From: Ali Abunimah
To: World@MSNBC.com
Cc: preston.mendenhall@msnbc.com
Subject: Golan: Great report, terrible timeline

January 10, 2000

Dear MSNBC,

I was impressed by Preston Mendenhall's report on the perspective of the Syrians who live in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, about the prospect of an end to the Israeli occupation of the Syrian territory and their experience under Israeli rule.

(Golan Heights Druze ponder new, life http://www.msnbc.com/news/353762.asp)

This perspective has been largely ignored by the media, who have focussed intensely on the experience and future of the Israeli settlers who live in the Golan Heights. While Mendenhall's report was generally informative, interesting and fair, I think it should have mentioned the fact some 100,000 other Syrians were forcibly evicted or fled from the Golan as result of Israel's occupation of the area in 1967. I thank you for this great report, nevertheless.

Unfortunately the "timeline" which sits alongside the report was very biased, and inaccurate.

I note that the timeline was supplied by the "Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America" (a.k.a. CAMERA, www.camera.org). If you visit this group's website, or ask many of your colleagues at CNN, the New York Times, and especially National Public Radio, you will learn that CAMERA is in fact a hardline, pro-Israeli organization whose real agenda does not live up to its admirable name.

I believe MSNBC may have included their timeline in good faith, but without fact-checking it and without being aware of CAMERA's political agenda. Below I will go through the timeline point by point and explain the inaccuracies and deliberate deceptions. Should you wish for more information, or other references, I would be very glad to provide them. Following this letter, I have attached a rebuttal I wrote to a CAMERA advertisement falsely accusing National Public Radio of anti-Israeli bias.

Some of the inaccuracies in the "timeline" are serious material misrepresentations and prejudicial omissions. Others may seem arcane and irrelevant today, but when history is being misrepresented by some in order to justify Israel's present day policies, it is important to set the record straight, and that organizations like MSNBC report accurately and without bias.

The "timeline" contains the following statements. I will follow them with my comments as appropriate. The timeline says:

"1920 Jews forced from Golan after rash of Arab rioting."

I could not find any accounts of these events in a number of Israeli and other histories of the region that I consulted. For example Howard Sachar's "A History of Israel," (New York: Knopf, 1979) generally considered sympathetic to Israel, makes no mention of such events. Sachar states only that Israel's hardline expansionist movement felt that the Golan Heights and other areas captured in 1967 should be settled by Jews and "should once more be brought under [Jewish] cultivation as in the days of King Solomon" (p.709). While Sachar mentions other areas captured in 1967 from where Jews were evicted prior to the establishment of Israel, such as the Etzion Bloc of settlements in the West Bank, there is no mention of the Golan Heights as such a place.

The "timeline" states:

"1944: The Golan Heights becomes part of the Republic of Syria. The French mandate ends, nullifying Jewish land ownership there. Sunni Muslims, Circassians, Druze, a small Christian minority and other small groups settle in the region."

The first sentence is extremely deceptive, the second plain wrong. When read by a person of average intelligence with little or no knowledge Syrian history, the first sentence might suggest to them that the Golan Heights were attached to the already existent Republic of Syria in 1944. In reality it means something else. The Golan Heights were part of Syria since the borders in the Middle East were demarcated by the British and French in 1923. The population living there for generations, even before this demarcation were Arabs, with cultural and economic ties to other Arabs in the region. Syria was under French control since World War I, until it gained its full independence as the Republic of Syria in 1944. Hence, the Golan Heights did not become part of Syria in 1944, rather it was Syria that became independent of French rule (although the final withdrawal of French troops did not occur until 1946). There is also absolutely no connection between Jewish property ownership in Syria and the end of the French Mandate. Syria has an ancient community of Arab Jews. While many were encouraged by Israel to emigrate, and others left because they felt hostility in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict (and a growth of anti-semitism as a result of the conflict), Syria still has a Jewish community in Damascus, who own their property like any other Syrians.

