Doesn't Israel have Google?
There is a video that came up on my Instagram feed last week, from a journalist who may have been Irish, who was speaking to two young boys maybe 12 or 13. He asked them where they were from. The one boy said Jerusalem. The other boy said Palestine.
The second boy was called over by an Israeli officer at the nearby checkpoint.
He was reprimanded for saying Palestine.
Because, as you know, in Israel, there is no Palestine. Only Arabs.
How is it possible in the 21st century, in a nation that prides itself on its state of the art surveillance techniques which demands the highest quality of internet and satellite communication that its citizens can deny the existence of a country that anyone in the world can locate on Google??? The historical timeline is there, the maps are there going back to Ptolemy. (See below.)
I’m sorry. Please explain how this can be, Israel. Really, I’m baffled how you can keep millions of people ignorant of simple history and geography that is available for anyone else in the world with a phone or computer.
Teachers: Are you told you can’t talk about Palestine? Do you go around erasing things on maps and books because the government dictates that to you? (I thought that was something places like North Korea did. Oh yeah, or the Banned Books folks at school board meetings in the US.)
Parents: Do you not allow your children to ask questions about the word Palestine or, again, as in North Korea when one questions the godhood of Kim Jong Un, would your family lose privileges and livelihoods for mentioning the existence of a place that is literally ‘over that wall’ next to you?
I’m confused. Really can someone help me out here?
And while you’re Googling, if you can Google, check out the word genocide, illegal occupation, right to resist, things like that.
You don’t get a pass for your ignorance. Not in 2023.
Not ever.
Here, I’ll help you out in case there’s a virus on your computers that automatically shuts yours down if you type in the word ‘Palestine.’
This image shows the oldest surviving copy of oldest known map of the region of Palestine / Israel. It is from Ptolemy's (c.100-170AD) 4th Asia map, and was a revision of a now-lost atlas by Marinus of Tyre (note the proximity of Tyre to Palestine). The large red letters in the center say in Greek: Παλαιστινης or Palaistinis.
Is there hope that the lies and brainwashing will rinse off or, in the words of the brilliant Gabor Mate, are there saner ‘possibilities’ amid the destruction?
As I was typing this post, something nudged me to go to Google yet again. This time, I searched for websites that deny Palestine.
Instead I found this: Zochrot.
This is an Israeli organization.
This is their mission according to their website:
Zochrot is an NGO that has been working since 2002 for exposing and disseminating historical information about the Palestinian Nakba in Hebrew, with a view to promote accountability for the Nakba among the Jewish pubic of Israel and the implementation of the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees.
In defiance of all efforts to silence and conceal historical facts, against deliberate ignorance and trampling on hope - there is an opportunity to support an organization that not only gathers information and makes it accessible, but encourages and trains us all to open our eyes and hearts, re-examine what we know about ourselves, our history and the country, asking tough questions, dealing with painful answers and working for an equal and just future.
Yes, Gabor, there are possibilities. We must believe. We have to believe that we will agree on a peaceful shared vision of and for Palestine. Within the lies and the rhetoric attempting to push us further and further apart, there is this. To outlast the perpetrators of violence and discord and hatred, to outlast the morally corrupt and cowardly elected officials anywhere, we must look for, search for, even Google and share whatever morsels of humanity, justice and love we find.
salam alaykum ~ shalam