Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Tuesday 19 March 2013

Usurped Palestinian Sovereignty: "The Li[n]e Of Division"

"Palestine was the cradle of the most ancient cultures and civilisations.  Its Arab people were engaged in farming and building, spreading culture throughout the land for thousands of years," Yasser Arafat, applying several layers of gilding to the lily, told the UN General Assembly in his major address on 13 November 1974 denouncing Zionism and the Zionist Entity.

Subsequently, by themselves abandoning the term "Palestinian Arabs" in favour of "The Palestinians," Israelis handed Arafat a major public relations victory.  For they appear to concede that there was indeed a sovereign people by the latter name and accordingly reinforce a brilliant propagandistic makeover on the PLO's part that is a tool for Israel's delegitimisation.

Of course, despite the impression created by Arafat and his successors, there was never a sovereign people called "the Palestinians" and there was never a sovereign state called Palestine.

But try telling that to the myriad youths who, too ignorant of history to recognise the lie for what it is, have been conditioned to believe that there was, and add themselves to the ranks of the Palestine Solitary Campaign and comparable organisations.

And try telling that to their anti-Israel elders who should certainly know that when the First World War broke out, and for several centuries beforehand, Palestine was a backwater province of the Ottoman Empire ...

George Galloway, for example, in ranting and raving last month about British foreign policy in the Middle East, began with an attack on Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt and proceeded with the charge that Britain committed "the original sin" of "wiping their [the Palestinians'] country off the map," the only "country" in the Middle East to suffer such a fate.


And so it is that a rather nasty little video, featuring some well-known names among others, and recently translated into French for the benefit of gallic and francophone Israel-haters, was recently made by BDSers in Australia regarding what one participant contemptuously dubs "the so-called state of Israel" towards the  "indigenous people" of Palestine.  (It ends with references to "the line of division": hence my post title.)

The uploader of the video on YouTube notes:
"This video was made on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, whose sovereignty never ceded."
A way of emphasising (the lie of) usurped Palestinian sovereignty, presumably.

The video's dramatis personae (in order of appearance):

Mutulu "M1" Olugbala (of American rap duo Dead Prez);
Peter Manning (a former executive producer of the ABC current affairs programme Four Corners); Milan Ring;
Kareem Denis (British rapper Lowkey);
Tuva El-Shaikh;
Kerrie McGrath;
Fatima Mawas;
Awate Suleiman;
Antony Loewenstein (well, what a surprise!);
Anika Moeen;
Aamer Rahman

A perusal of the comments beneath the video on YouTube reveals more woeful mischievous ignorance, and the presence of this video will do little to halt the spread of such misconceptions among the young and impressionable.

6 comments:

  1. More Galloway news
    George Galloway Banned from University of Chester
    http://standforpeace.org.uk/george-galloway-banned-from-university-of-chester/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Galloway must not know his history. Virtually every country in western and central Europe has redrawn borders, several times, in the 20th century alone. Some of these countries no longer exist at all such as Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia whereas Ukraine, Moldava, Belarus, Kosovo and chunks of Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, Romania, Hungary and so on were created out of thin air.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh he knows his history alright Trudy. He also knows which side of history he is on.

      Delete
  3. 2 great videos

    Passover: Breaking News
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSN8FlGINFc

    LATMA: I'm an Israeli Soldier
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-VzAWJ1yK4

    ReplyDelete

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