CONTRIBUTION Israel, Palestine, truth that can 't be erased
Israeli Deputy Chief of Mission Barak Shine at the Embassy of the State of Israel in Seoul / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
A recent op-ed in The Korea Times titled “Where is Palestine?” poses a provocative question. But instead of offering a nuanced exploration of history and politics, the article presents a one-sided narrative that ignores essential facts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and distorts Israel’s role in it.
First, the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is not a modern invention. It is an indigenous bond rooted in over 3,000 years of history, culture and faith. Jewish communities have existed continuously in Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and other parts of the land — even through foreign occupations, forced exile and persecution. This historical reality is not a matter of opinion but of archaeological, textual and cultural evidence — all of which show that this land is not just where the Jewish people lived; it is where their identity was born.
In 1947, the United Nations proposed a partition plan to divide the land into a Jewish and an Arab state. The Jewish leadership accepted it. The Arab world rejected it and launched a war against the newly declared state of Israel. This wasn’t resistance to occupation — it was a rejection of Jewish sovereignty in any borders.
The violence against Jews did not start in 1967 or even 1948. During the British Mandate, Jews were targeted in pogroms — in Hebron, Safed and Jerusalem — by Arab mobs incited by leaders like the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who later allied with Adolf Hitler. Al-Husseini’s collaboration with the Nazis was driven not only by political opportunism but by deep-seated antisemitism. These historical facts matter. They are part of the story, even if some would prefer to forget them.
Violence and antisemitism by Arabs were not confined only to the period of the British Mandate. What is also often forgotten is that nearly one million Jews were expelled or forced to flee Arab and Muslim countries in the decades following Israel’s establishment. These Jewish refugees lost homes, communities and centuries of heritage.
Today, Israel is falsely accused of seeking to “wipe out” Palestinians or committing genocide. These claims are not only baseless — they are offensive distortions. Israel is fighting a war against Hamas, a terrorist organization backed by Iran that murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 others on Oct. 7, 2023, in one of the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust. Israel’s war is not against the Palestinian people but against a group that uses its own civilians as human shields while openly calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, the only democracy in the Middle East.
As of today, 59 Israeli hostages, including women, elderly people and children, remain in captivity in Gaza — held in inhumane conditions by Hamas.
Throughout the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we have witnessed a very clear pattern — Israeli offers for peace are met with Arab rejection and violence. This has repeated itself for decades, from the Oslo Accords in 1993 through Camp David in 2000 to Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.
True progress for Palestinians will not come through demonizing Israel or rewriting history. It will come through honest reckoning — with the choices made by their leaders, with the painful truths of the past and with the reality that Jews also have rights to this land.
If Palestinians can embrace history — including its inconvenient truths — while looking forward to building a future based on mutual recognition and coexistence, then a better life is possible not just for Palestinians and Israelis but for the entire region. It begins not with slogans or blame but with truth and courage.
Barak Shine is the deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of the State of Israel. The views expressed in this article do not represent those of The Korea Times.