Maps, Shmaps, Mr Suarez

American violinist and propagandist against Zionism Tom Suarez, who as described by David Collier unabashedly maligned Israel in a talk at that bastion of Israel-hatred the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London late last year, calling Zionism "a fascist cult", has become excited by some maps.

Like other anti-Zionists before him, he seems to think that the dastardly Zionists will be routed by this revelation:

Sigh.

They don't seem to understand, the Israel-hating brigade, that no matter how many maps and artefacts (and newspapers, posters, football teams, orchestras from the, er, Yishuv!) they trot out with the word "Palestine" embossed upon them the fact remains that there was never a sovereign state of Palestine.

When will these people get it through their heads that the issue is not whether the name Palestine was applied to the Holy Land (it was, by the Romans, in order to erase the Jewish connection with Eretz Israel) but whether there was a sovereign state of Palestine as pro-Palestinian activists such as themselves maintain (there was not, of course, for since its invasion by Romans that land has always been ruled by someone else, latterly the Ottoman Empire, of which it was a backwater)?

Meanwhile, London's School of Oriental Studies (now SOAS), which began life in the first half of lst century as the SOS with a Jewish lecturer in Hebrew, and has since developed into one of the most vicious anti-Israel and antisemitic UK campuses, has Israel's ambassador to the Court of St James in its line of fire:

 'As Mark Regev prepares to speak at SOAS later this month, students have called a protest against his proposed visit

Palestinian students and student societies across SOAS have called a protest on 27 April in response to the proposed visit of Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev. Many staff and students are particularly incensed that management has entered direct negotiations with the Embassy, despite the fact that the visit was initially proposed by two students societies: the UN Society and the Jewish Society.

SOAS management has also agreed to have the Israeli Embassy control security for the event, including allowing the Embassy to take details of everyone entering the meeting. Palestinian students wrote a letter to management outlining their concerns over free speech and safety, which was ignored.

Over one hundred staff members have signed a letter to management strongly opposing the event, and any event that takes place on campus and seeks to normalise the actions of the Israeli state or any other repressive regime. The letter also affirms solidarity with the Palestinian people and in the fight for justice. Here we reprint the statement prepared by student societies at SOAS, and support the call to protest on 27 April at 4pm opposing the presence of Mark Regev on campus.

It has come to our attention that the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev, will be coming to SOAS on the 27th of April at 19:00. Mr Regev is a well known former spokesperson for the Israeli state who came to international prominence through his defence of the brutal and repeated attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip, including the many violations of human rights and international law carried out throughout these operations.   

Firstly [no such word, not-so-learned learned ones; the word you need is 'first'], Mr Regev will be speaking at our University as an official representative of the Israeli state, not in a personal capacity. He is being given the cover of an academic setting to put forward official state positions on the on-going expansion of illegal settlements, the siege of Gaza, land thefts, and discriminatory laws imposed on Palestinian citizens of Israel. This is not an academic debate, informed by fact and reason, it is an official exercise in state propaganda.  

This comes flying in the face of a landslide (73%) SOAS vote that included the entire SOAS community, contract staff, academic staff and students, in favour of endorsing the Palestinian call for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions.The Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) guidelines, explicitly state the refusal to host official representatives of the Israeli state.   

The response to the announcement of the event only confirms the SOAS community’s stance. For example, over 100 members of the academic staff have already signed a statement rejecting Mr Regev’s presence on campus. 

Secondly, through allowing this event to take place, the school is failing to uphold its basic duty of care to staff and students, Palestinians in particular. Israel’s latest "anti-boycott law" stipulates that individuals (both foreign nationals and Palestinians who hold foreign passports) who publicly support the Palestinian call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) for justice and equality, can be banned entry into the country.   

