Christian Science Monitor Photo Caption Misleads
The March 10, 2014 edition of the Christian Science Monitor Weekly [CSM] carries an upbeat article “Go-getters in Gaza” which highlights the entrepreneurial ambitions and striving for normalcy of young Gazans. Eight photographs are shown. One of the photographs shows a young girl in a scout uniform. The caption reads,
PROUD A Girl Guide shows off her uniform. Girl Guides of Palestine, established in 1919 under British rule, aims to promote positive behaviour among young women.
The problem is the history this caption conceals. The first troops of the Girl Guides of Palestine were established by Annie Landau and Helen Bentwich at the Evelina School for Girls in Jerusalem. Landau, a British Zionist, ran the school for many years. The school was named after Evelina Rothschild, who belonged to the Rothschild family that funded Jewish settlement projects in what was to become Israel. This is confirmed in a book published in 1922, The Handbook of Palestine edited by Sir Harry Luke, Edward Keith-Roach. The CSM caption implicitly expropriates for the Palestinian Arab legacy what was actually, initially, a British-Jewish legacy and then expanded to include Arabs.
For more information on the school and the founding of the Girls Guides of Palestine, see
The Best School in Jerusalem: Annie Landau’s School for Girls, 1900-1960 By Laura S. Schor
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