There is an abundance of misinformation about Israel and its roots in our educational system, Jewish organizations, synagogues, news outlets and media. There are influential representatives in the government spewing lies about the Jewish homeland. This causes a gross distortion and perception of the truth with regard to Israel, the Jewish people, and its Judean history. And who is pushing back with accurate historical information? No one.
Taking Back the Narrative (TBTN) is a Zionist education company that aims to get the facts about Israel widely shared – this includes its right as the Jewish homeland, and the firm historical connection, without interruption in the past 4,000 years, the Judean race has to Israel. TBTN does not have a specific political agenda, other than supporting truth, which should not have a side in the political theater.
The indisputable facts speak for themselves. TBTN aims to educate and inform educators, Jewish leadership, media professionals, the general public, and government officials. TBTN’s sole mission is to correct mistruths and fill the gap about the Middle East as it relates to Israel and the Jewish people, in a fact-based light. Israel is a living, breathing part of the Jewish ecosystem; there is no Israel without Jews, no Jews without Israel.
Taking Back the Narrative Advisory Committee Members:
Timeline of Events in Jewish History
Jews emerge from Semitic tribes in Judea & Samaria; become a distinct race and create final version of monotheism; Bronze age time period. It takes nearly 2,000 years for Jews to fully practice monotheism, not until the Babylonian exile. For the first 1,000 years, Jews live in villages all over Judea & Samaria under Chieftains or 'Judges.'
Already names the terms 'Jews' and 'Israel' and lists # of Jews taken from Israel as military spoils against the Egyptians; only some Jews were taken as slaves to Egypt, not all Jews.
Kings Saul, David, and Solomon
Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) and Kingdom of Judah (Judea)
Jews from Kingdom of Israel dispersed across Assyrian Empire. The Kingdom of Judah allied with the Assyrians. Those Jews not exiled, became part of the Kingdom of Judah.
Top echelon (10%) of Jews in Judea moved to Babylonia and were slaves from 586 BC - 539 BC (Persian King Cyrus the Great freed all slaves including Jews and invited them back to Israel, but most ended up staying).
Jewish Civil Wars and battles against the Seleucid Empire.
Mass Exile; though Jews do remain in Israel (numerous members of the Jewish Priestly class fled and hid in Northern Israel; many remained for thousands of years).
Extended family of Kohanim (priests) fled to Peki'in in the Galilee where they settled into life as farmers. Jews remained in Peki’in until 1938. Today, it is a Druze village.
Rabbi ben Zakkai, with permission of the Romans, establishes a Rabbinical school in Yavneh in Judea, moving Jewish spiritual life outside the Old City of Jerusalem.
War of mostly Diaspora Jews against the Roman Empire, specifically in Judea, Egypt, Cyprus, Libya, and Mesopotamia; known as the Second Jewish-Roman War.
Final stand against the Romans before final exile; even after final exile, 700,000 Jews remained; many Jews moved north to Golan, Galilee areas.
Palestine was a Byzantine Province from 390 - 636 AD. The revolt, which broke out during the Byzantine-Sasanian War, was led by Nehemiah ben Hushiel and Benjamin of Tiberias.
Jewish soldiers from Tiberias, Nazareth, and other Galilee settlements joined forces with these Persian invaders to capture Jerusalem in 614 AD.
20,000 Jewish soldiers joined the revolt; the Jewish population estimated at the time to be about 300,000 - 400,000.
At this time Gaza had become the most important Jewish community in Judea.
Majority of Haifa’s population at this time was Jewish and together with some Muslims fought against the Crusaders; Mostly Jewish warriors fended off the Crusaders for a month.
Crusader transportation routes open - 300 Rabbis from France and England arrived in a group, some settling in Acre (Akko), others in Jerusalem. Judean population in Israel was nearly decimated from Crusader rule (many were killed, others forcibly converted), but eventually Crusaders realized they needed Jews to survive in the land.
Ruler Saladin allows Jews in Jerusalem, Jews prosper under Saladin I
Defeated by Ottomans in 1517
A community of Spanish Jews was established in 1267 and built around the synagogue, which still carries his name (Ramban Synagogue) in the Old City today.
