Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Yes, the Palestinian Book Fair also includes antisemitism

The 10th annual Palestine International Book Fair is being held now in Ramallah.

As with seemingly every event that happens there, the focus of the fair isn't literacy or building communities or education. It was resistance.

The point was given by PA prime minister Rami Hamdallah in the opening ceremony as he emphasized how wonderful it was to have such a fair even though Israel builds walls and tries to isolate the Palestinians. "We affirm the unity of our people and our land and our identity, and protect their cultural and national liberation...

"We celebrate with you today, a new spirit of the steadfastness of the Palestinian and achievement, another example of the ability of our people to work and create hope under the most formidable challenges, and the scene of a large international rally around our people's right to live in freedom and dignity in their homeland shows...On behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas and myself, I thank all of you, the owners of publishing houses and intellectuals, visitors and guests of Palestine, who have turned this event into a cultural gathering, challenging the occupation and its repressive practices, and breaking the siege and isolation Israel wants us to be under," Hamdallah concluded.

There is not the slightest indication that Israel did anything to stop this fair, which is, again, the tenth one. But literally everything done under the government of Mahmoud Abbas must be couched in terms of speaking negatively about Israel rather than in promoting any Palestinian accomplishments on their own merits.

"Shawarma News" has been the person I rely on for researching these book fairs. So far we have not been able to find any online listing of all titles at the fair so while almost undoubtedly there are antisemitic books being sold, we can't find them yet.

But he did find some titles that include antisemitism within the topics that are not exclusively about Jews.

For example, this book:

Is this book:

Entitled "Chaos Theory - The American Scenario to Fragment the Middle East and the Zionist Theory Adapted by America" by Ramzy El- Menyawi.

In the introduction to the book Menyawi makes an analogy between the US army invading and fragmenting the Muslim world and matzah made from the bodies and blood of the people Jews murdered.

This sort of thinking such as the blood libel is not on the margins of Palestinian society - it is mainstream. Think of it this way: It is unthinkable that any Palestinian, or Arab for that matter, would stand up and condemn such a book for including the blood libel as well-known and obvious.

Shawarma News found other conspiracy theory titles that include chapters on Jews, such as the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the Rothschilds and Jewish conspiracies against Mohammed.

I do not see any participation of the US Consulate in this book fair.

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Reports say that the Rafah crossing will be opened on Wednesday and Thursday for a few people with humanitarian needs to travel from Gaza to Egypt.

It has been 85 days since the Rafah crossing last opened. In February, 3,561 people crossed in both directions, the only time it was open in 2016.

By contrast, there are some 7,000 crossings between Israel and Gaza every week.

There are over 30,000 Gazans on the waiting list to leave via Rafah.

Egypt says it keeps the crossing closed for security reasons, and it accuses Hamas of helping jihadist fighters in the Sinai. Israel, which has far larger security concerns with Gaza and yet allows people to pass nearly every day, is regularly described as "besieging" the sector.

Nearly 5,000 tons of produce were exported from Gaza through Israel in the first quarter this year, and increase of 150% over last year. Nothing was exported through Egypt.

Earlier this month the Egyptian electricity line to Gaza was down for five days, as residents in Rafah lost a few more hours of power every day. Israel provides about 120 MW of electricity daily while the Egyptian line provides 17 MW.

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05/09 Links Pt2: Israel turns 68 with 8.5 million people, 10X more than 1948; Why the Jews Are Indigenous to Israel

From Ian:

Israel turns 68 with 8.5 million people, 10 times more than in 1948

On the eve of Israel’s 68th birthday, the country’s population stands at 8,522,000, according to figures released Monday by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
There are 6,377,000 Jewish Israelis, 74.8% of the total population, and 1,771,000 Arab Israelis, 20.8% of the population, the bureau said. Christians, non-Arabs, and other minority groups account for 374,000 people, or 4.4% of the population.
By comparison, the nascent State of Israel had a population of just 806,000 in 1948.
Israel’s Independence Day begins with celebrations on Wednesday night, as the country transitions from Memorial Day — 24 hours of mourning for its fallen soldiers and terror victims.
In the 12 months since last Independence Day, the population increased by 182,000 people, a growth of 2.2%, the CBS said. During that period, 195,000 babies were born, 47,000 people passed away and some 36,000 new immigrants arrived in Israel. There are also some 192,000 foreigners in the country, based on figures from 2014.

