Rewriting the history of the Land of Israel in order to deny Israel's right to exist is central to Palestinian Authority (PA) policy. Long before it started the Terror War in 2000, the PA was fighting a history war – erasing Jewish history and replacing it with a fabricated Palestinian history. This rewriting has two central goals:
1- Erase the Jewish nation's 3,000 year history in the Land of Israel;
2- Invent ancient Palestinian, Muslim and Arab histories in the land.
The goal of this historical revision as a political strategy was first expressed publicly at a conference of Palestinian historians in 1998, when rewriting history was linked to the political goal of denying Israel's right to exist:
"Dr. Yussuf Alzamili [Chairman History Department, Khan Yunis Educational College] called on all universities and colleges to write the history of Palestine and to guard it, and not to enable the [foreign] implants and enemies to distort it or to legitimize the existence of Jews on this land... [History lecturer Abu Amar] clarified that there is no connection between the ancient generation of Jews and the new generation." [Al-Ayyam, Dec. 4, 1998].
Erasing Jewish history in the land of Israel is followed by the PA’s invention of ancient and modern histories that support its political ideology and claim to the land of Israel. The Holocaust and other aspects of Jewish history are alternately denied, downplayed or distorted. Another distortion is to hide from Palestinians that Jesus was a Jew who lived in the Land of Judea/Israel. PA leaders repeatedly define Jesus as a Palestinian who preached Islam, thus denying not only Jewish history, but also the history and legitimacy of Christianity.
Citing numerous examples, this section will document that these and other historical revisions are an integral part of Palestinian policy and are used to create political ideology.
Jewish history rewritten
Denial of 3,000 years of Jewish history in the land of Israel is the foundation of all PA political ideology. To accomplish this, the PA systematically distorts both ancient and modern history, ignoring both archeology and historical documentation, and replaces them with an odious fictitious history. The new history demonizes Jews, accusing them of having been evil and destructive throughout history, and thereby triggering non-Jews to justifiably hate, persecute and expel them. This rewriting forms the basis for the Palestinian Authority denial of Israel’s right to exist.
Denial the Jewish history and connection to the Land of Israel has been policy since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.
This video is a recent example of a PA academic, denying the existence of thousands of Hebrew language coins, Hebrew texts and Hebrew Bullas (seals) carrying biblical names that that have been found in the Land of Israel.
Lecturer, Urban Planning, Bir-Zeit University, Dr. Jamal Amar:
"There is a view that where it [the Dome of the Rock] stands was the Holy of Holies of the fictitious Temple – and by the way, that is merely an illusion. There is no remnant of it. It's a myth. A story of no value, like the Arabian Nights, and other legends… Only in Palestine… [after] 60 years of digging, and they've found nothing at all. Not a water jug, not a coin, not any earthen vessel, no bronze weapons, no piece of metal, absolutely nothing of this myth, because it's a myth and a lie. This digging has not left a single meter [unturned], but it has achieved absolutely nothing.” [PATV, June 23, 2009]
Interview on PA TV with member of PA Parliament (Legislative Council) Muhammad Al-Laham: Al-Laham: "Israel is enlisting this religious heritage [of Bethlehem], enlisting this absolutely Palestinian treasure in the service of its plans, and distorting it, as it has distorted history and falsified [the origin of] stones from churches and stones from Jerusalem; it has even falsified [the origin of] the falafel ball. It falsified these archaeological sites and religious sites as Jewish ones."
Citing numerous examples, this section will document that these and other historical revisions are an integral part of Palestinian policy and are used to create political ideology.
Interview on PA TV with Maha Al-Saqa, Director of the Palestinian Heritage Center:
Al-Saqa: "[The Israelis] have stolen many aspects of our heritage: our popular foods, our music, our debka [dance], our popular fashion, and of course, first and foremost, our land." PA TV host: "Even our speech, of course."
