At last, a noble lie

I am fascinated by Fareed Zakaria’s short interview on CNN with Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouti shortly after the surprising Hamas strikes in Israel on 7 October 2023. There is a lot going on in it.

I confess objections to many particulars. It was early enough that one had to be cautious about trusting any particular report, but it was already unmistakable that Hamas had committed atrocities and Barghouti was too coy about admitting that. In the quote I want to focus on below, I am salty that there is no maybe about Hamas’ refusal to recognize Israel — they are fundamentally committed to destroying Israel. I could grumble more, but I do not want to, because Barghouti also clearly expressed a lot more hard truth and moral clarity than I am accustomed to seeing on teevee. I found it refreshing to see a thoughtful voice speaking for Palestinian liberation on mainstream anglophone political media at all. I was tickled to see Zakaria disoriented but willing to give Barghouti space to say something substantive.

And starting at 1:10, I found one bit of rhetorical slight-of-hand thrilling —

This situation that has evolved is a direct result of the continuation of the longest occupation in modern history: Israeli occupation of Palestinian land since 1967. This is 56 years of occupation that has transformed into a system of apartheid, a much worse apartheid than what prevailed in South Africa. Yes, maybe Hamas did not recognize Israel, but the PLO did, and the Palestinian Authority did. What did they get? Nothing.

Barghouti here and throughout the interview makes the cause of Palestinian liberation entirely a question of Israel’s occupation of Gaza & the West Bank and the repression of Palestinians there. I want to focus on that, too. The occupation is indeed an unjust and brutal apartheid regime. Like countless principled observers on all sides have done for decades, I call for a two-state solution of a fully sovereign Palestinian state in Gaza & the West Bank, with Israel returned its pre-1967 Green Line borders.

Barghouti implies that this has always been the heart of the cause. He does not directly lie in making that implication, but he frames the story to mislead anyone who does not know the history, which of course reflects most of the CNN audience. Yes, the Palestine Liberation Organization did recognize Israel ... as part of the Oslo Accords in 1993, three decades after their founding in 1964 ... which was three years before the occupation, under a charter which clearly states the PLO’s commitment to a Palestinian state comprised of the whole of British Mandate Palestine: not just Gaza and the West Bank but also all of what was then and is now Israel.

Ordinarily this kind of legendermain annoys me. I hate how propagandists on all sides have made it maddeningly hard to understand even the most basic bare facts of history. But this myth is terrific. If a Palestinian movement wants to pursue a two state solution by pretending that it was the righteous dream of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in solidarity I will gladly pretend to forget the truth.