Stolen History: How the Palestinians and Their Allies Attack Israel's Right to Exist by Erasing Its Past by David Meir-Levi Read Free Book Online

 
     
    "We say to him [Netanyahu], when he claims that they [the Jews] have a historical right dating back to 3000 years BCE — we say that the nation of Palestine upon the land of Canaan had a 7000 year history BCE. This is the truth, which must be understood and we have to note it, in order to say: 'Netanyahu, you are incidental in history. We are the people of history. We are the owners of history.'"
— Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, May 14, 2011
Introduction
    When Sheikh Abdul Palazzi, professor at the Research Institute for Anthropological Studies in Rome, was a guest lecturer at Yale University during the spring of 2003, he told of his conversation with a representative of the Waqf, the Palestinian religious committee overseeing the maintenance of the Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount, during his visit to Israel in 2000: "[They] took us to visit Al Aksa [the silver-domed mosque at the south end of the Temple Mount]. Right outside of the Dome of the Rock is a small chapel on the eastern side. 'What is this place?' I asked. 'It is the place where Solomon stood to dedicate the Temple,' was the reply. 'Then why do you deny this?' I asked. With a smile, I was told, 'For political reasons!'" 1
    Understanding the "political reasons" for Arab lies so cheerfully acknowledged requires an acquaintance with the scope and strategy of the decadeslong propaganda war against Israel. The goal in this propaganda war is to delegitimize Israel, rebranding it a rogue and racist state, as a way of convincing other countries that supporting the Jewish State is in fact supporting evil. The key elements of this strategy are on full public display in the unremitting attacks at the UN on Israel's "occupation" and "settlement" of Palestine, in the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns directed at trustees of U.S. and European universities, and in the Nakba demonstrations on American campuses mourning the creation of Israel as an act of genocide against the "indigenous Palestinian people."
    Less visible but perhaps even more important in the propaganda war on Israel is an intensifying effort to eradicate the ancient history of Israel and the Jews, the "facts on the ground" that stretch back to biblical times, and replace it with the fiction of a "Palestinian antiquity" recently stolen by rapacious Jews. This revisionist historical offensive against Israel is waged by an army of Arab scholars, religious leaders, political leaders, journalists, and their enablers in the west. They work together with one objective: to discredit the huge volume of evidence from Jewish, Muslim and Christian Scriptures; Archaeology, Assyriology, and Egyptology; ancient, medieval and modern historical sources, including Arab sources, all of which shows the historical Jewish connection to the land on which the modern state of Israel now stands.
    The"Israel Denial" at the heart of the methodical falsification of a region's history is nothing less than an effort to commit a conceptual genocide on the Jewish people, an act serving as a legitimization of the literal genocide some Arab leaders have called for. The US State Department appears to understand the implication of these efforts by radical Palestinians and their fellow traveling Western supporters to steal Israel's history. The State Department's former spokesperson P.J. Crowley had this to say:
    "We strongly condemn these [efforts] and fully reject them as factually incorrect, insensitive and highly provocative. We have repeatedly raised with the Palestinian Authority leadership the need to consistently combat all forms of delegitimization of Israel including denying historic Jewish connections to the land." 2
    But the lies, pseudo history, and poisonous confabulations continue — a war against Israel by other means in which stealing their past is a prelude to making sure Jews have no future in their ancient homeland.
Academia's denial of Israelite history: A Case Study
    Work by