Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Whose Land? Pt 1: Foundations’ (DVD, Title Deed Media, 2017).

This is the first of a two-part documentary looking at the legitimacy of Israel under international law. A wide range of highly qualified historians and international lawyers provide much of the information while presenter Colonel Richard Kemp anchors the whole presentation in a clear and skilful manner.

The aim of the production is simple: to tell the truth. With so much misinformation being spread around, either through fake history or deliberate misrepresentation of the current legal situation, simply telling the truth is the best weapon to counter the propaganda war being waged against Israel today.

How Lies Become Truth

In the dramatic opening we are shown several examples from the Palestinian media, proclaiming their rights to the land and their desire to destroy the Jews, who are portrayed as evil occupiers and usurpers.

Most striking is the clear indoctrination of children as part of this cause. The tactic is that if a lie is repeated often enough it will be believed without question and become a standard part of the education of the next generation. This belief that the Jewish people have no right to the land and are illegal occupiers is not only widespread throughout the Muslim world but, more alarmingly, is also finding a foothold in the West.

So what is the truth? The documentary starts by countering the claim that the Jews were never in the land in the first place, and that there was no Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. This is easily done, as many sources confirm a Jewish presence in the land from antiquity.

Simply telling the truth is the best weapon to counter the propaganda war being waged against Israel today.

It then goes on to demonstrate that a Palestinian claim to any part of the land has no historical validity, and phrases such as ‘occupied Palestinian territory’ and ‘illegal occupation’ have no basis at all. They are all part of a bogus set-up. Verifiable history is the key to meeting such claims, and this is well-presented in sufficient detail without becoming bogged down or over-repetitive.

Charting Historical Progression

The 12 chapters vary in length from 3 to 13 minutes but it is possible to view it all in one sitting, as the film runs continuously through without annoying breaks for the chapter divisions (though it is well worth having the DVD case to hand to see the chapter titles).

The film takes us through the Ottoman Empire and its rule over Palestine, and then charts the historical progress from Turkish rule through to the Balfour Declaration. Some overlap would be expected with other DVDs and similar material on this topic - and inevitably there are some similarities - but there is much here that is new and more detailed. The whole emphasis is distinct: that of exploring the role of international law, hence chapters on the Paris peace conference, the League of Nations, the San Remo conference, and, of course, much on the British Mandate itself.

Special mention is made of the role of Churchill, which provides fascinating details into the political scene in Britain at that time. There is a chapter devoted to the 1939 White Paper and its tragic consequences, and another on the formation of the United Nations as it took over from the League of Nations, and the new charter that came into being as a result.

Britain’s betrayal of their Mandate responsibilities is documented clearly but always through the main lens of international law and how it should have been implemented.

The whole emphasis of this DVD is distinct: that of exploring the position of Israel within international law.

Being Clear About the Facts

The whole film is very informative, with new things to learn for everyone. It will also provide a vital revelation for those who rely on the usual media outlets.

We all need to be clear in our understanding of what is often a deliberately confused situation. With the 70^th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel coming up next May we need to be prepared: to know what is binding in international law to this day and how to counter false views. This DVD is an excellent resource to that end and is highly commended.

The DVD also contains two previews, one of six minutes and another of ten minutes. It is not clear why two are necessary, but the longer one seems to contain things which will come up in Part 2 and so acts as a trailer for the whole. Included in the second DVD will be the wars against which Israel has had to defend itself since independence and the campaign to denounce and delegitimise the Jewish State. Part 2 (to be released in 2018) is eagerly awaited!

‘Whose Land? Part 1: Foundations’ (94 minutes, produced and directed by Hugh Kitson) is available from the publishers for £15 + P&P. Click here to visit the official website.

100 years ago, an epic cavalry charge opened the way for Jerusalem’s liberation.

The liberation of Jerusalem by Allied forces 100 years ago was undoubtedly one of the great moments of history that should be remembered not only as a military success, but also as a stupendous spiritual victory.

The man in charge, General Edmund Allenby, is said to have carried with him a message from British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who “wanted Jerusalem as a Christmas present for the British nation”.

