In two weeks, Palestinians around the world will commemorate their forced displacement in 1948, known as the Nakba. Falling just five days after Israel’s independence day, Nakba day has become a global event on which Israel’s foundation myths are revisited, rejected and recast.
Every nation has foundation myths. In many cases, they consist of sloppy acts of historical revision designed to inspire a specific brand of nationalism. During Thanksgiving, for example, Americans engage in collective cognitive dissonance about the violent settlement of the United States with rituals pretending that Native Americans and settlers peacefully broke bread together.
Israel’s foundation myths are no different. They are predicated on a narrative of victimhood that wilfully ignores the unsavoury behaviour of Israel’s founding generation.
As the story goes in Tel Aviv’s retelling, Israel was little more than a small settlement when the Second World War broke out. Without the resources to fight Nazi Germany, Israelis focused on statehood by fighting the British, who controlled Palestine by mandate.
With the British retreating and refugees pouring into Palestine in the late 1940s, Israel fought a war of independence with neighbouring Arab countries that had rejected the United Nations plan to partition historic Palestine.
The picture is, of course, much more complex, as former London mayor Ken Livingstone found out last week. In comments defending Labour MP Naz Shah from allegations of anti-Semitism based on her support for moving all Israelis to the US as a solution to the conflict, the Labour party politician said Hitler had supported Zionism in the 1930s.
For segments of the British left connected to the Palestinian issue, equating Zionism with other extremist nationalist ideologies is a core component of their thinking. In 2001, parts of the British left strongly supported efforts to have Zionism labelled as a movement based on racial superiority at a UN conference on racism in South Africa. The efforts failed, but the connection between Zionism and racism has remained a driving force for Palestine activism in Britain today.
While Mr Livingstone’s comments about Hitler’s support of Zionism were incorrect, they didn’t come out of thin air. Beginning in the late 1980s, a group of Israeli historians have systematically revisited the country’s foundation myths and challenged them with newly released records from Israel’s state archives.
The so-called new historians uncovered explicit evidence of Israel’s plans to carve out a state by conquering Palestinian villages and conducting a regime of terror to scare Palestinians out of their homeland, regardless of the UN partition vote. Israel’s pre-state foreign policy was also put under the microscope.
Israeli historian Tom Segev discovered documents connecting the Jewish Agency, a Zionist organisation tasked with bringing Jews to Palestine, with the Nazi party. Segev documents in his respected book, The Seventh Million, how the Jewish Agency entered into a transfer agreement with Nazi Germany in 1933 to facilitate the emigration of 20,000 German Jews to Palestine.
Segev argues that the agreement was based on the “complementary” interests of Nazi Germany and the Zionists in Palestine: “the Nazis wanted the Jews out of Germany, the Zionists wanted them to come Palestine”.
While Hitler might have been aware of agreement, to say that Hitler supported Zionism based on this episode alone is quite a stretch; and for that, Mr Livingstone has been rightly condemned for his ill-informed statements. There has been similar controversy about the involvement of pre-state Israeli militias with fascist Italy.
The Stern Gang, a Jewish extremist group that carried out attacks against British forces in mandate Palestine, also sought links with European fascists in the 1930s and 1940s. Led by Avraham Stern and later Yitzhak Shamir, who would become Israel’s prime minister in the 1980s, the Stern Gang attempted to align itself with Mussolini’s Italy. According to the historian Joseph Heller in his book, The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics and Terror, 1940-1949, a draft agreement was created that would see the transfer of Jews under Axis control to Palestine and include Axis military assistance to Israel’s nascent army. Eventually, the plans to cooperate with the Italian fascists were scrapped altogether but the matter remains a source of controversy.
State building is a nasty business and the lines of acceptable behaviour are often blurred. This is not unique to Israel: every country has its dark spots. What is unique, however, is that these foundation myths continue to play such a dramatic role in the debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
While Mr Livingstone has done the Palestinians no favours with his incorrect recasting of history, Israeli politicians such as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have also cynically recast the events of the Second World War for their own political gain.
The more historians continue to uncover buried facts from Israel’s foundation period, the more politicians and activists will twist these facts for short-term gain. The gulf between rhetoric and reality will have to narrow if there is any hope for an honest narrative about the pivotal events of 1948.
jdana@thenational.ae
On Twitter: @ibnezra
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
The Two Popes
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce
Four out of five stars
Coffee: black death or elixir of life?
It is among the greatest health debates of our time; splashed across newspapers with contradicting headlines - is coffee good for you or not?
