Bill Niven

Here is a list of some of the factual inaccuracies by Benjamin Moser, primarily from media interviews in the last 2 weeks: 1. Israel’s population: Moser repeatedly described Israel as “a country of 7 million people… it’s nothing really.” Official figures from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics put the total population at 10.305 million (roughly 7.8 million Jews and others + 2.17 million Arabs + ~300,000 foreigners). 2. Israel’s Nation-State Law (2018): Moser claimed the law means “for Palestinians to organize into trade unions… that’s not allowed” and that it specifically grants Jews superior rights in daily life. The Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People has 11 articles covering state symbols (flag, anthem), Hebrew as the official language, exclusive Jewish national self-determination, Jewish settlement as a national value, the Hebrew calendar, and related symbolic/national matters. It contains no provisions about trade unions, free speech, residence, marriage, or individual civil rights. Israeli courts have upheld it while leaving ordinary equality and rights protections intact. 3. “Little Jewish Ulster” quote: Moser attributed the phrase about implanting “a little Jewish Ulster in the heart of the Arab world” to Winston Churchill. The actual source is Sir Ronald Storrs (first British military governor of Jerusalem), who wrote in his 1937 memoir Orientations that a Jewish homeland would form “for England ‘a little loyal Jewish Ulster’ in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism.” 4. 1929 Hebron massacre: Moser described the British evacuation of Jewish survivors as “the real story of the ethnic cleansing of Hebron.” Historical records show that Arab rioters massacred 67 Jews (many in horrific fashion, including women and children), looted and destroyed homes and synagogues, and ended a Jewish community that had existed for centuries. The British later assisted in evacuating the remaining survivors after the killings. 5. Arthur Schnitzler / Theodor Herzl anecdote: Moser stated that Arthur Schnitzler “said he’d only met one true antisemite in his life, and it was Theodor Herzl.” Schnitzler never said this. The line appears in his 1908 novel Der Weg ins Freie (The Road to the Open), spoken by a fictional character (who “never felt himself to be a Jew”) as a quip about an unnamed “well-known Zionist leader.” It is not a personal statement by Schnitzler about Herzl. 6. Palestinian movement’s historical position on Jews: Moser claimed that “a pretty consistent demand of the Palestinian movement since the 19th century” was that “it’s fine if Jews live here.” There was no organized Palestinian national movement in the 19th century. When Arab leadership first organized (e.g., 1919 congresses treating Palestine as part of Arab Syria) and in later key statements (such as the Mufti’s testimony to the 1937 Peel Commission rejecting assimilation of the Jewish population), the dominant position was opposition to large-scale Jewish immigration and political self-determination, not acceptance of a shared future on Jewish terms. You can see the above video clips of Moser’s interviews on @MaxNordau timeline. The pattern is that Moser’s claims about Zionism, Israeli law, and early 20th-century history frequently contain basic factual errors.