The PM’s War Cabinet was in the meantime working on plans for Jewish restoration to their ancient land, but felt that any public announcement of sympathy towards Zionism should be coupled with a military breakthrough.

The Last Great Cavalry Charge in History

And at 4:30pm on 31 October 1917, about 800 bayonet-wielding ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand) horsemen set off in three columns at a canter across a 5km plain to Beersheba on an epic cavalry charge that, in author Kelvin Crombie’s words, would change the course of world history, triggering a chain of events that would lead to the creation of modern Israel.

The Aussie soldiers were evidently riding a death-defying gauntlet of shrapnel, high explosives and machine-gun fire from some 4,000 entrenched Ottoman troops, and their rapid advance prevented the intended complete destruction of local wells, which would have been disastrous for over 50,000 troops and their animals.¹

The epic cavalry charge of the ANZACs would change the course of world history. 

British-led forces had already been repelled twice in their efforts to break through a Turkish/German line of defence stretching from Gaza to Beersheba, the Israeli city now known as capital of the Negev desert region.

Photo thought to show the charge of the Australian Light Horse Brigade, 1917. See Photo Credits.But the Turks were taken by surprise as they did not suspect that anyone would be so foolish as to attack the fortress from the desert. Unfortunately for them, as one wag has put it, nobody has ever accused the Aussies of being in their right minds – enthusiastically charging out on what has been dubbed ‘the last great cavalry charge in history’ even after riding 60 miles through the white-hot, searing sands of an unforgiving Judean desert.

The Australians suffered just 31 troopers killed and 36 wounded as they captured 750 Turks, nine artillery pieces, three machine guns, and tons of other munitions and supplies. Even more importantly, they seized 17 of the 19 wells intact, recovering 90,000 gallons of fresh, drinkable water from the town, enabling the Army to stave off death by dehydration.²

Paving the Way for Balfour Declaration’s Fulfilment

It was surely significant that the Balfour Declaration, through which the British Government promised to do all in its power to establish a national home for the Jews, was signed on the very same day, and subsequently conveyed to Britain’s Jewish leaders. The Battle of Beersheba thus paved the way for the fulfilment of this pledge, and within just six weeks Allenby’s forces ended 400 years of Ottoman rule in the region.

A park dedicated to the Australian soldiers was opened in 2008. It was a $3 million project funded by the philanthropic Pratt Foundation, whose chief executive Sam Lipski told journalists at a ceremony there five years ago that the history of Zionism and the Middle East could have been very different had the ANZACS not defeated the Turks at Beersheba.³

Yet for many young Aussies, the annual pilgrimage to Gallipoli in Turkey – the site of a tragic military defeat in 1915 that cost some 8,000 Australian lives – has become a rite of passage, whereas the stunning military victory at Beersheba remains relatively unknown.

It is surely significant that the Balfour Declaration was signed on the very same day. 

The Liberation of Jerusalem

General Allenby enters Jerusalem unmounted, in reverence of Jesus, 1917. See Photo Credits.The Royal Flying Corps also played a vital role in the liberation of Jerusalem by dropping pamphlets calling upon the Turks to surrender, an event evidently foretold by Isaiah some 2,700 years earlier: “Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it” (Isa 31:5). As it happens, this passage was also the required reading in all Anglican (Church of England) churches that week.

As a result, Jerusalem surrendered without a shot being fired, perhaps also helped by the similarity of Allenby’s signature to the Arabic (Al-Nebbi) for the prophet Mohammed. Victory in Jerusalem coincided with the Hanukkah festival recalling Jewish liberation from Greek-Syrian tyranny in the second century before Christ.

On 11 December Allenby declared British military rule from the ancient steps of the Tower of David, right opposite Christ Church, headquarters of the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people (CMJ) who had done so much to convince political and church leaders of Israel’s destiny under God. He arrived at the Old City on horseback, but dismounted at Jaffa Gate before entering the holy enclave on foot, declaring: “It does not behoove me, a Christian, to enter the City of my Messiah mounted.”

