A reference library of the most repeated misinformation about Israel — paired with sourced, honest answers you can use anywhere.
"Israel is a colonial settler state."
Jews are an indigenous people of the Land of Israel with 3,000+ years of continuous presence, archaeological record, language, and religious practice tied to the land — predating modern colonialism by millennia.
"Israel was 'created' in 1948 by displacing Palestinians."
Israel was re-established as a state in 1948 after the UN's 1947 partition plan, which proposed two states. The Jewish leadership accepted; surrounding Arab nations rejected it and declared war. The displacement that followed was a tragedy of war, not its founding purpose.
"'From the river to the sea' is a peace slogan."
The phrase calls for a single state replacing Israel — meaning the elimination of the world's only Jewish state. It is explicitly used by Hamas, whose 1988 charter and 2017 document call for the destruction of Israel.
"Israel commits genocide."
Genocide has a legal definition: the intent to destroy a people. Israel warns civilians before strikes, facilitates aid corridors, and treats wounded Gazans. The Gazan population has grown nearly 10x since 1948. Tragedy in war is not genocide.
"Anti-Zionism isn't antisemitism."
Zionism is the Jewish people's right to self-determination in their indigenous homeland — a right granted to every other people on earth. Denying that right uniquely to Jews is, by definition, discrimination against Jews.
"There has always been a country called Palestine."
There has never been a sovereign Arab state called Palestine. The region was ruled by Ottomans, then administered under the British Mandate. The name 'Palestine' itself was Roman — imposed after they crushed the Jewish revolt in 135 CE.