A recent People magazine article (“It’s All Aramaic to Mel”) about Mel Gibson’s upcoming film about Jesus, “The Passion,” describes Aramaic as “a language spoken in ancient Palestine.”
HonestReporting member Lee K. wrote to People explaining that in fact, Aramaic was spoken in Judea and Israel, the two Jewish kingdoms leading up to the time of Jesus. The holy land was not renamed “Palestine” by the Romans until 135 CE — years after Jesus’ death.
Here is the response from People magazine:
“We appreciate the interest that prompted your response to our Scoop item ‘It’s All Aramaic To Mel.’ We state that Aramaic was spoken in ancient Palestine because Israel, as a nation, did not exist before 1948. It had been part of northern Palestine. We, again, thank you for your response. Sincerely, Erin McIntyre for the editors.”
Amazingly, People magazine denies the existence of an Israeli entity prior to 1948, and falsely claims that the holy land at the time of Jesus was named “Palestine.”
This is precisely the type of historical revisionism that the Palestinian propagandists are trying to promote.
If People is so sure that Palestine, the country, goes back through recorded history, here are a few basic questions about “Palestine”:
– What was the language of the country of Palestine?
– What was the name of its currency?
– What were its borders?
– What was its capital?
– What were its major cities?
– What constituted the basis of its economy?
– What was its form of government?
– What were the names of its leaders?
The answer to all the above questions:
NONE.
Write to the editors of People and demand that they set the record straight:
[email protected]
[email protected]
===== OCCUPIED BEIT SHE’AN? =====
Meanwhile, following last week’s terror shooting of 6 Israelis in the Israeli town of Beit She’an, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed-Larsen, issued a statement that “deplored a fatal attack against Israelis in the West Bank.”
The West Bank?! Though this may be attributable to an honest mistake, we fear that UN officials have been reading too much Hamas literature, which refers to all pre-1967 Israeli towns — Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beit She’an, too — as “occupied territories” in need of liberation.
Comments to:
www.un.org
