Sabbah Report » 1948

The secrets in Israel’s archives: Evidence of ethnic cleansing kept under lock and key – by Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:54:45 +0000

By Jonathan Cook * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

History may be written by the victors, as Winston Churchill is said to have observed, but the opening up of archives can threaten a nation every bit as much as the unearthing of mass graves.

That danger explains a decision quietly taken last month by Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to extend by an additional 20 years the country's 50-year rule for the release of sensitive documents.

The new 70-year disclosure rule is the government's response to Israeli journalists who have been seeking through Israel's courts to gain access to documents that should already be declassified, especially those concerning the 1948 war, which established Israel, and the 1956 Suez crisis.

The state's chief archivist says many of the documents "are not fit for public viewing" and raise doubts about Israel's "adherence to international law", while the government warns that greater transparency will "damage foreign relations".

Quite what such phrases mean was illustrated by the findings of a recent investigation by an Israeli newspaper. Ha'aretz revisited the Six Day War of 1967, in which Israel seized not only the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza, but also a significant corner of Syria known as the Golan Heights, which Israel still refuses to relinquish.

The consensus in Israel is that the country's right to hold on to the Golan is even stronger than its right to the West Bank. According to polls, an overwhelming majority of Israelis refuse to concede their little bit of annexed Syria, even if doing so would secure peace with Damascus.

This intransigence is not surprising. For decades, Israelis have been taught a grand narrative in which, having repelled an attack by Syrian forces, Israel then magnanimously allowed the civilian population of the Golan to live under its rule. That, say Israelis, is why the inhabitants of four Druze villages are still present there. The rest chose to leave on the instructions of Damascus.

One influential journalist writing at the time even insinuated anti-Semitism on the part of the civilians who departed: "Everyone fled, to the last man, before the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] arrived, out of fear of the 'savage conqueror'... Fools, why did they have to flee?"

However, a very different picture emerges from Ha'aretz's interviews with the participants. These insiders say that all but 6,000 of the Golan's 130,000 civilians were either terrorized or physically forced out, some of them long after the fighting finished. An army document reveals a plan to clear the area of the Syrian population, with only the exception of the Golan Druze, so as not to upset relations with the loyal Druze community inside Israel.

The army's post-war tasks included flushing out thousands of farmers hiding in caves and woods to send them over the new border. Homes were looted before the army set about destroying all traces of 200 villages so that there would be nowhere left for the former inhabitants to return to. The first Jewish settlers sent to till the fields recalled seeing the dispossessed owners watching from afar.

The Ha'aretz investigation offers an account of methodical and wholesale ethnic cleansing that sits uncomfortably not only with the traditional Israeli story of 1967 but with the Israeli public's idea that their army is the "most moral in the world". That may explain why several prominent, though unnamed, Israeli historians admitted to Ha'aretz that they had learnt of this "alternative narrative" but did nothing to investigate or publicise it.

What is so intriguing about the newspaper's version of the Golan's capture is the degree to which it echoes the revised accounts of the 1948 war that have been written by later generations of Israeli historians. Three decades ago - in a more complacent era - Israel made available less sensitive documents from that period.

The new material was explosive enough. It undermined Israel's traditional narrative of 1948, in which the Palestinians were said to have left voluntarily on the orders of the Arab leaders and in the expectation that the combined Arab armies would snuff out the fledging Jewish state in a bloodbath.

Instead, the documents suggested that heavily armed Jewish forces had expelled and dispossessed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians before the Jewish state had even been declared and a single Arab soldier had entered Palestine.

One document in particular, Plan Dalet, demonstrated the army's intention to expel the Palestinians from their homeland. Its existence explains the ethnic cleansing of more than 80 per cent of Palestinians in the war, followed by a military campaign to destroy hundreds of villages to ensure the refugees never returned.

Ethnic cleansing is the common theme of both these Israeli conquests. A deeper probe of the archives will almost certainly reveal in greater detail how and why these "cleansing" campaigns were carried out - which is precisely why Mr Netanyahu and others want the archives to remain locked.

But full disclosure of these myth-shattering documents may be the precondition for peace. Certainly, more of these revelations offer the best hope of shocking Israeli public opinion out of its self-righteous opposition to meaningful concessions, either to Syria or the Palestinians.

It is also a necessary first step in challenging Israel's continuing attempts to ethnically cleanse Palestinians, as has occurred in the last few weeks against the Bedouin in both the Jordan Valley and the Negev, where villages are being razed and families forced to leave again.

Genuine peacemakers should be demanding that the doors to the archives be thrown open immediately. The motives of those who wish to keep them locked should be clear to all.

* Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East" and "Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair".

