October 8, 2023 – Palestinians examine the destruction of Al-Amin Muhammad Mosque in Khan Younis, after Israeli airstrikes. Photo by Mahmoud Fareed, Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimage, on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
In the aftermath of Hamas’ attacks on October 7, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israeli toddlers were found with their heads decapitated in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz located about 5 kilometers to the east of Gaza. Describing his horror at the sight of images of these atrocities, US President Joe Biden declared his unconditional support for Israel’s “war on terror” in Gaza. Despite the subsequent denial of the occurrence of such atrocities by Israeli officials and the White House walking back on the claims that Biden had seen said images, these fabricated allegations were enough to garner unconditional Western support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Atrocity allegations serve as potent war propaganda tools, often preceding the conquest of indigenous populations. Imagined scenes of horror like decapitated infants violate universal values and awaken deeply-rooted anxieties, eliciting visceral reactions against their alleged perpetrators. Rational discourse and customary legal processes are deemed insufficient to address the feelings of terror evoked. By “crossing the bounds of what is humanely acceptable,” the alleged criminals are considered to have forfeited their own humanity, and their destruction is de facto justified.
The recurrent use of atrocity allegations to mobilize support for war efforts, and the devastating impact of these allegations on indigenous populations, underscore the necessity for a critical examination of the mechanisms that lend credibility to such claims.
May 2, 2011 – The New York Times front page displayed on a newsstand with the headline, “Bin Laden Killed by U.S. Forces in Pakistan, Obama Says, Declaring Justice Has Been Done.” Photo by R4vi on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Orientalist imagination and atrocity allegations
Every war of the 21st century in the Middle East has been preceded by its own set of atrocity allegations. These allegations were used to fuel the neverending war on terror initiated by President George W. Bush and carried on by his successors. The war on terror significantly differs from traditional wars, portraying itself as a moral crusade against an invisible, untraceable, and demonic enemy. Pitting the West, its democratic values, and the virtues of defending individual freedoms against the Arab-Muslim world, the war on terror repeatedly relied on Orientalist stereotypes to stoke universal outrage and foster support for war efforts. Arab culture was caricatured as a cult of terror and religious fanaticism to frame Arab men as terrorists.
As soon as the allegations against Hamas were debunked, the truth itself became irrelevant despite the catastrophic consequences of the lies. Countless documented, broadcasted, and even self-declared Israeli atrocities in Gaza that even targeted children, did not diminish Western support for Israel’s ongoing genocide. In its justification of the carnage, Israel blames its victims: To them, Palestinian women and children are human shields and all Palestinian men are terrorists. This binary and simplistic mantra was readily taken up by Western media outlets.
Contrary to popular belief, Israel does not need to exert much pressure to influence the editorial policies of The New York Times and CNN for them to systematically regurgitate Israeli propaganda. Orientalist preconceptions influence journalistic perspectives. Understanding how their entrenched beliefs lead them to confidently repeat that Palestinian civilians are being used as human shields requires a dive into the work of a notorious Orientalist, Raphael Patai.
1945 – Snapshot of Raphael Patai leaning against a wall. Photo from The New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division. Image modified.
The myth of child sacrifices
Born in Budapest, Raphael Patai was a zealous Zionist who founded an organization in Hungary to support Jewish settlement in Palestine under the British mandate. He moved to Jerusalem himself in 1933, where he became a prominent Orientalist scholar. In 1983, he published his encyclopedia of Arab stereotypes, The Arab Mind, a seminal book in Middle Eastern studies that provided the theoretical framework for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In his book, Patai emphasizes Arab men’s strong sense of honor, suggesting they would sacrifice their own children to restore their honor after a military defeat. According to Patai, child sacrifice is a cultural practice distinctive of Arab societies. Patai’s claims echoed the Biblical depictions of Canaanite child sacrifice rituals by immolation to the god Moloch. Yet the nature of these rituals on sacred sites called “Tophets” was never confirmed by archaeological evidence. Some historians suggest that allegations of child sacrifice were first fabricated by Romans as part of their war propaganda against Carthage. However, popularized by Gustave Flaubert’s Orientalist novel Salammbô, the narrative of child sacrifices continues to shape Western views of contemporary Levantine culture.
1760 – Map of Canaan or Holy Land, divided among the twelve tribes. Published by John Bowles in London. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.
Zionism and the Land of Canaan
The occupation of Palestine employs the narrative of a Jewish claim of ownership over the ancient Land of Canaan, an undefined territory in the present day Levant. This smokescreen camouflages another typical case of Western occupation under the guise of a religious struggle that demonizes dissent. The reenactment of Orientalist stereotypes and Biblical mythology is a fundamental component of Israeli hasbara (propaganda). This practice echoes old colonial narratives that resonate with Western audiences and weaponizes their historical sense of guilt.
