There are so many outrageous things happening on a day to day basis that delegitimise Israel as a Jewish homeland that we run the risk of being immune to the collective impact.

The latest is the big email campaign regarding the selection of cities for the international monopoly board by Parker Brothers.  It would seem that some people object to the idea that Jerusalem is in Israel.  The company said that they never had any intention of entering a political debate, and their solution was to remove the countries from all the cities listed.  However this is no solution at all, it is simple appeasement.  It is a fact that Jerusalem is the Capital City of Israel.  Avoiding acknowledgement of this by conveniently removing the reference is not an act of apoliticism.  It is a change of circumstance that speaks volumes about the company, and the correct response from the company should have been to note that in fact Jerusalem is in Israel, and politically motivated complaints to the contrary are not their concern.  They should not have responded by deleting the reference, as this is caving in and giving credence to these obscene complaints.  I will not be buying Monopoly in the near future, as I do not concur with the notion that Jerusalem is Stateless.  I do not support Corporate political correctness that circumnavigates a geographical reality in response to complaints from people who fantasize about a world free of Jerusalem as the heart of the Jewish faith. 

On another issue, many headlines around the world have demonised Israel for causing the death of Rachel Corrie, an ISM activist.  There was even a play about this.  The track record and ideals of the ISM movement are well known and speak for themselves and don’t need to be repeated here.  However I was amazed to read a posting on the blog of https://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/, (navigate to Sunday 17 February) showing evidence that this too is quite probably a false blood libel used to discredit Israel. 

Be it cases such as this, Mohammed al Dura, the “Jenin massacre”, or any other headlines that show Israel in an unfavourable light, the damage gets done and by the time the truth comes out it is all too late.  More must be done to protect Israel from the litany of lies that are spoken against it, and more must be done to react to each and every case of anti-Israel activism that deligitimizes the one and only Jewish national homeland.  If we don’t stand up each and every time we run the risk of indifference, and eventually become immune to the perpetual nature of falsehood that is disseminated to good people in nations everywhere.