Palestinian Arab propagandists re-write history—literally

By Stephen M. Flatow

History can be so inconvenient for people with agendas, so they just rewrite it. But in Israel, archaeology trumps the lies. Op-ed.

Two small, seemingly unrelated items in the news this week tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The first had to with an archaeological discovery in Israel. Many years ago, Israeli antiquities experts acquired an ancient inscribed bulla—a stamp used for sealing documents—that was of unknown provenance. It was obtained from a Bedouin merchant, not dug up by archaeologists. Given its condition, and without being able to examine the soil where it was uncovered, it was impossible for experts to precisely date or identify the bulla.

(Dani Machlis/Ben Gurion University)

Impossible, that is, until the advent of new technology. Last week, Prof. Yuval Goren of Ben-Gurion University announced that thanks to the latest laboratory testing methods, he and his colleagues had determined that it is one of the earliest known bullas—it was used in the court of the Israelite king Jeroboam II, in the 8th century BCE.

The partially-preserved inscription on the seal shows a roaring lion, with the Hebrew words “L’Shema, eved Yerov’am,” that is, “Belonging to Shema, the servant [or minister] of Jeroboam.”

Keep that in mind as I describe the second news item. This one has to do with a group of activists known as the Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers, who last week noticed that “The Palestine Project,” an anti-Israel website, has been engaged in some pretty sleazy sleight-of-hand.

The Palestine Project gang has taken 45 photos from Life magazine’s archive and created an online exhibit called “Photos: Palestine 1948.” The sharp-eyed Bay Bloggers discovered that the photos’ original captions, as published in Life, had been changed in the Palestine Project exhibit.

A caption which in the original 1948 magazine referred to a dead “Arab” teenager has been changed to a dead “Palestinian” teenager. A caption mentioning “Arab refugees” is now “Palestinian” refugees. A “deserted street” has become “a deserted Palestinian street.”

Why are pro-Palestinian propagandists literally re-writing history? Because they HAVE to. If they leave the historical record intact, their cause crumbles. Accurate history is their greatest enemy.

Now you can understand how these two news items are related.

The ancient bulla comes from the court of a Jewish king who ruled in the Land of Israel nearly 3,000 years ago. He was one of many Jewish kings, who ruled for many centuries over sovereign Jewish states. There were never any “Palestinian” kings—not 3,000 years ago, not 1,000 years ago, not even 100 years ago.

The writing on the bulla is in Hebrew. Not Arabic. Arabs didn’t live in the Land of Israel 3,000 years ago. Or 2,000 years ago. The Muslim imperialist armies of the Arabian Peninsula invaded and illegally occupied the Land of Israel only in the 7th century CE— fully 1,500 years after Jeroboam II ruled.

Now you can understand the problem facing the folks at the “Palestine Project.” Throughout history, there was never a sovereign state called “Palestine” or—until recently—any Arabs who called themselves “Palestinians.”

So, the Palestine Project has to make them up. It has to retroactively crown them as “Palestinians,” to change captions to read as they wish they had been written—to literally change history, and hope nobody notices. This time, fortunately, somebody noticed.

I wonder what the scribblers at the Palestine Project will think when they notice how many pre-1948 historical records use the word “Palestine” very differently from the way that contemporary anti-Israel propagandists wish it had been used.

I’m referring to the records which remind us that it was the Jews, not the Arabs, who called themselves “Palestinians” before 1948. The Palestine Post was a Jewish newspaper (which later changed its name to the Jerusalem Post). The Palestine Symphony consisted of Jewish musicians. Ben Hecht’s American League for a Free Palestine was lobbying to establish a Jewish state. History can be so inconvenient for people with agendas.

At the end of the day, no matter how many captions the anti-Israel propagandists rewrite, the truth of history will win out—because every time an archaeologist digs his spade into the soil of the Land of Israel, more evidence emerges to show who its real indigenous people are.


(Stephen M. Flatow is a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, an attorney in New Jersey and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. He is the author of “A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror.”)

This column appears on-line at https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/293060

Archaeology is the Palestinians' most dangerous enemy

Palestinians’ most dangerous enemy is … archaeology

 The mikvah was the latest in a series of discoveries in Israel during the past year, each of which contradicted the Arab propaganda narrative.

 

(October 6, 2020 / JNS) Pundits will tell you that the most dangerous enemies of the Palestinian Arab cause are the Gulf kingdoms that have decided to recognize Israel, or the European countries that are moving their embassies to Jerusalem, or the American politicians who refuse to keep underwriting the Palestinian Authority’s debts.

I disagree. I say that the Palestinians’ most formidable foe is … archaeology. 

Excavated mikvah at bottom of photo

A 2,000-years-old mikvah (ritual bath) was recently uncovered in the Lower Galilee. Most people probably would never have heard about the discovery if not for the dramatic photos of the entire structure being carried by truck to a nearby kibbutz for preservation.

 

The remarkable sight of a truck-borne mikvah, however, also makes one pause and reflect on the remarkable implications of the archeological find.

 It means that 2,000 years ago, the residents of the Lower Galilee were practicing the exact same religious rituals that Orthodox Jews throughout the world practice today. Those Galileans, in other words, were Jews. They weren’t “Palestinians.” The word “Palestine” had not yet been invented. They weren’t Arabs or Muslims—the invasion of the Land of Israel by Muslim fundamentalists from the Arabian Peninsula was still 600 years in the future.

 The news of the ancient mikvah must have been quite a disappointment to Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas. On Sept. 25, he told the U.N. General Assembly: “The Palestinian people have been present in their homeland, Palestine, the land of their ancestors, for over 6,000 years.”

 Those meddling archaeologists and their discoveries keep getting in the way of Palestinian propaganda!

The airborne mikvah ready to travel

 To make matters worse for Abbas, the directors of the excavation were Walid Atrash and Abd Elghani Ibrahim. You can tell by their names that they are not exactlyodox Jews. The P.A. will have a hard time getting anybody to believe that Atrash and Ibrahim are agents of a Zionist conspiracy.

 The mikvah discovery was just the latest in a series of archaeological finds in Israel during the past year, each of which contradicted the Palestinian Arab propaganda narrative.

 In the Givati Parking Lot excavation in Jerusalem, archaeologists discovered Hebrew-language inscriptions dating back 2,600 years. One was a stone seal with the words “belonging to Ikkar son of Matanyahu.” The other was a clay seal impression that read “belonging to Nathan-Melech, servant of the king.” They weren’t in Arabic. And the names weren’t Yasser or Mahmoud.

 Elsewhere in Jerusalem, archaeologists uncovered a 2,000-year-old paved road that was used by Jews who made the annual pilgrimage to the capital at the time of the festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. It wasn’t used by Arabs, or Muslims or “Palestinians”—because there weren’t any of them around in those days.

 Meanwhile, excavators from the University of North Carolina discovered two stunning mosaics at the site of a 1,600-year-old synagogue near Huqoq in northern Israel. One depicts a scene from the exodus of the Jews from ancient Egypt. The other shows images based on verses in the Torah’s book of Daniel.

 Note that the mosaics do not show scenes from the Koran. There is nothing Arabic of Islamic or “Palestinian” about them. They are Jewish, they are situated in Israel, and they are 1,600 years old.

 Every new archaeological discovery about the ancient Jews constitutes another stick in the spokes of the wheels of the Palestinian Arab propaganda machine. Every physical fact in the soil of the country shatters the P.A.’s lies. Every stone or seal or shard of pottery reminds us who are the real indigenous people of the Land of Israel.

 

 

 

Stephen M. Flatow is a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, an attorney in New Jersey and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. His book, “A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror,” is now available on Kindle.