𝐏𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃’𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃

 by Amir Hadar 

This will offend people who were taught slogans instead of history.

There has never been a sovereign Palestinian Arab state in history. Not under the Ottomans. Not under the British. Not under the Jordanians. Not under the Egyptians. The land was ruled by empires, kingdoms, and colonial powers for centuries. “Palestinian” as a modern political identity only fully emerged in the 20th century, largely in reaction to Zionism and the creation of Israel.

That does not mean Palestinians do not exist as a people today. They clearly do. But pretending this is an ancient nation robbed of a sovereign state, complete with its own coin, flag, anthem, government, court system, or educational system stretching back 5,000 years, is historical fiction.

Over the past century, Jews have contributed disproportionately to science, medicine, economics, literature, and technology, earning hundreds of Nobel Prizes and helping shape modern civilization in countless ways. Israel itself became a global leader in innovation, agriculture, cybersecurity, and medical research despite existing under constant threat. Critics rarely acknowledge this contrast while many extremist movements in the Arab world glorified martyrdom, violence, and ideological radicalism over institution-building and coexistence.

The Soviet Union understood something long before the West did: if you could successfully recast Jews from history’s most persecuted minority into “white colonial oppressors,” you could turn global sympathy against Israel while laundering old antisemitism through the language of “anti-colonialism” and “social justice.”

So the USSR armed, funded, trained, and politically elevated the PLO throughout the Cold War. Soviet propaganda networks aggressively pushed the framework now repeated endlessly across universities, NGOs, activist circles, and social media:Israel = colonizer.Palestinians = indigenous resistance.

That framing became one of the most successful propaganda campaigns of the modern era.

Meanwhile, Arab states themselves often treated Palestinians as political tools rather than a true national project. Egypt controlled Gaza from 1948-1967 and never granted Gazans citizenship. Jordan occupied the West Bank and later stripped many Palestinians of citizenship. Lebanon restricted Palestinian rights for decades. Arab regimes publicly championed “Palestine” while privately refusing permanent integration because keeping the conflict alive served political purposes.

Then came UNRWA, the only refugee system on earth that turned refugee status into a hereditary identity passed down indefinitely across generations. Instead of resolving the problem, the international system institutionalized it.

The Palestinian Authority’s “martyr payment” system is not conspiracy theory. It is documented policy. Families of terrorists and imprisoned attackers receive stipends. Hamas’ own founding charter openly called for Israel’s destruction and embedded antisemitic ideology into its movement from the beginning. And then came October 7.

Mass murder. Sexual violence. Torture. Kidnappings. Entire families butchered in their homes. Young people slaughtered at a music festival. Children dragged into tunnels. Elderly civilians executed.

Yet within hours, before Israel had even responded militarily, crowds across Western cities were already celebrating, rationalizing, or contextualizing the massacre. That should tell you something.

None of this means every Palestinian supports Hamas. They do not. None of this erases legitimate suffering in Gaza. It does not. But the refusal to confront the ideological machinery behind this conflict guarantees its continuation.

The core issue is not “occupation.” Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. The core issue is that too many political, religious, and ideological actors still reject the legitimacy of Jewish sovereignty in any borders whatsoever.

That is the part many in the West still refuse to say out loud. Because once you admit that, the entire conversation changes.