Wrong, Simba – You CAN Change The Past. We Palestinians Do It All The Time

By Saeb Erekat

Silly lion. Of course you can change the past. We do it constantly.

You think I stick with only one story about my origins? I have several. The documented evidence, of course, says the tribe that produced me came from Arabia to what is now Jordan and the Levant in the middle of the nineteenth century. But I haven’t claimed that in a long time. Not when it became crucial to establish a pedigree that predates the Jewish one. Yasser Arafat himself on some occasions would say the Palestinians are descended of the Philistines, and on others, the unrelated Canaanites. My favorite is to say we came from the Natufians, who might as well be prehistoric.  You can change the past several times a week if you wish, you feline fool.

It’s not just ancestry you can change, though that is a favorite subject. In addition to latching onto the discredited notion that Jews are not genealogically connected to this land, we simply erase our own previous pronouncements as it suits our current purposes. Once upon a time it was advantageous to shore up Islamic legitimacy by identifying the site of the Dome of the Rock as the very same location as Solomon’s and Herod’s Temples. But eventually we realized that doing so necessarily acknowledged a Jewish connection, so we’ve taken to denying there ever were such Temples, and that they were a Jewish fabrication. Whatever works.

Integrity? That’s such a treacherous notion. You think the Waqf cared about integrity when it bulldozed countless  priceless archaeological finds to excavate a new underground mosque beneath Al Aqsa? Please. The whole point was to erase evidence of the Jewish Temples. It’s essentially the same phenomenon as when ISIS destroyed much of what remains of ancient Palmyra, or when the Taliban demolished the historic Buddha icons. The past is what you say it is, not some unchanging fact. Get that into your furry head.

Listen, if you want to claim Pride Rock from a rival, spread some story about that rival’s illegitimacy, then seize it for yourself. Invite in some less-than-scrupulous allies – such as hyenas – if it’s necessary to get some dirty work done that you shouldn’t be seen handling yourself. Try to expel any rival claimants from the territory and hope they stay away or die out before they can come back. Whatever happens, blame any misfortune on others and play the victim.

You hear what I’m saying, Scar? I mean Simba?