Reebok releases new sneaker design in honor of Israel's 68th Independence Day

The Reebok shoe company released a new sneaker design on Monday in honor of Israel's 68th Independence Day celebrations.
The special edition sneaker is blue and white and has "Israel 68" engraved on it's heel.
Moshe Sinai, the CEO of Reebok Israel, explained that these sneakers were to be a one time celebratory release as a collector's item in Israel and the world.
The Independence Day sneaker features the Reebok "Pump" technology that allows the sneaker to form to the foot of its wearer. A push button releases compressed air into the shoe increasing the hold it has on the wearer's foot, allowing the shoe to maintain the person's natural step.
The shoe will be sold on Independence Day in an auction to take place on the Reebok Facebook page. All proceeds from the sale of the shoe will be donated to the organization Crossfit Without Borders which helps people with mental disabilities integrate into the Crossfit community.

BuzzFeed: 44 Totally Crazy #OnlyInIsrael Moments

1. #OnlyInIsrael does army radio broadcast government infomercials reminding listeners to call their grandparents.
2. #OnlyInIsrael does an IKEA showroom include a display Passover table, complete with matzah and haggadah booklets.
3. #OnlyInIsrael will the display on the front of the bus wish you a Happy Pesach.
4. #OnlyInIsrael can a secular, Jewish, female justice minister appoint judges to Shariah courts.
5. #OnlyInIsrael does the national air space completely close down for a whole day on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
6. #OnlyInIsrael do heroes of Jewish history meet at street corners, like “Ben Yehuda corner of Jabotinsky”, “Bar Kokhba corner of Dizengoff” and “Ibn Gabirol corner of King David”.
7. #OnlyInIsrael is pork on sale but euphemistically labelled “other meat”.
8. #OnlyInIsrael do soldiers walk around with a rifle over one shoulder and a lulav (ceremonial willow branch) over the other.
9. #OnlyInIsrael can a totally non-kosher café, that even serves bacon on Shabbat, offer customers freshly-baked challah on Fridays.
10. #OnlyInIsrael is the religious beach literally right next to the gay beach.

"If Israel has any oil, it must belong to Jordan"

From Ammon News: (originally at Times of Israel)

An Israeli company authorized to drill an oil reservoir near the Dead Sea, recently evaluated to contain NIS 1.2 billion worth of fuel, stressed Sunday that the area is located entirely inside Israel, which it said was a response to Arab media reports that the site stretched into Palestinian territory.

Israel Opportunity Energy Resources LP said in a statement sent to the media that the Hatrurim field “lies entirely within Israel’s borders.”

The oil company said they were responding to “various reports” in the Arab media, though the statement did not specify which reports, nor the nature of their claims.

A new report released Sunday by the company and filed with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange claimed the Hatrurim oil reservoir, which covers 94 square kilometers of the Dead Sea area, is worth NIS 1.2 billion ($320 million).

The company released a map purporting to show that the field is located kilometers inside the Green Line, which runs along the West Bank border.

The report about the wealth at the oil field appeared to cause some consternation in Jordan, which controls the eastern bank of the Dead Sea.

The chairman of the Jordanian Committee for Protecting the Homeland and Resisting Normalization, Dr. Manaf Majali, demanded the Hashemite Kingdom’s minister of energy check the validity of the report on the Hatrurim field, according to the Jordanian daily al-Ghad.

“In the case that oil does exist [at Hatrurim] in a commercial quantity, then it totally belongs to Jordan and not to the occupation that stole it,” Majali said.

There you go!

Here is the map from the Israel Opportunity Energy Resources site showing the field in orange next t the Dead Sea:

The article adds:

In 1995, Israeli company Delek Group Ltd. struck oil in the Hatrurim area after drilling two kilometers below the surface. But, Israel Opportunity said on their website, Delek decided to halt its operations near the Dead Sea due to the low price of oil at the time.

