Mondoweiss has stepped up its misinformation campaign by claiming that an ad campaign is genocidal for eliminating Palestinian cities from a map. Meanwhile, most Palestinian maps eliminate Israel in general, however, this was no map and the reason why the focus was on Israeli cities was in itself, the focal point of the ad.
The Binyamin Regional Council, the massive regional Israeli municipality in Judea and Samaria published a promotional ad on their site as part of a campaign to attract new residents. The ad featured a makeshift drawing of the central region of Israel, including communities in the regional council meant to show the proximity of Binyamin to major cities and attractions in Israel.
The “map” which was published on the Binyamin Council’s website, is clearly not a proper map as it resembles more of a creative, semi-illustrated directory of the various communities that make up the council along with the most populated cities in Israel; it even comes along with the promotional paragraph: “Binyamin towns have become one of the most desirable locations in Israel for newcomers, thanks to the central location, breathtaking historical views, and above all – the communities: warm and friendly, excellent education systems, diverse population, and lively community life.”
Ramallah isn't under Israeli governmental administration and the Palestinian villages are probably also governed by the Palestinian Authority. Villages in the Republic of Ireland wouldn't appear in a political map of the UK.
— Roger Kaputnik (@IreadMad) February 19, 2023
Despite the very clear nature of the colorful map published by the council, Mondoweiss wrote in the first paragraph of their personal take on the issue that “an Israeli government body that represents 72,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank has published a map of its jurisdiction that shows only Jewish settlements – simply removing scores of Palestinian villages and the cities of Ramallah and Al-Bireh.”
Even in their wrongful representation of the map, they managed to stumble and likely knowingly report on false information, as cities not even in the “occupied West Bank” are pinned on the illustration, such as the city of Modiin, Jerusalem, Ben Gurion International Airport and even the Palestinian-controlled ancient city of Jericho.
Mondoweiss also makes it a point to call the Binyamin Council an “Israeli government body”. In reality, the council, like any other local municipality, is nothing more than that and does not represent the Israeli Knesset, government, or any other federal-level authority; all of its inner-doings while perhaps supported by Israeli government bodies, are not official Israeli Knesset statements, as Mondoweiss alludes to in their article.
.@Mondoweiss
— PLO Department of Public Diplomacy & Policy (@PalestinePDP) February 19, 2023
"The map reflects the thinking of recent Israeli governments– beholden to the rightwing settler movement or dominated by them– that have repeatedly threatened to annex West Bank lands and push Palestinians off them."https://t.co/RE36psnUt3#EthnicCleansing
Lastly, Mondoweiss continued their warped view of the Binyamin Council advertisement by claiming that by not including all the Palestinian Authority-controlled villages in it, the council is continuing a Zionist tendency of committing a form of genocide. “Deleting the native population of the map is an act of mental genocide, which is essential to actual genocide.”
The likely reason why the promotion targeting American Jews moving to Israel did not include Arab towns, is based on the fact that the Binyamin Council does not represent those areas; as per the Oslo agreements signed by the Palestinians and Israelis, the Palestinians administer all villages and cities like Ramallah that are in Area A. Additionally, the council would not want any American newcomer to mistakenly enter one of the villages as they would be, at best arrested and tortured by the local PA Police officers, at worst beaten and killed by a mob, as has been seen in the past in numerous cases.