Forced Spanish Jewry (Sephardim) to disperse, many returning to their Jewish ancestral homeland
Ladino becomes lingua franca in Palestine
The Ashkenaz (German) community establishes itself in Jerusalem
Jews mainly reside in Jerusalem, Nablus (Shechem), Hebron, Gaza, Tzfat and the villages of Galilee (Northern part of Israel). The Jewish community was composed of descendants of Jews who had always lived in the Land, as well as immigrants from North Africa and Europe.
Becomes the epicenter for Kabbalah scholarship; Jewish population in Tzfat reaches 10,000
A former Marrano Jew, Gracia Nasi, together with her nephew sought to re-establish a self-sufficient Jewish community on the site of the ancient city of Tiberias, as a refuge for conversos fleeing from Spain and Portugal.
Joseph Nasi obtained a privilege from the Ottoman Sultan granting him the ruins of Tiberias with seven surrounding villages. Doña Gracia was said to have contributed large sums toward this project, and by 1566, despite local Arab opposition, a thriving community existed.
He established an Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem, and built the synagogue which became known as the Hurva.
At the request of the Ottoman Empire re-establishes Tiberias
Students of the Vilna Gaon once again establish Tzfat as a mystical center for learning. Jerusalem and Hebron also see an influx of immigration during this time.
The Jewish community was perceived as supportive of Egyptian rulers, contributing to the violence.
Mishkenot Sha’ananim, established outside the Old City of Jerusalem; purchased by philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore
Ottoman citizenship granted to Jews in Palestine
Jews largely fleeing from widespread pogroms within the Russian Empire, established the new towns of: Petach Tikvah, Rishon Litzion, Rosh Pina, Zichron Yakov
As part of the League of Nations, uphold that all of Palestine (including Gaza, Judea & Samaria, and all today's 'Jordan') is part of the Jewish homeland.
The British are placed in charge of the Mandate (legal promise) to aid Jews in re-establishing sovereignty in their homeland, and thus political rights are only granted to Jews, not to Arabs, who at that time, had no desire for any inch of Palestine. Arabs are granted rights in Arab nations.
In 1922, Churchill, as then Colonial Secretary, steals 78% of the Jewish homeland and gifts it to the Arabian Hashemite family. He renames it 'Transjordan.' The legal Mandate turns into a British occupation. The same year sees the issuance of the first antisemitic White Paper, which grossly reduced Jewish immigration back to the Judean homeland.
During this time, mostly Polish-Jewish business owners aided in the economic growth of Palestine’s economy (especially of factories in urban areas). As a result, Arab immigration increased due to Jewish-led economic growth
Resulted in the death of Jews at the hands of Arabs; 67 Jews murdered in Hebron. All Arab riots and massacres were British-occupier fomented.
Polish, German, Austrian Jews attempted to flee from the onslaught of Nazism; while some were families, many children came alone aided by the Youth Aliyah movement.
Thousands of Jews are turned away by British occupiers, sent back to be murdered; many others who are not turned away are placed in detention camps all over Israel and even on the island of Cyprus. Atlit detention camp in Israel was the most notorious and operated from 1938 - 1945. Even Iraqi Jews fleeing the Farhud were detained there.
Murder and devastation of Jews continues at the hands of Arabs, prompting underground Jewish resistance.
British attempt to further partition an already truncated Jewish portion of Palestine
Severely limited Jewish immigration even more and restricted more land purchases by Jews, favoring Arab occupiers who never had land deeds prior.
Collaborates with Hitler, proposes ‘Final Solution’
Jewish survivors of the Holocaust are forbidden to enter Palestine; many were detained in harsh conditions.
Also known as UN Resolution 181, it was nothing more than a British antisemitic coup against Israel. At this time, Jews were already left with ONLY 22% of the land promised by the British in 1920. Of that, this partition offered Jews a meager portion of what was left of the remaining 22%. Arabs reject; Jews accept, though it was not popular with most Jews.
After 20 years of fighting the British occupiers, Jews achieved what no other colonized people have achieved the world over - decolonization by driving out the British. Arab armies launch massive attacks immediately after Israel declares independence.
Mizrahi Jews from across the Arab world, where Jews lived since 586 BC, before Arabs colonized outside of Arabia, are forcibly expelled and bankrupt in response largely to Israeli independence.