This law is a blatant breach of free speech and academic freedom. It puts SOAS community in an extremely precarious situation, especially since a number of current staff and students have been denied entry into Israel/Palestine. This is despite the repeated efforts by the school to address these questions of academic freedom. Additionally, this law is yet another example of many attempts to dehumanise Palestinian narratives and criminalise movements and individuals striving to hold Israel to account for its violations of international law and human rights. 

The environment created by this event is unsafe for Palestinian students, many of whom have suffered directly at the hands of the Israeli security services. The Ambassador will be accompanied by  armed  embassy  security  personnel (whether the arms are concealed or carried openly). Many students fear for their safety with Israeli security personnel roaming our campus. Palestinian staff and students would be subject to the same questioning and searching they suffered living under military occupation in Palestine should they attend a public event.

Thirdly, SOAS management cannot guarantee that this event will take place within the acceptable boundaries of academic freedom and free speech, free from intimidation of all participants. The School has ignored a letter of concern by Palestinian students who asked how the School proposes to guarantee that information about attendees will not be passed on to the embassy through the ticketing mechanism, and how the School proposes to deal with the presence of armed security personnel on  campus. It is completely abhorrent that SOAS administration has stated that this visit can go ahead without consulting Palestinian students and staff as part of the risk assessment for the event. Effectively excluding Palestinians from this event.  

Indeed, in their latest correspondence to staff, SOAS management claims to be upholding the right to free speech while also taking into account the concerns of all those affected by the event. It is clear that this is not the case as SOAS administration has effectively ignored letters from staff and Palestinian students and refused to engage with Palestinian students especially.

In response, the SOAS community calls on all students, trade unionists, and concerned individuals who believe in the importance of democracy, the right to academic freedom, educational environments free from intimidation and physical threats, and justice for the Palestinian people to join the ‘Apartheid Off Campus’ day on the 27th April in the afternoon at SOAS. A day where the SOAS community will celebrate its diversity and struggles with teach-outs on resistance movements, the situation in Palestine and their relevance in the UK today from 16:00.   

Signed:  •  SOAS Decolonising Our Minds Society •  SOAS Justice For Cleaners •  SOAS Fractionals For Fair Pay •  SOAS Labour Society •  NUS Black Student Campaign  •  SOAS LGBTQ Society •  SOAS Syria Society •  SOAS Palestine Society •  SOAS Israel Society •  SOAS Islamic Society  •  SOAS Iraqi Society •  SOAS Ahlubayt Islamic Society •  SOAS Transnational Diplomacy Association •  SOAS Men’s Football Club •  SOAS Against Human Trafficking •  SOAS Canadian Society •  SOAS Kashmir Solidarity Movement •  SOAS Afghan Society •  SOAS Teach First Society •  SOAS Albanian Society •  SOAS Martial Arts Society •  SOAS Spoken Word Society •  SOAS Kurdish Society •  SOAS MENA Society •  SOAS Goes to Calais •  SOAS Ceilidh Band •  SOAS Herb Society •  SOAS Origami society •  SOAS Shia Theology Society •  SOAS East Africa Network •  SOAS Yemen society •  SOAS India Society •  SOAS Mehfil e Urdu  

 What a shower!

An op-ed here

Bashing Israel & Hamming It Up (videos) (updated)

"Liberal and Progressive" Rabbi Michael Lerner at Mohammed Ali's funeral, inter alia taking swipes at Israel and paying tribute to Islam and The Prophet (and looking like he was about to burst a blood vessel in the process):

 

You' might think, as I did, that Lerner's remarks would find favour with Israel-haters everywhere.

You might.  But you'd be wrong. Just look at the reaction his remarks have drawn from (wait for it!) Jonathan Azaziah, author of the following vile article, and certain of Azaziah's Muslim (and non-Muslim) friends (including an obsessive Israel-demoniser called Andy Taylor) on Facebook.

Visceral antisemitism, so starkly expressed, so clearly seen. 