The question of the Jewish “people” first arose within Judeophobic nationalist circles in 19th-century Germany . They were the first to theorize Jewishness as a distinctive ethnic race that emanated from a faraway Jewish national territory. In the early 20th century, Zionism emerged as an answer to this Judeophobic theory by acquiescing that Jews cannot be patriots of their homelands. Weary of past antisemitic persecution and having attained some level of acceptance in society, liberal and conservative Jews at the time vehemently rejected Zionism. Migrating to Palestine meant undoing years of efforts to be acknowledged as equal members of European societies. However, Zionism gained traction in marginalized Eastern European communities and became a predominant line of thought after the horrors of the Holocaust.
In the wake of the Second World War, questions about the fates of the defeated colonial empires were answered with the 19th-century nationalist ideal of self-determination. All peoples would be granted the right to govern the territories they inhabit and establish sovereign independent states. However, this right was not granted to religious communities. It was, therefore, essential to portray the Zionist colonization of Palestine as the historical right of the Jewish “people” to return to their homeland: the Biblical “Land of Israel”. The transformation of Judaism into Jewish nationalism was espoused by the colonial branding of Palestine as Terra Nullius– a no man’s land, thereby giving birth to the infamous mantra “A land without a people for a people without a land.” The mythological writings of the Bible were reframed as a foundational history to solidify the myth of an ethnological Jewish race with a national identity in the modern state of Israel.
Backed by Biblical references to exile, this historical framing posited that the Jewish “people” were forcibly uprooted from their land after the destruction of Herod’s Temple in 70 CE by the Romans. This narrative would be echoed in Israel’s declaration of statehood. However, there is a substantial lack of evidence supporting the occurrence of such an exile. Zionists conveniently forget that Judaism was a proselytizing religion since the 2nd century BCE, meaning that conversion played a significant role in spreading the Jewish faith throughout the Mediterranean. In fact, it is highly plausible that the Jews of the time of the First Temple became the Palestinians of today.
In its endeavor to demonstrate the inherent patriotism of the Jewish people towards the land of Israel, Zionist historiography intentionally conflates the spiritual Jewish longing for a heavenly country with a patriotic attachment to the physical land itself. Contrary to the myth skillfully woven into Israel’s Declaration of Independence, Jewish longing for the Land of Israel represents a spiritual aspiration for redemption. Its reinterpretation into a desire to relocate to the Holy Land and hasten redemption and the arrival of the Messiah is considered by Jewish law an affront to the divine will.
1896 – Map of Cannan from page 275 of “The Art Bible, comprising the Old and New Testaments: with numerous illustrations.” The map shows the territorial divisions among the twelve tribes of Israel as described in the Book of Joshua. Published by George Newnes, London. Internet Archive Book Images on Flickr (CC0 1.0).
Reenactment of biblical myths
In Israel, the Hebrew Bible is taught as a pedagogical historical text in secular high schools, asserting that the Land of Canaan was bestowed by God upon the true children of Israel forever. Contemporary Israeli scholarship also refers to the indigenous Arabs in Palestine as “Arabs of the Land of Israel,”cynically portraying them as occupiers of the land.
The Book of Joshua, favored by Zionist circles, narrates the Israelites’ conquest of the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, Moses’ successor. It details the settlement of Canaan by the Israelites who were commanded by God to eradicate its inhabitants, the Canaanites: “So Joshua struck the whole land. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded” (Joshua 10:40 ESV).
The Bible is best classified as “mythistory”. It reframes past events as evidence of the plan and wonders of a singular god to entice followers of the Jewish faith. Zionism presents the Bible as a straightforward history book. Palestinians become the Biblical Canaanites and their ethnic cleansing a divine will.
November 2, 1917 – The Balfour Declaration. A letter to Lord Rothschild expressing support for a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. United Kingdom Government signed by Arthur Balfour. Wikimedia Commons.
Zionism and Protestant colonialists
In the early 20th century, Britain saw a massive influx of Jewish migrants fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe. Fierce political pressure to curb Jewish immigration into Britain aligned with the Anglican Church’s prophecies and British interests of securing a colonial foothold in the Middle East, resulting in the Balfour Declaration (1917), which led to a massive migration of European Jews to Palestine.
Proto-nationalist sentiments in late 16th-century Britain contributed to the emergence of the first “Zionist” ideas among Anglicans, who favored the Hebrew Bible over the New Testament and were the first to perceive the Old Testament as a history book. The Hebrew Bible does not advocate “turning the other cheek”: It exalts the Promised Land and the uncompromising struggle of “chosen people” that are meant to seize it from the idolatrous. This narrative constituted the theological grounds for British colonial ambitions to control the Suez Canal and Palestine.
December 9, 1917 – The Mayor of Jerusalem, Hussein Salim al-Husseini, surrenders the city to two British sergeants. Photo by Lewis Larsson, from the Library of Congress, Matson Photograph Collection.
