When the perception of history becomes a weapon: A reaction to the narrative of Zionism

Article by Tamás Vajda (Neokohn: When memory becomes a battlefield: what is „Palestinianism” really about?) presents the Palestinian-Israeli conflict not as a political and legal dispute, but as a consciously constructed set of lies called „Palestinianism.” However, the author’s argument not only ignores the real, 21st-century causes of the conflict, but also seeks to deprive a people of their own history of suffering and rights under the pretext of historical rights.

1. The myth of the „state that never existed” as an alibi

The author uses the most common Zionist topos: „A Palestinian state has never existed.” This claim is a legal sophism that neglects the fact that the community of the Palestinian people is not based on a state-law framework, but on its millennia-old attachment to the land. From the beginning, the Zionist project did not arrive on an „empty” land, but on a populated area where the population had concrete rights, land ownership, and community structures. To claim that someone has no right to their homeland just because they did not conform to a Western-style state form before 1948 is nothing more than the survival of a colonial mentality.

2. Historical connection as „moral superiority”

The article refers to the Islamic conquests of the 7th century to question the local attachment of the Palestinians. This kind of argument treads dangerous waters: if we look for historical rights in the 1500-year past, then the entire map of the Middle East can be redrawn. The historical attachment of the Jewish people to the territory does not invalidate the contemporary, documented presence of the Palestinians. The author tries to cover up this „inconvenient truth” by presenting the Palestinians as „foreigners”, while the state of Israel is – paradoxically – the very state of European Jewry that emerged as a result of modern, nationalist movements.

3. Reversing the victim narrative

Tamás Vajda's article accuses the Palestinians of copying a „history of Jewish suffering.” This accusation is cynical: the Palestinians are not „copying” the trauma of the Holocaust, but they experience their own trauma. The mass expulsion (Nakba), the blockade of Gaza, and the ongoing military occupation are not „falsification of history,” but physical, documentable facts. By labeling criticism of the existence of the Israeli state as „anti-Semitism” or „conscious manipulation,” the author effectively silences voices that want to speak out about human rights.

4. Golda Meir and the perpetual victim pose

The Golda Meir quote at the end of the article, that our neighbors „only want to destroy us,” has become more of a „card” of Israeli politics, which has been used to block peace for decades. This quote was written at a time when Israel had been occupying Palestinian territories for years. The narrative that Israel is constantly „fighting for its existence” hides the reality that Israel is a regional military power, fighting not for its existence but for its territorial dominance.

Summary

Tamás Vajda's article is not about historical truth, but about on the avoidance of political responsibility. The attempt to label Palestinians as „deliberate liars” serves only to avoid facing the moral cost of occupation. The struggle of the Palestinian people is not a battle of narratives, but a people’s struggle for recognition, the right to a home, and equal human dignity. Memory is indeed a battlefield, but the battle is not decided by „truth” but by who is willing to recognize the right of another people to life.

Sources:

The following sources help to delve deeper into the Palestinian narrative and support the historical and legal arguments made in the critique of Tamás Vajda's article. These sources examine the conflict from a critical, often post-colonial or human rights perspective.

1. Historical perspective and the Nakba

• Ilan Pappe: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

  • Why is it important: Pappé is one of Israel's most renowned "new historians." His book documents the events of 1948, proving that they were not merely "consequences of war," but a premeditated ethnic cleansing operation aimed at expelling the Palestinian population.

• Walid Khalidi: All That Remains

  • Why is it important: This work comprehensively documents the Palestinian villages that were destroyed in 1948. It is an essential source for debunking the myth that "Palestine never existed.".

2. The colonial and apartheid framework

• Amnesty International: Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians (2022)

  • Why is it important: The organization’s comprehensive legal analysis of how Israel’s actions meet the international legal definition of apartheid. This document elevates the „security issue” narrative to the level of human rights.

• Edward Said: The Question of Palestine

  • Why is it important: Said, the father of post-colonial theory, shows in this work how the image of Palestine, which is also represented in the article cited by Tamás Vajda, was formed in the Western media and politics. The author's argument is about the right of the Palestinians to political self-determination.

3. Criticism of the Zionist narrative

• Rashid Khalidi: The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

  • Why is it important: Khalidi, a professor at Columbia University, describes the conflict as a century-long „colonial war” in which the Palestinian people are fighting against an outside power-backed settlement in their own homeland. It’s an excellent counterpoint to the „ancestral rights” argument.

4. Alternative Israeli professional voices (refuting the unified narrative)

• B'Tselem (Israeli human rights organization): A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea

  • Why is it important: This document proves that the disenfranchisement of Palestinians in Israeli political thinking is not a technical error, but the result of a systemic strategy aimed at maintaining "Jewish supremacy.".

5. International context

• UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) its meanings:

  • Why is it important: UN reports (especially the work of special rapporteurs such as Francesca Albanese) consistently document violations of international law in Gaza and the West Bank, providing objective, legal support for the Palestinian cause against accusations of „moral obsession.”.