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WHAT IS HASBARA? The term hasbara has been receiving quite a bit of attention in Israel during the past few months, and even people living outside Israel are becoming familiar with the term. But what does it really mean? Hasbara is a word from the Hebrew language and is the noun form of the verb l'hasbir which means 'to explain' or 'to account for'. It was originally connected to the official position of the Israeli Government. For this reason it acquired a connotation of propaganda. However, the word is now used in a broader sense and has come to mean 'explaining Israel's case.' Sometimes it is from a position other than that of the official government one. Many ask why Israel has to explain its position. The answer lies in the reality that Israel has had to defend its existence from hostile Arab neighbors who have not ceased to call for Israel's destruction from the time the country was established in 1948. Israel has been forced to defend itself from these attacks. Arab aggression has been in the form of military actions such as wars and terrorist activities. And in non-military forms, such as, launching trade embargos, boycotts and presenting continuous unremitting extremely hostile propaganda vilifying everything about the State of Israel. No other country in the world has had its very existence threatened for so long and with such vehemence. Is the argument just over land or does it run deeper? The answer lies in the fact that the land known as Israel is bound up with the religion of the Jewish people and that this is where the term 'Holy Land' originated. It is a holy land for a holy people. And what is holy about the Jewish people? It is the fact that they have always been set apart from all other peoples 'a people that dwell alone' according to tradition. It was to be a unique land for a unique people. The Palestinians will not accept this as they know they cannot claim such an unusual connection to the land. After all, there is no such thing as a separate Palestinian religion connected to what they call Palestine. Palestinians are Arabs. The Arabs came from Arabia which is now the country of Saudi Arabia. Palestine was acquired by the Arabs through conquest in 638 CE. Notwithstanding this, since the times of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the return of their descendents from slavery in Egypt some time later, the Holy Land has always been inhabited by Jewish people, although the numbers have ebbed and flowed with the times. To place the matter of land ownership in perspective, from time immemorial many others have owned land in the Holy Land, including, more recently, the non Arab, Muslim Ottoman Turks who acquired the land by conquest and ruled it from 1516 to 1917. Later, their subjects, the majority of whom were landless Arab peasants, acquired parcels of land mostly by way of squatter's rights [a concept established in the English legal system]. Some of this land ownership was lost to the Jewish state as a result of wars initiated against the Jewish state by the surrounding Arab countries to which the local Palestinians always claimed close kindred connection. Parcels of land in the Holy Land have been continuously redeemed by the Jewish National Fund since 1902. In fact, much of the 1967 borders contour the land already purchased by the Jewish National Fund and others during the 65 years previous to 1967. Moreover, every so called 'settlement' has been built on land legally belonging to the State of Israel. This is according to international law because the alleged 'West Bank' was acquired from Jordan in a defensive war in 1967. At the time, Israel was defending itself from Syrian aggression in the north and Egyptian aggression in the south and did not want to engage Jordan in the east and open a third hostile front on which to fight for its life. In fact, Israel had warned the late King Hussein of Jordan to stay out of war but he did not heed this warning. In 1948 the late King Abdullah of Jordan had acquired the areas of Judea and Samaria which are now known as the 'West Bank.' They were then under British control by the Mandate. The borders of the 'West Bank' were simply the 1949 Armistice lines and had nothing to do with any historic considerations. The Mandate was created to establish a Jewish National Homeland which included all land west of the Jordan River. King Abdullah and his army, the Jordanian Arab Legion, aggressively attacked the newly reborn State of Israel and in the process captured this land. In 1988, King Hussein of Jordan unexpectedly and unilaterally renounced all claims to the so called 'West Bank.' So the land not only belongs to Israel, as it was originally intended as the Jewish National Homeland, but also belongs to Israel as the victorious party in a defensive war. Israel's rights to Judea and Samaria were and are further re-enforced as a result of Jordan renouncing all claims. Moreover, the late King Hussein made no written agreement with the Palestinians. He did not assign his claims to them. If an agreement had been reached between King Hussein and the Palestinians, it stands to reason that he would not have renounced all claims. Therefore, the State of Israel is thus the lawful owner of this land on all counts. Israel's position is hotly challenged by the Palestinians who routinely invent facts and concepts to support their case. They have always claimed that based on Islamic law, the whole of the Holy Land belongs to the Arabs as the Arabs once conquered it. And even if the same land is, in turn, conquered by another party, it stills belongs to them. They do not accord this right of conquest to any other people. As stated above, Israel re-acquired Judea and Samaria in a victorious defensive war. This is a parallel situation to European countries re-conquering, hundreds of years ago, lands once occupied by the Arabs. But, according to Arab logic, countries such as Spain, and modern Hungry and Romania still belong to the Arabs. The Israel Hasbara Committee will seek to explain the case of Israel and the Jewish people in many different ways to demonstrate its roots and legitimacy. The purpose is to educate the general public so they can reach balanced viewpoints on current disputes and not be swayed by irresponsible rhetoric and statements by those who simply do not know the facts or who, for their own agenda, ignore or distort the facts. When lies and distortions are continually perpetrated, people begin to believe them. To counter this, it is the obligation of people involved in hasbara work to repeat the truth as often as the lie as repeated. Copyright © 9 June 2002, Israel Hasbara Committee |