“Palestine” – Politicians Peddling Propaganda Forfeit Credibility David Singer
http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/
Senator Lee Rhiannon – a member of the Greens Party holding a pivotal position in Australian politics – authorised and printed a deceptive and misleading pamphlet which was distributed at a protest rally addressed by her last Sunday in Sydney “against Israeli Apartheid and commemorating Al Nakba 68 years on.”
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| Image credit: J-Wire.com |
The pamphlet purported to quote a statement by Israel’s then Defense Minister Moshe Dayan in 1969:
“We came to a region of land that was inhabited by Arabs and we set up a Jewish State … Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages“
What Dayan actually said – which Senator Rhiannon was apparently not prepared to disclose – was:
“We came to a region that was inhabited by Arabs, and we set up a Jewish state. In many places, we purchased the land from Arabs and set up Jewish villages where there had once been Arab villages.”
God forbid that those present should learn that Jews had actually purchased land from its Arab owners. Better to maintain the canard repeated in Palestinian text books and media that
“the Zionist gangs stole Palestine”
Moshe Aumann in his seminal work “Land ownership in Palestine 1880-1948” states that in 1948:
“8.6 per cent of the land was owned by Jews and 3.3 per cent by Israeli Arabs, while 16.9 per cent had been abandoned by Arab owners who imprudently heeded the call from neighbouring countries to “get out of the way” while the invading Arab armies made short shrift of Israel. The rest of the land—over 70 per cent—had been vested in the Mandatory Power, and accordingly reverted to the State of Israel as its legal heir. (Government of Palestine, Survey of Palestine, 1946, British Government Printer, p. 257.) The greater part of this 70 per cent consisted of the Negev, some 3,144,250 acres all told, or close to 50 per cent of the 6,580,000 acres in all of Mandatory Palestine. Known as Crown or State Lands, this was mostly uninhabited arid or semi-arid territory, inherited originally by the Mandatory Government from Turkey. In 1948 it passed to the Government of Israel. These lands had not been owned by Arab farmers—neither under the British Mandate nor under the preceding regime.”
Senator Rhiannon has a Parliamentary staff to assist her in ensuring everything that issues in her name as a Senator is totally and completely accurate.
She has let her emotions cloud her judgement in what can only be seen as a deliberate attempt to paper over the fact that Jews bought land in Palestine they settled on.
Another pamphlet containing four maps was handed out at the rally – supposedly documenting Palestinian loss of land between 1946 and 2000.
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| Image credit: J-Wire.com |
McGraw Hill Publishing only recently withdrew from sale and trashed unsold copies of one of its textbooks – Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World – containing those maps.
Spokesperson Catherine Mathis stated:
“As soon as we learned about the concerns with it, we placed sales of the book on hold and immediately initiated an academic review. The review determined that the map did not meet our academic standards. We have informed the authors and we are no longer selling the book. All existing inventory will be destroyed. We apologize and will refund payment to anyone who returns the book.”
Senator Rhiannon is perfectly entitled to express her support for the Palestinian Arabs.
It would be encouraging to know, however, that her support is based on fact – not fiction and partisan propaganda designed to deceive and mislead and possibly incite to violence and Jew-hatred.
Senator Rhiannon has badly blotted her copybook – and credibility.
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