A Nation Born in Deception

William A. Cook — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:22:30 +0000

By William A. Cook* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Eliahu Epstein letter to President Harry S. Truman, May 14, 1948

As Israel attempts today to gloss over the reality of its birth 62 years ago with a sweeping public relations campaign extolling the miraculous "resurrection" of ancient Zion in contemporary times, a new nation seeking only peace with its neighbors, it might be enlightening and valuable to examine the truth.

On May 14, 1948 President Harry S. Truman received a letter from the Jewish Agency for Palestine announcing the impending proclamation of the independent republic of Israel (Harry S. Truman Library, document filed August 22, 1949).[i] That date marks not only the beginning of the State of Israel but, sub missa voce, the assumption by the State of Israel of the calculated, systematic and determined ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population of the land of Palestine that had been the business of "The Consultancy" and its agents before May 14, as identified by Dr. Ilan Pappe in his monumental The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.[ii]

The letter notes that the republic has been established within "frontiers approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its Resolution of November 29, 1947, and that a provisional government has been charged to assume the rights and duties of government for preserving law and order within the boundaries of Israel, for defending the state against external aggression, and for discharging the obligations of Israel to the other nations of the world in accordance with international law." The letter was signed by Eliahu Epstein, Agent, Provisional Government of Israel.

The letter is notable not for what it announces, but for what it does not reveal. Truth requires revelation of all the facts, not concealment by omission of that which would prejudice an understanding. During the six months between the adoption of UN Resolution 181 and the date of this letter, and in subsequent months, the prospective state of Israel launched a massive military incursion into territory designated by that same Resolution for the Palestinian people, creating in its wake "three quarters of a million Palestinian refugees," the destruction of "hundreds of entire villages ... not only depopulated but obliterated ...and houses blown up or bulldozed" (Walid Khalidi, All That Remains, xv).[iii] Khalidi's massive study focuses on 418 villages, once the homes of Palestinians, 292 completely destroyed, 90 others "largely destroyed," the remainder re-inhabited by Jews called Israeli settlers.

In blunt terms, the Jewish Agency for Palestine lied to the American President that it had established a provisional government that "has been charged to assume the rights and duties ... for preserving law and order within the boundaries of Israel ... and for discharging the obligations of Israel to the other nations of the world in accordance with international law."

The Agency's deception made no reference either to the President or the international community that it had created the "Catastrophe," or as the Palestinians termed it, the Nakba, the days of infamy that created what has become the largest Diaspora of refugees in the world and a time of remembrance for those killed in a series of massacres, estimated at 24 by Benny Morris, Israel's preeminent Historian of that period. Indeed, the Agency had acted against international law in invading Palestinian land as designated by the very Resolution that had given them the right to a state of Israel even as it lied without remorse to the international community that it would live in accordance with their laws.

This letter, coupled with an earlier one to the President, dated May 10, 1948, will serve as a microcosm of political deceit characteristic of the Zionist led forces that controlled the nascent state of Israel. This second letter from The Nation Associates, notified the President that

Tomorrow morning the Washington Post will carry, in the form of a full-age (sic) advertisement, the text of an open letter to you requesting the implementation of the November 29 resolution on Palestine...I have been requested to send you the enclosed text of this open letter by the signators ...It is our hope that in the week which remains before the end of the British Mandate, action will be taken by you to insure the recognition of the Jewish state as a means of maintaining the prestige of this country, the authority of the United Nations, and peace in the Middle East (Signed by Freda Kirchwey, President; document available at the Truman Library).[iv]

The Nation Associates supported the establishment of the State of Israel and used its publishing arm to further that goal. The "Open Letter" referred to above argued against the moves by "the British and our own State Department" to "sabotage" the partition resolution despite the President's determined effort to support Israel. Indeed, the Associates went so far as to publish "The British Record on Partition" published in The Nation, America's Leading Liberal Weekly, on May 8, 1948 detailing their selected reading of "British Military Intelligence Sources." This document was simultaneously submitted to the Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The Open letter published in the Washington Post amounted to a synopsis of this larger document including its primary argument that "there was no reason why the Jewish state could not be set up (if the Arabs resisted partition) and the Arab area turned over to the Trusteeship Council." Note that this argument is being made even as the Jewish Agency and its affiliates have driven hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and villages and massacred untold thousands in the area designated for the Palestinians recommended to be turned over to the Trusteeship Council.

