What is it about?
According to a frequently repeated story, during the early years of the Zionist movement a number of European Jews were sent to Palestine to investigate its suitability as a location for a Jewish state. They reported back, the story concludes, that “the bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man“—Palestine is an excellent land, but it belongs to others. While its details vary with the telling, the story’s central point is often the same: already in the early years of the Zionist movement, Jews recognized that it would be unjust and immoral for them to try to claim Palestine; despite this awareness, the Zionists proceeded with their plans for Jewish statehood there; from the outset, therefore, the establishment of the state of Israel was an act of severe and willful injustice.
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This page is a summary of: "The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man": Historical Fabrication and an Anti-Zionist Myth, Shofar An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, January 2012, Project Muse,
DOI: 10.1353/sho.2012.0065.
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Resources
“The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man.” The tenacity of an anti-Zionist fable
Some authors are unwilling to dispense with unsubstantiated stories, opting instead to put scholarly standards aside in their attempts to advance anti-Zionist arguments. One case in point is the “married to another man” fable.
Bride is beautiful: An irresistible anti-Zionist story
Though stories incorporating the phrase “The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man” lack a primary source, different versions have appeared in many articles, books, and films.
The Independent Amends Its Brief History of Israel
Editors at British newspaper The Independent make significant changes to Joe Sommerlad’s May 2021 article about Jewish and Israeli history.
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