In this conversation, Dr. Akram M. Lilja discusses the severe impact of Israeli bombardment on Gaza’s cultural heritage. UNESCO has reported the damage to 22 significant sites as of January 25, including religious sites, historically important buildings, cultural property repositories, a monument, a museum, and archaeological sites. Key locations like the historic Great Al-Omari Mosque, … Read more
Join us for a screening of the acclaimed documentary, 1948: Creation and Catastrophe, which tells the story of the establishment of the state of Israel through the eyes of the people who lived it and were affected by it. Through riveting and moving personal recollections of both Palestinians and Israelis, in addition to conversations with … Read more
By Yousef Munayyer
Arab villages were destroyed. The state of Israel destroyed Arab villages.
Do you see the difference there? The first sentence is in the passive voice and absent of any agency. Who destroyed the villages? We are not told in the first sentence. All we are told is that the villages “were destroyed.” The second sentence does not suffer from this ambiguity. It makes clear who the active agent is, in this case, the state of Israel, and that it “destroyed Arab villages.”
By Yousef Munayyer
Over at Vox, blogger Max Fisher has a post up entitled “40 Maps That Explain the Middle East.” If such a title makes you cringe, you are not alone. Often these types of posts which attempt to provide context do more to obscure reality and explain the creator’s biases more than anything else. I am not going to dwell on each map. I won’t claim to know enough about the nuanced political and historical geography in every one of these maps to offer a detailed critique here. However, one thing I do know very well is the nuanced political and historical geography of Palestine and particularly the events around the Nakba. These events are supposedly represented by map number 16 on Max’s “explanatory” list entitled “Israel’s 1947 founding and the 1948 Israeli-Arab War.”
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