MYTHS INSTEAD OF ARGUMENTS, IN RESOLUTION ON ISRAEL.

After the war in Lebanon, the ANC adopted a motion that heavily condemned Israel but in no way censured Hezbollah. The debate typified many of the myths that have become so much part of prevailing wisdom that even Jews no longer know matter from myth. We must constantly counter lies with facts, rather than accusations, if we want the truth about Israel to permeate into the minds of millions who are deceived.

Myth 1.

“Jews in creating the state of Israel, took over the Palestinian’s home.”

FACTS: The Jews’ ancestral home was colonised by the Arabs and a succession of other Islamic imperialist powers. When the Jews finally succeeded in returning to part of their ancestral homeland, with the agreement of the international community, the Arabs claimed that they were the ones who had been robbed. Just as under apartheid, South African schoolchildren were taught that the history of South Africa began in 1652 with the white colonial occupation, so are Islamists and their supporters under the false impression that the history of “Palestine” began in 636 with the Arab Islamic imperialist occupation of the area.

Israel/’Palestine’ was conquered by Muslim Arabs in 636-7 C.E. It remained an Islamic colony for the greater part of the next thirteen centuries until the British conquest during World War I. It is therefore the Arabs, and not the Jews, who are the colonising power. Far from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa being occupied Arab land, Hebron, Jericho, Shechem/Nablus and Bethlehem are in reality Jewish lands occupied by Arabs.

Historically, Jews formed the majority in the lands comprising present-day Israel and the Palestinian Authority for approximately 1600 years, from the conquest by Joshua until the suppression of the last Jewish revolt by the Romans in 135 C.E.

The Romans renamed Judea, Syria Palaestina, in order to de-Judaize it, for similar ideological purposes the Nationalist government renamed Sophiatown “Triomf” after expelling its black inhabitants.

Despite repeated expulsions, there has always been a Jewish presence in Israel, particularly in the holy cities of Jerusalem (with a Jewish majority since at least 1840), Safad and Hebron, and also in Tiberius, Jericho, Gaza and Ashkelon. Between the Arab conquest and the emergence of modern political Zionism, there were frequent waves of Jewish immigration. Jews in other parts of the world regarded themselves as being in exile, prayed thrice daily to return to their ancestral homeland and raised money to support those Jews who did return.

Even before the big Jewish influx from the end of the 19^th Century, the indigenous Jewish population was subjected to religious-inspired persecution by the ruling Muslim administration, including massacres (e.g. Hebron, 1834) and restrictions on praying or access to holy sites.

In the 20thy Century, Jews established a Jewish homeland in parts of Palestine that they fairly purchased from absentee landlords and real estate speculators. Far from displacing the indigenous Arab population they were immigrating to a land that was vastly under-populated. Ben-Gurion instructed Jewish refugees not to buy land belonging to indigenous Arabs currently living on and working it. There is no evidence, documentary or otherwise, that Jews stole the land from the local Arabs.

It is a myth that the Zionists displaced a stable, settled Palestinian-Arab-Muslim population that lived in villages and worked the land for centuries. Such a claim is totally inconsistent with contemporary demographic data collected by the local authorities prior to 1880. It is further a myth that the majority of Arabs living in Israel at the time of the partition were descended from those who had lived in the area for centuries. Precise figures will never be known, but

i) About a quarter of Muslims who lived in Palestine in 1882 arrived following the Egyptian conquest of the area in 1831.

ii) Turks, Greeks, Algerians, Sudanese, Syrian and Lebanese migrants, settled in the current boundaries of Israel during 1830-1945

iii) In 1882 census figures of the Ottoman Empire, it was recorded that in the entire land of Israel, there were 141,000 Muslims, both Arab and non-Arab.

Myth 2.

“In the 1948 war, the Irgun, a Zionist underground group wiped out the whole village of Dir Yassin, its men, women and children. Groups like Hagana, the Irgun and the Stern gang began their dastardly acts to drive out the Palestinians. That was the beginning of the expansionist policy of the Zionists. By January 1949 Israel had occupied 77% of the land.”

FACTS.

The 1947-1949 war commenced with Palestinian attacks on Jewish targets a day after the United Nations decided to divide the land between Arabs and Jews. The Jews accepted the plan, the Palestinians rejected it. A few months later, seven Arab countries invaded the new-born state of Israel. It is a deception to represent the entire 1947-49 period as a coordinated and unprovoked Zionist plot to drive out the indigenous Arab population.

During the War, atrocities against civilians, including massacres and ethnic cleansing, were committed by both sides. The massacre at Dir Yassin by a Jewish irregular force (denounced by Ben-Gurion) was the most notorious on the Jewish side. It occurred in response to Arab shelling of all vehicles travelling to Jerusalem along the only road available. The road wound passed the village of Dir Yassin, which was heavily defended by Arab troops. Then as in Lebanon this summer, inhabitants were warned through loudspeakers of the impending attack, removing the element of surprise and increasing Israeli casualties. Those who heeded the warnings left, unharmed.