(Though officially declared in 1950 ). Jordan, an Arab occupier state in Israel, illegally occupied all of Judea & Samaria, including the eastern portion of Jerusalem, where the Old City is.
All Jews were ethnically cleansed from the area and Arab occupiers were settled in. Faith-based sites were forbidden to visit and 58 synagogues were destroyed in the Jewish Quarter along with many Jewish tombs on the Mt. of Olives.
There were no mosques anywhere in Judea & Samaria except Al-Aqsa. and so King Hussein I ordered a building spree of mosques in the region to pretend there was a history of Muslims there.
Israel beats back all the Arab armies backed by the USSR; reclaims the eastern portion of Jerusalem, all of Judea & Samaria, the Golan, and Gaza. Annexes the Sinai from the Egyptians.
USSR launches the anti-Semitic Operation SIG campaign to lie that Arab occupiers are 'Palestinians' when only Jews in Israel from 136 AD - 1948 were called Palestinians. Campaign also lies that Jews are not indigenous to Israel.
Israel re-establishes its long presence in Gaza and builds Gush Katif, an area of 21 Jewish communities; Israel conquered Gaza from the Philistines, a Greek-Cretan seafaring group, in both 145 BC and 100 BC. Gaza even became an important center for Jews for centuries until the British occupation.
As a result, from the overthrow of the Shah in Iran, Israel sees an influx of Persian Jewish immigration. Jews had lived in Persia since the Babylonian exile; some even arrived in Persia during the Assyrian Exile.
For close to a thousand years, until the invasion of Islam from Arabia, Jews lived without antisemitism when Persians were Zoroastrians. The anti-Semitic Iranian Revolution replaced the Shah and ushered in a terrorist Islamic regime.
Gaza Explained
&
The Oct. 7th Jewish Genocide
Gaza Explained
&
The Oct. 7th Jewish Genocide
Why Zionism
Why Zionism
Jewish Diversity
Jewish Diversity
Israel Fast Facts to Share
Israel Fast Facts to Share
Minorities Represented in Israel
Minorities Represented in Israel
Correct Israel-Related Terms
Correct Israel-Related Terms
Books
From Mizrahi Jewish spies deployed to Lebanon and Syria, prior to the liberation of Israel, to the brave history of Israel’s now world-renowned weapons industry, the TBTN approved book list offers something for everyone.
Meet a young nurse, Raquela, based on a real woman, whose life’s stories interweave as Israel transitions from a land occupied by the British to full independence — and all the joy and tribulations associated with that time period.
These titles are a sample of books that helped shape our in-depth perspective of the Jewish homeland. Please check back periodically, as our list will continue to expand.
Articles
- Time stops in Peki’in – The Jerusalem Post
- The History of the Land Is Jewish, Not Palestinian
- Who are the Palestinians?
- Israel at the Worlds Fair: Today & Before 1948
- Why You Should Know San Remo: The Israel Forever Foundation
- Howard Grief: Legal Rights and Title of Sovereignty of the Jewish People
- The lost Palestinian Jews – The Jerusalem Post
- Heroes on the Walls of Haifa – סגולה
- History Finds No Evidence of Any People, Race, Tribe, or Culture Known as Palestinian
- Old Jerusalem: 49 Photos Of Life In The Arab City Before Israel
- The Myth of ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’: Part One | The American Spectator |
- USA News and Politics Stop Calling it the West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria – BBI
- The Musta’arib Jews Who Have Lived In The Land Of Israel For More Than 3300 Years « News « Articles « OneIsrael.org . . . israelstreet.org
- The Western Wall and the Jews: More than a Thousand Years of Prayer
- Jewish Gaza | Simcha Jacobovici | The Blogs
- The Last Jew of Peki’in
Videos
Taking Back the Narrative has compiled an array of media links to further illustrate the factual truth about the Jewish homeland.
You will find informative videos which will enhance your understanding about the map of Israel, the term Judea and Samaria, and even how other countries were formed in the Middle East, impacting Israel.
We look forward to continuously updating this compilation. If a video appears on our list, you can be sure it has the TBTN seal of approval!