Israel’s official historical narrative often emphasizes a tragic past to garner international support. This narrative portrays Israel as the end of a history characterized by “Jewish tears, blood, and suffering” and the beginning of an era of liberation, particularly for the Jewish diaspora.
The Tears and Suffering Narrative:
In 1928, Jewish historian Salo Baron published a groundbreaking article titled “The Ghetto and Emancipation: Shall We Revise the Traditional View?” In it, he challenged the prevailing portrayal of Jewish history as a continuous saga of persecution dating back to pre-French Revolution Europe. He argued that this view unfairly depicted European Jews as perpetual victims, living in abject misery under medieval conditions, subjected to ongoing persecution and violence.
Baron’s scholarship rejected the idea that Jewish persecution was more extensive than that experienced by other racial or religious groups throughout history. He advocated for a more nuanced and historically accurate perspective on Jewish history, stating that it was time to break free from the narrative of “blood history” and adopt a more nuanced view of historical truth.
The Middle Eastern Jewish Experience:
Salo Baron’s work also highlighted the often-neglected history of Jews in the Middle East and North Africa. He pointed out that many Jews living under Islamic rule in these regions experienced relatively favorable conditions. However, this aspect of Jewish history is rarely acknowledged in Israel’s official narrative, which tends to view this history as a connected series of tragedies while ignoring the complex historical reality of Jews in Arab and Islamic societies.
A Distorted History for Political Purposes:
In a joint article, Israeli writers Leor Sternfeld and Menachem Anzuri discussed the dangers of framing Jewish history as an unending tragedy to serve political and propaganda purposes. They argued that this approach contributes to the creation of a “sad history” for Middle Eastern Jews, which is used to justify Israel’s contemporary policies.
Sternfeld and Anzuri cited the Israeli government’s manipulation of early Zionist history to support current events. They emphasized how Israel’s educational and cultural institutions are revisiting the history of early Zionism in a biased and politicized way, potentially exploiting claims of “anti-Semitism” in the Islamic world to further its own agenda.
The Manipulation of History:
The authors criticized Israel’s tendency to oversimplify and reduce the rich history of Jewish communities in the Middle East, erasing the diverse cultural and historical experiences of Yemenite, Moroccan, Egyptian, Iraqi, and Lebanese Jews. This oversimplification ignores the complex historical contexts and focuses on a narrative that portrays these Jews as living in misery until their “Zionist salvation,” despite the diverse and multifaceted lives they led.
The “Refugee” Label:
An interesting paradox lies in Israel’s narrative. While Israel insists that the Palestinian territories are the “original homeland” of Jews worldwide, it simultaneously labels Arab Jews who migrated to Israel as “refugees.” This creates a discrepancy between the legal and historical definitions of refugees and how Israel chooses to define its Jewish immigrants.
The “Victims of Victims”:
The late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said once referred to the Palestinians as the “victims of victims.” He argued that while Jews were rightly seen as victims of a long history of Christian persecution culminating in the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, Palestinians were portrayed as victims of these Jewish victims. This perspective questions the selective empathy of Western liberals who support other struggles for justice but often shy away from the Palestinian cause.
Israel’s historical narrative has long been shaped by a focus on suffering, victimhood, and tragedy to gain international sympathy. However, a more nuanced and accurate approach to Jewish history, including the diverse experiences of Middle Eastern Jews, is essential for a more balanced understanding of the past and a fair assessment of the complex issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
