{"id":273740,"date":"2024-09-16T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=273740"},"modified":"2024-09-14T05:47:36","modified_gmt":"2024-09-14T04:47:36","slug":"cartography-of-genocide-why-netanyahu-erased-palestine-from-the-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/09\/cartography-of-genocide-why-netanyahu-erased-palestine-from-the-map\/","title":{"rendered":"Cartography of Genocide: Why Netanyahu Erased Palestine from the Map"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank. (Photo: video grab)<\/p><\/div>\n

12 Sep 2024 <\/em>– When asked why his latest map has erased the whole of the West Bank, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retorted with the most detestable answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t include the Dead Sea. It\u2019s not shown on the map. I didn\u2019t show the Jordan River. It\u2019s not on this map. I didn\u2019t show the Sea of Galilee,\u201d was Netanyahu\u2019s response.<\/p>\n

The Israeli leader must have known that neither the indigenous population of Palestine, nor the occupied territories of West Bank and East Jerusalem \u2013 which are recognized as such under international law \u2013 are topographical or geographical phenomena.<\/p>\n

It should be obvious that Netanyahu has deliberately\u00a0erased<\/a>\u00a0the West Bank from his map, which he displayed on September 2, in another one of his tirades on why Israel must maintain \u2018security control\u2019 over Gaza. There are plenty of reasons to demonstrate that this assertion is true.<\/p>\n

One, Netanyahu has erased Palestine and the Palestinians from his previous maps as well, with the prime example being his \u2018New Middle East\u2019 map, which he proudly\u00a0held<\/a>\u00a0during a United Nations General Assembly speech in September 2022.<\/p>\n

Two, because Netanyahu does not even recognize such a term as the West Bank in the first place. Even in his defense of why his latest map of Israel has swallowed the West Bank, he responded by saying that he \u201cwas talking about Gaza\u201d, not \u201cJudea and Samaria\u201d.<\/p>\n

The biblical reference to the Palestinian homeland fits perfectly into the prevailing Israeli political discourse, now championed by the most ardent far-right, ultranationalist extremists in Israeli society. Israel\u2019s current regime simply does not believe that Palestinians have any historical claim or political rights and aspirations in their own land. Among a long stream of such comments, a few stand out.<\/p>\n

For example, in March 2023, Israel\u2019s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich denied the existence of Palestinians during a private memorial service in Paris. There is \u201cno such thing as Palestinians because there\u2019s no such thing as the Palestinian people,\u201d he\u00a0said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the erasure of Palestinians requires action, violent action. On June 23, he\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0during a press conference: \u201cThe Land of Israel must be settled, and a military operation must be launched. (We must) demolish buildings, eliminate terrorists, not one or two, but tens and hundreds, and if necessary even thousands. The Land of Israel is for the people of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, of course, Netanyahu himself, who in March 2019,\u00a0stated<\/a>\u00a0that Israel is \u201cthe national state, not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a discourse is backed by action, namely the constant expansion of illegal Jewish settlements, the slow ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities from various regions in the West Bank and a government program that, in April 2020, agreed to annex large parts of the occupied region.<\/p>\n

Three, Netanyahu rejects the very discussion on a Palestinian State. He even\u00a0pushed<\/a>\u00a0a law at the Israeli Knesset that opposed the establishment of a Palestinian State because it would pose \u201can existential danger to the State of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilize the region\u201d.<\/p>\n

The law represents the pinnacle of Netanyahu\u2019s political career, which was largely dedicated to thwarting any attempt to achieve a negotiated solution based on international law. Palestinian hopes of establishing a sovereign State \u201cmust be eliminated\u201d, Netanyahu\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in July 2023.<\/p>\n

So, it comes as no surprise that the Israeli leader does not see the need to demarcate any other entity in his delusional maps, aside from that of Israel.<\/p>\n

Ironically, as part of his response to criticism, Netanyahu did mention the word \u2018Palestinians\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a whole issue of how to achieve peace between us and the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria,\u201d he said. Even then, his statement denied the Palestinian people any entitlement to peoplehood, let alone statehood.<\/p>\n

For him, Palestinians are nomadic beings who, by mere historical incident, ventured into his biblical land, in which they have no claim or right.<\/p>\n

But, even then, Netanyahu continued to lie, as he has done the exact opposite of \u2018achieving peace\u2019 with Palestinians. Instead, he is in an active process of exterminating them.<\/p>\n

On May 20, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan requested the issuing of arrest warrants for several Israelis and Palestinians. Lead among them is Netanyahu himself, who is\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0of \u201cextermination\u201d, \u201cwillful killing\u201d and other \u201cinhumane acts as crimes against humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n

In fact, Netanyahu\u2019s controversial map only highlighted the borders of Gaza, merely so that the Israeli leader may present a case of why his killing campaign in the Strip must continue. In his previous maps, even Gaza itself was erased.<\/p>\n

We have long argued that Israel is a settler colonial entity that can only exist through constant expansion at the expense of the territorial and political rights of the indigenous population.<\/p>\n

Now, most of the world can see this truth manifesting itself daily, everywhere in historic Palestine.<\/p>\n

The international community must abandon its silence and hold Israel accountable to international law through active pressure and direct sanctions. Those who use genocide as a convenient political tool have no place among law-abiding nations.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of <\/em>The Palestine Chronicle. His last book is <\/em>The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press, London) and his forthcoming book is <\/em>These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is <\/em>www.ramzybaroud.net<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ramzybaroud.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 Sep 2024 – When asked why his latest map has erased the whole of the West Bank, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retorted with the most detestable answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":273741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3182,3277,87,865,866,475,3298,427,639,1025],"class_list":["post-273740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-balfour-declaration","tag-eretz-israel","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-netanyahu","tag-ottoman-empire","tag-palestine","tag-uk","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273742,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273740\/revisions\/273742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}