Israel’s False History Is Exposed, Then Embraced

by James M. Wall

MSNBC, the PEP (Progressive Except for Palestine) cable network, stumbled into the glaring light of truth on an October 15 broadcast.

In-house MSNBC guardians of Israel’s false narrative must have been on a coffee break when four maps (see above) were displayed, clearly demonstrating modern Israel’s theft of Palestine land between 1946 and the present.

Caught with their pants down, or to be a bit more delicate, caught in their unrelenting major theft of Palestinian land, not by some earnest blogger laboring in obscurity on the internet, but by MSNBC, a major cable television network, Israeli narrative protectors exploded into action with the bullying anger of operatives from George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth in his dystopian novel, 1984. 

Israel’s false historical narrative is rarely exposed in all its naked falseness under the bright lights of mainline media. The four maps shown above reveal the dramatic disappearance of Palestinian-owned land into the greedy clutches of the colonial invading power which claimed the name, Israel.

Alison Weir, veteran journalist and tireless worker against the false historical Israeli narrative, wrote a clarifying description of what is a familiar experience to anyone who dares question Israel’s manufactured version of history.

What Weir describes in her well-researched, and carefully documented story, demands full attention. (click here for the full story). Backed by the four maps above, Weir explains what happened in real time history.

Weir writes:

“Following an unusually honest report on Israel-Palestine, MSNBC Live backpedaled to Israeli talking points that were both illogical and uninformed. Let us look at what happened.

“During its Thursday, Oct. 15th news broadcast, MSNBC Live broadcast an accurate and revealing image of four maps entitled ‘Palestinian loss of land 1946 – present.’ Host Kate Snow commented that the maps showed ‘that the land where the Palestinians live has grown increasingly smaller.’

“NBC’s longtime correspondent for the area, Martin Fletcher, agreed, saying: ‘Absolutely, this is what it’s all about; it’s about the land. What this map shows you, and it’s pretty shocking when you present it in this way, what it clearly shows is that if there is no peace agreement between Palestinians and Israel, more of those green areas, more of that Palestinian land, will be eaten up by Jewish settlements.’

“There was an immediate onslaught against the show by Israelis and Israel partisans, including Israeli media and such pro-Israel organizations as “Honest Reporting” and Mediate.”

Weir continues her description of what Israel’s Ministry of Truth does not want exposed:

“The maps correctly depict, as the title makes clear, expropriation of Palestinian land.

“In the late 1800s, Arab Muslims and Christians lived on about 99 percent of the land of Palestine. The Jewish population, mostly Arab too, was a largely urban population and owned about 1 percent of the land.

“Over the coming decades, Jews mostly from Europe and the U.S. immigrated to Palestine in a political movement whose goal was to take over the land for an ethnically-exclusive state. (This movement, called political Zionism, was originally opposed by most Jewish people, including those living in Palestine.)

“There were intense efforts to acquire land by any means, and by 1946 Jewish ownership in Palestine was, at most, 8 percent of the land; most historians put it at about 5-6 percent. This 1946 land ownership is accurately depicted in the first map in the series.”

Colonial invaders always, without exception, rewrite history from their dominant perspective. For that history to survive, the rewritten version requires a subservient conquered population, and acquiescent outsiders who will fall in behind the newly-composed historical narrative.

Israel has attempted to follow that colonial playbook.  Unfortunately, from the modern state of Israel’s perspective, the Palestinian people are not subservient, while Israel’s desire to conquer “a land without a people” did not fit the colonial playbook.

The Palestinians Israel thought it could displace were already well established in modernity, well-educated and rooted to their land. Christian missionaries admittedly came to Palestine both to control, and to evangelize. In so doing, they established  schools, hospitals, and other modern institutions.

The colonial playbook has been a failure for Israel since 1946, most recently in the uprisings in Jerusalem, the topic of that October 15 discussion on MSNBC which prompted the display of those accurate maps of Israel’s theft of Palestinian land.

When MSNBC recanted under the predictable Israeli pressure, the respected Martin Fletcher read his recantation script.

Perfect example: A veteran of Middle East reporting, Fletcher still said, “The Jews and the Muslims both believe that God gave them the land. It’s that one piece of land for two peoples. That’s what the conflict’s been about for a very long time.”

After 40 years of reporting, Martin Fletcher has to know that “both believe” is a false statement. Many Jews do claim their modern state was given to them by God.  Muslims make no such claim.

Pause a moment to feel Fletcher’s pain, the pain of lying to his public because that is what Israel’s Ministry of Truth demands he do.

Defending its ongoing land grab, Israel has taught its loyalists that any adjustment to the false, new narrative, is strictly forbidden.

When the false narrative is exposed by facts, the first polite line of defense response is to not report and not show it; otherwise, “some people will find it offensive”.

An example of this polite line appeared in this minute compilation of different scenes taken from episode 10, season 3, which ran in 2002 in the long-running television series, West Wing. In this episode, the President of the United States discovers “some people will find it offensive”.

The Battle of the Maps will continue as long as Israel is determined to conquer all the land between the river and the sea.

Which is why we need writers like Alison Weir to remind the world that there are also “some people who do find it offensive” to displace an entire civilian population from its land.