Amongst the many Arab attacks on Jewish civilians during this period and before:

• 13 April 1948: Arabs ambushed an unprotected medical convoy traveling to Hadassah Hospital. 77 doctors, nurses, and other civilians were massacred.
• On May 13, 1948, dozens of surrendering defenders, including twenty women, were murdered at Kfar Etzion.
• About one-third of the 6,373 Israelis who lost their lives in the 1948 war were civilians.
• In previous Palestinian riots (1921, 1929, 1936-1939) scores of Jews were killed during riots by the Arab population. One of the most infamous attacks resulted in the murder of 66 civilian Jews by an Arab mob in Hebron, a city with a Jewish presence dating back to the 5^th century. The constant danger of mob killings caused the Jews to leave the city.

To this day evidence is available of appeals made by the mayor of Haifa for the Arabs to stay put and live in peace in Israel, while their own leaders exhorted them to leave and return as part of a victorious army which would drive the Israelites into the sea. There is further evidence that the local Arab population was encouraged to leave by the armies of the invading Arab states. A single example is in the words of Abu Mazen, the current President of the Palestinian Authority, in "What We Have Learned and What We Should Do", published in the official journal of the PLO in March 1976:“The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland".

The 1948 War resulted in massive population displacement for both Jews and Arabs.

While the overwhelming focus has been on the 700 000 Arabs who were expelled or fled, the simultaneous ethnic cleansing of Jews has received little attention. Dozens of Jewish synagogues and settlements were destroyed and their inhabitants massacred or driven out. Jewish refugees from neighbouring Arab countries, estimated to be similar in number to Arab refugees, were absorbed into the state of Israel when driven out of Arab lands. There has been no attempt by Arab nations to absorb any of the Arabs displaced during the war.

Myth 3.

“Israel is an apartheid state that has always wanted to subdue its Arab population.”

FACTS

When the state was being formed Ben Gurion said the following:

“All our aspiration is built on the assumption that there is enough room for ourselves and the Arabs in Palestine. In our state there will be non-Jews as well – and all of them will be equal citizens; equal in everything without any exception; that is the state will be their state as well. The attitude of the Jewish state to its Arab citizens will be an important factor in building good neighbourly relations with the Arab states”.

Today Arabs in Israel have the same rights as Jews and are equal under the law. They have the vote and 15% of the members in the Israeli parliament are Arabs.

Myth 4.

“Israel has always had ambitions to hold land in Lebanon”

FACTS

Israel invaded Lebanon 1982, in response to numerous cross-border terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians by Palestinians. The Israeli government has repeatedly stated that it has no territorial designs in Lebanon. It kept control over a limited part of the south to prevent attacks on Israeli civilians. In May 2000 Israel withdrew from this narrow sliver of land only to be faced again this summer by attacks from South Lebanon.

Myth 5.

“Ariel Sharon and the Israeli army were responsible for a massacre of Palestinian civilians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila”

FACTS:

Falangist Christian militias carried out these massacres and no Israeli troops participated. At the time, Ariel Sharon was Minister of Defence. He was relieved of his post by the Israeli government after the event, for not being prepared for such a possibility.

Myth 6

“The building of a wall to separate Israel from Palestine is a most inhuman act, worse even than apartheid”.

FACTS

The fence was built as a security measure and a defence against terrorist incursions. It is wall only where solid barriers are required for protection from a ceaseless terrorist war aimed at every Israeli Jew that includes suicide bombings, drive-by shootings, abductions followed by murder, roadside bombs.

Myth 7

“Israel holds Lebanese prisoners, occupies the Shaba farms belonging to Lebanon and invaded Lebanon so that it could occupy South Lebanon and control the waters of the Litani River.”

FACTS

Israel unilaterally withdrew from Southern Lebanon in 2000, behind borders agreed to by the United Nations. The response by Hezbollah was to launch regular rocket attacks and incursions into Israel, culminating in the unprovoked attack on Israeli soldiers, killing 6 and kidnapping 2, followed by the firing of some 2000 Katyusha rockets at Israeli cities. Hezbollah launched many of their rockets from densely populated civilian areas. This is why Israel attacked Lebanon. Each time the Israelis struck these areas, they warned the Lebanese to evacuate them. Israel has since withdrawn without making any attempt to reoccupy the area, so as to give the United Nations peacekeeping forces and Lebanese government a chance to keep order.

The stated goal of Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran is the destruction of the state of Israel. They have aquired rockets to achieve this end and, with the help of Iran, are continuing to do so. The Shaba farms are part of the Golan Heights, former Syria territory now held by Israel. They have nothing to do with Lebanon. Lebanese held in Israel have been tried and imprisoned for gruesome murders, such as the murder of a father before his four year old daughter followed by her own murder.

Currently, criticism in Israel against the government is by several camps. Some argue that the politicians did not allow the generals to do their work unimpeded and destroy Hezbollah, although that would have occasioned more Lebanese casualties. Others argue that a great deal of destruction was inflicted without an adequate resolution to the problem of Hezbollah. Few in Israel campaign for the state to accept annihilation

An independent Palestinian state would come into being if Israel’s existence were accepted, borders and the issue of refugees negotiated, and Jerusalem’s fate decided in a way that caters to the interests of both sides. If the South African parliament and government wish to play any part in this process, “they should not apply a double standard in judging Israel’s actions, accusing it of being among the worst in the world, even when its actions are the best”( Alan Dershowitz).

The ANC’s political agenda of linking Israel with the USA and showing solidarity with whoever is on the other side, will only serve to prolong the conflict in the Middle East and encourage terrorism throughout the world.