Hufvudstadsbladet Israeli history Media activism media bias

It Didn’t Take Long…….

Finland’s Swedish language news daily, the Hufvudstadsbladet comes clanging out of the chute like a bull with a burr caught in its backside, in a deliberate attempt to color the history around the beginnings of the Jewish state.

Tundraman: HBL has done it again: it presents Israel on two whole pages (14-15) in today’s edition of the paper.

In a separate corner of facts, titled “Israel och de ockuperade territorierna” (Israel and the occupied territories), there is a timeline of historical events, including a series of maps, starting with 1947 and the UN partition plan which, according to HBL “gave the Jews 56% of the territory”. However, the outright lie comes next to the year 1948:

“Araberna förkastar planen. Israel förklarar krig. Vid eldupphör 1949 kontrollerar Israel 75% av Palestina” (The arabs reject the plan. Israel declares war. At cease fire 1949 Israel controls 75% of Palestine). ISRAEL DECLARES WAR??? While the Arabs ONLY REJECT THE PLAN??

There are other issues on those pages as well, but those are minor compared to this. For example, the time line mentions 1967 but then only! 1991 and 2005 and separately 2005 when Israel pulled out of Gaza, but it says that “Området ses dock fortfarande som ockuperat” (“The area is, however, still perceived to be occupied”). It doesn’t say by whom, and under the facts there are the following sources mentioned:

The Israeli Embassy in London, Times Atlas of World History, Encarta, SGB/TT/Reuters. The two pages include three headlines, the first and biggest of which is difficult to translate “Landet på ständigt undantag” (“The country constantly set aside” – but “undantag” also means “exception”…). The other two headlines are “Kulorna var min introduktion till livet här” (“Bullets were the introduction to my life here”), and this story is about an activist in the political organization Machsom Watch which resists the occupation and tries to ease the life of the Palestinians.

The third headline is “Varför står jag ut?” (“Why do I endure?”) and is an interview with a young female soldier serving without arms. Half of the total space is taken by a black and white photograph of passanges behind wires on the first ship Exodus (looks a lot like pictures from the concentration camps). And the reporter is…? Mats Gezelius

Gezelius avoids telling the truth even inside his article. he says “Självständighetsförklaringen följdes av ett hårt krig mot den nya statens arabiska grannar som såg Israel som ett neokolonialt projekt, ett försök att sona Europas brott på arabernas bekostnad” (The declaration of independence was followed by a hard war against the new state’s Arab neighbors who perceived Israel as a neo-colonial prject, an effort to make amends for the crimes of Europe at the expense of the Arabs).

THERE IS NO MENTION ON WHO ATTACKED WHO, SO IT DOES NOT CONTRADICT THE LIE IN THE FACT CORNER. If this is not giving miles of space to the Palestinian version of history and totally ignoring the other party – what is?

Al Avai: What’s remarkable, is that even if he had relied on Wikipedia, he would have got a more accurate version of events. Basically the article falls under the general category that “any defense by Jews or Israel is basically offensive.” The article says in essence that Israel was founded on an offensive war and therefore has no right to exist.

Tundraman: Well, to be honest, the Wikipedia is also quite vague on this point. It does not say that five Arab countries attacked Israel after the declation of independence, but that “the War, commencing immediately on the termination of the Mandate on 15 May 1948, was fought mostly on the territory of…”

True enough, in the more detailed information it says that “on 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of the state of Israel, and the 1948 Palestine war entered its second phase, with the intervention of several Arab states’ armies the following day.”At least there was an act “intervention” with a clear subject (“several Arab states’ armies”), but it DOES talk about a “second phase”…

But here is one more sample of “HBL in Israel”, i.e., Mats Gezelius today: “Kriget 1948-1949 blev det första i en rad krig som fortsätter än idag. I det så kallade sexdagarskriget 1967 erövrade Israel bland annat Gaza, Västbanken och Golanhöjderna, territorier där tre och en halv miljon palestinier fortfarande 40 år senare lever under israelisk militär ockupation. Israels historia är historien om dess krig och konflikter: överlevnadskrig och erövringskrig, påtvingade krig och självvalda krig”. “

The war in 1948-1949 became the first in a row of wars which continue until this day. In the so called six-day war in 1967 Israel conquered among other (territories) Gaza, the West bank and the Golan heights, territories where three and a half million Palestinians still 40 years later live under Israeli occupation. The history of Israel is the history of its wars and conflicts: wars of survival and wars of conquest, wars forced upon it and wars chosen by itself.”

KGS: These journalists are viewing the history of Israel and the conflict with the Arabs through the “rose colored lenses” of the leftists, who swallow whole heartedly the propaganda of the Arabs and their stooges, the revisionists of Israeli history. In what happens to be a matter of excellent timing, the FPM published an article by Professor Steven Plaut, concerning the myth around the Naqba (Arabic for disaster) that’s supposed to be describing the founding of the Jewish state of Israel. As with most things concerning the history of the ME conflict, the Arabs would like for nothing better to hide this little piece of history from the world’s attention.

Plaut: Speaking of Palestinians as Syrians, it is worth noting what one of the early Syrian nationalists had to say. The following quote comes from the great-grandfather of the current Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad:

“Those good Jews brought civilization and peace to the Arab Muslims, and they dispersed gold and prosperity over Palestine without damage to anyone or taking anything by force. Despite this, the Muslims declared holy war against them and did not hesitate to massacre their children and women….

Thus a black fate awaits the Jews and other minorities in case the Mandates are cancelled and Muslim Syria is united with Muslim Palestine.”
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That statement is from a letter sent to the French prime minister in June 1936 by six Syrian Alawi notables (the Alawis are the ruling class in Syria today) in support of Zionism. Bashar’s great-grandfather was one of them.”

Too bad the Arabs didn’t listen to these philo-Jewish Arabs back in 36, no, instead they listened to Hajj amin al-Huseini, the grand Mufti of Jeruslem at the time of partition. Instead of peace and understanding, they recieved an ultimatum of depart or total war. So the HBL refuses to mend its ways, lets see if the HS and YLE will be following suit. *L* KGS
NOTE: It must be said that this timeline was most likely readied before yesterday’s meeting with the media, and rumur has it that corrections to the time line are already in the pipe line.

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