Israeli Government Video Irks Palestinians
July 28, 2011 13:56 by Simon PloskerCongratulations to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon for taking the initiative in the vital battleground of social media.
Ayalon’s YouTube video “The Truth About the West Bank” is evidently considered to be such a threat to the distorted Palestinian historical narrative that Saeb Erekat (who still appears to be the chief Palestinian negotiator despite resigning from the position in February 2011) has responded by publicly condemning the video in no uncertain terms.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGYxLWUKwWo[/youtube]
Here’s your chance to help Israel online.
It’s really simple – click on the video and watch as Danny Ayalon explains the status of the West Bank. In September the Palestinian Authority plans to tie Israel up in legal knots at the UN with an appeal for statehood in the West Bank and Gaza based on the 1948 armistice line (commonly and misleadingly referred to as the “1967 borders”).
Wherever you are on the political map, it’s time that the world is reminded of Israel’s historical and legal rights as well as how Israel found itself in control of the disputed territories.
By simply clicking on this video or sharing it on social media platforms such as Facebook, you won’t just be reminding your own friends and friends of Israel of the facts. You will also be promoting this material “beyond the choir” to the millions of people who browse YouTube and know nothing of the Israeli narrative.
Evidently, the Palestinians find it difficult when Israel reasserts its rights in the face of the assault on the country’s legitimacy. According to the PA press release:
“With this video, the Israeli government has left no doubt on its pro-conflict agenda. Now, the international community knows the Israeli government is committed to denying the Palestinian people their inalienable right to self-determination and on continuing their illegal and colonial enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory”, said Dr. Saeb Erakat.
Dr. Erakat said this video, presented by the Israeli deputy minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon, denies the validity of UN resolutions and claims that the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are a legitimate part of Israel. He added, “This is not an amateur video prepared by an extremist group. An official representing the State of Israel presents a cynical and falsified account of history and international law.”
Dr. Erakat continued: “In its desperate attempt to gear international discourse away from the pursuit of genuine peace to the outdated arguments of those who oppose it, this official video went as far as discarding United Nations Resolution 181 (II).” “I want to remind the government of Israel that it was accepted at the UN as a full member based on its acceptance of this resolution” said Dr. Erakat.
Danny Ayalon
In reaction to the condemnation, Ayalon said: “For too long the Palestinian narrative of international law and rights has gone unchallenged and this over the top reaction to a public diplomacy video proves that they are acting like spoilt children who have had their way for too long. They are unable to challenge a single fact in the video and have completely avoided a legitimate and honest discussion on the issues.”
In the press release, Erekat claims that Israel was accepted to the United Nations on the basis of UN General Assembly Resolution 181. “This false claims shows that Erekat misconstrues international law and its system proving exactly how misguided the Palestinian attempt to have their unilaterally declared state recognized at the United Nations really is. Israel was admitted as a full United Nations member in 1949 by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 273, after a recommendation by the Security Council, because it met the criteria of statehood and signed armistice agreements with our neighbors, something the Palestinians should bear in mind before they further their confrontational and damaging plan towards September.”
Help us to help Israel get the facts out. Spread this video and make a difference.
Victor Meyer
6:12 am
Jul 29, 2011
A SOUND ANALYSIS
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Nigel
6:47 am
Jul 29, 2011
This video is clearly based on a recent Hebrew-language presentation produced by a nationalist NGO. Obviously, an English-language version was required. However, while this video is good, the Hebrew-language version was much better. That presentation was a bit fuller, and was therefore significantly clearer, and stronger. I feel that this official Israeli government version is significantly watered down. And I have to ask, why? The nationalist version was more professional, more complete, and no less ‘balanced’ than this. I also agree to some extent with the comment above regarding the use of an Israeli, but not simply because of the accent, which ultimately isn’t a problem. Ideally, I think you probably want an arguably independent but sympathetic gentile to do the presenting, just as in the case of the many Jewish produced documentaries about the atrocities of WWII. Alternatively, a Druze could be employed. Maybe a stronger presentation could have been developed by having both a Jewish and a Druze minister, and bringing in the alternative Muslim perspective? Maybe you could show a picture of the displaced persons camps for Jews from Arab countries? Maybe you could have a picture highlighting the diversity of today’s Israeli society to counter the apartheid chorus? Maybe you could have a couple of the non-Israeli Zionist imams endorse the Israeli narrative? Adding another 60-90 seconds could have extended the narrative, as per the nationalist version, and briefly added the other perspectives I have suggested. This governmental version is far better than nothing, but the nationalist NGO did a better job with an obviously smaller budget. The Israeli government version should have been been greater not lesser.