 Across the Pond, from our old friend Alex Seymour, Israelophobe extraordinaire,  footage of  members of Richmond and Kingston PSC (what a well-heeled bourgeois bunch they seem, befitting their leafy habitat) at a fair at Ham Common in Surrey on the Saturday of this Queen's Birthday weekend, displaying among their goodies those mendacious maps.

Really, might it not be time for counter-demonstrators to attend such events, bringing with them leaflets that tell the great British public precisely why those maps are deceitful.  (I've linked on my sidebar to two websites that show up those maps for what they are.)

David Singer: "Fiction ... Designed to Deceive & Mislead & Possibly Incite to Violence & Jew-hatred"

Entitled "Palestine – Politicians Peddling Propaganda Forfeit Credibility", here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

Image credit: J-Wire.com

 He writes:

Senator Lee Rhiannon – a member of the Greens Party holding a pivotal position in Australian politics – authorised and printed a deceptive and misleading pamphlet which was distributed at a protest rally addressed by her last Sunday in Sydney “against Israeli Apartheid and commemorating Al Nakba 68 years on.”

Image credit: J-Wire.com

The pamphlet purported to quote a statement by Israel’s then Defense Minister Moshe Dayan in 1969:

“We came to a region of land that was inhabited by Arabs and we set up a Jewish State … Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages“

What Dayan actually said – which Senator Rhiannon was apparently not prepared to disclose – was:

“We came to a region that was inhabited by Arabs, and we set up a Jewish state. In many places, we purchased the land from Arabs and set up Jewish villages where there had once been Arab villages.”

God forbid that those present should learn that Jews had actually purchased land from its Arab owners. Better to maintain the canard repeated in Palestinian text books and media that

“the Zionist gangs stole Palestine”

 Moshe Aumann in his seminal work "Land ownership in Palestine 1880-1948" states that in 1948:

“8.6 per cent of the land was owned by Jews and 3.3 per cent by Israeli Arabs, while 16.9 per cent had been abandoned by Arab owners who imprudently heeded the call from neighbouring countries to "get out of the way" while the invading Arab armies made short shrift of Israel. The rest of the land—over 70 per cent—had been vested in the Mandatory Power, and accordingly reverted to the State of Israel as its legal heir. (Government of Palestine, Survey of Palestine, 1946, British Government Printer, p. 257.) The greater part of this 70 per cent consisted of the Negev, some 3,144,250 acres all told, or close to 50 per cent of the 6,580,000 acres in all of Mandatory Palestine. Known as Crown or State Lands, this was mostly uninhabited arid or semi-arid territory, inherited originally by the Mandatory Government from Turkey.  In 1948 it passed to the Government of Israel. These lands had not been owned by Arab farmers—neither under the British Mandate nor under the preceding regime.”

Senator Rhiannon has a Parliamentary staff to assist her in ensuring everything that issues in her name as a Senator is totally and completely accurate.

She has let her emotions cloud her judgement in what can only be seen as a deliberate attempt to paper over the fact that Jews bought land in Palestine they settled on.

Another pamphlet containing four maps was handed out at the rally – supposedly documenting Palestinian loss of land between 1946 and 2000.

Image credit: J-Wire.com

McGraw Hill Publishing only recently withdrew from sale and trashed unsold copies of one of its textbooks – Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World – containing those maps.

Spokesperson Catherine Mathis stated:

"As soon as we learned about the concerns with it, we placed sales of the book on hold and immediately initiated an academic review. The review determined that the map did not meet our academic standards. We have informed the authors and we are no longer selling the book. All existing inventory will be destroyed. We apologize and will refund payment to anyone who returns the book."

Senator Rhiannon is perfectly entitled to express her support for the Palestinian Arabs.

It would be encouraging to know, however, that her support is based on fact – not fiction and partisan propaganda designed to deceive and mislead and possibly incite to violence and Jew-hatred.

Senator Rhiannon has badly blotted her copybook – and credibility.