Also, the Arab population in the Golan Heights was long settled, as the many ancient villages forcibly depopulated or abandoned in 1967 attest. Most of them did not, as the timeline suggests, settle after 1944. They were already there.

The "timeline" continues:

"1949: Israel and Syria sign armistice after three months of negotiation.
"1948-67: Syria establishes stronghold on the Golan to attack Jewish communities in Israel's Hula Valley".
"1951: Syria moves forces into the demilitarized Banyas area of the Golan."

The above statements cast Syria as an aggressor, when in fact Syria scrupulously observed the armistice. It was Israel that first violated the demilitarized zones and provoked Syria. Israeli historian Avi Shlaim writes:

"It is usually forgotten that Israel enjoyed a year and a half of peacful relations with Syria after the conclusion of the armistice agreement in July 1949 and that the first military clash, in the Spring of 1951, was Syrian response to an Israeli attempt to change the status quo in the border area." (Avi Shlaim, "The Iron Wall," New York: Norton, 2000, p. 68)

Israel's policy, as Shlaim goes on to describe, included the expulsion of Syrian farmers from the demilitarized zone, the establishment of Jewish settlements in the area, the introduction of soldiers disguised as civilians and farmers in violation of the armistice, and blocking UN personnel from entering the areas to carry out their mandated work. Israel began plowing and digging in Syrian land, and destroyed and expelled the populations of two Syrian villages. Syria's response was to complain to the UN armistice commission, but Israel had a deliberate policy of noncooperation with the UN. Violence erupted when Israel sent a military patrol into the DMZ, disguised as civilian police. Syrian forces shot at the Israelis killing several of them, thus ending the ceasefire (Shlaim, pp.71-72).

As for Syrian shelling of Israeli settlements in the Hula valley in the period leading up to the 1967 war, it was Moshe Dayan himself, Israel's fabled general and defence minister who admitted that more than eighty percent of the incidents were deliberately provoked by Israel, and motivated by a desire for territorial expansion. (see "General's Words Shed a New Light on the Golan," New York Times, May 11, 1997) [see also letter to MSNBC, December 16, 1999]

The "timeline" continues:

"1967 Israel captures control of the Golan in the 1967 Mideast War."

The entry for 1967 makes no mention of the more than 100,000 Syrians forced to leave their homes in the Golan Heights. This is a gross omission.

The next entry states:

"1967-1973: Jews settle the Golan, creating nature reserves and agriculture, industrial and tourist enterprises."

This entry fails to mention that Israel's settlement policy violates international law prohibiting civilian settlements in occupied territory, and specific UN Security Council resolutions which declare Israel's settlement policy to be illegal. The entry is clearly phrased in such a way as to present the Israeli settlements as benign and fruitful, and thus to elicit the reader's sympathy with them. In the absence of any information about the 100,000 Syrians forced to leave their homes, this is grossly unfair and biased.

Two entries later, the "timeline" states:

"1981 Israel officially annexes the Golan, replacing military rule with civilian rule. The move was never widely recognized by the international community."

In fact no country, including the United States, recognizes Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, and UN Security Council resolution 497 declares the annexation "null and void," and orders Israel to rescind the decision forthwith. An objective timeline would mention this.

Finally, the "timeline" states:

"1995: There are 32 Jewish communities, including the city of Qazrin, four Druze villages, one Sunni village and one Alawite village on the Golan."

This statement makes the situation appear that there is a thriving Jewish population, mentioning 32 Jewish communities and a "city," while the Syrian population is made to appear insignificant, with only five villages mentioned. In fact, the two populations are almost exactly equal in number at about 17,000 each. The 17,000 Syrians are only the remainder of the much bigger population that was forced to leave in 1967 and who are hoping to return to their homes.

In the light of these gross distortions, I think it is inappropriate to present CAMERA's viewpoint as an objective "timeline," and I would suggest that you produce an accurate one as many readers would find it useful. I hope you will attend to this as soon as practical.

Sincerely,

Ali Abunimah
ahabunim@midway.uchicago.edu

[see also CAMERA attack ad on NPR is full of distortion and inaccuracy]