Debunking The Founding Myths of Israel | Palestine This Week with Mouin Rabbani

In this week’s episode, we take on some of the most persistent myths used to justify Zionism, erase Palestinian dispossession and rewrite the history of the Nakba. We begin with the claim that Arab conquest expelled Jews over the centuries, before examining how this distorted reading of history is used to present Zionism as a “return of Jews to their ancestral homeland” rather than a colonial project.

We then turn to the Nakba, challenging claims that Israel was founded on legally purchased land, that the 1948 war was a war of annihilation against Israel and that Palestinians left because Arab leaders told them to evacuate. The episode also unpacks the accusation that Palestinians want to “push Jews into the sea”, before addressing post-Nakba myths about Jewish refugees from Arab states and the claim that mass displacement after the Second World War makes the Palestinian case unexceptional.

Get your copy of ‘Gaza Apocalypse’ by Mouin Rabbani: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gaza-apocalypse/

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction & Overview

02:05 Myth #1: “Arab conquest expelled Jews over the centuries”

16:17 Myth #2: “Zionism is not colonialism”

29:19 Myth #3: “Israel was founded on land purchased by early Zionists”

32:59 Myth #4: “The 1948 war was a war of annihilation against Israel”

44:45 Myth #5: “Palestinians fled because Arab leaders ordered them to evacuate”

51:11 Myth #6: “Palestinians want to push Jews into the sea”

56:42 Myth #7: “Jewish refugees from Arab states cancel out the Palestinian right of return”

57:02 Myth #8: “Population displacement was normal after WW2 — why single out Israel?”