GAZA MEDIA MYTHS (WITH CARTOONS)

Stripping Gaza of Its Myths: Three media distortions of Israel's historic 'disengagement' from Gaza (HonestReporting)

With Israel's painful withdrawal from 25 settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank now complete, it's time to review media coverage of this historic process. While much of the coverage presented events in a straightforward and accurate manner, some media myths emerged that demand debunking before they receive greater resonance. Interestingly, each of the myths were promulgated in part via editorial cartoons, [reprinted in the full article]:

MYTH 1: GAZA ISRAELIS ARE SIMILAR TO 1948 PALESTINIAN REFUGEES

This side-by-side comparison is convenient and pithy, but in truth there's very little in common between the two groups. Palestinian Gazans became refugees as a result of Arab-initiated wars they largely supported in 1948 (after Palestinian rejection of the UN partition plan) and 1967. On the other hand, Israeli Gazans were evacuated this summer in a unilateral effort to bring greater calm and hope for peace to the region.

MYTH 2: PALESTINIANS ARE RECEIVING THEIR 'NATIVE' GAZA BACK

Palestinian Arabs never had sovereignty in Gaza ― before Israeli control in 1967, Egyptians ruled Gaza, and before them, the British and Ottoman Empire. The appropriate response to this Palestinian-Indian comparison (also stated here) was penned by David Yeagley in FrontPage Magazine:

Many people see a similarity between American Indians and today's Palestinians. I'm Comanche Indian. I see no similarity whatsoever. There's no similarity in the land claim issue [since] Palestinian Arabs are not indigenous to Palestine. During [622-1922] Palestine was little more than a wilderness of nomads, loosely associated groups of provincial subdivisions with frequently changing administrations... It wasn't considered "Palestine," a separate Arab nationality, until the 1967 Six-Day War...

MYTH 3: GAZA WITHDRAWAL WAS AN ISRAELI PLOY TO HOLD ONTO WEST BANK

These portrayals of the Gaza withdrawal distort the fact that Israel remains committed to its roadmap pledge to halt settlement growth in the West Bank. (This, while the Palestinian leadership continues to flout its roadmap obligation to uproot terrorist organizations.). The dispute over continued building in the Maale Adumim area hinges on the definition of that community's municipal boundaries ― not the essential validity of the roadmap.

Observers from across the political spectrum have recognized that the Gaza withdrawal marked a significant shift in Ariel Sharon's approach to the settlements. Yet these cartoonists and their print counterparts persist in painting Sharon as a meanspirited, imperialistic conqueror.

[The media has downplayed] Israel's tremendous unilateral concession of sacrificing entire communities for the sake of engendering peace. The 'disengagement' was a traumatic process that nearly tore Israel's fragile social fabric in half. To deny that fact reveals these journalists' commitment to portraying Israel in a bad light regardless of the reality on the ground.