British interest in controlling trade routes to the East translated into their desire to establish an imperial foothold in the Middle East. Since Britain had no subjects in the region, the Christian Zionist notion of settling Jews in Palestine became their strategic means to bypass Ottoman control. British Christian Zionists believed the “return” of Jews to Palestine would fulfill a Biblical prophecy, bringing about the Second Coming of Christ that would annihilate the Jews and Christianize the world. This belief resonated deeply with diverse Protestant streams and endures in contemporary Evangelical beliefs.
December 11, 1917 – Ismail Haddad Bey reading General Allenby’s proclamation of martial law in Arabic at the Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem. This event marked the formal British control over the city. Photo by the American Colony (Jerusalem) Photo Department, from the Library of Congress, Matson Photograph Collection.
The theological argument for the Jewish settlement of Palestine informed British politics and their endorsements of colonial initiatives like land acquisition, infrastructure development, and the creation of agricultural colonies. The 1865 Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) was a colonial endeavor to map Palestine and locate sacred sites from the ancient Bible, a blueprint for subsequent Zionist efforts. During the 19th century, the flourishing commerce in the East attracted Western travelers to Palestine. Their hunger for empire, meshed with their profound contempt for the local Arab population, directly influenced the evolution of Orientalist scholarship within Western intellectual circles.
April 24, 2022 – Orthodox Jews participate in the Al Quds Day rally in London, holding signs declaring “The Zionists Ignited the Fire Both Now and in the Past”. Photo by Alisdare Hickson on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Zionism and American Evangelists
During his visit to Israel on October 21, 2023, Biden assured Netanyahu and his war cabinet saying “I don’t believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist.” Today, many American Evangelical groups support Israel financially and diplomatically. Similar to the Protestant colonialists, Evangelists also believe that a strong and large Israel will hasten the advent of Jesus’ universal rule on Earth. Their impact is not insignificant as Evangelists constitute a substantial voting block in the US.
In his speech marking the 100th day of the genocide in Gaza, Hamas spokesperson, Abu Obeida, cited the “arrival of red heifers” from Texas to Israel as one of the motives behind the October 7 attack. Jewish scripture details the specifications of a red heifer – down to its age and color –that would be sacrificed in a cleansing ritual to allow the building of the Third Temple and the ushering of end times. Israel’s Minister of Agriculture circumvented laws to allow the heifer’s import and, on their arrival in September 2022, the Israeli Minister of Heritage announced he was funding the development of the Mount of Olives where the heifers are to be sacrificed. Israeli authorities’ intentions to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque are no secret, as the sacrifice of the heifers is a pretext to eliminate the holy Muslim site and sever Palestinian connection to their land.
October 21, 2023 – Over 300,000 people demonstrated in London in solidarity with Palestinians, decrying Israeli actions as genocide. Protesters carried signs like “This is a Genocide” to voice their outrage. Photo by Alisdare Hickson on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Genocide in Gaza, a modern-day crusade
Zionism manipulates and weaponizes Jewish scripture to justify its colonization of Palestine, drawing parallels with Western colonizers’ historical perception of the Levant through the lens of the Bible. Their exploitation of scripture serves as political cover for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, by uniformly describing dissident voices as antisemitic.
In keeping with the theme, Biblical mythology often warns against the arrogance leading rulers to their downfall. During its ongoing genocide in Gaza, the Israeli army’s Education Corps has been officially distributing an anthology of poems titled Hineni (Here I am) to commanders and soldiers. These poems attempt to frame the war on Gaza as a modern-day crusade, drawing parallels to the biblical Israelite fight against the Philistines and portraying their ethnic cleansing as the will of God. These poems draw on Biblical mythology such as the myth of Samson and his final act of revenge against the Philistines to incite military revenge. One of these poems titled Haki Lanu Azza (Gaza is waiting for us) references the Prophet Amos saying “On your walls of Gaza, every infant’s head [will be] broken on the rock.” The distribution of these poems may constitute a written official military instruction to commit genocide. The distribution of these poems could amount to genocidal intent being directly instructed to Israeli armed forces in the ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Making both the Israeli leadership and the members of its armed forces liable to prosecution.
Historian Joseph Massad draws a significant parallel between Algeria’s liberation and the current situation unfolding in Gaza. Despite a massive propaganda campaign by the French administration depicting FLN fighters as “locusts” and portraying itself as a savior of the Algerians, and despite the killing of over 300,000 Algerians, Algeria ultimately won the war for liberation and declared its independence in 1962. Past colonialist narratives faltered despite massive propaganda and incredible savagery. Today, Israel’s genocide in Gaza is a sign of the impeding defeat of the Zionist colonial project. The realization that the loss of settler-colonial power is imminent drives colonial forces to employ the most barbaric methods to suppress the indigenous people’s revolt. Israel’s actions reflect a desperate struggle in its final years before it is dismantled and replaced by a decolonized, non-racial state.
Sirine Germany
Sirine Germani is a Lebanese painter and researcher with an MFA degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy, France. Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. in philosophy, where she focuses on the topic of cultural homogenization within the global art market and the influence of Western cultural hegemony. Her doctoral thesis explores the intricate dynamics between art, culture, and power.
- Sirine Germany