Perpetuating Propaganda: David Singer challenges Jewish Voice For Peace

Entitled "Palestine – Perpetuating Propaganda Plagues Peace Process", here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer, who previously wrote about the McGraw-Hill maps incident here and here

He writes:

McGraw Hill’s decision to trash copies of its textbook Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World  has been subjected to intense criticism on web sites propagating the “Palestinian Narrative” of the 100 years old Arab-Jewish conflict. The “Palestinian Narrative” is a concoction of lies and half-truths based on the 1964 PLO National Charter – as amended in 1968 – and the 1988 Hamas Covenant.

Catherine Mathis – a spokeswoman for McGraw-Hill – explained the Company’s reasons for destroying the textbook – which contained four misleading and inaccurate maps of “Palestine”:

"As soon as we learned about the concerns with it, we placed sales of the book on hold and immediately initiated an academic review. The review determined that the map did not meet our academic standards. We have informed the authors and we are no longer selling the book. All existing inventory will be destroyed. We apologize and will refund payment to anyone who returns the book."  

McGraw-Hill’s action follows similar criticism of MSNBC which aired the same series of maps last year on “MSNBC Live”.

 Host Kate Snow and her then guest Middle East expert Martin Fletcher made a return appearance to acknowledge that they realized after they went off the air that the maps were not factually accurate and they regretted using them.

Now, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has published a letter signed by 35 “prominent academics” attacking McGraw Hill’s “shocking and outrageous act of censorship of the Palestinian narrative from US schoolbooks”.

The fact that JVP openly acknowledges the offending maps are part of the “Palestinian narrative” is surely more than sufficient justification for trashing the text book – because no disclosure was made by the contributing editors that the maps they used were partisan in nature.

But the academics letter goes even further in claiming:

1. “The maps in question are historically accurate” – but gives no evidence to back up that claim.

2. “If there were in fact any minor errors with the maps they should have been corrected rather than removed altogether” – but fails to list such minor errors.

I contacted JVP requesting to know what those “minor errors” were. Rather than listing those “minor errors” JVP referred me to the fact sheet of another web site propagating the same maps and claiming they were accurate.

I then sent JVP my detailed reasons for questioning the accuracy of these four maps – adding:

“I know it would be very difficult to withdraw your letter signed by so many distinguished people but it needs to be qualified if their integrity and yours is to be maintained.

McGraw Publishing had the intellectual strength to remove the offending text book from sale when inaccuracies in the maps were brought to its attention.

I believe you now need to issue an appropriately worded supplementary letter that:

* errors appearing in the published maps drawn to your attention after your letter was published were regrettably incapable of being corrected thereby necessitating their withdrawal and the textbook from sale.

* McGraw Hill's decision to do so was justified.

Please give this letter your serious consideration and let me know what you intend doing.”

No response has been received to this and two subsequent e mails.

Misleading maps – like misleading statements – allowed to go unchallenged – soon become accepted as gospel truth if repeated often enough in text books and in the media.

Anti-Israel websites peddling the “Palestinian narrative” and refusing to publish comments seeking to correct unsubstantiated and untrue statements are increasing.

Jewish Voice For Peace does itself no credit in aligning with these insidious web sites by maintaining its deafening silence and knowingly propagating these totally discredited maps.

JVP types in Atlanta

Note from Daphne: the MSNBC map shown below appears several times on the JVP Facebook page. 

The comments below, like the signs in the photo of JVP activists above, are illustrative of the JVP's  outlook and agenda: click here for its sources of funding; (NGO Monitor has its measure)

David Singer Maps It Out: "Internet Intifada Denies Free Speech"

Here, entitled "Internet Intifada Denies Free Speech," is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

Many Palestinian websites are stifling free speech by refusing to publish comments answering anti-Israel articles published on their sites.

