on 15 June 1969, former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir made similar claims, stating, "There was no such thing as Palestinians. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country from them. They did not exist."......"
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