[Deputy Minister of Information, poet Almutawaqel Taha:] “The settlers in the occupied city [Jerusalem] go about in it as they wish, declaring that they are the owners of these Islamic sites and claiming that [the sites] are part of the alleged Temple… The Israeli government attacked the writer, Deputy Minister of Information, Almutawaqel Taha, after he published a study concerning the Al-Buraq Wall, [i.e., The Western Wall of the Temple] in which he showed that [the wall] belongs exclusively to Muslims, and that it is an Islamic trust. [Taha] noted that in fact, by virtue of the tumult which the Israelis raised over the study, they demonstrated two means by which they always act: [the first-] casting fear on the Palestinians and Arabs, and second – that Israel is based on the means of theft and the claim of ownership of everything on which it lays its hand, while it steals the holy places in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron. He noted that [Israel] has stolen the ancient Palestinian heritage – popular foods, the Palestinian keffiyeh, and the clothing of the ‘fallah’ – claiming that these are its own heritage, and that they belong to Israel. He stated that Israel is carrying out all of these acts and actions by means of terror.” see more
My note: This is just a handful of articles reported by the Palestinian Media Watch Reading statements and the incitement of the PA's does put a proper perspective on the reasons why Abbas and the PA Authority drags its feet whenever "peace" negotiations with Israel are brought up by the Obama administration, along with the UN and the EU.
Another example of the PA's resentment towards the United States::
Three Americans -- John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Martin Linde -- were murdered on Oct. 15, 2003 when terrorists in Gaza bombed the diplomatic convoy they were riding in.
The president did not vow to see justice done, for example, when Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava died, on the eve of what was to be Nava's wedding day, in the bombing of Jerusalem's Cafe Hillel last month. Or when Cleveland native Alan Beer was killed in a Palestinian bus bombing in June. Or when four Americans -- Marla Bennett of California, David Gritz of Massachusetts, Benjamin Blutstein of Pennsylvania, and Janis Coulter of New York -- lost their lives in the bombing of the Hebrew University cafeteria last year. Or when Shoshana Greenbaum, a New Jersey tourist, was slaughtered in the horrific Sbarro pizzeria attack of August 2001. Or when, three months earlier, 14-year-old Kobe Mandell of Silver Spring, Md., was one of two boys stoned to death in the cave where Palestinian terrorists found them hiking. Or in April 1995, when Brandeis University student Alisa Flatow was murdered in a Gaza terror attack.
There's some names for you. Now let's take in a little of the propoganda the Palestinians feed one another about their goals.
"Oh, Allah, destroy America, for she is ruled by Zionist Jews," proclaimed Sheik Ikrima Sabri, the Arafat-appointed mufti of Jerusalem, in one such sermon. "O God, destroy the Jews and their supporters... destroy the United States and its allies," implored Sheik Ibrahim al-Mudayris in another. And from a third, Sheik Ahmed Abu Halabiya: "Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country.... Wherever you are, kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them."
A few months ago, Palestinian officials renamed the central square in Jenin after Ali Jafar al-Na'amani, the Iraqi suicide bomber who killed four U.S. Marines at a checkpoint in Najaf on March 29. That is what Arafat and the Palestinian Authority think of spilled American blood.
Is that "substantive" enough for you hf??? Maybe you'd like a one way ticket to Palestine and a free stay at the local Holiday Inn Express, then you can experience it up close and personal.
Posted by: HoosierArmyMom at February 21, 2008 5:50 PM -
The above comment on Moonbattery is an example of the Palestinians attitude towards America. The enemies of Israel are the enemies of the United States and the West. Most Americans have watched the video of the Palestinians dancing in the streets on Sept. 11th.
The question that needs to be asked the new 112th Congress is, "Why is the U.S. supporting the Palestinians while ignoring the terrorism towards Israel by these same group of terrorists? And, why does the U.S continue supporting the PA's with MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, along with military training and technology that will one day be aimed at Israelis?"
Lastly, as "balance in the Middle East" is the supposed reasoning of the U.S. for arming and training Israel's neighbors, what kind of balance are we speaking of when there are HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF ARABS vs. 7.7 million Israelis?"