The latest example is an article written by Rania Khalek on Electronic Intifada

Responding to the decision by McGraw Hill Education to destroy all copies of its text book Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World  – containing the accompanying maps – Khalek claimed: 

"The maps, which appear in chronological succession on page 123, show Palestinian land loss from 1946, one year before Zionist militias initiated the displacement of more than 750,000 indigenous Palestinians from historic Palestine, to the year 2000, by which point Palestinian land had been reduced to a handful of tiny non-contiguous enclaves in the occupied West Bank and a sliver of Gaza."

I endeavoured to post the following comment in response on 21 March pointing out the misleading nature of these maps:

"Map 1:

The heading “Palestinian and Jewish Land 1946“ is misleading for the following reasons:

(i) The map excludes Transjordan which in 1946 still comprised 78% of the territory of the Mandate for Palestine until granted independence by Great Britain in May 1946.

(ii) The land described as “Palestinian land” misleadingly implies legal ownership by the Palestinian Arabs of that land when in fact about 90% of it was State land under British Mandatory control and legal power of disposition.

Map 2:

The legend “Palestinian land” is misleading.

The legend should have said “proposed Jewish State” and “proposed Arab State” - the terms used in the UN Partition Plan.

Map 3:

The heading "1949-1967" is misleading.

The map should have shown the unification of the West Bank with Transjordan between 1949 and 1967 and the change of name of Transjordan to Jordan in 1950.

It should also have designated the Gaza Strip as being under Egyptian military administration between 1948-1967.

Map 4:

One can only wonder why the year 2000 was chosen. Why not 2015 after Israel had already withdrawn from Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank in 2005 and dismantled many illegal outposts?

In any event the legend “Palestinian land” and “Israeli land” is again wrong and misleading in so far as it relates to the West Bank. The land there should have been shown as Areas “A”, “B” and “C”

As maps designed to be taught to students they are totally lacking in accuracy and ignore basic facts in their compilation.

Designating land as “Palestinian land” in any event implies that such land belongs to the “Palestinians”. Since there were no persons designated as “Palestinians” until the 1964 PLO Charter defined that term – the use of the term in maps before then smacks of an attempt to re-write history.

McGraw Hill had no option but to discard these maps"

My comments have not yet been published – and comes at a particularly sensitive time as Electronic Intifada Editor Ali Abunimah, a US citizen, has recently received a visa from the Australian Government – after waiting two months – to speak at a four day Marxism Conference and at other venues in Australia.

Abunimah posted the following tweet thanking the thousands who had petitioned the Australian Government supporting the grant of his visa:

"I'm so grateful to every person who stood up for free speech. Delighted that I just received my visa for Australia. See you Down Under!" 4:44 AM - 16 Mar 2016

Perhaps my comment inadvertently slipped through the cracks as Mr Abunimah was busy packing his bags for his visit to Australia.

Free speech means free speech for all Mr Abunimah. Stand up, be counted, publish my comment.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign Mugs For The BBC

That mendacious set of four maps (you know the one!) has made an appearance on mugs sent to various members of the BBC's staff by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign!

Clicking on the relevant link we read, inter alia among the predictable Israel-demonising nonsense:

'The BBC’s head of news and current affairs, and some of the organisation’s most senior presenters, have received innovative reminders this week that the Palestinians are an occupied people whose land is still being stolen from them.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign has sent its mugs, printed with maps showing just how much of their land Palestinians have lost to Israel since 1948, to BBC Broadcasting House in London.

James Harding, the BBC’s Director of News and Current Affairs, Evan Davis, presenter of Newsnight, Today presenters, John Humphrys, Mishal Husain, Sarah Montague and James Naughtie, and News at Ten anchors, Fiona Bruce and Huw Edwards, were sent the mugs this week, along with letters reminding them who is the occupier and who is the occupied....'

How anyone could possibly consider the BBC, with that coterie of reporters that includes Bowen, Donnison, Guerin and Knell, to be biased in favour of Israel strikes me, and countless others, as truly baffling and bizarre.

Evidently, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have never examined the compelling evidence against the Bowenites compiled by BBC Watch.

(Well, they wouldn't, would they?)

