Palestinians make a play for Dead Sea Scrolls at UNESCO

[shira]

Un-fucking real.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Palestinians-make-a-play-for-Dead-Sea-Scrolls-at-UNESCO-471781

The Palestinian Authority is preparing to lay a claim to the Dead Sea Scrolls at the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Israel Radio reported on Saturday night.

“This is another provocative and audacious attempt by the Palestinians to rewrite history and to erase our connection to our land,” Ambassador to UNESCO Carmel Shama-Hacohen said. “The Dead Sea Scrolls are factual and weighty archeological evidence of the presence of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.”

The scrolls – a large cache of mostly Hebrew writings from the Second Temple period and its immediate aftermath – were discovered in Qumran between 1947 and 1956. They include many biblical texts and are believed to have been penned by members of a Jewish sect known as the Essenes.

Qumran, which is near the Dead Sea, was under British, and later Jordanian, rule at the time of the discoveries.

It is now located in Area C of the West Bank, which is under Israeli civil and military control.

The PA considers Area C to be part of its future state.

[ericson00]

2. Isn't Mecca, Medina, the Kaaba, Qom, Najaf, and many others enough for Muslim society?

let someone else have some holy sites, for God's sake.

[aranthus]

4. What a total load.

Not even a pretense of intellectual honesty. You really expect that anyone is going to be just plain stupid enough to believe that that the Dead Sea Scrolls are analogous to the Elgin Marbles? Let's see. The Elgin Marbles were illegally obtained. He used what were essentially forged documents to take them out of the Ottoman Empire. He stole Ottoman property, which the Greeks can lay claim to by virtue of being a successor state. On top of which, the British have absolutely no cultural or historic connection to ancient Greek Statues. In contrast, where is the Palestinian state that could lay claim to the scrolls? It never existed. Not to mention that the cultural and historical connection of the Jewish people to the scrolls is huge. This one isn't even close.

[aranthus]

6. So you're doubling down?

You respond to my legitimate challenge to your logic and intellectual honesty buy misrepresenting my post? How bloody typical. How predictable. I'm not mad. Just bored. Have a nice day.

[shira]

8. Telling lies: The one and only strategy of anti-Zionists

For a truthful person, demonizing Israel is difficult. How can one convincingly denounce a liberal democracy that is surrounded by despotic regimes, especially one that treats even its enemies better than the despotic neighbours treat their own citizens? How can one denounce a country that is a major contributor of humanitarian aid to the world despite being unfairly singled out and demonized by most of the world? How can one refuse Israel’s right to exist on land occupied by Jews for over three millennia? How can one not support a tiny nation that stands up to all the regional bullies? Easy: lie, then lie, and then lie some more. That is in fact the only logical strategy in this circumstance, and what’s more, because it is used at a massive and an overwhelming scale, it works!

The whole anti-Zionist enterprise is based on lies, as the Simon Wiesenthal Center has demonstrated (the lies that Israel was created by European guilt over the Nazi Holocaust, that Israel is the main stumbling block to achieving a Two-State solution, that Israeli policies are the cause of worldwide antisemitism, etc), but the lies go much further than a shaky ideological foundation. Fabrications about supposed crimes by Israel are frequent and unrelenting. Anti-Zionists clearly know that the accusations are always much more widely broadcasted than the refutations that inevitably follow sooner or later. They know that no matter how much effort is employed in defending Israel, frequent lies damage the reputation of Israel beyond repair.

Lots and lots of lies

Honest Reporting summarized five well-known and elaborate lies about Israel: the killing of Palestinian Muhammad Al-Dura, the Jenin “massacre”, the killing of seven members of a Palestinian family in Gaza Beach, fabricated stories during the 2006 Lebanon war, and the claim of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Palestinian Media Watch documented some of the lies against Israel: the lies that it spreads AIDS and drugs, that it murdered Arafat, that it plans to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque, that it steals organs from Palestinians, that it abuses prisoners, that it plans to rid Jerusalem of non-Jews, that it murders and poisons, that it seeks rule from Euphrates to Nile, and others.

One of the best known and most successful lie is the claim that Israel purposely attacked the American intelligence ship USS Liberty. This lie has absolutely no basis, but it still lingers, partly because the prize is too big to ignore: creating a rift between Israel and its most consistent ally.

Routine and habitual

Lying is a routine and automatic part of the anti-Zionist discourse. Listing all lies against Israel would be far beyond the scope of this blog. In December 2013, Barry Rubin estimated that “about 10 to 20 slanders (at least) are issued against Israel each day”. A recent lie is the false accusation that Israel tried to drown Gaza. Another recent lie is a fake picture of a Palestinian being chased by Israeli police officers. Lying about Israel has become so routine among anti-Zionists, that they often don’t even bother trying to obtain accurate information. For example, during the last war between Israel and Hamas, pictures from Syria were widely used with the claim that they came from Gaza.

Israel’s involvement is not even required in order to fabricate lies about Israel. The claim that ISIS is an Israeli invention controlled by Mossad has now travelled the world more times that one cares to count. These are in fact the most effective lies; since Israel has nothing to do with ISIS, it is impossible to present counter evidence for such claims. What can one show as evidence? A blank page?

The practice of lying is used by anti-Zionists not only against Israel but also extensively against those who dare defend it. Alan Dershowitz is a world-famous lawyer who so strongly supports human rights and especially freedom of speech that he has defended, often pro bono, the free speech of communists, Neo-Nazis, anti-Israel fanatics, and Holocaust deniers, while vehemently refuting their opinions. Yet, because he supports Israel, Dershowitz is routinely and wrongly accused of supporting torture, which is a flagrant perversion of his actual position.

High benefits at little cost

But why wouldn’t the anti-Zionists lie? After all, the President of the Palestinian Authority, in front of the whole world at the United Nations General Assembly, blatantly lied about Israel committing genocide in Gaza, and received little criticism for it. Not only do anti-Israel lies work, but they also only carry very minimal costs. In the modern world of the Internet and a mass media with lowered standards, lying is the tool of choice for those who have no legitimate claim, especially when there is already a widespread bias against the accused (Israel) and a pervasive willingness to assume the worst about its actions.

The accusation of “genocide” levelled against Israel wasn’t invented by Abbas of course. He just repeats what the legion of anti-Zionists regurgitate in social media incessantly. Despite the lack of a shred of evidence that Israel is engaged in any sort of genocide, despite the obvious idiocy of claiming genocide while the Palestinian population grows by leaps and bounds, the liars do not relent. The accusation of genocide is a powerful weapon because not only would it be a horrible crime, if it were true, but it is bound to cause pain to most Jews since practically all Jews have family who perished in the Holocaust, and they cannot bear the thought that Jews would do anything that even resembles the Holocaust.

The most popular lie about Israel is of course the accusation that it is an apartheid state. This lie is repeated often on university campuses around the world, hoping to elicit the kind of popular support that was enjoyed by the battle against the actual apartheid state of South Africa. Facts of course do not support such an accusation, but that does not stop the accusers.

more...
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/telling-lies-the-one-and-only-strategy-of-anti-zionists/