The years since 1967 read like a modern testament version of the Hebrew Bible's story – uprisings, civil war, agreements, condemnations, resolutions, invasions, people made homeless, people given a home, retaliation and suffering on all sides, with the ultimate stated goal – for all sides – being peace. Throughout, there has been a decidedly one-sided Western view of the activities, the actions, the movements within the Palestinian and what has become Israeli or Israeli occupied land. The ‘myth’ that the land that was to become Israel's land was unoccupied, was fed by such statements as the following, written on 15 June 1969, by Golda Meir, Israel's Prime Minister: ‘It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine…and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist’ (Ateek 1989: 36).

In the spring of 1967, before the Six Day War took place, I had to return to the United States from Rome, Italy, where I lived. Before I left, an Israeli friend, Mooky Dagan (nephew of General Moishe Dayan) took me aside. He wanted me to know that an as yet unknown, but upcoming war would be taking place. He was excited, as I recall, as he told me of the plans Israel was making for this attack. His story varied completely from the story as I heard it and read it in the western part of the U.S. following the Israeli invasion.