Essentially, the difference between those of us who despair at and deplore the BBC's bias against Israel and the PSC is that we merely want the BBC to report from the region in neutral, objective fashion as the BBC's Charter and Producers' Guidelines warrant, whereas the PSC and other Israel-haters evidently want the BBC to shill for the anti-Israel cause all of the time.

After all, the logo of the PSC is a map that completely obliterates Israel.

Enough said.

On that topic.

For the moment.

But while I have your attention, please note that an old chum of ours is back on Facebook.  He's been there for about a week, I learn from reader P.

So far, our old chum appears to be not only an older but a wiser man:

Thanks, Your Reverence.  Very worthy stuff.  Pray keep it up!

Tonge in Place & "Nasty" Nick Cotton's Noxious Noise

The inevitable set of Mendacious Maps prominently displayed, the Richmond branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has been making merry with all the fun of the fair.

Among the Israel-haters saying their bit to camera in the following footage by branch honcho Alex Seymour (aka Seymour Alexander) is the incorrigible Jenny Tonge, looking and sounding as sour as always.

But the "star" of Seymour's video is a bloke with a Jewish name.  He's actor John Altman, best known for playing Dot Cotton's jailbird son "Nasty"Nick Cotton in the BBC TV soap "EastEnders".

The script that Altman spews is full of spite and venom, and woeful, disgusting ignorance.  Shame on him.

Meanwhile, north of the Border, where the Scottish Nationalists have trounced all comers, the Israel-haters of the Argyll branch of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign have been indulging in May merriment of their own.  They held a conference yesterday in Glasgow on the theme "Ending Scottish Arms Trade With Israel".

And talking of Mendacious Maps, as I noted briefly on this blog's Facebook page last week, there's a new set out.  This sleight-of-hand set, presumably intended for a British audience, is from a seemingly new kid on the block.  In his own way he's as ignorant as "Nasty" Nick Cotton: he  claims that the Britain promised Ottoman Palestine to both Jews and Arabs. But, of course, the Mandate was for the Jewish National Home, not an Arab national home or a "Palestinian" national home, not least since nobody, including the Arabs themselves, had any notion of a separate "Palestinian people" at that juncture.

Here We B[DS]loody Well Go Again

Pardon the "great Australian adjective", but that infamous set of  mendacious maps which does yeoman service to the anti-Israel cause has now turned up on the side of public buses in Copenhagen:

To quote the Israel-libellers:

 Copenhagen bus adverts call for settlement boycott

May the world's buses carry messages of justice for the Palestinians.

The campaign started yesterday in the Capital of Denmark.

If enough funds are collected through the website, the campaign will go country wide. Check the FB-page and website below.

In Danish it says:

"Our conscience is clear! We neither buy products from or invest in the settlement industry".

(Charlotte and Lizzie)

 http://nejtaktilbsp.dk/

https://facebook.com/nejtaktilbsp

‪#‎nejtaktilbsp‬

I know of at least one pro-Israel activist who has sent a message of protest to Denmark's ambassador in his country, expressing disgust at the bus ad (especially coming as it does just two months after the murder of a Copenhagen Jew standing watch outside a Copenhagen synagogue during a bat mitzvah ceremony), directing the envoy to  this post that shows the maps for the libels they are, and politely requesting that the ads be removed.

Update: Read NGO Monitor's detailed analysis here

More BDS afoot, this time to dissuade American diva Dionne Warwick from performing in Israel next month: 

Meanwhile, this latest article by the frank, fearless and free Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh entitled "The Palestinians No One Talks About" is highly recommended.

(Oh, and so is my latest Tuesday column on Elder of Ziyon!)

Mendacious Maps in Montpellier (video)

In Montpellier, France, that land in which it's increasingly uncomfortable to be a Jew, BDS activists strut their stuff outside a travel agency outlet of the huge retailer Carrefour a few days ago.

As in many if not most demonstrations of this kind, those four maps are essential props.

