AljazeeraColum McCann’s latest novel mystifies the colonisation of Palestine as a ‘complicated conflict’ between two equal sides. 


... In the mid-1950s, powerful Hollywood executives financed the writing of a novel by Leon Uris to sell a pro-Israel agenda to Western popular imagination.

The result was Exodus, a bestseller turned blockbuster film. It narrated a true event (a ship carrying Jewish refugees sailing to Palestine) as the seed of an elaborate myth – a land without a people for a people without a land – which functioned to obscure the indigenous stewards of the land.

It was the romantic happy ending Europe needed following the genocide of its own Jewish citizenry. People lapped it up by the millions and refused to accept that it was anything but absolute truth, with Biblical authority to boot.

But it was – as everyone now knows – a lie.

Palestine already had an ancient, extensive society, and when European Zionists descended on their country, committing well-documented massacres and pogroms to expel them, Palestinians pleaded to the world for help – to no avail. Only when we organised into armed guerillas and hijacked planes was the world finally forced to reckon with our existence.

Continue reading @ Aljazeera.

Apeirogon ➖ Another Colonialist Misstep In Commercial Publishing

AljazeeraColum McCann’s latest novel mystifies the colonisation of Palestine as a ‘complicated conflict’ between two equal sides. 


... In the mid-1950s, powerful Hollywood executives financed the writing of a novel by Leon Uris to sell a pro-Israel agenda to Western popular imagination.

The result was Exodus, a bestseller turned blockbuster film. It narrated a true event (a ship carrying Jewish refugees sailing to Palestine) as the seed of an elaborate myth – a land without a people for a people without a land – which functioned to obscure the indigenous stewards of the land.

It was the romantic happy ending Europe needed following the genocide of its own Jewish citizenry. People lapped it up by the millions and refused to accept that it was anything but absolute truth, with Biblical authority to boot.

But it was – as everyone now knows – a lie.

Palestine already had an ancient, extensive society, and when European Zionists descended on their country, committing well-documented massacres and pogroms to expel them, Palestinians pleaded to the world for help – to no avail. Only when we organised into armed guerillas and hijacked planes was the world finally forced to reckon with our existence.

Continue reading @ Aljazeera.

3 comments:

  1. The author uses some very good analogies to explain how the wool is being pulled over our eyes.
    Then there's this;

    'Israel has signed an agreement with Facebook and collaborated with other major social media companies to censor Palestinian pages; it has smeared Israel’s critics as anti-Semites, destroying careers and worse; it has set up a “Lawfare Project” to drag students and activists through courts; and it has successfully pushed legislation around the world to criminalise criticism of Israel.'

    Don't repeat it of course lest you are labelled an antisemite!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mike

      None of what you have quoted is antisemitic.

      By contrast as the EHRC report has shown it is antisemitic to smear those Jewiash Labour MPS and members who complained about Labour antisemitism and how disgracefully the previous leadership dealt with it wewre acting as agewnts of a foreign power and/or ob=n behalf of a pafrticular Labour faction.

      Delete
  2. This screed has done a very good job in persauding me to buy the book he despises so much alng with the qualities iof empathy and the need for dialogue, mutual understanding and negotiation.

    ReplyDelete