The Role of Evangelical Christians

Without in any way minimising the contribution of the ANZAC troops towards Israel’s re-birth, the ground had been well prepared over the previous century by British evangelical Christians such as William Wilberforce, Lord Shaftesbury, Charles Spurgeon and Bishop JC Ryle, who believed that Jewish redemption is a fundamental aspect of biblical truth, and prayed to that end.

They in turn influenced the movers and shakers of the age, backed up (through divine providence) by the rise of Jewish Zionism under Theodor Herzl. The result was the Balfour Declaration.

The ground had been well prepared over the previous century by British evangelical Christians who believed that Jewish redemption is a fundamental aspect of biblical truth, and prayed to that end. 

An interesting footnote is that most of Lloyd George’s 1917 War Cabinet were evangelical Christians – ironically, the only member strongly opposed to the policy, Edwin Montague, was Jewish. Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, had already served as Prime Minister and declared on his deathbed that aiding Jewish restoration was possibly the most worthwhile thing he had done. Also in the cabinet was South Africa’s Jan Christiaan Smuts, who had long predicted that a great Jewish state would arise once more.⁴

Notes

1 Crombie, K, 1998. Anzacs, Empires and Israel’s Restoration: 1798-1948. Vocational Education & Training Publications.

2 Dan Goldberg, Haaretz newspaper, 30 October 2012, though some facts are gleaned from an anonymous blogger.

3 Ibid.

4 Gardner, C. The Magnificent Ten. Prophecy Today UK, 3 February 2017.

Paul Luckraft reviews two DVDs ahead of the centenary of the Balfour Declaration this coming week.

The Forsaken Promise: Centenary Edition (Hatikvah Films, 2017)

To coincide with the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, Hatikvah Film Trust have issued a shorter version of The Forsaken Promise (originally 4 hours along across two discs, first published 2007). This is an excellent resource for those who have no or little knowledge of the aftermath of the Balfour Declaration, when Britain repeatedly reneged on its commitment to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine and failed to administer the region as the Mandate required.

The new disc can more readily be used in group discussions or even given away to those who want to discover how events played out in the vital period from 1917 to 1948, when the current state of Israel came into existence.

The DVD has eleven sections which means it can be used selectively if time does not permit a full showing, or paused at suitable moments to allow group discussion. The opening seven minutes set the scene well and would be a good way of opening up such a discussion. After that we start to see how things went wrong as Britain failed to live up to her promises. The presentation covers events from the San Remo meeting of 1920 to the British withdrawal in 1948, including the Hebron Massacre (1929), the White Paper of 1939 and the appalling incident of the Exodus ship (1947). Some of the scenes are quite disturbing and would need to be handled sensitively in a group context.

The DVD ends with an interview with Derek Prince in Israel, whose forthright words leave us in no doubt about the seriousness of Britain’s actions and attitudes during this vital period in our history and that of the Jews.

The Forsaken Promise: Centenary Edition (44 minutes) is available from AO Vision for £5. The original edition is still available from the publishers for £15.

The Destiny of Britain (Hatikvah Films, 2007)

Also available from Hatikvah is The Destiny of Britain, a prequel to The Forsaken Promise. This has not been reduced in length and remains in a two-disc format, with the main presentation (on Disc 1) being in two parts totalling 107 minutes. Disc 2 features several extended interviews with participants in the main presentation - a chance to hear at greater length what these experts had to say before it was edited down for Disc 1.

Presented by Kelvin Crombie, this is story of how Britain’s Christian heritage and her geo-political objectives in the Middle East combined in the period leading up the Balfour Declaration.

Britain played a key role in the restoration of the Jewish people to their biblical homeland and this DVD acts as a positive counterfoil to the more shameful episodes that followed the Declaration. Here we learn about how God placed many strong Christians in positions of influence in order to bring his purposes to fulfilment.

Knowing our history is central to understanding our present and likely future. This DVD provides key information to that end.

The Destiny of Britain: Decisions that Shaped an Empire (107 minutes) is available from Hatikvah Films for £10.