Palestinians Condemn EU's Von Der Leyen for 'Racist Trope' in Message to Israel

Facts

• The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday stated that European Commission Pres. Ursula von der Leyen's congratulatory message on Israel's 75th year of independence, which also provoked ire among Palestinian social media users, was "an anti-Palestinian racist trope."¹
• This atypical diplomatic quarrel between the PA and the EU —which is a main donor to the Authority — comes after von der Leyen praised Israel, including for having "made the desert bloom," in a video that has had millions of views on Twitter.²
• This is a common phrase used by Israelis and supporters of Israel to describe the country's success in developing the land since 1948 when the State of Israel was established. Palestinians, however, have long claimed that it erases their history and deceivingly implies the area was empty or neglected.³
• Ramallah further argued that von der Leyen owes the Palestinian people and European citizens an apology for echoing a "propagandist" narrative that allegedly whitewashes Israel's wrongdoing and perpetuates the so-called racist denial of the Nakba.⁴
• Israel has long denied the Nakba — which refers to the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in Israel's 1948 Independence War — claiming that it was Jews in Arab lands who were forced to leave their homes during and after the conflict.⁵
• The 75th anniversary of Israel's foundation was also commemorated by several other countries this week, with buildings in Lithuania, Poland, and the US illuminated in Israeli flag colors.⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²BBC News, ³Middle East Eye, ⁴The Cradle, ⁵I24news, and ⁶POLITICO.

Narratives

• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Decolonize Palestine. Israeli settlers have long tried to legitimize their presence in Palestine by promoting the racist and patronizing national foundation myth that they "made the desert bloom." While there are indeed swathes of desert in Palestine, most of it is part of the Fertile Crescent where the earliest agriculture arose in human history — and the amount of cultivated land in the Naqab desert has decreased significantly since the foundation of Israel in 1948. This dismissal of true history is used as a tool by the Israeli regime to justify the continuing oppression of the Palestinian people.
• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by CBN. The "promised land" was dry and unproductive when the Jewish people began returning to Israel in the 19th century, prompting them to find unique ways to make the desert bloom and prosper despite facing a harsh climate, little water, and poor soil. Nowadays, even though more than half of the country is still comprised of desert and drylands, Israeli agriculture has become a case of success as farmers can use the weather to their advantage. Israeli ingenuity did in fact make the "desert bloom," which has benefited the entire region.

Predictions