Abbas: We will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state

Like how a census taken of Hispanic peoples in the U.S. would include the 10-12 million illegals and skew the numbers vis-a-vie actual citizen. So too does the census done by the British in 1922 Palestine relative to the Muslim population. Especially with the Bedouin's who were uncooperative in allowing a count and also being transient and not fixed to any settlement or region. The Hope Simpson report of 1930 mentions the influx of both Jewish and Arab illegals breaching the Mandate borders and names Syria as the culprit. The difference being that the Jews had money,  employment opportunities, and brought with them trade craft and professions, while the Arab immigrant was poverty stricken, and dependent on the Jews for employment and services like health care. I found this to be noteworthy of the dichotomy between Arab thinking towards the Jew. The report cited health problems among the Arab population along with Arab complaints of "the enormous influx of Jewish doctors into the country. 

Actually, Anymoose, both Arabs and Jews can trace their ethnic origins back to the same areas, many thousands of years ago. Both are considered Semitic people. And the "influx" you speak of was not during the "British Protectorate." The great era of Arab migration was in the early days of Islam, where they spread from an area in what is now predominately Iraq, across all of the Middle East, and North Africa. They even made it to southern Spain. The Ottoman Empire allowed other religions than Islam be practiced, within limits, as it had since the time of the Crusades, so yes, there were Christians and Jews there. In very small numbers. Though there were other Ethnic groups in what became known as Palestine, the majority were still Muslim, and Arab, Bedouin, or to some extent Turks living there to administer their empire. There were Janiseries living their, abducted from the Balkans as slave warriors, who would have as much right to the land as any other influx of people, as well. The fact of the matter is, none of that is relivent. The influx of Jewish settlers and Immigrants did not take off on a serious level until after the Second World War. The Ottoman Empire, the Muslim Empire that had controlled the middle east since the fall of the Byzantines, were brought in BY the Arabs as mercenaries, centuries before that. To claim one group has more rights to the land than another is futile. It was a cross roads for millenia, the meeting point of Africa and Asia to Europe, and has always had a mix of people. It is time to stop looking back to archaic land claims, and start looking forward, to mutual acceptance and benefit.