RUTHFULLY YOURS

Myth: The Apartheid Wall/Barrier

Mainstream media took up the cause of “victimized” Palestinians who were denied entrée into Israel with the construction of a barrier fence between the two cultures, but rarely mentioned is its true purpose and value — that of protecting Israelis from Palestinian terrorists, suicide murderers, rockets and missiles. Neither does the media reference the innumerable defensive walls worldwide: the Great Wall of Morocco (security belt) against Soviet Polisario rebels; South Korea’s barrier against North Korea; India’s wall against Pakistan; Botswana’s electric fence against Zimbabwe’s ethnic cleansing; Saudi Arabia’s fences against Iraq and Yemen; Turkey’s partitioned claim of Cyprus; Thailand’s against Malaysia’s Muslims; Pakistan‘s against Afghanistan; Uzbekistan’s against Tadjikistan; the UAR‘s against Oman; Kuwait‘s against Iraq; the US’s wall against Mexico, and the many signs of nations living in fear of their aggressive neighbors.

Myth: Palestinians should have the Right of Return

War creates refugees. Had Arab leaders accepted the UN partition instead of launching a war to seize the whole British Mandate, there would be two adjacent states today, no Palestinian or Jewish refugees. Most of the 850,000 Jews who escaped Arab persecution settled and became citizens in Israel; 160,000 Arabs stayed and became citizens in Israel; but between 472,000 and 750,000 Palestinians fled in response to Arab orders, and were then shunned by their brethren to become a propaganda weapon against Israel. The lands to which they should be returning are their original Islamic lands of Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, etc.

Israel’s Law of Return is consistent with her just purpose and noble cause: a safe haven for the Jewish people, regardless of race and national origin — that a state may employ a preference in granting citizenship to undo the effects of prior discrimination, as with the British decision of 1939, which barred Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine and returned millions of Jews to their death in Europe. Similar laws of return exist in other democracies, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovena, Croatia, yet BDS groups do not denounce these nations.

Myth: Ethnic-Cleansing Charge

This charge against Israel began with the settling of European Jews after WW II, and a quotation fraudulently attributed to David Ben-Gurion. In 1937, he said, “We do not wish and do not need to expel Arabs and take their places. All our aspiration is built on the assumption — proven throughout all our activity in the Land [of Israel] — that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs,” and reiterated ten years later to build good relations with their Arab neighbors. But Arabs announced the opposite to their brethren, instilling hate, resentment, and fomenting a determination to annihilate Israel.

Myth: Israel steals Palestinian Water

The water charge against Israel began in the 1920s, saying that their military authority controls most of the West Bank’s water. One accusation says 73% is piped back to Israel with another 10% used by illegal Jewish settlers; another says 83%. But B’Tselem’s report, used to support the allegations, proves nothing of the sort.

Israel obtains about 50% of its water from the Sea of Galilee and the Coastal Aquifer, both entirely within Israel’s pre-1967 lines; 30% comes from the Western and Northeaster Aquifers of the Mountain Aquifer system, which straddles the Green Line, but most is under pre-1967 Israel. Israel’s Mediterranean coastline is at a lower elevation than the West Bank, and the water follows the flow of gravity. Compared to when Jordan occupied the West Bank (1950s), the Palestinians’ share of aquifers increased by a considerable amount under Israel’s administration. The truth: Palestinians use Israeli water! And compassionately, despite Israel’s limited water supply, Israel provides water to ten dry villages in South Lebanon.

Myth: Israel discriminates against its citizens

Of 6.7 million citizens, 20% are non-Jews (about 1.1 Muslims, 130,000 Christian, 100,000 Druze). Israel is the only country in the Mid-East that offers Arabs and Arab women the equal right to vote. Arabs hold various government posts, including eight seats in Knesset and a Supreme Court Justice. There are hundreds of Arab schools attended by 300,000 Arab students. BDSers communicate that Arabs are not welcomed into military service; untrue. Arab volunteers are accepted — but Israel will not force Arabs to fight their brethren. Citizens may live anywhere; housing is not government controlled based on religion or ethnicity. After almost 230 years of US independence, America has still not integrated all her diverse communities; 60 years after civil rights legislation, discrimination has not been eradicated. Neither country has solved all its social problems.

Myth: Israel restricts Palestinian travel

Palestinians complained about roads forbidden to them, making it difficult to get to work and for pregnant women to travel for healthcare. The Associated Press reported about restricted roads for Palestinians and B’Tselem mimicked the accusations, adding that Palestinians were prohibited from crossing some of those roads with vehicles. The full truth was omitted — that the roads were open to all Israeli citizens (Jew and Arab), foreigners and tourists. Nationality-based restrictions (not religion- or ethnicity-based) were made on Palestinian vehicles in 1993, after the rise in Palestinian political violence, when drive-by shootings resulted in drivers’ deaths. Security far outweighs Palestinian rights.

The consequence of the Oslo Accords was three separate administrative divisions, but the violence of the Second Intifada necessitated complete prohibitions on Palestinian movement into Israel and between the West Bank and Gaza Strip — to protect all people in Israel and Israeli settlements. Also omitted from biased reporting is that Israelis were also restricted from driving through regions controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

BDSers never speak of Saudi Arabia’s Muslim-only roads, and priviliged Muslim-only cities of Mecca and Medina and its environs, while Jerusalem, Israel’s holiest city for Jews, is open to tourists of every faith. Note that Mahmoud Abbas announced that a Palestinian state would be closed to Jews and homosexuals.

These myths are inventive, designed to create a militarily weak Israel that would be replaced by a new Islamic state and whose defenseless Jewish citizens could be massacred. The variety and number of myths are endless, too numerous for one essay, but they are myths nevertheless and easly refuted. Israel is the only open liberal democracy in the entire Middle East where ALL her citizens live infinitely better than do the people of Arab nations.

It is time to stop pretending that the Muslim students’ hate and sedition is “free speech” and acknowledge that they adamantly fight for their own free speech while suppressing the speech of others. The hostile campus climate they create serves to intimidate visiting pro-Israel speakers and remove opposition from the room, thereby insulating themselves from criticism for their radical ideologies.

It is both immoral and against our democratic values to fund anything related to BDS and the “Israel Apartheid” movement. It is time to stand for honest free speech and academic integrity and to stop the hate and sedition that is cloaked in “free speech.” Whether this scourge has been permitted out of weakness, complacency, ignorance, or fear of retribution, be aware that the smaller your contribution to restoring democracy to your school and to our nation, the more dire will be the consequences in the future. Tolerance of Islamic intolerance is not tolerance, but the ultimate destruction of our civilization.