Along with Israel Opportunity, licenses to drill at the oil reservoir were granted to five other partners, according to the company’s website. They include three Israeli companies — Zerach Oil and Gas Exploration, LP (28.75%), Ashtrom Group Ltd (10%) and Ginko Oil Exploration, LP (28.75%) — as well as Israeli geologist Eliyahu Rozenberg (2.5%) and Cyprus Opportunity Oil & Gas Exploration, Ltd (5%), which will become the first company listed in Cyprus to enter into Israel’s oil and gas market, according to Israeli news site Globes.

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From BBC Radio Twitter:

should Muslim women be allowed to travel more than 48 miles from home without a chaperone? @IbrahimMogra @ShuruqNaguib discuss
— BBC Radio 4 Sunday (@BBCR4Sunday) May 8, 2016

Next week, maybe they'll discuss whether women should be buried up to their chests or to their necks when they are stoned to death for adultery. It should be a fascinating debate about Islamic jurisprudence that may affect all British people one day.

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05/09 Links Pt1: Poll: Israel not occupying Judea-Samaria, peace unlikely with PA; Ross: M/E turning to Russia because we're weak

From Ian:

Saeb Erekat: Palestinians Have Never Agreed to Establish a State With Provisional Borders

In his opinion piece “Dear Abbas, answer Kerry, and establish a Palestinian state now”, Mr. Yossi Beilin provides several assertions that are not factual, including the allegation that Palestinians had agreed to establish a state with provisional borders in the past.
While the idea of “provisional borders” was an option according to the Road Map, President Yasser Arafat never accepted this formula. Under President Abbas’ leadership, the PLO never accepted such a formula either. President Abbas never declared the acceptance of this frame to Mr. Beilin.
While we appreciate the enthusiasm of Mr. Beilin, a man with proven credentials for pursuing the end of the occupation and a sovereign State of Palestine living side by side with the State of Israel, twisting facts is not the way to move forward [not satire].

Poll: Israel not occupying Judea-Samaria, peace unlikely with PA

Just days before Israeli Independence Day, a new poll conducted by Tel Aviv University in conjunction with the Israeli Democracy Institute’s Guttman Center has revealed that Israelis are more pessimistic than ever about the prospects for a true peace with the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Among Israeli Jews, only 5.7% strongly believe that negotiations could lead to peace between Israel and the PA in coming years. In total only 20.7% believe peace is possible in the foreseeable future, compared to 77.6% who do not.
A strong majority of Israeli Jews also believe that Israel’s control over Judea and Samaria does not constitute an “occupation," with 71.5% of Jews rejecting the notion Israel is “occupying” those territories, as opposed to just 22.7% who agree with that characterization.
Israeli Arabs, however, were far more likely to believe Israel is occupying Judea and Samaria, with 71.5% perceiving Israeli control as occupation, versus a mere 15.3% who disagreed.
Israelis were more divided over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s declaration that “the Golan will remain part of the State of Israel forever," which many perceived as reaffirming Israel’s 1981 annexation of the area.

Abbas stop being a bully. Israel can’t occupy her own country

In order to keep Palestinians quiet for just a moment, like the teacher who appeases the “wicked” child, the UN, EU and USA mollify them hoping that there will be but a moment of peace and time to care for the others in need. But like all recalcitrant children who learn how to play the game, work the system, the Palestinians know if they apply enough pressure ,make enough noise that they will get the attention they want and the “cookie” that will silence them until the next tantrum.
Remember back in September when Abbas screamed
“We will not forsake our country and we will keep every inch of our land…The Al-Aqsa Mosque is ours. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is ours as well. They have no right to desecrate the mosque with their dirty feet, we won’t allow them to do that.”
Remember he screamed this after he had his bullies cowardly attack Jews over the Temple Mount.
Then later in October the Palestinians cried again about something (does it matter?) and in order to appease them UNESCO agreed to present a draft affirming “that the Buraq Plaza is an integral part of al-Aksa Mosque/al-Haram al-Sharif.”
This was done despite the fact that it is well known that the Temple Mount was built by and belongs to the Jews. Never let a fact get in the way of Jew hatred.

