If you need any indication that the discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is changing in the US just check out this report from ABC News – Israel at War … Over Road Signs?: Israeli Transport Ministry Accused of Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Road Signs.
The story outlines plans the new Israeli Minister of Transportation has to change the "the names of more than 2,500 road signs, doing away with Arabic place
names and replacing them with simple translations of Hebrew names." Some examples given would be dropping the Arabic al-Nasra for Nazareth and using the Hebrew Natsrat, and more controversially dropping the Arabic name for Jerusalem Al Quds and only using the Hebrew Yerushalayim. Although a Ministry spokesperson says the changes are being made solely for the benefit of drivers, a communications adviser to the Minister is a bit more upfront, saying opposition to the changes are an "attempt by anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist elements to annul Israel's
identity as a Jewish and democratic state. Anyone willing to refer to
Jerusalem as al-Quds is collaborating with the Palestinian propaganda."
As context the article highlights Avigdor Lieberman's success in the recent Israeli elections, and it's clear that his right wing views are opening space for the US media to talk truth about Israel in a way that it hasn't before. One example from the article is the explanation that "Israel's Arab community makes up 20 percent of the country's population
and many have long perceived of themselves as second-class citizens." Weren't these the same 20% that used to be held up as evidence that Israel is a flourishing democracy? More interesting is that the term "ethnic cleansing" is not actually used by anyone in the story, but was added by ABC News to help clarify the story in the subtitle.
When Ilan Pappe came out with The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine in 2007 applying the term "ethnic cleansing" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was considered controversial and on the cutting edge. Less than two years later, ABC News has adopted the term. Anyone think this might be why the Israel Project is trying to co-opt it for their own purposes?
