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Yisrael Medad
Analyst and commentator on political and cultural issues.

Just One Short Statement That Demolishes

The conflict between Jews and Muslims, between Arabs and Israelis and between Zionism and Palestinianism is very complex.

But sometimes, one discovers a pithy and concise statement, or action or analysis that serves to highlight and focus your thinking on a problematic situation.

I found one.

I learned that The Palestinian Museum is set to open on…May 15, 2016. Yes, the day when Israel was created, proclaimed as state in accordance with the original intent of the League of Nations decision to reconstitute a Jewish national Home and the United Nations decision to recommend a Jewish state and in accordance with the British decision to leave the country.

For the Museum

The decision to open the Museum on the 15th of May is designed to underline the enduring importance of the Nakba to the Museum’s work.”

Nakba, of course, means the rollback of any Zionist-Jewish achievement.  It is not about 1967 but 1948.  The Museum is

dedicated to preserving and celebrating the culture, society and history of Palestine over the past two centuries.

Two centuries only?

What happened to all that ancient history, a la Saeb Erekat?  Here:

“I am the son of Jericho. I am 10,000 years old … I am the proud son of the Netufians and the Canaanites. I’ve been there for 5,500 years before Joshua Bin Nun came and burned my hometown Jericho. I’m not going to change my narrative”

As stated there

The Museum refuses to be constricted by geographical and political borders

That, of course, to my mind, can only mean that without the Jews, whose immigration into the country and the purchasing of land and the building of industry, constructing of homes and planting of fields was finally enabled in force only in the first third of the 19th century despite a constant presence within the area throughout the 18 centuries of loss of political independence and the land’s occupation by foreign conquerors, there really isn’t any “Palestine” in the sense the local Arabs wish us to believe exists and existed.

As MK Anat Berko reminded us, a people who does not possess a native tongue name for its patrimony is a false and unauthentic people that even a so-called “Museum” can’t set right.

About the Author
Yisrael Medad, currently is a Research Fellow at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem and Deputy Editor of the English Language Anthology of Jabotinsky's Writings. American-born, he and his wife made Aliyah in 1970. He resides in Shiloh since 1981. He was a member of the Betar Youth Movement World Executive and is a volunteer spokesperson for the Yesha Council. He holds a MA in Political Science from the Hebrew University and is active is many Zionist and Jewish projects and initiatives.
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