Prime minister's son faces ridicule online as dubious academic theory gets torn to shreds on Twitter
Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, attracted controversy once again on Tuesday by using a dubious academic theory to promote the claim that Palestine does not exist.
Taking to Twitter, the 27-year-old said "there is no such thing" as Palestine because the letter "P" does not appear in the Arabic alphabet.
His theory quickly attracted ridicule on social media, as users noted that the Arabic word for Palestine is "falasteen".
1. We can call it what we want to call it, because it's our land and 2. If you did a little homework you would realize Arabs and Palestinians call it 'falasteen' phonetically, so who needs a 'P' sound? (What a moronic basis for an argument in the first place)
— husam zakharia (@husammunism) 23 April 2019
😂 😂 😂 Love how you show your ignorance the first chance you get
— Nabeel Tootla (@nabeeltootla) 23 April 2019
No P in Arabic, well smart guy Palestine is the anglicised word of 'Filisteen" which very much is a real thing. But keep living in your fantasy land if it makes you feel good about yourself.
Netanyahu's "logic" backfired on him in other ways, as commentators were quick to note that there was no letter in the Hebrew alphabet that had a "J" sound.
Israeli-American pro-Palestine activist Miko Peled asked whether the lack of J in Hebrew meant there can be "no Jews, no Judea, and definitely no #Jerusalem".
Speaking of idiots, there is no “J” in Hebrew so Jerusalem cannot be part of #Israel - nor Judea or Jews at all...
— Miko Peled, (@mikopeled) 23 April 2019
By this logic the fact that there is no J in Hebrew means there is no such thing as a Jewish people. The little fascist isn't very bright. https://t.co/reuc5VEMe7
— (((YousefMunayyer))) (@YousefMunayyer) 23 April 2019
Faced with ridicule, Netanyahu attempted to justify his claim online by tweeting again that the name "Palestine" was only used for the geographical area when the Romans crushed the Bar-Kokhba Jewish revolt in the second century AD as "punishment".
Zachary Foster, an academic at Princeton, however noted that the name "Palestine" had long been used for the land between the Jordan river and Mediterranean Sea before the Roman era.
The name "Palestine" was popular long before the Romans crushed the revolt. And historians debate the reasons why the Romans changed the name. See pages 103-110 https://t.co/G323FnOAOp Leave history to historians habibi
— Zachary Foster (@_ZachFoster) 23 April 2019
The prime minister's son has a history of making explosive comments on social media.
Last year, he stoked diplomatic strife between Israel and Ankara by publishing an image on Instagram reading "Fuck Turkey".
#BREAKING: Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli PM @netanyahu, published a post against Turkey on his instagram acount pic.twitter.com/KUz22izGlf
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) 16 May 2018
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