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reiska
8:22 am
Jul 29, 2011
This is the first time I have noted the Israeli governnment taking a proactive stance to counter the blatant anti-semitic propaganda churned out on a daily basis by the main stream print media.
Interesting to note that no attempt was made by Erakat to engage in a discussion relating to the point of view expressed in the you tube clip.
In the clip the claim is put forward that Israel is perfectly entitled to engage in an exercise to counter the propaganda of the Gazan and West Bank Arabs in their attempts to delegitamise Israel’s right to promote its ippoint of view.
In support of the claim a very concise and sound historically accurate account of relatively recent events is presented.
The Arabs of Gaza and the West Bank cannot rebut the historical evidence and so they do not even attempt to do so.
There is no debate because there is nothing to debate.
The main thing is to get the message out to a wider readership who are literally at the mercy of the biased and morally derelict mainstream media.
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Yael Pedhatzur
9:09 am
Jul 29, 2011
whilst i think this was an excellent video I strongy believe it is TOO LITTLE TOO LATE. I hope that whoever was responsible for putting this together will continue to create Israeli postion video statements, movies etc. LATMA is doing a great job from a different angle and I hope to see more of this.
For years I have been chanting “Jordan is Palestine” and “that there is no such thing as a palestinian nation. This should be our mantra.
as i often tell my overseas friends, we are NOT the colonizers, we are the NATIVES, if we had been Africans, of Inuits and such, our efforts would have been lauded and supported. This must be also be reiterated night & day both abroad and in Israel.
Keep up the good work!
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Kelly Kafir
9:13 am
Jul 29, 2011
Big Deal… the very EXISTENCE of Israel “irks” the so called Palestinians… they do not know history past their own agenda…
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Negev
9:15 am
Jul 29, 2011
What took you so long?
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Bonnie Prince Charlie
10:11 am
Jul 29, 2011
Sadly there’s a lot of truth in Yael Pedhatzur’s TOO LITTLE TOO LATE comment but it’s a start. At long last the Israeli government is apparently waking up to the fact that the country is under a vicious PR onslaught which many of us in the field are striving to stem – with little or no support from Israel. (Please note that I’m not being political. Previous governments stand equally indicted.) As Yael says, we need to build on this. We need to invest the money to bring it to a larger audience worldwide. When can we expect a similar video about Gaza?
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Michael Podgoetsky
12:19 pm
Jul 29, 2011
Danny Ayalon you are my hero. In the video above it was short and sweat to the point explanation.I think the government of Israel should do this sort of videos more often.Beautifully presented as I could understand it all. Great Staff.No wonder Arabs did not like this, all of their BS is based on BS no facts at all.The more they push this BS the more they stink from it.
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Gary S.
12:25 pm
Jul 29, 2011
Well as we can see from the NT, Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil. So the truth bad & lies good in this matter, what is it they say, the truth hurts & that is why this is not going down that well because its the truth, it must be like a burning knife in their sides or backs as they are all back stabbers anyway. Even though Israel only got about 21% of what they should have got if you check the Balfour agreement, the other 79% became Jordan. This was given to appease the so called Arabs / palestinians, even though they got the lions share they still want more. This should be a beacon to the UN & other groups that the Arabs will not be happy until Israel is no more, to see the truth of that statement you only need to check the Arabs own religion islam, that book calls for the total destruction of the Jews. After the Jews Destruction they will then move onto the children of the book IE Christians & the definition of a christian to a muslim, anyone who lives in the west. It goes from bad to worse doesn’t it, the sooner they powers that be start to deal with the truth of all this, the sooner it can be dealt with.
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Yitzchak S
3:07 pm
Jul 29, 2011
The Palestinians need to get their heads round the undeniable face that the people whom tehy wish to drive out their historic and G-d-given homeland are called Jews. They are called that because they are predominantly from the tribe of Judah whose territory was therefore called Judea. Was…and still is!
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Mia Nony
9:44 am
Aug 13, 2011
Misplaced tolerance invites abuse. Setting the record straight is doubly important since much of the media indiscriminately portrays absolute bias in portraying Palestinians- or rather South Syrians, as Arafat was not shy to admit the so called Palestinians actually are. The whining segment in reality are hell bent to win a fiction based Victim Olympic finals of their own devise.
Awhile back there was a Danish journalist who visited Gaza & seemed overcome by cognitive dissonance when faced with countless demands he as a journalist experienced from Palestinians – excuse me, South Syrians – in the marketplace.
