Fact Checking Arundhati Roy on Israel
Mayer Adelberg
4 min read
·
Oct 13, 2021
32
On this episode, “Come September.”
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
It should not surprise many that famed Indian author Arundhati Roy criticizes Israel. It certainly didn’t surprise me when I first came across her writing in a class. But it is not criticism I wish to…well, criticize. Rather, I’d like to take a moment to fact check a paragraph of Roy’s essay “Come September,” delivered at the a 2002 Lannan Foundation speech series in Santa Fe; Roy won Lannan’s “Cultural Freedom Prize” at this event.
Let me be clear: I too have issues with some of the Israeli government’s choices. This is not an attempt to disparage Israel or Roy. It is simply my wish that all the rhetoric existing within a media-focused society is held to a standard of near-perfect factual accuracy. And it is here that Roy falls short (a pity given that her speech had the potential to be — and was to many — so powerful.)
Unfortunately for Roy’s speech, power must be synonymous with truth, and truth is not present in at least one section of her essay: the one paragraph outlining the “words” of former Israeli Prime Ministers Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, and Yitzhak Shamir.
I’ll address three of the comments made by Roy about the alleged comments of the Israeli Prime Ministers.
1. “Palestinians do not exist.”
Roy says, “In 1969, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said, ‘Palestinians do not exist.’” This quote, like many others in her speech, was taken out of context. In The Human Right to Citizenship, author Michal Baer notes that Meir was actually referring to the legal entity of Palestinians because “because there is no state, no legal entity, that is at present capable of prescribing and conferring ‘Palestinian’ citizenship on anyone.” Not, as Arundhati suggests, that they don’t exist and therefore one can trample land — a distinct difference which changes the connotation completely.
2. “Two-legged beasts.”
Roy continues, “Prime Minister Menachem Begin called Palestinians “two-legged beasts.” In addition to this quote being taken out of context, the actual words never exited the mouth of Begin. However, Begin actually said, “We will defend our children. If the hand of any two-footed animal is raised against them, that hand will be cut off….” In an article for the Committee for Accurate Reporting in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), Adam Levick writes that this statement was made solely in the context of terrorists who target Israeli children. That certainly is highly different than a blanket statement calling all Palestinians two-legged beasts, which is in itself completely false.
3. “Grasshoppers.”
Roy writes, “Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir called them ‘grasshoppers’ who could be crushed.” This is a fictionalized quote based off of something Shamir did actually say, but the quote itself and the insinuation by Roy is completely false. Ron Kampeas of the Jewish Telegraph Agency correctly notes that, in the context of lifting a three-day blockade of the West Bank and Gaza, Shamir said “that rioters would be crushed ”like grasshoppers.” Not Palestinians, not Arabs, not Muslims. Rioters. Is it appropriate language? Arguably not from a head of state. But is it the same thing as saying that you’ll crush all Palestinians like “grasshoppers”? I think not. However, for the points Roy attempts to convey in her speech, bugs versus boots makes for an incredibly vivid image that can be imagined even twenty years later.
I am not the first to point out these inaccuracies and I’m sure I won’t be the last. CAMERA has multiple posts dedicated to addressing false quotes. There are many more and there will likely be many more as more information is captured and reported by multiple sources (inherently biased sources, I’ll add, as we all are).
I was assigned Roy’s essay to read in a class called “Communication and Social Process” at San Francisco State University, a notably antisemitic institution. In classes where some students may not be reading into the nuances of specific rhetorical strategies utilized — manipulated, perhaps — by experienced speechwriters, I find it despicable that misinformation is presented to students as if it is fact. If within power lies truth, and knowledge is power, then knowledge presented must be true. Unfortunately, at SFSU, truth seems to be only a suggestion in some courses. But I’ll address that in another post.
As much as I enjoy other segments of Arundhati Roy’s incredible essay (one must give credit to her writing and speaking abilities), credibility is lost when fiction is deemed fact. Misinformation, whether intentional or accidental and especially in these times, is a potentially lethal danger to a functional society. Misinformation cannot be tolerated, and even the writings of a very experienced and influential author cannot be excused.
In other words: Check twice, publish once.
Israel
Fact Checking
Arundhati Roy
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