From Egypt Independent:

Egypt’s public prosecutor referred 67 defendants to criminal court on Sunday in the case of late public prosecutor Hisham Barakat’s assassination.

Barakat was killed on June 29, 2015 after a bomb targeted his motorcade. His assassination made him the most senior state official killed since militant attacks surged in Egypt in mid-2013.

The public prosecution's office said in a statement on Sunday that the State Security Prosecution’s investigation revealed that the defendants belong to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group and that they organised the assassination in coordination with the Palestinian movement Hamas.

The statement read that some of the defendants planned for the attack while others received combat training in Hamas camps on monitoring high-profile figures, preparing Improvised Explosive Devices and securing communication.

The prosecution’s referral order was accompanied with detailed confessions from 45 out of the 67 defendants, the public prosecution's office added in today's statement.

Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar accused in March Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood group of having planned and implemented the assassination.

He added that a Hamas member in Gaza was involved in the assassination.

Hamas has repeatedly denied any involvement i terrorism cases in Egypt, but it will be interesting to find out the specific details that come out during this trial.

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Shuafat is one of the tragedies of Jerusalem. Jerusalem ambulances, garbage trucks and fire trucks cannot enter the neighborhood without being stoned. Much of it is officially an UNRWA camp where services are supposed to be provided by that organization, but UNRWA all but ignores it as well. As a result, Shuafat is a crime-ridden, drug-infested, dangerous place with open sewers, huge piles of trash and little hope. While most of it is in the Jerusalem municipal boundary, it lies outside the separation barrier - it is a failure of Zionism as well that the Israeli authorities, after many years, simply gave up on trying to control this part of Jerusalem.

Into this vacuum stepped a young man, Baha Nababta.

By all accounts, Nababta worked tirelessly to help the residents of his neighborhood. He founded a number of social institutions in Shuafat to help troubled youth. Nababta was also the head of a local, volunteer fire department that worked with tools as crude as hammers to rescue people from burning houses. He created an emergency response team with over 50 volunteers to respond to all kinds of local emergencies from snowstorms to a team of motorcyclists who could protect Israeli emergency teams who must enter the camp. He helped pave roads, get rid of garbage - essentially every service taken for granted by residents of every other urban area

Nababta was not shy about asking for help from Jerusalem authorities or from liberal Israeli organizations, asking for basic medical and firefighting equipment. His local groups received training from Jerusalem municipal firefighters and from Jerusalem medics, and from all accounts they were happy to help. His main contact on the Israeli side was Dr. Meir Margalit, a Jewish member of the far left Meretz party.

This is probably the reason he is no longer alive.

Haaretz reported last week:

Baha Nababta, a well-known social activist in the Shoafat refugee camp in northern Jerusalem, was shot to death on Monday by an unknown assailant.

The murder occurred at about 11:30 P.M. on Monday, while Nababta stood with a large group of local residents near the paving work they had initiated. Witnesses said an unknown person riding a motorbike was looking for Nababta, and when he found him he shot 10 bullets at Nababta, seven of which hit him. Nababta was rushed to hospital but died a short time later.

Camp residents said on Tuesday that they did not know who the murderer was, but thought the murder was connected to his social activism.

We don't know who executed Baha Nababta but it seems likely that Palestinians who are against "normalization" were behind the murder.

This is the one week anniversary of the murder. The story was covered, barely, in Israeli newspapers (Jerusalem Post buried it on page 10, for example.)

Palestinian media ignored the story completely. Outside of social media I couldn't find one news story about this murder of a prominent social worker.

His death did not receive the headlines of those who are killed while trying to murder Jews. Nababta did not have a huge funeral. His Facebook page - which was quite active - does not have one person expressing condolences after his death.

I'm sure I wouldn't have agreed with Baha Nababta's politics, but he deserved a huge amount of respect for actually working to help his people instead of choosing to spend his life complaining and protesting. His work was heroic and his death is a tragedy by any measure for Arabs and Jews alike.

But perhaps the bigger tragedy is that his murder has been so roundly ignored by his own people.

The Palestinian leadership and media do not want to publicize anything that cannot be blamed on Israel, because their entire existence is based on "resistance," not on doing anything positive for their people. Nababta was guilty of the cardinal crime of "normalization" with Jews who wanted to help him and his fellow Arabs, and to Palestinians, that is unforgivable - and his murder is understandable if embarrassing to mention.

The execution of Baha Nababta, and the silence about his murder from not only Palestinians but from so-called pro-Palestinian activists, sends a message to all Arabs that working even with left-wing Jews is an unforgivable crime.

A person who should be hailed as an example to all Palestinians has been relegated to one of the many piles of garbage that he worked hard to eradicate.

Peace is impossible with a society that treats a true hero like Baha Nababta as a villain.

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This may be the actual Talmudic ritual!

Arabic media on Sunday warned of a new way that Jewish "settlers" are "defiling" the "Aqsa Mosque."

They are visiting the area - and being silent.

Apparently at some point in their circumnavigation of the site, on the east wall, the evil settlers stop and stand silently, which is according to the media a Talmudic ritual. But a witness says that the tour guide uses this time to spin a tale of lies about how there used to be two Jewish Temples on the site of the mosques that everyone knows has been sitting there for thousands of years.

The heroic Muslims defending the Al Aqsa Mosque from such extreme forms of provocation as silence make sure that they scream non-stop at the Jews so their evil schemes are thwarted.

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"Intellectual" believes that Saudi Arabia gives Israel billions of dollars a year

Seventh-rate academic Juan Cole writes that anti-Zionism cannot have anything to do with antisemitism, and he has five "intellectuals" to prove it, quoting an article in TeleSUR.

One of the towering examples of intellect is David Palumbo-Liu, who I've shown can get an astonishing number of facts wrong in a single paragraph.

On that very same day, that towering intellectual Palumbo-Liu tweeted this:

Did Money Seal Israeli-Saudi Alliance? https://t.co/1W8cLIpOxG via @truthout
— David Palumbo-Liu (@palumboliu) May 9, 2016

The article he links to, at conspiracy-theory hotbed TruthOut, says this:

According to a source briefed by US intelligence analysts, the Saudis have given Israel at least $16 billion over the past 2 ½ years, funneling the money through a third-country Arab state and into an Israeli "development" account in Europe to help finance infrastructure inside Israel. The source first called the account "a Netanyahu slush fund," but later refined that characterization, saying the money was used for public projects such as building settlements in the West Bank.

So the "intellectual" that academic Juan Cole thinks is so trustworthy believes that Saudi Arabia sends far more money to Israel and the US does - $6 billion annually - in order to build Jewish settlements (and turn the "Israel Lobby" to their advantage, of course.)

And the source is impeccable: "a source briefed by US intelligence analysts." How much more reliable can you get?

It's fun looking at how easily anti-Israel "academics" can not only lie but also believe the most absurd things, as long as it fits with their pre-existing biases of Israel being the world's most evil regime. Any pretense of academic rigor is not only missing, but actively discouraged.

It is a wonder that colleges employ these quacks.

Meanwhile, I need to ask the Saudis to send me a few hundred million, because I am very influential, as Electronic Intifada admits. As the US head of the Jewish Electronic Media Lobby, I can definitely help the Saudis achieve their political aims.

For a price.

UPDATE: Another "alternative news" site is claiming that Saudi Arabia gave $80 million to Netanyahu's re-election campaign, pretending that this was a Panama Papers revelation. Can't wait to see which intellectual giants will retweet that one.

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Al Ahram, the most widely circulated Egyptian daily newspaper, has an op-ed today by Ali Gad called "Jewish Talmudic Plans":

We read about the many plots that revolve around us, and we follow the views of politicians and specialists and analysts on the Middle East to understand: Why we are in conflicts that do not end, losing many lives and paying a heavy price economically, socially and psychologically? Why are we lacking security and safety in our countries? Why are all the wars of the world concentrated in the Middle East? Why are our societies spending more for weapons than for food? Why are the Arab peoples and us alone the lowest and poorest and least secure and with the least progress? Many questions revolve in our heads

A convincing answer to some of these questions are found in how the Jews plan to control the world. It is worth mentioning that the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and the intervention of Iran and Russia make the region politically divided, and that Israel is using this to implement the plan and achieve the teachings of the Talmud, where it instructs them to turn conflicts from political to sectarian. This is the secret of their attempts to ignite sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shiites to drain the Muslims' strength.

He goes on to "quote" Talmudic passages that supposedly prove it is a recipe for world domination, but I couldn't understand the examples well enough to translate.

Jewish Talmudic plans and their desire to enslave the world are written in the Talmud...The goal of the hidden conspiracy of the Jews is the actual control of the world, having has economic control and flood the world with their financial loans. America is living under a debt of $ 15 trillion, and France, hundreds of billions more, and like England, Italy, Spain and others, the question is: who lent these countries this money? Actual control does not come from conventional military occupation, but by placing all the existing governments and peoples under a unified global government.

If there was a crime against humanity don't look to the Arabs, but find the dominant force capable of moving the world between left and right, good and evil.

This is similar to the article last week we published a much smaller Egyptian publication, but this one concentrates on the Talmud as the reason for Jewish control.

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05/08 Links: Even Palestinian Leaders Want Jewish Doctors; Guardian claims Golan was ‘Palestinian’

From Ian:

Even Palestinian Leaders Want Jewish Doctors

Many Palestinian leaders frequently, and in utmost secrecy, ferry their loved ones to receive medical treatment in Israeli hospitals. They do not tell their people and they do not tell the Arab world. But when they need medical care, they reach out for the best medical care in the world—Israel.
Some would call it hypocrisy. Some expediency. When a loved one is ill, politics and enmities fall by the wayside. It is a game changer.
The cloak of secrecy is mandated because, in the Arab world, the optics would not look good at all. After all, Israel is portrayed as the oppressor, the evil persecutor, the murderer of Palestinians. How would it look across the world if it were known that privileged Palestinians utilize the skills of the forbidden and cursed Jewish Zionist State?
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ younger brother, Abu Louai, was recently treated in Assuta Hospital, a private hospital in Tel Aviv. Abu Louai is 76 years old and suffers from cancer. He lives in Qatar. The PA press has not and probably will not publish this information—neither will the rest of the Arabic press should they ever get the news.

Fred Maroun: The Arabs' Real Grievance against the Jews

The Arab world still does not today accept the concept of a Jewish state of any size or any shape. Even Egypt and Jordan, who signed peace agreements with Israel, do not accept that Israel is a Jewish state, and they continue to promote anti-Semitic hatred against Israel.
During Israel's War of Independence, Jews were ethnically cleansed from Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, and in the years that followed, they were ethnically cleansed from the rest of the Arab world.
Jews demand the right to exist, and to exist as equals, on the land where they have existed and belonged continuously for more than three thousand years.
We would rather claim that the conflict is about "occupation" and "settlements." The Jews see what radical Islamists are now doing to Christians and other minorities, who were also in the Middle East for thousands of years before the Muslim Prophet Mohammed was even born.
The real Arab grievance against the Jews is that they exist.

Guardian article claims that the Golan Heights were ‘Palestinian’

A Guardian article by Sian Cain (Michael Chabon witnesses ‘grievous injustice’ in occupied territories, May 6th) included the following paragraph, with background on the “Palestinian territories” Israel “entered” during the 1967 war.
Chabon and his wife, writer Ayelet Waldman, are contributing to and editing the as-yet-unnamed book of essays that will be published to mark the 50th anniversary of 1967’s six-day war, when Israel first entered the Palestinian territories: the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, parts of the Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip.
Of course, the Golan Heights were seized from Syria during the Six-Day War, and were never ‘Palestinian’ – even in the broadest sense of the term.
The passage conflates the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza (which were controlled by Jordan and Egypt respectively before the war, and now claimed by some Palestinians as part of their future state) with the Golan Heights, which were controlled by Syria since 1944. Whilst referring to the West Bank and east Jerusalem as “Palestinian territories” – rather than the ‘disputed territories’ claimed by Palestinians – is itself misleading, saying the same about the Golan Heights is simply inaccurate.