Everywhere he went they were telling him to tell the world they were starving, even, he remarked, while looking exceedingly well nourished & while standing behind tables piled high with every imaginable food choice. Apparently their fifth rate acting skills lacked any sense of irony
It was & still s as if much of he world is so far down the rabbit hole of Judephobia that it prefers to choose bias. So impoverished is the world at large in its abysmal understanding of a culture immersed in routine deception that it does not even want to understand Palestinian’s – sorry, South Syrians – prized Koran praised version of the relentless application of taqiyya, the religious virtue of lying in order to spread Islam.
So of course the South Syrians are miffed when an overdue video of historical truth trumps decades of lying as a way of life.
What I am a tad miffed about, given how quickly this stuff turns ugly, and how easily people accept terms about Gaza such as “occupied”, is that Israel would ever have been in any way reluctant to proactively keep this awareness of the truth in the public eye.
As a fightin’ Irish Jew, for my taste I would prefer to see an end to any & all Jewish inclination toward hesitation in this matter.
Any left over tendency to appease, any old world philosophical shoulder shrugging, any silent omission of vital historical facts about the Arab League’s ethnic cleansing of Jews from all Arab lands, or of Arab perpetration against Jews of murders, denationalization, expropriation, land & asset theft used to fund their war against Israel, and/or any hiding or failing to tell the world about this ruthless unrelenting agenda… is tantamount to inexcusable collusion.
Conversely, any downplaying of Israel’s generous philanthropy to Arabs only risks becoming a recipe for martyrdom.
Such inclinations toward self effacement by Israel MUST be resisted since this only feeds back into & invites greater Arab ascendency, expansionist aggression, usurpation & ever bolder lies told to a world no longer capable of critical thinking or perception.
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IQ al Rassooli
4:15 pm
Jul 29, 2011
Bravo! At LAST an Israeli effort to put the matter STRAIGHT.
If anyone reading these comments is interested, you will find out that I have addressed these very Questions and Answers on TWO of my audio/videos “Palestine & Paestinians” & “Judea or Palestine”.
One will also find 300 MORE audio/videos + 780 chapters addressing every conceivable facet of Muhammad, his Quran, his Sunna, Sharia & Arab/Israeli conflict.
All you require are 30 minutes of your time at alrassooli.com and you will be very PLEASANTLY surrised.
IQ al Rassooli
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HaroldT
7:17 pm
Jul 29, 2011
What a belated wakeup to the importance of “propaganda”
Now the govt. should buy advertising time on BBC,CNN and major European tv networks. to air this report
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IQ al Rassooli
8:06 pm
Jul 29, 2011
I sincerely hope that Mr Ayalon will also bring to the attention of the ‘Palestinians’ that I (IQ al Rassooli) have proven beyond a reasonable or even a shadow of a doubt that the Quran is ZIONIST!
By this I mean that Allah asserts in FOUR very clear Arabic verses that he CHOSE Bani Israil/ Am Yisrael ABOVE ALL other nations and that he (Allah) has given them the PROMISED LAND!
As OUTRAGEOUS sounding as this may be (having NOT been discovered for the last 1400 years!) nonetheles I DARE any human being to DISPROVE my findings!
Go to web of alrassooli.com follow CHAPTERS till you get to #209 and ENJOY!
I hope Mr Ayalon will use my expertise on these subjects for the benefit of Israel.
IQ al Rassooli
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Martellus Islamicus
9:50 pm
Jul 29, 2011
Dear IQ, I have taken up your challenge and LISTENED to chapter 209!
OUTSTANDING! ASTOUNDING! UNBELIEVABLE!
I do not know wheter to laugh or to cry for joy!
G-d bless you! It is now OBVIOUS why several followers of Muhammad are putting “thumbs down” on you because you are causing then enormous DISTRESS if not a nervous breakdown!
ZIONIST Quran!
It is TRUE and they have lost any and all CLAIMS to Israel & Jerusalem!
This should be made PUBLIC all over Israel & the Arab world!
Irrefutable! From the ‘horse’s mouth’!
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Ron Thompson
8:21 pm
Jul 29, 2011
Aside from being over 40 years overdue ……. excellent.
To dethrone the inaccurate pejorative “occupied” and replace it
with the honest “disputed” would be a very important corrective.
Good luck, ron thompson
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sam7
9:18 pm
Jul 29, 2011
The Arab countries surrounding Israel should absorb their so called Palestinian brothers that are not happy in Judea Samaria which is Jewish territory that Jordan occupied.
They expelled the Jews that were there since the days of Babylon when Israel was declared a Jewish sovereign state as well as other countries. Approximately 950Thousansd Jews forced to leave.Their assets like properties .and,businesses confiscated by their heartless brutal Governments.Israel was the beneficiary and gave them security and Israeii citizenship.
