Oh dear, @IrishTimes. You've bought Abbas's lie, hook line and sinker. These maps do NOT show the diminishing size of Palestinian territory, despite Abbas's misleading claims.
As @GettyImages' original caption notes, this is a mixture of maps - some real, some only ever plans.
Let's look at the maps one at a time:
The first makes out as if all the land was under "Palestinian" control before 1917. In reality, the land was under Ottoman control. Inhabitants - Jews, Muslims and Christians alike - were called Palestinian.
The second map is of the Peel Commission’s 1937 partition plan. It called for a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international protectorate enveloping Jerusalem.
The plan was accepted by the Jewish leadership, but violently rejected by the Arab leadership.
Some 'compromise.'
The inclusion of this second map is highly misleading as it was only a plan, and never the reality on the ground.
The same goes for map no. 3, which is of the 1947 UN Partition Plan, a plan rejected by the Arabs and accepted by the Jews. It, too, never became reality.
Had the Palestinian Arabs actually *compromised* there could have been a two-state solution that looked like this.
Instead, Arab rioting against Jewish businesses led to attacks against Jewish civilians, and a war soon followed, with Jewish areas coming under siege, cut off from food and water.
Again, some 'compromise.'
Despite the Arabs' best efforts, the Jews were not defeated. As a result of being forced to fight, the frontiers of the State of Israel were significantly larger than those in the 1947 and 1937 plans the Arabs rejected. This crucial detail is not clear from the map series.
In map no. 4, the status quo between 1949 and 1967 is depicted. These were never "borders" as Israel's enemies refused to acknowledge Israel's existence. These were mere ceasefire lines, with the understanding that the Arab countries would eventually move to erase Israel.
It's interesting to note what ISN'T included in this series of maps: Israel managed to preempt the 1967 attack by its enemies and gained control of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza - only to later return them to Arab control.
But this doesn't fit the narrative of 'Israel steadily taking more and more land while the Palestinians are ready to compromise' so these stages simply don't appear.
This isn't the first time these maps have surfaced in the media. Learn more about them in this HonestReporting piece from earlier in the year.
After Two Years of Hell, They’re Coming Home – Part 1
Stories of Israeli hostages who survived years of captivity and are finally returning home.
Matan Angrest, 21
A young soldier abducted on Oct 7, 2023.
He was abducted to Gaza unconscious, and has survived sever torture, including electric shocks in Hamas captivity.
Elkana Bohbot, 36
Taken from the Nova festival while helping the wounded.
Seen weak and under duress in propaganda videos.
1/ Meet Nika Soon-Shiong. She's the pro-Palestinian daughter of the LA Times owner and has recently been appointed publisher of the left-leaning outlet Drop Site News—which now stands to gain a significant injection of funding to spread anti-Israel propaganda. 🧵
2/ Soon-Shiong’s social media reveals a consistent hostility toward Israel & Zionism. She's dismissed the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, described Israel as an “apartheid state” engaged in “genocide,” & even alleged that LA City Council was funding a “Zionist militia.”
3/ She sits on the board of the CPJ—an org that eulogizes so-called Gaza “journalists” who were killed while working for outlets affiliated with Hamas.
How much influence has Soon-Shiong exerted on the CPJ?
1/ 🚨
This is Dr. Khalil al-Daqran — quoted endlessly by @nytimes, @NBCNews, @Reuters, @FRANCE24 as a “hospital spokesman” in Gaza.
Here he is shaking hands with Yahya Sinwar, Hamas leader and mastermind of the Oct 7 massacre.
This is the media’s “source.” 🧵
2/ Just yesterday @nytimes quoted al-Daqran describing “catastrophic” scenes of disease, sewage, and tents in Gaza.
But on Oct 7, 2023—the day of Hamas’s massacre—this same man was publicly praying for Allah to “defeat the Jews.”
3/ @NBCNews also used al-Daqran to provide Gaza death tolls—numbers repeated worldwide.
But this “doctor” isn’t neutral. On Facebook he praises Hamas leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, and posts tributes to terror “martyrs.”
1/ 🚨 @BBCNews’ latest “explainer” on Hamas is offensively bad. It reads like PR for a terror group. It sanitizes mass murderers & rapists — exposing the BBC’s contempt for Israel & Jews. The BBC has become what it claims to report on: a platform spreading hate. 🧵
2/ The headline: “What is Hamas and why is it fighting with Israel?”
Not: “Why did Hamas massacre 1,200 Israelis on Oct 7?”
The BBC frames it as a “fight” & parrots Hamas lines — “decades of oppression,” “blockade,” even “defending Islam’s 3rd holiest site.”
3/ Much of it is just wrong. Hamas hasn’t said it only wants the West Bank & East Jerusalem.
It has openly, repeatedly declared it wants to wipe out all Jews & Israelis.
Hamas’s charter is explicit: “Israel will exist until Islam obliterates it.”
The UN's "genocide" case was rigged from the start.🧵
This week, the @unitednations Commission of Inquiry dropped a 72-page report accusing Israel of “genocide” in Gaza.
The headlines went viral.
@unitednations But the report itself? Not so much.
It was full of biased commissioners, cherry-picked quotes, Hamas-supplied data, omissions of tunnels and hostages, and fabricated stories.
1/ 💥 This @Reuters piece is as vile as its headline. It paints Hezbollah terrorists as victims of Israel’s pager strike. Then it lies — calling the op the “opening salvo” of the war. Wrong. Hezbollah fired first, Oct 8, 2023.
🧵
2/ Like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah hides in hospitals & schools. @Reuters admits this — then calls one a “Hezbollah-affiliated facility.” Translation: a terror outpost where the “hospital director” had a Hezbollah pager for “maintenance.” You can’t make this up.
3/ Reuters brags about an “investigation” proving what Israel already said: it planted explosives in Hezbollah devices. The big reveal? Those devices were with Hezbollah fighters — or, as Reuters coyly puts it, “members of Hezbollah’s social services branches.” Journalism or PR?