Zionist revisionism

Zionist revisionism refers to attempts by supporters of Israel (Zionists) to deny aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict that they perceive as harmful or detrimental to the State of Israel. Examples include denial of the existence of the Palestinian people (for instance, by insisting that they are actually Jordanian or that Palestinian national sentiment did not exist prior to the late 20th century), denying the Israeli occupation of Palestine (for instance, by insisting that the West Bank and Gaza Strip be referred to as "disputed territories" instead of “occupied territories”) and denying Israel's culpability in the killing of Palestinians and other Arabs, (for instance in the Sabra and Shatila Massacre or the killing of Muhammad al-Durrah, among many other examples).

Denial of Palestinian Identity

Many politically right-wing Israelis do not accept the existence of an independent Palestinian people. For example, Golda Meir asserted, "There are no Palestinians." Some Israelis continue to advocate "transfer", or ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, by claiming that Palestinians are actually Jordanians. (See No such thing as Palestinians) [1]. Israeli propaganda (hasbara) regularly blames neighboring Arab states for not absorbing Palestinian refugees evicted from their homeland by the Zionist invasion of Palestine (see Jewish refugees).

Denial of Israeli Policies of Ethnic Cleansing

Some Israelis deny the systematic policies of ethnic cleansing that forced 800,000 Palestinians from their homes during al-Nakba, "the disaster" that befell Palestinians upon the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Many Zionists claim that Palestinians fled their homes of their own free will instead of under threat from the Jewish partisan forces that later formed the Israel Defense Forces. When asked what to do with the Palestinian population, David Ben-Gurion ordered his commanders to "Drive them out!"

"Israel made the desert bloom" and Other Myths

Zionist revisionists frequently trumpet myths such as "Israel made the desert bloom" and "Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East" to promote misconceptions that Israelis have more rights to the land of Israel than indigenous Palestinians. Israelis did not make the desert bloom because the area has long been known as part of the "Fertile Crescent". Much of the improvements in Israeli agriculture were carried out by Palestinian labor. The diversion of water resources to Israeli agriculture, commercial and residential expansion has come at the direct expense of Palestinians whose rights are not recognized under the laws of the Jewish state.

The true nature of Israeli "democracy" is belied in the taxation of Palestinians in areas under its military control yet does not allow those Palestinians to vote in Israeli elections. "Taxation without representation" was one of the battle cries of the American Revolution because of the innate injustice and indemocratic nature of such policies. Israeli law also gives unequal representation to Jewish religious parties within the Israeli political order and Israel insists that the state retain a Jewish character despite a growing population that is not Jewish, both of which are undemocratic features. Furthermore, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and several other Arab countries and Iran all hold elections and have representational bodies similar to Israel's.

Denial of IDF Responsibility for Killing Muhammad al Durrah

Zionist revisionists contest Israeli culpability for many crimes committed by the Israeli Defense Forces and other Israeli government agencies and documented by international human rights groups, including crimes of kidnapping, assassination, mass detention and torture of prisoners, and the killing of civilians, including children.

Case in point is Muhammad al Durrah, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, killed by Israeli forces at the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000. Israeli military officials initially admitted responsibility. Yet, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) inquiry, released November 27, 2000, came to different conclusions than the initial IDF admission of probable guilt. IDF Southern Commander Major General Yom Tov Samia stated "A comprehensive investigation conducted in the last weeks casts serious doubt that the boy was hit by Israeli fire," he said. "It is quite plausible that the boy was hit by Palestinian bullets in the course of the exchange of fire that took place in the area." This report was later repeated in a documentary by German ARD Television based on the IDF findings, which concluded that al-Durrah could not have been killed by gunfire from the Israeli outpost [2].

James Fallows, in The Atlantic Monthly (June 2003) cited a number of unanswered questions raised by the Israeli physicist Nahum Shahaf during the second IDF investigation:

"Why is there no footage of the boy after he was shot? Why does he appear to move in his father's lap, and to clasp a hand over his eyes after he is supposedly dead? Why is one Palestinian policeman wearing a Secret Service-style earpiece in one ear? Why is another Palestinian man shown waving his arms and yelling at others, as if 'directing' a dramatic scene? Why does the funeral appear — based on the length of shadows — to have occurred before the apparent time of the shooting? Why is there no blood on the father's shirt just after they are shot? Why did a voice that seems to be that of the France 2 cameraman yell, in Arabic, 'The boy is dead' before he had been hit? Why do ambulances appear instantly for seemingly everyone else and not for al-Dura?" [3]

These questions have led some to conclude that the whole incident was staged: Yosef Duriel, Shahaf's partner in the IDF investigation, believed that al-Durrah had been killed by Palestinian gunmen collaborating with the French camera crew and the boy's father, with the intent of fabricating an anti-Israel propaganda symbol. He was immediately removed from the investigation after expounding this thesis in an interview with 60 Minutes, but continued to aver that his idea was true and that the IDF refused to publicize it because the results were "explosive". (Anat Cygielman, Haaretz, November 7 2000) Though the IDF did not support Duriel's idea, right-wing supporters of Israel such as WorldNetDaily would continue to propound it [4].

A French author,Gérard Huber, made a similar argument—that al-Durrah's death was staged—but went further, claiming that the boy had not even been killed.

See Also

Anti-Arabism Islamophobia Israelis and anti-Palestinian racism Hasbara Conspiracy theory

External Links

Re-Writing History: Ariel Sharon and Zionist Revisionism in Modern Media (Media Monitors Network) The Iron Wall:Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir Book Review-The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs)