Media Can’t Contain Excitement as ‘Nakba Day’ Brings New Opportunity for Absurd Analogie
Members of Israel’s Arab minority take part in a rally marking the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe”, when Palestinians lament the loss of their homeland in the 1948-49 war, that caused the creation of Israel, near the abandoned village of Khubbayza, northern Israel May 9, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad.
Another 15th of May, and another Nakba Day has come and gone.
Naturally, this year, the media had a field day. How could they not? The headlines proclaiming a “second Nakba” as Israel continues its war against Hamas in Gaza practically wrote themselves.
And while historical revisionism isn’t a new phenomenon on Nakba Day, this year saw journalists take a sledgehammer to the facts, rewriting the entire history of the Palestinian people.
Spoiler alert: Palestinians did not and cannot do any wrong. Whether Hamas terrorists are massacring Jews or firing rockets at the nearest Israeli target, Palestinians are eternal victims for Western journalists.
“A Brand New Catastrophe”
There are numerous contenders for the worst Nakba Day article, but two in particular stand out: an “explainer” from Sky News, and a CBS news article that frankly belongs in the opinion section.
First, Sky News. Opening its live page of Israel-Hamas war updates, the outlet published a piece titled, “Explained: What is Nakba Day?”
.@SkyNews‘ attempt to explain “Nakba Day” is a shocking piece of historical revisionism.
For example, Arab states rejected a UN partition plan & invaded the nascent Jewish state. Yet, Sky News says “Jewish paramilitaries swept in.”
And there’s more. https://t.co/vspSxvUZDq pic.twitter.com/QRxRZAW1NU
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 15, 2024
Unfortunately, the only thing the piece explained or revealed is the disturbingly limited knowledge of history possessed by the journalists at Sky.
The writer of the piece was, for example, unaware that the fledgling Jewish state was attacked by surrounding Arab states immediately after it declared its independence in 1948. Instead, the journalist mistakenly thought that “Jewish paramilitary forces swept in” and started fighting for the next 10 months.
The journalist was also under the impression that some historians had described Israel’s creation as “ethnic cleansing.” But because legitimate historians with that view don’t exist, none are named. Otherwise, someone would have to track down the historians and ask them how the 160,000 Palestinian Arabs who remained within the newly-formed Israel and gained full citizenship qualify as “ethnic cleansing.”
The Nakba explainer quickly fast-forwards to the 1967 Six-Day War, which readers are told was the result of a “festering territorial conflict” and “saw some 20,000 Arab troops die compared to fewer than 1,000 Israelis, [and also] saw the Jewish State claim further land.”
Once again, there is no mention that it was a defensive war in which Israel fought for its survival against multiple armies that had declared their intention to wipe Israel from the face of the earth. Instead, it seems that an uneven death toll on the two sides is indicative of who is right and who is wrong.
Nor is there any explanation that it was Jordan who was occupying eastern Jerusalem when the war broke out. The Jordanian occupation included the historical “Jewish Quarter” of the Old City, and Jewish holy sites.
Now, onto CBS News. Critiquing their article would be a waste of time, considering the primary problem with the piece is its complete absence of facts. It’s a few hundred words, doesn’t say much about Nakba Day, and appears to just be an excuse to take a few potshots at Israel.
But the headline of the article is another prime example of how too many media have made an inappropriate analogy between the events of 1948 and today.
Sky and CBS weren’t alone on the Nakba bandwagon.
The Associated Press fretted over a “potentially even larger catastrophe” than Israel’s founding, while CNN boasted about how “from one generation to the next, Palestinians aim to keep the history of al-Nakba alive,” among others.
A more accurate summary would have been, “From one generation to the next, Palestinian rejectionism and terrorism prevent them from ever achieving statehood.”
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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