Depending on what you read, it is either a cancer-causing, sleep-depriving, stomach ulcer-inducing black death or the secret to long life, cutting the chance of stroke, diabetes and cancer.
The latest research - a study of 8,412 people across the UK who each underwent an MRI heart scan - is intended to put to bed (caffeine allowing) conflicting reports of the pros and cons of consumption.
The study, funded by the British Heart Foundation, contradicted previous findings that it stiffens arteries, putting pressure on the heart and increasing the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke, leading to warnings to cut down.
Numerous studies have recognised the benefits of coffee in cutting oral and esophageal cancer, the risk of a stroke and cirrhosis of the liver.
The benefits are often linked to biologically active compounds including caffeine, flavonoids, lignans, and other polyphenols, which benefit the body. These and othetr coffee compounds regulate genes involved in DNA repair, have anti-inflammatory properties and are associated with lower risk of insulin resistance, which is linked to type-2 diabetes.
But as doctors warn, too much of anything is inadvisable. The British Heart Foundation found the heaviest coffee drinkers in the study were most likely to be men who smoked and drank alcohol regularly.
Excessive amounts of coffee also unsettle the stomach causing or contributing to stomach ulcers. It also stains the teeth over time, hampers absorption of minerals and vitamins like zinc and iron.
It also raises blood pressure, which is largely problematic for people with existing conditions.
So the heaviest drinkers of the black stuff - some in the study had up to 25 cups per day - may want to rein it in.
Rory Reynolds
Business Insights
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Ammar 808:
Maghreb United
Sofyann Ben Youssef
Glitterbeat
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
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Company%C2%A0profile
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The language of diplomacy in 1853
Treaty of Peace in Perpetuity Agreed Upon by the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast on Behalf of Themselves, Their Heirs and Successors Under the Mediation of the Resident of the Persian Gulf, 1853
(This treaty gave the region the name “Trucial States”.)
We, whose seals are hereunto affixed, Sheikh Sultan bin Suggar, Chief of Rassool-Kheimah, Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon, Chief of Aboo Dhebbee, Sheikh Saeed bin Buyte, Chief of Debay, Sheikh Hamid bin Rashed, Chief of Ejman, Sheikh Abdoola bin Rashed, Chief of Umm-ool-Keiweyn, having experienced for a series of years the benefits and advantages resulting from a maritime truce contracted amongst ourselves under the mediation of the Resident in the Persian Gulf and renewed from time to time up to the present period, and being fully impressed, therefore, with a sense of evil consequence formerly arising, from the prosecution of our feuds at sea, whereby our subjects and dependants were prevented from carrying on the pearl fishery in security, and were exposed to interruption and molestation when passing on their lawful occasions, accordingly, we, as aforesaid have determined, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, to conclude together a lasting and inviolable peace from this time forth in perpetuity.
Taken from Britain and Saudi Arabia, 1925-1939: the Imperial Oasis, by Clive Leatherdale
Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
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Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
Copa del Rey
Barcelona v Real Madrid
Semi-final, first leg
Wednesday (midnight UAE)
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65
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LUKA CHUPPI
Director: Laxman Utekar
Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Cinema
Cast: Kartik Aaryan, Kriti Sanon, Pankaj Tripathi, Vinay Pathak, Aparshakti Khurana
Rating: 3/5
Women & Power: A Manifesto
Mary Beard
Profile Books and London Review of Books
Naga
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Expo details
Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia
The world fair will run for six months from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
It is expected to attract 25 million visits
Some 70 per cent visitors are projected to come from outside the UAE, the largest proportion of international visitors in the 167-year history of World Expos.
More than 30,000 volunteers are required for Expo 2020
The site covers a total of 4.38 sqkm, including a 2 sqkm gated area
It is located adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South
Jawan
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'The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey'
Rating: 3/5
Directors: Ramin Bahrani, Debbie Allen, Hanelle Culpepper, Guillermo Navarro
Writers: Walter Mosley
Stars: Samuel L Jackson, Dominique Fishback, Walton Goggins
The%20specs
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Ticket prices
- Golden circle - Dh995
- Floor Standing - Dh495
- Lower Bowl Platinum - Dh95
- Lower Bowl premium - Dh795
- Lower Bowl Plus - Dh695
- Lower Bowl Standard- Dh595
- Upper Bowl Premium - Dh395
- Upper Bowl standard - Dh295
The figures behind the event
1) More than 300 in-house cleaning crew
2) 165 staff assigned to sanitise public areas throughout the show
3) 1,000 social distancing stickers
4) 809 hand sanitiser dispensers placed throughout the venue
