The Jewish People are “Illegally Occupying” Palestinian Arab Land. FALSE: The Jewish people are the indigenous people to the land of Israel, including the areas of Jerusalem and Judea/Samaria. The word “Jew” comes from the word “Judea”, the historical name for the area, because this is where the Jewish people have always resided. In an effort to revise history, and erase the existence of the Jewish people from their native lands, Jordan renamed the area of Judea/Samaria “the West Bank”. Archeological finds throughout Israel and present-day Jordan affirm the fact that Jewish kings and kingdoms reigned in Jerusalem and Judea/Samaria for hundreds of years, and Jewish people have settled on the land for thousands of years. According to the first census in 1844, long before the establishment of the State of Israel, the Jews were the largest religious group in Jerusalem. The name ‘Jerusalem’ is mentioned nearly 700 times in Judaism’s holy books yet is not mentioned once in Islam’s holy book, the Koran. For millennia, Jews pray for and pray facing Jerusalem, while Muslims pray facing Mecca, and have no prayers for Jerusalem. Admitting that the Al Aqsa mosque does not have thousands of years of historical presence in the area, which is the truth of the matter, would directly contradict and undermine Arab-Palestinian claims to Jerusalem and the State of Israel.
Israel is an “Apartheid State” that oppresses the Arab-Palestinian Population. FALSE: There has been a lengthy lie perpetuated by the Palestinian Arabs that Israel, and moreover the Jewish people, are occupiers and oppressors of the Palestinian Arab population. All over the world, organizations, academics, church groups and unions are spearheading anti-Semitic boycott campaigns demonizing what they refer to as the ‘Jewish Apartheid State’. The truth is that unlike in apartheid South Africa, Israel is a democratic state that affords all of its citizens equal rights. Israel’s 20% Arab minority enjoys all the political, economic and religious rights and freedoms of citizenship, including electing members of their choice to the Knesset (Parliament). Israeli Arabs have standing before Israel’s Supreme Court on which, in fact, sits an Arab-Israeli judge. Freedom for all religions is strictly enforced and protected in Israel; the holy sites of all religions are protected. In fact, the state of Jordan has control of the Temple Mount. In contrast, no Jew may own property in Jordan, no Christian or Jew can visit Islam’s holiest sites in Saudi Arabia, no synagogues exist in Saudi Arabia, and Christian, Jewish or non-Muslim religious services are prohibited from being held there. It would be more accurate to accuse Jordan and Saudi Arabia of being “apartheid states”.
Arab-Palestinian terrorism is a logical consequence of Arab-Palestinian frustration. FALSE: Palestinian Arab terrorism is the direct product of generational indoctrination that inculcates a culture of hatred and violence against the Jewish people. All facets of Palestinian Arab society are focused on the destruction of Israel, and that message permeates all levels of government, religion, community and education. Even the UNWRA financed schools encourage the murder of Jews by students who are still in grade school.
Had Israel withdrawn to its June 1967 borders, peace would have been established. FALSE: Since 1967, Israel has repeatedly conceded, “Land for Peace”. Following Egyptian president Sadat’s historic 1977 visit to Jerusalem and the Camp David Peace Accords, Israel withdrew from the vast Sinai Peninsula though oil had been discovered there) and has been at peace with Egypt ever since. To achieve this peace, Israel even handed over the town of Yamit, evicting its Jewish residents – a town that had been built in the northern Sinai. In 1995, Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel. In 1993, Israel signed the Oslo Accords ceding administrative control of parts of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority (formerly the PLO). The Palestinian Authority never fulfilled its promise to end propaganda attacks and remove the call for Israel’s destruction contained within the Palestinian National Charter. In 2000, Prime Minister Barak offered Yasser Arafat full sovereignty over 97% of the West Bank, a corridor to Gaza and a capitol in the Arab section of Jerusalem. Arafat said “no”! In 2005, Prime Minister Sharon unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. Taken over by the Palestinian Authority, (and later by the terrorist organization, Hamas), the Arabs dismantled the Jewish communities and turned them into launching sites for suicide bombers and over 8000 rockets that were fired at Israeli cities and communities. In 2008, Palestinian Authority President Abbas declined an offer from Prime Minister Olmert for sovereignty over the majority of the West Bank and the Arab sector of Jerusalem. In 2010, Prime Minister Netanyahu renewed offers of unconditional negotiations leading to a Palestinian State, but the Palestinians once again refused to negotiate, instead demanding more unilateral Israeli concessions, including a total freeze of all Israeli construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Israeli politics are the cause of worldwide anti-Semitism. FALSE: From the Spanish Inquisition to the pogroms of the 19th Century, and the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis, history has proven that Jew-hatred existed on a global scale long before the creation of the State of Israel. It would exist today even if the State of Israel had not been created. For example, one poll indicates that 40% of Europeans blame the recent global economic crisis on “Jews having too much economic power” -- a baseless, derogatory lie that has nothing to do with the existence of Israel. The unsettled Palestinian-Israeli dispute aggravates Jewish-Muslim tensions, but it is not the root cause. During World War II and well before the State of Israel was formed, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a notorious Jew-hater and Hitler collaborator, helped the Nazis organize the 13th SS Division with all Muslim soldiers. The Grand Mufti instigated anti-Jewish pogroms in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Haifa in which thousands were massacred with the hope of ridding the land of Jewish people. In addition to containing numerous references made to Jewish patriarchs (whom Islam has adopted as their own), the Koran also contains virulent anti-Semitic stereotypes that are widely invoked by Islamist extremists, including Hezbollah (whose terrorist agents blew up the Jewish Community Centre in Buenos Aires in 1994), to justify the murder of Jews worldwide. The destruction of Israel (which is the goal of a large extremist segment of the Muslim world) would only serve to further embolden violent Jew-haters everywhere.