State Department website purges Jewish history

The State Department has stealthily been overstating the numbers of 'Palestinian refugees' on its website, while ignoring Jewish refugees. Web snapshots indicate that the State Department has increased the supposed numbers of 1948 “Palestinian refugees” from the 2002-2004 versions of its website. All available versions of the website grossly overstate the real number of Palestinian refugees, while continuing to ignore the Jewish refugees who had to flee for their lives from Arab lands. Elisabeth Berney reports in The Jewish Star (with thanks: Desi):

"Alarmingly, from day one, the Obama administration has adopted what is essentially Arab Palestinian revisionist history: Islam and Islamic nations are glorified; Jewish history has been thrown down a “memory hole,” and Jews are viewed as “invaders” of “Palestinian” Arab land. In Cairo, Obama ignored the historic connection of the Jewish people to Israel, instead claiming that the aspiration of Jews to have a home in Israel was “rooted” in the European Holocaust, and blamed the establishment of the State of Israel for the “dislocation,” “suffering,” and “humiliation” of Palestinians.

"Obama’s Cairo speech was part of an extremely disturbing pattern. When Obama took office, apparently a modern-day version of Orwell’s history re-writers and expungers quietly revised the U.S. State Department’s official descriptions of the countries of the world on the department’s public website. The website now glorifies Muslim nations’ thousands-of years long histories, language, archeology, and contributions to science, culture and poetry — and has completely eliminated millennia of Israel’s history, language and contributions to culture, science and the world. (..)

The official U.S. State Department description of Israel’s history starts just a little over 100 years ago, with efforts “initiated” by Theodore Herzl for a sovereign homeland for Jews “in Palestine.” The State Department gives absolutely no indication that a single Jew ever lived in Israel prior to recent decades, or that Jews remained in Israel throughout the millennia. None of the numerous archeological sites left by Israel’s ancient Jewish inhabitants are mentioned.

Instead, the State Department leaves the false impression that the region was a Palestinian entity and then suddenly Herzl came up with the idea of inserting a Jewish state. Simply put, the State Department blackout of Israel’s history assists the fraudulent Palestinian narrative.

In addition, in contrast with glowing descriptions of Muslim countries’ cultures and languages, the State Department’s official description of Israel never mentions the ancient Hebrew language or Israel’s historical (or recent) cultural, religious, poetic, artistic and scientific contributions to the world. Unlike their rare Arab counterparts, Israel’s prominent Nobel laureates are never mentioned.

The State Department description of the “people of Israel” also promotes the false claim that Jews are usurpers of the land who all originate from outside of Israel:
“The three broad Jewish groupings [in Israel] are the Ashkenazim, or Jews who trace their ancestry to western, central, and eastern Europe; the Sephardim, who trace their origin to Spain, Portugal, southern Europe, and North Africa; and Eastern or Oriental Jews, who descend from ancient communities in Islamic lands.”

The real “origin” and “ancestry” of Sephardim, Ashkenazim and Eastern Jews –– namely, dispersed Jews who had lived in Israel in past eras –– is not mentioned. The State Department also neglects to mention that today’s “people of Israel” includes Jews whose ancestors lived in Israel through thousands of years of turmoil and persecution.

Moreover, the State Department’s mention that Israel’s people includes Jews who “originated” in Arab lands does not explain that 870,000 Jews came to Israel as refugees from Arab lands; having fled for their lives in the face of Arab persecution, including Iraqi laws which made “Zionism” punishable by death; burnings of synagogues and hundreds of Jewish homes in Syria; pogroms in Baghdad, Morocco and Yemen; and expulsions of Jews from Egypt, Yemen and Libya. (My emphasis - ed)

By contrast, the State Department frequently describes people in Muslim lands as “Palestinian refugees” and greatly exaggerates the number of individuals who might conceivably qualify for Palestinian refuge status. Jordan’s people are claimed to include “approximately 1.7 million registered Palestinian refugees;” Syria’s people “some 500,000 Palestinian… refugees;” and Lebanon “about 400,000 Palestinian refugees, some in Lebanon since 1948.”

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