How does Palestinian Propaganda and lies work?
So? Downright lies and ignorance.
I, for one, don’t think—I know—that in 1948 more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from what became the State of Israel, and hundreds of villages were destroyed. That’s a historical fact. You can debate what follows from it: whether they have a ‘right of return,’ how the Palestinian refugee issue should be resolved, what this means for Israel’s character as a state. There’s plenty to discuss. I’ve published academic research that touches on these questions in various ways. But you can also choose to lie. The person who wrote that post and drew that map chose the latter. Let’s take a look -
Biblical places - Akko (not Akke…) Ashdod, Beer-Sheva, Lod, Jerusalem and Hebron are mentioned by these names in the Bible. if there’s any colonization here, it’s the Arab one: they settled in places whose names long predated their arrival, and they preserved the original sound of those names — like Ashdod/Isdud or Akko/Akka. In fact, in most of these places there is still an Arab population that uses the Arabic name, and that name is official as well, since Arabic is an official language in Israel. So, for example, road signs leading to Akko list the name as ‘Akko’ in Hebrew and ‘Akka’ in Arabic.
Now, one can certainly ask what happened to most of Lod’s Arab population, which was expelled in 1948 — that’s a legitimate and important discussion. But one can also lie and claim that Jews settled an originally Arab place. Add to all this the fact that Hebron is not within the territory of the State of Israel but in areas under the Palestinian Authority. It is not governed by Israel, and its official name is Khalil. ‘Hebron’ is the city’s biblical name. In this context, I understand the argument about colonization…
Tel-Aviv - Yafa. Well, Tel Aviv was founded in 1905 and was called ‘the first Hebrew city.’ It was established in a place where no prior settlement existed. A few kilometers away stood the Arab city of Yaffa (Jaffa). Tel Aviv grew and became Israel’s largest city, expanding as it bordered Jaffa. It was later merged municipally with Jaffa, and today it is called Tel Aviv–Jaffa. It’s not as though there was an Arab city named Jaffa that was colonized and renamed Tel Aviv. By the way — ‘Yaffo’ is a biblical name (that’s where the prophet Jonah set sail), while ‘Yafa,’ the Arabic name, hints at earlier layers of colonization. And another point: one can certainly discuss what happened to the Arabs of Jaffa, some of whom left the city in 1948, or what Israel’s policies toward the city were over the years and are today. One can discuss the relationship between Tel Aviv and Jaffa — who receives more resources from the joint municipality, who is growing and who is declining, and so on. One can have that discussion. One can also lie. The person who drew the picture chose the second option.
Netanya / Umm Khaled: Umm Khaled was a village in the Sharon region. In the 1920s, some of the village’s lands were purchased by Jewish settlers, who established the city of Netanya next to it. During the 1948 war, the village was destroyed, and later the city expanded; today, the area where the village once stood lies within Netanya’s municipal boundaries. There is a complex story here — but not the simplistic and false one the map is telling.
Zekharia / Zakariya: The settlement existed under the name Zekharia as far back as the time of the biblical prophet Zechariah, whose tomb is located within the village’s area. The story here is complex — the Arab village of Zakariyya survived the 1948 war, but its residents were expelled a few years later, and Jewish settlers were brought in to replace them. Again, there are many legitimate questions one can discuss — and one can also lie. The map presents a lie. By the way, it’s not a city. Today, Zekharia has about 1,300 residents.
Umm al-Rashrash / Eilat: Umm Rashrash was not the name of a city, but of a police outpost. The station was empty in 1948 after the British left. At one point it was taken over by the Jordanian Legion, but when IDF forces approached, they too withdrew, and the IDF captured an empty police station (which consisted of five huts!). The city of Eilat was later established on that site.
Kiryat Shmona / Khalsa (not al-Khalisa — Khalisa is a neighborhood in Haifa).
Here the story is closer to what the map claims. Khalsa was an Arab village whose residents fled to Lebanon in 1948. The city of Kiryat Shmona was established in its place.
So there is a kernel of truth buried within all the falsehood — though it’s drowned out by the blatant error in the city’s name, which reveals the map‑maker’s lack of understanding and knowledge.
al-Birwa / Ahihud: al‑Birwa was an Arab village located on an ancient mound called Tel Bira, where a settlement existed in the Phoenician period and also included a Jewish community in biblical times. In 1948 the village was captured, and the moshav Ahihud was established in its place. Again — there are difficult and important questions here about 1948, colonization, and what all this implies today. One can ask and discuss; one can also lie. The map lies. And again — Ahihud is not a city. About 1,150 people live there today.
So? Here’s the thing. I, for one, am willing to discuss history and what it means. But you have to know the facts. Whoever created this map is far from knowing the facts — or is lying outright. There’s no basis for a discussion here. It’s just the word ‘colonization’ thrown as an accusation, and after that there isn’t much left to talk about.
After all, you don’t talk to ‘settlers’; you expel them back to where they came from, right? Decolonization.
Well, I went through a process of ‘decolonization’ on October 7, and it was… less pleasant. I prefer to talk. The person who made this map prefers to kill. That’s the difference.
