Is Israel and its infamous
Wall of Separation representative of a modern evolving democratic state, based upon Biblical principles and teachings, as applied towards the original indigenous Palestinian peoples of Palestine,
or is it an example of yet another ethnic-cleansing, apartheid state, possessive of the same genocidal-racist tendencies as those 19th century colonial-imperialistic powers - like the United States, Canada, Australia and South Africa - who also once invaded and committed wholesale destruction of other ancient indigenous peoples entire ways of life; sweeping their survivors aside onto reservations, reserves and Bantustan-type compounds to be ultimately ignored and forgotten?
Professor Ilan Pappe, one of Israel's most radical dissident historians, who now teaches and writes in exile, amply answers these questions in his latest book
Ten Myths About Israel. A mere 148 pages long, this historical masterpiece reads more like a voluminous epic that eloquently offers up a clear, concise, arguably-undisputable, record of the true indigenous history of Palestine, the Palestinians and their ethnic-cleansing at the hands of the Jews ever since the
Nakbah in 1948.
The Nakbah a time when: 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were violently expelled; 400 to 600 of their villages sacked and destroyed; with eleven of their twelve major towns destroyed that virtually extinguished the urban life of Palestine. To the Israeli people it is celebrated as the time of their
Declaration of Independence. But to the Palestinian Arabs it is simply known as the
Time of the Catastrophe; which, 50 years later, in 2008, ultimately led to the Gaza War and Israel's
Operation Cast Lead that killed a further 1,400 Palestinians, 926 of which were unarmed civilians, and then again, in 2012, during Israel's
Operation Pillar of Cloud, when another 174 Palestinian's were killed, 107 of which were innocent civilians; later to be followed by Israel's
Operation Protective Edge that further killed another 2300 Gazans, 1492 of them civilians, 551 of which were children and 209 woman, with the wounded numbering over 10,000, among which were 3,371 children, which also destroyed some 17,000 homes and partially destroyed another 30,000 homes.
Such facts and figures to be gleaned from Pappe's writings, and what caused them, affords the world with a seminal platform for the 21stcentury from which to simultaneously look backwards and forwards towards the true historical origins and identity of not only Israel and Zionism towards the indigenous Arab peoples of modern
Eretz Israel, but also the similar contemporary state of many other longer-standing colonial-imperialistic powers in the world and their own treatment of the indigenous peoples in their midst, whose ancient homelands and natural resources continue to be coveted by these world powers for their own empire-building pursuits.
Avi Shlaim of the
Guardian declares Ilan Pappe to be "one of the few Israeli students of the conflict in Palestine who writes about the Palestinian side of the story with real knowledge and empathy";
while the New Statesman deems Pappe to be, "Along with Edward Said, the most eloquent writer of Palestinian history" John Pilger, the acclaimed Australian writer-journalist further calls Pappe, "Israel's bravest, most principled, most incisive historian."; while this writer sees Professor Pappe as more like Israel's own I.F. Stone or Howard Zinn, who dares to expose and elucidate upon the dark underbelly of Israel's sordid history that few others ever dare to touch upon."
To this end, whatever one's take,
Ten Myths About Israel goes a long way to dispel all the disinformation, misinformation and mythology that daily is propagated by the corporate media's spin doctors who would have the world's masses continue to forever adhere to such false beliefs as: "Palestine Was An Empty Land"; The Jews Were a People Without a Land";"Zionism is Judaism"; Zionism Is Not Colonialism"; "The Palestinians Voluntarily Left Their Homelands in 1948"; "The June 1967 War Was a War of No Choice"; "Israel is the Only Democracy in the Middle East"; "The Oslo Accord of 1993 Was/Is a Genuine Peace Process"; "The Palestinians Second Intifada of the 1980's Began a Terrorist Movement Against Israel", and finally: "The Victory of Hamas in the election of 2006 Began a Terrorist Movement Against Israel".
Students of Western Civilization, knowledgeable of the similar genocidal policies and mythologies perpetrated in countries like the United States, Canada, Britain Australia and South Africa against their own indigenous peoples - who have also borne the brunt of Western imperialism and suffered the same loss of self-determination, nationhood independence and the "Right To Return & Reclaim Their Ancestral Heritage" -
will at once recognize in Pappe's writings the same cultural patterns that repeat themselves in modern-day Israel.
Comment: Looks like Iran is learning from Russia's "high class trolling" techniques.