By Daniel Armas
Who knew a simple game show question could spark public outcry on Twitter from a storm of digital commentators opposing revisionist history? When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even the classic American game show, Jeopardy, is surrounded by ideological punditry, rather than facts. The fallout from the most recent Jeopardy mistake, related to Israel and the West Bank, shows that many Americans continue to become inured to the dumbing-down of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict instead of more critically examining this often contentious issue.
On the Friday evening of January 10, during the first round of that day's Greatest of All Time Jeopardy Tournament, the contestants came upon the category of "Where's that Church?" As in all Jeopardy games, the answers are provided and contestants have to identify the corresponding question. Under the cheapest option available for $200, the answer was given: "Built in the 300s A.D., the Church of the Nativity." And, predictably, a contestant answered "What is Palestine?" But, the game show's host Alex Trebec dismissed this as incorrect, and instead "What is Israel?" was deemed the correct answer. Social media backlash was swift, with many commentators on Twitter and elsewhere decrying Jeopardy as supporting the "occupation." But, the twitterati's punditry was reflexive, glib, and absent of any nuance to the situation.
The fact is the Church of the Nativity is squarely in territory autonomously controlled by the Palestinian Authority. I speak from personal experience. This past summer I traveled with a delegation of military, legal, and international scholars into Area A of the West Bank. The city of Bethlehem was one of the many highlights of the delegation hosted by Our Soldiers Speak, the precursor to The MirYam Institute. As we approached the infamous security wall to cross into the West Bank, I saw one of the rarely-discussed red metal signs posted on the margins of the border, the words of which read: "This road leads to Area "A" under the Palestinian Authority. The entrance for Israeli citizens is forbidden, dangerous to your lives and is against the Israeli law." And, as I walked around the Christian section of Bethlehem and in the Church of the Nativity (anywhere else was deemed too dangerous) and saw the spray-paint stencil silhouettes of "martyrs," I turned to my friend and said "We're not in Kansas anymore." The absence of Israeli citizens (including soldiers), flags, or symbols underscored this conclusion. Instead, I saw the yellow crossed-rifle flag of Fattah dotting many roadsides and corners. No, Area A is not Israel.
Jeopardy gets its answers wrong often; in fact it retroactively rewards contestants usually after an audit during the commercial breaks. Jeopardy tweeted that soon after the Church of Nativity question aired it edited out the question and replaced it with a different question. Somehow, it seems, the edits did not take effect in time for the Friday night screening. This type of milquetoast response to the typical anti-Israel twitter outrage is a fine example of the problem surrounding the discourse in America about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: facts do not matter, it seems. Instead of an in-depth response describing exactly why the Church of the Nativity is not located in Israel, such as an overview of the Palestinian Authority's full control in Area A under the Oslo Accords and its culturally and ethnically homogenous population, Jeopardy offered a non-excuse—indeed, Jeopardy is more fallible than it lets on.
In fact, Jeopardy has mischaracterized Israel and the Palestinian territories before. In Episode 8 of Season 14, during the Teen Tournament III Semifinal Game 3, under the category ""C" The World," the $1200 daily double answer was: "It's a small New Hampshire town as well as an ancient name for Palestine." The correct response, Canaan, was asked, but the question itself highlights the fact that Jeopardy does not always know its Near East biblical geography. In Numbers 34:1-12, the Talmud describes the borders of Canaan as beginning at the Nile river, going East across the present-day Negev to the southern tip of the Dead Sea, and extending north along the Jordan River until reaching Zedad, then turning west until reaching the Mediterranean Sea.
Obviously, biblical Canaan is an ancient name for Israel, because much of the Kingdom of Israel was located there. No outrage followed this historical inaccuracy the way it did with Jeopardy's recent mistake, because most of the individuals who have made Israel-bashing their hobby horse would not consider erasing ancient Israeli history to be "revisionist history." Jeopardy lost the opportunity to contribute a nuanced correction and debunk propaganda with its mistake, and instead it fell prey to the Israel-haters.
For this reason, the hubbub and controversy surrounding Jeopardy's most recent mistake is an apt analogy of the quality of Americans' discourse over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: broad-based, uninformed, and riddled with inaccuracies, be it unintentional as Jeopardy was or, more commonly, not.
Interestingly, during a conversation between Alex Trebec and a finalist in the very next episode, Alex Trebec began the conversation with, "You visited two Middle Eastern countries…" The contestant, Alec Fischthal, responded with, "It was actually about three. I visited Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank…" Mr. Fischthal's response in the conversation was worthless for the game's purposes, but it was valuable in another way: Mr. Fischthal's correction to Alex Trebec was more accurate than characterizing Canaan as being solely in the West Bank. As the correct response that should have been awarded was: "What is Present-day Israel, Palestine and Lebanon?"
But, Jeopardy missed its opportunity to tackle a conversation riddled with distortions and propaganda with its trademark objectivity. Perhaps it is too big an ask for an American game show to bring some civility and facts to conversations about de-facto statehood in the Near East. Perhaps Jeopardy's inaction fueled the very things that promote slanders against Israel. Perhaps if we can all begin to expect more from ourselves when it comes to promoting truth, maybe truer answers to questions about Israel and the Palestinian territories can be given, even on Jeopardy.