Netanyahu’s erasure of Palestine is no innocent oversight

When asked why his latest map had erased the whole of the West Bank, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retorted with the most detestable of answers. “I didn’t include the Dead Sea. It’s not shown on the map. I didn’t show the Jordan River. It’s not on this map. I didn’t show the Sea of Galilee,” was Netanyahu’s response.

The Israeli leader must have known that neither the Indigenous population of Palestine nor the West Bank including East Jerusalem — which are recognized as occupied territories under international law — are topographical or geographical phenomena.

It should be obvious that Netanyahu deliberately erased the West Bank from his map, which he displayed on Sept. 2 during another one of his tirades on why Israel must maintain “security control” over Gaza. There are plenty of factors that demonstrate that this assertion is true.

One, Netanyahu has erased Palestine and the Palestinians from previous maps as well, with the prime example being his “New Middle East” map, which he proudly held up during a UN General Assembly speech in September 2022.

Two, the Israeli PM does not even recognize the term “West Bank” in the first place. Even in his defense of why his latest map showed that Israel had swallowed the territory, he responded by saying that he “was talking about Gaza,” not “Judea and Samaria.”

Israel’s current regime simply does not believe that Palestinians have any historical claim to their own land

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

This biblical reference to the Palestinian homeland fits perfectly into the prevailing Israeli political discourse, which is championed by the most ardent far-right, ultranationalist extremists in Israeli society. Israel’s current regime simply does not believe that Palestinians have any historical claim to, or political rights and aspirations in, their own land.

Among a long stream of such comments, a few stand out. For example, in March 2023, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich denied the existence of Palestinians during a private memorial service in Paris. There is “no such thing as Palestinians because there’s no such thing as the Palestinian people,” he said.

As for National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the erasure of Palestinians requires action, violent action. On June 23, he said during a press conference: “The Land of Israel must be settled and a military operation must be launched. (We must) demolish buildings, eliminate terrorists, not one or two, but tens and hundreds, and if necessary even thousands. The Land of Israel is for the people of Israel.”

And, of course, Netanyahu himself, who in March 2019 stated that Israel is “the national state, not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people.”

Such a discourse is backed up by action, namely the constant expansion of illegal Jewish-only settlements, the slow ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities from various parts of the West Bank and a government program that, in April 2020, agreed to annex large parts of the occupied region.

Three, Netanyahu rejects the very discussion of a Palestinian state. He even pushed for a vote in the Israeli Knesset on opposing the establishment of a Palestinian state because it would pose “an existential danger to the state of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilize the region.” The resolution was passed with 68 votes in favor and only nine against.

This vote represents the pinnacle of Netanyahu’s political career, which has largely been dedicated to thwarting any attempt to achieve a negotiated solution based on international law. Palestinian hopes of establishing a sovereign state “must be eliminated,” Netanyahu said in July 2023.

So, it comes as no surprise that the Israeli leader does not see the need to demarcate any other entity in his delusional maps, aside from that of Israel.

It comes as no surprise that he does not see the need to demarcate any other entity in his delusional maps

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

Ironically, however, as part of his response to criticism, Netanyahu did mention the word “Palestinians.” “There is a whole issue of how to achieve peace between us and the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria,” he said. Even then, his statement denied the Palestinian people any entitlement to peoplehood, let alone statehood. For him, Palestinians are nomadic beings who, by mere historical incident, ventured into his biblical land, to which they have no claim or right.

Even then, Netanyahu continued to lie, as he has done the exact opposite of “achieving peace” with the Palestinians. Instead, he is involved in an active process of exterminating them.

In May, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan requested the issuing of arrest warrants for several Israelis and Palestinians. Lead among them was Netanyahu, who Khan accused of “extermination,” “willful killing” and “other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity.”

In fact, Netanyahu’s controversial map only highlighted the borders of Gaza so that the Israeli leader could present a case as to why his killing campaign in the Strip must continue. In his previous maps, Gaza was also erased.

We have long argued that Israel is a settler colonial entity that can only exist through constant expansion, at the expense of the territorial and political rights of the Indigenous population. Most of the world can now see this truth manifesting itself daily, everywhere in historic Palestine.

The international community must abandon its silence and hold Israel accountable to international law through active pressure and direct sanctions. Those who use genocide as a convenient political tool have no place among law-abiding nations.

• Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and author. He is editor of The Palestine Chronicle and nonresident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappe, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out.” X: @RamzyBaroud