See: NPR’s 75-year Israel-Palestinian conflict in Gaza. Israelis once walked in and out of Gaza freely, unrestrained and unafraid
Earth to NPR and its “The Daily” New York Times feature: The Gaza Strip was occupied from 1948 to 1967 by Egypt, not by Israel and not by Palestinians.
However, a recent report on “The Daily” airs at length an “expert” who refers to the 75-year Israel-Palestinian conflict over Gaza.
Reference to a 75-year Israel-Palestinian conflict over Gaza is inaccurate on three counts:
One: “75 years.”
Gaza did not even exist as a discrete territory until Egypt lost its attempt to destroy the nascent Jewish state in 1948, but did retain a small strip of the Negev, “the Gaza Strip.” There was no Palestinian-Israel conflict over Gaza from 1948 to 1967. Gaza was controlled by Egypt, not by Palestinians.
Two: “Palestinian.”
Arabs in the Land of Israel did not typically refer to themselves as Palestinians before the Six Day War of 1967, and even after that it took years for “Palestinian” to catch on.
Three: “Conflict.”
The idea that Gazans and Israelis have been locked in conflict over Gaza even since 1967 is a lie concocted by Hamas and the PLO.
For years after 1967, Israelis walked freely into Gaza. There was no physical barrier. Israelis enjoyed coffee in Gaza. Gazans enjoyed medical treatment in Israel. Israeli settlements greened small parts of the Gaza desert. The Israel-Gaza relationship was not a cheery one, to be sure, but it bore no resemblance to the wars waged by Hamas after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. The hope in Gaza was destroyed by Hamas, not by Israel. The transmogrification of Gaza into a “cannot emigrate” de facto prison was the work of Hamas, of Egypt and of other Arab countries, not of Israel. Ignorance cannot build peace.
© IJN 2025
