A Guardian op-ed (“This is why Liz Truss’s plan to move the British embassy to Jerusalem must be stopped”, Sept. 30), by London-based academic H.A. Hellyer, included the following claim:
To move the embassy to Jerusalem would be to recognise Israel’s invasion and occupation of east Jerusalem as legitimate.
The claim was repeated in a subsequent sentence:
To recognise the invasion and occupation as legitimate would also come at a time when the UK is rightly aiding and assisting Ukraine in its struggle against Russia’s invasion and occupation.
The word “invasion” is important, as the author uses it in an effort to draw an absurd comparison between Israel’s defensive war in 1967 and Russia’s unprovoked invasion, and partial occupation, of Ukraine.
However, the historical record is clear, as even the
Guardian’s own coverage has made clear.
On June 5th, hours after the war began, Israel sent a message to Jordan, which (illegally) controlled east Jerusalem, pleading with them to stay out of the conflict.
However, decieved by false Egyptian claims that the Arabs were winning the war, King Hussein ordered his army to attack Israeli west Jerusalem and moved infantry across the armistice lines. Jordanian forces took the Government House, the UN headquarters on the Biblical “Hill of Evil Counsel” in the no-man’s land between the two countries, directly threatening Israeli positions in southern Jerusalem.
Israel responded to Jordan’s attack with a counter-attack, which ultimately resulted in Israeli control of that part of the city.
The author – who, it should be noted, wrote an
op-ed last year suggesting that Israelis insisting on the right of their country to continue existing as a Jewish state are arguably racist – responded to our tweet alerting him to the error with a GIF of a man yawning:
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