The Arab Governments should be doing the same for.Arabs whom are citizens of Israel and those living in Judea and Samaria who are not happy living on Jewish land They can leave for other Arab countries.The Arabs have land area 600 times larger than Israel and can easily absorb their brpthers.
Israeli Government should not give Jewish Land.This sends a message of weakness to the Arabs.It does not cause Peace to happen.These Arabs living in Judea and Samaria were called Jordanians before 1967.There were no such people called Palestinian.Majority in Jordan are these living under the rule of the Hashemite Kingdom.Let Jordan take them in.
The Arabs would want only Muslims to live in the Middle East.Any others of various religions who are born there will never have equal rights under their brutal corrupt dictatorship.Not one is a Democratic country.Only the Jewish Sovereign State OF Israel is a Democracy whom they are bent on its destruction
They abused their children by teaching them intense hatred and to murder Jews.Sad that parents and their Government do this.Only way for Peace is for Israel to be Militarily and Economically strong.The Jews In Israel and in Diaspora to be very united and focus in strengthening Israel in every way.May G-D Bless and protect Israel always.
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Anne Johnson
10:00 pm
Jul 29, 2011
This was an excellent presentation. The Jewish people have been living in fear for many years, because the Arabs want it all and think they deserve it all. This is not the case!!! The MSM is the most biased and dishonest organ on the earth. They need to be severely controlled, and the US left wing media needs to have George Soros hanged. He is a real problem for both the Yanks and the world as a whole. It would be nice to have a media that you can believe.
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Nelson D'Silva
3:13 am
Jul 30, 2011
Everyone knows the truth but few wish to acknowledge it. This video is excellent and helpful to those that have an open mind and are willing to know the facts. Unfortunately, it is not education that gives people wisdom otherwise we would not have found so many academicians opposing Israel’s policies. The people that deny Israel its right to its G-d given property are evil souls with an anti-Semitic agenda to destroy the Jewish people. Israel will prevail but the harassment from evil nations and people can be expected to continue.
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sanjosemike
4:14 pm
Jul 30, 2011
Critics of Israel charge that if they say anything critical of the Jewish State than they are branded as anti-Semitic. This is actually a reasonable question: “When is a critic applying a reasonable criticism of Israel and when have they crossed the line to anti-Semitism?”
I propose the answer is as follows: There are many people who criticize Israeli policies, and among them are certainly Israelis themselves. But a criticism only becomes anti-Semitic when it has crossed the line to deny the actual right of existence of Israel and the Jews who live there, and/or their right to defend themselves and their state.
This is the metric I use when I evaluate criticism of Israel. I myself have criticisms of Israel and I presume that even the most centered advocates of the Jewish State also have. But that does not make us anti-Semitic or anti-Israel. We are just practicing freedom of speech and thought.
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Gary Katz
7:49 pm
Jul 30, 2011
I would take your analysis a bit farther. If someone criticizes Israel but ignores worse conduct by the Palestinians, there must be an underlying reason for their hypocrisy. Same thing for the old double standard applied to Israel, a standard to which no other country is held. Why do people condemn Israel for actions that pale in contrast to countries like N. Korea, Zimbabwe, or Iran? Is it anti-semitism? Or are they just being “trendy?”
Personally, I think we should start accusing such people of being “trendy” (especially the college crowd), to put them on the defensive!
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sanjosemike
3:59 am
Jul 30, 2011
It is impossible for Palestinians to factually attack the Ayalon video. The real issue has always been “Jews living in the ME.” The Holocaust has been registered as the defacto birth of the State of Israel according to some Western historians and Arabs. This is not true.
Jews lived in the ME for over 3700 years, many times sharing local areas with Muslims. That
said, Jews STILL lived in defined city states for at least 1,000 years prior to any tribes that called themselves Muslim. It is not unreasonable to demand proof for this. Actually the proof is all over the ME, in the rocks, diggings and archaeology including in Arab Countries.
Jews live in (not occupy) a very tiny part of the ME. Admittedly it is an important area for all three major religions. This is true certainly for Christians and Jews, but interestingly, “Jerusalem” is not mentioned anywhere in the Quran.
This is not to say that Palestinians should not live in the ME, or that they do not have legitimate geographical claims. But “Palestinians” have been Jordanians for many years, and Jordan remains the most viable state for Palestinians. It is actually their homeland.
Peace is only possible when non-Jordanian Palestinians decide to accept Israel’s existence. I am not particularly hopeful that this will occur, but it is a pre-requisite.
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Uri Ben-Avraham
11:55 am
Jul 30, 2011
Excellent video, short and concise, great!
Cheers!
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carlo
1:50 pm
Jul 30, 2011
This article needs to be translated to the Indonesian language. Indonesia, the largest muslim country in the world, needs to be told the truth.
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