Debunking 5 Lies That Justify Occupation

No. Peace deals and ceasefires are constantly violated by Israel, thus decreasing trust between Palestinian authorities and Israel. At the time of writing, mutual hostage agreements have been reached between Hamas and Israel. However, considering Israel's repeated history of violating deals, we should approach today's news with caution. For example, in February, a ceasefire deal struck was violated 962 times. Moreover, international peace agreements often come at the cost of Palestinian autonomy. Even worse, legislation is written with loopholes to allow for Israel's never-ending escalation. For more information, refer to 'How Palestine is Abandoned in International Relations' and 'The Invisible Deaths of Palestinians in Israeli Custody'

No. The Zionist movement is not the same thing as Judaism. Zionism is the belief in a Jewish national homeland. Judaism is an Abrahamic monotheistic ethnic religion. Not every Zionist is a Jew. In fact, many Zionists, were, and still are, antisemitic. For example, Lord Balfour, namesake of the Balfour declaration, believed in keeping Jews out of Britain and expressly believed the creation of a Jewish national homeland would serve his antisemitic goals. Not every Jew is a Zionist. Many Jewish advocacy groups today have been outspoken against Zionism and Israel's ongoing occupation of Palestine. Moreover, in the Zionist movements early beginnings, many Jewish intellectuals rejected ethnic and religious separation.

This Argument relies on mentions from the Book of Joshua, using religious stories that are often not taken literal to justify ethnic cleansing. Decades of fieldwork across the southern Levant do not corroborate the Book of Joshua's account of the annihilation of Canaanite cities. Ze'ev (Zev) Herzog, then head of Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology, summarized the mainstream view: there is no archaeological trace of a mass Exodus, Sinai wanderings, or a swift conquest and allotment to 12 tribes. At most, the "United Monarchy" of David/Solomon was a small chiefdom.

The notion that Rome expelled an entire people from Judea after 70–135 CE lacks support in Roman administrative records and in archaeology. Israel J. Yuval shows the "exile after the Second Temple" story was later theologized; most Jews were not forcibly deported en masse, and Jewish presence in Palestine continued. The political slogan "return after exile" is often presented as singular, but the record shows population continuity and religious shifts across centuries instead. Many Jews in the region either voluntarily left, or converted to Islam and are Palestinians today.

Palestine has existed for centuries. Herodotus refers to "Palaistinē Syria" in the 5th century BCE; Rome renamed the province "Syria Palaestina" in the 2nd century CE; and the Byzantine state later subdivided it into Palaestina Prima/Secunda/Salutaris. Israeli colonists didn't even deny this because, at the time, colonialism was normalized. They referred to Palestinians as an indigenous population they had to colonize, and even had a "Palestinian Colonization Association."

Ignoring all of this, even if the biblical memories of Jews in modern day Palestine, this doesn't decide sovereignty. Standards apply separate of what ancestors did 3,000 years ago because 1) There was a population living there before the Jews would have lived there and 2) By this Zionist logic, Italians have a right to exist in all of Europe because of the Roman Empire

Palestine has long had overlapping communities, Judaean/Israelite, Samaritan, Christian, Muslim, changing through conversion, migration, and empire. Many present-day Palestinians descend in part from ancient local populations, just as many Jews descend from multiple diasporic lineages. Using one selective thread of antiquity to negate the others is historically thin.

Claim 4: Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East

No. A democracy, at its core, cannot fundamentally oppress its minority groups. Israel continues undemocratic practices by denying Palestinians access to their homeland while simultaneously carrying out ethnic cleansing. The state of Israel defines itself as an entirely Jewish. The democratic idea of 'majority rule' only applies to members of the Jewish faith. That's why the state tries to remove religious minority (non-Jewish) citizens. The nation quite literally cannot be democratic due to its focus on preserving its Jewish demographic majority. Moreover, the Israeli government silences dissenting groups and individuals. Famously, Ilan Pappe, anti-Zionist Israeli historian and author, is censored across all of Israel and unable to teach at colleges or high schools in the country simply due to his calls for one democratic state with equal rights. Censorship is not a characteristic of democracy.

Claim 5: Hamas started the conflict on October 7th

No. Ever since 1948, Israel has encroached upon Palestinian territory and escalated violence. Simply put, Hamas and other forms of resistance are a reaction to Israel. With the violent Nakba displacing around 750,000 Palestinians, resistance began. The conflict did not start 2 years ago. Zionist arguments that claim so aim to delegitimize and overlook decades of Israeli acts of violent settler colonialism.