Sunday, 20 February 2011
They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth... ...Plato< >
"The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see." ... Ayn Rand
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Freezing Palestinian myths -- Gerald M. Steinberg
6 January 2011 Canadian Jewish News
Palestinian myths of victimization have been the major obstacle to peace for
more 60 years, but they’re largely ignored by journalists, diplomats and
would-be peace activists.
Instead, the spotlight has been misplaced exclusively on Jewish settlements
and the “occupation” that resulted from the 1967 war. The first two years of
the Obama administration’s peace efforts were entirely wasted because of the
illusion that settlements are the cause of the conflict.
In order to break the long stalemate and end decades of failure, the myths
of Arab victimization must be exposed – in place of a “settlement freeze,”
we need a “victimization freeze.” False histories that blame Zionism (or
European antisemitism) only serve to make peace based on mutual acceptance
even more unlikely.
To move forward, Palestinians and their supporters need to be brought back
to reality. In place of the myths, they will have to acknowledge that their
“suffering” and the refugee problem were the result of the unanimous Arab
rejection of the UN Resolution 181 – the November 1947 version of the
two-state solution. This was followed by military invasions that killed one
per cent of the Jewish population. The Arab defeat on the battlefield was
followed by the entirely fictitious claim to a “right of return” as refugees
from illegal wars for which the Arabs themselves were responsible.
This is difficult to capture in an emotional photo, dramatic headline,
television documentary or YouTube video. Israeli settlements, scenes of the
occupation and the inevitable images of Palestinian suffering are easy to
portray and manipulate in order to evoke immediate and unquestioned sympathy
with the perpetual victim. And while the number of Jews expelled from Arab
countries in this period is roughly equal to the displaced Palestinians, the
Jewish refugees were absorbed into the Israeli population.
Indeed, the Palestinian refugee industry is thriving, reinforcing the wall
it has created to block any peace agreement based on a two-state framework
that ends the conflict. UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) provides hundreds of millions of
dollars every year, and many officials are totally devoted to this
anti-peace mythology, and to perpetuating the false refugee claims. When one
UNRWA employee, Andrew Whitley, dared to question the myth, he was
immediately attacked and forced by UNRWA’s victimization police to recant
his honest assessment. Expect him to be looking for alternative employment
soon.
In addition, a vast network of non-governmental organizations using the
language of human rights and humanitarian aid promote Palestinian refugee
myths. Powerful groups such as BADIL (“The Resource Center for Palestinian
Residency and Refugee Rights”) get hundreds of thousands of dollars every
year from a number of European governments to fuel the conflict in this way.
For many years, allies in the International Development Research Centre
funnelled Canadian taxpayer funds to BADIL.
In parallel, young Jews, many of whom have joined groups such as J-street
and the misnamed “Jewish Voices for Peace,” as well as some Israelis, have
been exposed incessantly to these images and myths, and adopted the false
narrative. Exploiting this situation, Palestinian officials such as Saeb
Erekat – described by diplomats and journalists as a “moderate” because he
looks and sounds reasonable – continue to weave false tales to sell to naive
audiences.
Another myth, promoted during the failed Oslo peace negotiations, was that
the Palestinian leadership was “holding the refugee card” in order to play
it at the last minute. According to this script, former Palestinian
Authority president Yasser Arafat would suddenly reverse decades of
Palestinian theology, and tell his people that the “right of return” was
exchanged as part of a comprehensive peace. Like other parts of the Oslo
process, this was based entirely on wishful thinking.
An alternative scenario that has survived Oslo and Arafat depicts the
Palestinian leadership as knowing they’re not going to return en masse and
turn the Jewish state into another Muslim stronghold. All that they want, we
are told, is a symbolic recognition of the “injustice” and their “suffering”
resulting from the creation of the State of Israel. But this is simply
another version of the victimization myth, which, if accepted, would be used
to justify more terrorism and delegitimization of Israel.
Until these dimensions are addressed, peace efforts will be stillborn. In
this framework, a freeze on refugee myths and false narratives is long
overdue.
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