For decades, myths have defined the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, repeated until they replace reality.
Behind the headlines lies a story of identity and survival, where history collides with propaganda and truth becomes the first casualty.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:40 Myth #1: The Occupation is to blame
04:11 Myth #2: The KGB invented Palestinian identity
08:34 Myth #3: Settlements are the biggest obstacle to peace
13:07 Myth #4: “A land without a people”
19:11 Myth #5: Israel is an apartheid state
24:00 Outro
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Sources:
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDChJJ_MhDo Unpacking Israeli History, May 25, 2025
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZLDnqDJ0x0 Unpacked, March 27, 2024
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFeKwv4GkZI Unpacked, April 7, 2021
-Fish, Christopher. The Deception of Palestinian Nationalism. The Standford Review, February 27, 2008.
-Pacepa, Ion Mihai. Yasser Arafat: Connections to the KGB. Jewish Virtual Library.
-Khalidi, Rashid. Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness. Columbia University Press, 1997
-Selig, Abe. Ramat Shlomo residents don’t understand what all the fuss is about. The Jerusalem Post, March 11, 2010.
-Maltz, Judy. Explained: How Big an Obstacle Are Israeli Settlements to Peace? Haaretz, February 14, 2017.
-Avishai, Bernard. A Plan for Peace That Still Could Be. The New York Times Magazine, February 7, 2011.
-McCarthy, Justin. The Population of Palestine: Population History and Statistics of the Late Ottoman Period and the Mandate. Columbia University Press, 1990
-Pergola, Sergio della. “Demography in Israel/Palestine: Trends, Prospects, Policy Implications. Semantic Scholar, 2001
-Bernstein, Deborah. Constructing Boundaries: Jewish and Arab Workers in Mandatory Palestine. State University of New York Press, 2000, pp. 20-21.
-Dave Chappelle: The Closer. Netflix, 2021
-United Nations Country Team in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Common country analysis for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. United Nations, 2022.
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Image/footage credits:
Coming soon.
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Executive Producers:
Michael Steinhardt
Co-Executive Producers:
Marc Shmuel Levine
Iris & Shalom Maidenbaum
Gold Level:
The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life
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Translation credits:
Portuguese: Saymon Pires, www.livrariasafra.com.br, @safralivraria
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#israel #palestine #facts
you say Apartheid is used for the Palestinians in the West Bank, no its not, all those protesters who know nothing about anything just use the word Apartheid and Colonialism as buzzwords. They don't even know the meaning of it
The myth about colonialism is missing
Damage control….. too little, too late.
All right, lets do some historical analysis on point 2 and 4
Point 2:
Maybe the kgb didn’t invented it, but to say it was a natural separate culture is too think we are grossely naive.
Lets go by the definition of what is a culture shall we?
Main features that define a culture:
1. Name / Ethnic or National Identity
* A group typically identifies itself with a name that distinguishes it from others. This can be an ethnic, tribal, or national identity.
* Example: “Kurds” refers to a specific people with shared history and identity.
2. Language
* A distinct language (or dialect) is a major marker of cultural identity. It carries the collective memory, traditions, and worldview of the people.
* Example: Kurdish language, with its various dialects (Kurmanji, Sorani).
3. Folklore / Oral Traditions / Stories
* Myths, legends, folktales, songs, and traditional stories transmit cultural values, historical memory, and social norms.
* Example: Kurdish epic tales, songs, and proverbs passed down through generations.
4. Ancestry / Founders / Historical Continuity
* Most cultures trace their roots to ancestral figures, historical events, or shared origins that give the group continuity over time.
* Example: The Kurds trace ancestry through various tribes and historic Kurdish kingdoms.
5. Shared Practices, Customs, and Beliefs (optional addition)
shared customs, religious practices, festivals, and social norms also reinforce cultural identity.
1. Demonym / Endonym
* A genuine culture usually has a self-designation — an endonym — that the people use to refer to themselves in their own language.
* Without this, it becomes very hard to claim a coherent identity because there’s no “self-recognition” of the group.
* Example: Kurds call themselves Kurd, not something imposed externally.
2. Language Connection
* Even if a group develops distinct cultural practices, language is a core marker.
* Typically, a language develops naturally from ancestral or neighboring tongues. If a claimed culture’s language bears no resemblance to local linguistic patterns, it may suggest it’s invented rather than evolved.
* Example: Most real-world cultures share linguistic roots or influences with neighboring peoples, reflecting centuries of interaction.
3. Cultural Continuity vs. Fabrication
* If a “culture” is invented without endonym recognition or linguistic/historical continuity, it may appear as constructed or fraudulent.
* Genuine cultures are the result of organic evolution, shared ancestry, language, and traditions — not declarations.
So yes, a culture without a self-name or a plausible linguistic lineage would be highly suspect from an anthropological or sociological perspective.
By that i mean, the term “palestinian” or “falistin” has no true meaning, no in arabic, nor in any languages.
It was the Exonym that the foreigners labeled the Jews since the Roman invasion and renaming of the land in 136 AD.
Even Immanuel Kant refered to Jews as “palestinians”
Here is a quote that might utterly destroy the “palestinian identity”
“The Palestinian people does not exist … In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people … Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity exists only for tactical reasons. The establishment of a Palestinian state is a new expedient to continue the fight against Israel.”
Quotes of zuheir mohsen, in a March 31, 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw.
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Point 4:
According to Mark Twain in his trip to the Sanjak of Jerusalem (Sanjak is basically a province in ottoman turkish vocabulary) in 1867, the land was infested, empty, nobody wanted to live there, except the Jews.
It was as if the land made a strike until its original inhabitants came to flourish it (i.e: the Jewish people)
Well balanced and I posted on my Facebook page which I rarely do. It does need to take the current political extreme statements (I won’t mention whose) and the violent responses into context. The situation is reaching a tipping point where there may be no turning back or solution. I am a Christian in the true sense of the word and find violence against my fellow man abhorrent.
hebrews have one homeland israel; arabs have dozens of countries which They stole from previous peoples
The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism." — Zuheir Mohsen, PLO official, Trouw, March 31, 1977.
The fact that people think Jews simply decided to leave and wander across the land is nuts… Repeated Roman wars and forced dispersal migrations in the late Empire are at least 80% of the reason.
thx for your history lesson bro
It's because the Arabs do not want there to be a Jewish state. So there's no point in discussing unpacking or any of this. This is Jewish line everybody knows that history knows it and they just cannot accept it