Propaganda is like a weed, it grows slowly and can become very invasive, to the point of chocking the truth into oblivion. The main goal of propaganda is to promote and spread lies about any person, event or topic to destroy their reputation and lead gullible people to commit words or actions against them. Josef Goebbels was Nazi Germany's Minister of Propaganda. Nobody can forget the scope and reach of his campaigns. Propaganda is devious and patient like the proverbial "frog in the pot". Israel is that proverbial frog, and it continues to be boiled in the pot of unfounded antisemitic and anti-zionist accusations.

In the 1960s, after Yasir Arafat was placed in the Middle East as the leader of the newly formed PLO
(Palestinian Liberation Organization), propaganda started to spread across the region and soon after, around the globe. Ignoring a long geo-political history of colonization mostly out of France and Great Britain, the world started to focus on Israel's "colonization of Palestinian land." It would take time for that weed to take root, but eventually it led to further accusations of "occupation." so, what is occupation exactly?

Mirriam-Webster defines occupation as follows: "control and possession of hostile territory that enables an invading nation to establish military government against an enemy or martial law against rebels or insurrectionists in its own territory." It is all about control of foreign territory by military force.

Encyclopedia.com adds details to that definition by stating: "Military occupation occurs when a belligerent state invades the territory of another state with the intention of holding the territory at least temporarily. While hostilities continue, the occupying state is prohibited by international law from annexing the territory or creating another state out of it, but the occupying state may establish some form of military administration over the territory and the population." The Nazi occupation of parts of Western Europe during WW2 is a perfect example of what occupation really is.

So, occupation always carry a very negative connotation, being associated with words such as "belligerent", "invasion" and "hostilities." At the core of their meaning, colonization and occupation are related, at least as they both have an expansionist goal in mind. If Israel is guilty of occupation, a strong case can be made for the dismantling of parts of the Jewish state, and all of a sudden, anti-Zionism becomes a virtue. The question remains: "Is Israel occupying Palestinian land?"

Based on the Balfour Declaration (1917), the San Remo Declaration (1920), and the UN Vote to partition Palestine in 1947, there is a legal case for Israel to exist in its current location. The case was made legal in San Remo when the Balfour Declaration–until then a non-binding document stating the intentions of the British government–became a legal, binding document. Keep in mind that the entity known as "Palestine" had to be created for the Jewish people to return to such a place, but the land mass already existed, and was known as Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel.)

The accusation of occupation of Palestine by Israel is based on a false premise that Palestine was a piece of land belonging to the "Palestinian people" long before Israel ever existed. There are no verifiable, trustworthy documents validating that claim, when there are historical, geographical, archeological and biblical records to validate the existence of Israel for the last several millennia beyond the shadow of a doubt, for those who care about the truth. But what about the occupation of the Gaza Strip?

In 2005, the Gaza Strip was cleared of any Jewish occupants and left to the Palestinian authority to rule on their own. Financing started to flow in. The UN and many NGOs got involved, but before long, Hamas was put in charge and what could have easily become a seafront with resorts became a Swiss cheese of terrorist tunnels, preparing for the invasion and bloodbath of October 7, 2023. There has not been any Jewish occupation of the Strip in 20 years, but that will not stop the accusers from accusing–obviously, without checking the facts.

The word "occupation" carries the proper weight to accuse Israel, so it will continue being used. Case and point, the recent "Spiritual Wellness" retreat attended by Zohran Mamdani's wife in Europe (skipping America 250), where she tried to re-write the biblical record and paint Yeshua's mother, Miriam (Mary) to be a Palestinian woman under occupation. Was it Jewish occupation of Palestine or Roman occupation of Judea? Oh, let's not get buried in the details, right!?

Then, Israel is also accused of occupying the West Bank. Let's start by using its real name, Judea and Samaria. By calling it the West Bank, we also set the wrong premise by establishing a narrative about the West Bank of Jordan. We cannot deny that the settlements are a complicated issue, far from being black and white. No amount of biblical record, historical proof or legal papers will ever exonerate violence from either side of the conflict. Yet, that area is also Jewish land and it would be better to call the area "The Disputed Territories", because that is what they are; disputed at best.

According to the research site jewishvirtuallibrary.org, "The idea that settlements are illegal derives primarily from UN resolutions and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), an arm of the UN. The UN does not make legal determinations, only political ones. The ICJ “does not have jurisdiction over all disputes between UN member-states,” according to the Congressional Research Service. In fact, “with the exception of ‘advisory opinions,’ which are non-binding, the ICJ may only resolve legal disputes between nations that voluntarily agreed to its jurisdiction.”

Why is such a tiny sliver of land in such a massive geographical mass of Arab/Muslim countries causing so much unrest? Who is really trying to colonize and occupy? I have found that when it comes to Israel and the Jewish people, all the accusations made against us are usually the very acts committed by those who accuse us. Are 15 million global Jews truly controlling the destiny of 8 billion people? If we truly did, wouldn't we paint a much better picture of ourselves to be accepted by the world?

If you thought that the accusations of colonization and occupation were bad, wait until we look at Apartheid in our next installment. This is all very upsetting and frustrating but it shouldn't be coming as a surprise to Bible prophecy students. The world is indeed turning against the Jewish people (Zechariah 12:3.)

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