Rebbe Nahman's Eretz-Yisrael Hasbara

Here is a quotation from a follower of Rebbe Nahman of Bratzlav (who died in 1810) which posits a core principle of modern Hasbara, that one needs to assert rights, even if only verbally, as a prerequisite to claim them later found in Likutei Halachot, Hoshen Mishpat:

Despite our land and inheritance being stolen by non-Jews

and we have not the power to remove it from their hands,

due to a fault of ours,

we pray and we shout out that

the Land of Israel is ours and is our patrimony

and that is our response to the Other Side,

the possession of non-Jews is not a valid possession

the Land of Israel is ours and in the end,

we will extract it from their hands.

With God's help.

I'll add now the full section from Likutei Halachot, Choshen Mispat, M'talt'lin

"And even though we have been shouting and begging for so many years to return to Israel and we are still far from there, yet no prayer and cry is lost, even that of the least of the least, because with every cry and prayer we conquer some part or point of Israel until the seventh day, when all the points we conquered in our prayers will be gathered together and we will return to Israel, as is the saying of the Rebbe, on the article of Rabbah: "He will gather you up, etc." (S. 2:31). And even if someone is very damaged and does not have the strength in his cry and prayer to conquer any point or part of Israel, yet his cry is very effective, because his cry that shouts and prays to return to our land is in essence a protest explained in the law of land possession, as long as he protestsץ"

^