Is it not time that more publicity is given by Israel and its supporters to exposing the maps' lies?

There are splendid refutations online, but they are under utilised in practice, leaving Israel's enemies to "own" the graphic narrative and infect a gullible public with their nonsense.

Edgar Maps The Mischief

Photo: Richard Millett

I've referred to Edgar Davidson's British-based blog several times in the past.  Cerebral, original, and sometimes satirical, he's one of my favourite pro-Israel bloggers.  His latest post is a valuable contribution to that small but vital body of internet posts that refute the mendacious, mischievous set of four map that, claiming to show Zionist land thefts of Arab land, constitutes a seemingly ubiquitous graphic corollary to the allegation of a "disappearing Palestine".

The set of maps is, it appears, an essential prop in the equipment of all anti-Israel propagandists, featuring as it does on posters pinned up during Israel-bashing meetings, intended for the sides of buses, given pride of place at Israel-bashing demonstrations (see, for instance, here), and comprising sticky posts on websites such as this one.

Notes Mr Davidson, in what should be required reading for every naive individual snared or likely to be snared by propagandistic anti-Israel malice, but of course won't be:

These maps are based on the completely false premise that, prior to 1947 there was an Arab state of Palestine. In fact the Palestine that was promised to the Jews as part of the Balfour declaration was the British mandate territory that includes what later become the state of Jordan (my map above top left). There was not – and never has been
– an Arab state of Palestine even though, between 1948 and 1967 there was no 'occupied territories' of the West Bank or Gaza since these areas were then under the full control of Jordan and Egypt respectively. The Palestinian Arabs living there during that period never called for an independent state of their own.

Only the Jews of Palestine considered themselves Palestinian before 1948. The Arabs
– most of whom had come to Palestine from Egypt and Syria because of the economic opportunities opened up by the Jews – considered themselves to be Syrian.

 Despite the fact that 80% of mandate Palestine (not shown on the maps that lie) had already been granted to the Arabs exclusively to become the new state of Jordan, the Jews of Palestine accepted the UN partition plan of 1947. The surrounding Arab states did not accept it and launched a war of annihilation against the Jews (during and after which some 1 million Jews from Arab countries were forced to leave
– most of them came to Israel).

The result of the war that was intended to murder every single Jew in Palestine was that the invading Arab armies were defeated and the Jews controlled slightly more territory overall than was part of the 1947 plan; however, they also lost some territory such as the Jewish quarter of East Jerusalem (including Judaism's holiest sites such as the Wailing Wall) and Gush Etzion that even the 1947 plan had not considered to be under Arab control.

The UN accepted the 1949 armistice line as defining the borders of Israel, while calling for East Jerusalem (now under Jordanian occupation) to be 'internationalised'.

The Arab states refused to recognise the State of Israel and have continued to this day to try to destroy it. The Jordanians who occupied East Jerusalem in 1948 expelled every Jew and destroyed every synagogue in the old city. Not a single Jew was allowed to enter Judaism's holiest sites until 1967 when, after the Egyptians, Jordanians and Syrians launched another attempted war of annihilation, Israel regained control over the old city and other areas.

Israel offered to withdraw from all the newly gained territories in return for peace but the offer was rejected by the Arab countries. With the exception of Jewish East Jerusalem Israel has essentially made the same offer over and again ever since but it has always been rejected. Despite this, Israel has returned the whole of Gaza and most of the West Bank to Palestinian control. But the Arabs continue to demand the destruction of all of Israel.

It is also important to show Israel in context with its Muslim neighbours ...

Mr Davidson's synopsis is an excellent model upon which proponents of the Israeli cause can base their responses to those who trot out those offending maps.

But that written refutation is not all.  For he has done yeoman service to the pro-Israel cause in providing a comprehensive set of rival maps, eight in all, which give an accurate overview of what the situation truly was and is.

See (and bookmark!) Edgar Davidson's post here