The open letter cited an amendment to the resolution inserted by Truman's representative, Herschel Johnson, "the Security Council should determine as a threat to peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression, in accordance with Article 29 of the Charter,any attempt to alter by force the settlement envisaged by this resolution." Yet no mention is made here of the invasion by the Jewish forces of the towns and villages in the area designated for the Palestinians. Rather, the Associates allege that it is the British Mandate government that has supported the Arab League against Israel since 1945, "under the direction of Foreign Minister Bevin, {who} (has) resisted every American proposal for a decent settlement of the Palestinian question." "This was true," the letter continues, "in 1946 when he refused to accept the proposal of the Anglo-American Committee and your own, for the admission into Palestine of 100,000 Jews." What is left unsaid by the Associates is the British promise to the Arabs in the Balfour Declaration that they would maintain a strict ratio of Jews entering Palestine to the indigenous population, the second of the Balfour Declaration promises never referenced as the companion piece to the establishment of a home for the Jews in Palestine.[v]

So now we see the strategy of the Zionists as they manipulate the President: (a) advance publication of a major document detailing British subterfuge in eroding the possibility of establishing a Jewish state sent to the United Nations, thereby placing blame for the deterioration of conditions in Palestine on the British; (b) a subsequent letter to the President informing him that a public "open letter" will be published in the Washington Post detailing subversion of the Jewish people, placing him in the unenviable position of not aiding the "victims" of this subversion or carrying through with recognition of the Jewish state "as a means of maintaining the prestige of this country"; (c) and, finally, another letter, this from the Jewish Agency for Palestine, on the 14^th, seeking his recognition by "welcoming Israel into the community of nations" with no reference to the breaching of international law by the very Agency seeking his support.

Control and manipulation of the events coming out of Palestine has been and continues to be the modus operandi of the Zionist leaders of the state of Israel. The above letters to President Truman offer insight into this manipulation. Moreover, Truman was acting on behalf of the American people in recognizing the State of Israel on the 15^th of May 1948. What the American people knew was the suffering of the Jews under Hitler and the apparent logic of the United Nations partition plan to provide a state for the two peoples residing in Palestine. What they did not know was the Zionist entity that had different goals and the will to deceive the citizens of America to achieve them. But the American people were not alone in being deceived. More importantly is the deception kept from the British people about these "disappeared years," as Robert Fisk terms them. What's missing is the perspective of the Palestinians and the British Mandate government.

The United Kingdom had mandatory authority from the League of Nations to govern the area with the establishment of the Palestine Mandate in 1922, an action that imposed a western colonial and national mindset on an area familiar with tribal and imperial authority. Prior to the official implementation of the Mandate, the British Government had enunciated a "declaration" concerning the desirability of His Majesty's Government in the "establishment of a national home for the Jewish people," called the Balfour Declaration.

Discussions that resulted in the final text of the Balfour Declaration clarify the intention of its wording. The use of "national home" was used intentionally instead of "state." Additionally, the first draft of the declaration referred to the principle "that Palestine should be reconstituted as the National Home of the Jewish people." In the final text, the word that was replaced with in to avoid committing all of Palestine to the Jews only.[vi]

Between 1939 and 1947, the mandate Government found it more and more difficult to maintain its position as the responsible governing force servicing the Arab population and the growing Jewish population, determining by 1947 that these two populations could not coexist. As a result, the British Government placed the resolution of the problem in the hands of the United Nations. That in turn resulted in a partition plan of the land of Palestine, proposed in November of 1947 to the General Assembly, to be implemented in May of 1948, sixty two years ago this May.

British authority in Palestine continued under the United Nations until the implementation of the Partition Plan in May 1948. Consequently, the mandate government had to abide by the Charter of the UN and its Conventions. Ironically, as the Zionist forces, estimated by the Jewish Agency personnel in documents seized by the Mandate Police at 20 to 60 thousand (see top secret file of Sir Richard C. Catling, The Plight of the Palestinians), continued their massacres of Palestinians into 1948, the UN debated the adoption of a Convention defining "genocide" based on Nuremberg principles, a definition approved that same year.

In 1944 the term "genocide" appeared in Raphael Lemkin's Axis Rule in Occupied Europe created out of the conditions that allowed for the Nazi action against those suffering in their concentration camps. Therefore once the State of Israel was created by the Jewish leaders of the area by declaration May 14, 1948, and, subsequently, was recognized for membership in the UN in 1949, it was expected to abide by the UN Conventions. The United Nations does not appropriate to itself the authority to create states. The United Nations only authorizes itself to recognize states for membership, states that are formed or proclaimed by the people of said state.[vii]

What should be obvious now, after the carefully researched and scholarly work of Dr. Ilan Pappe in his Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and the equally well-researched work of Dr. Benny Morris in his Righteous Victims, both based on recently released evidence from the Israeli archives and those of the Israel Defense Forces Archives, complemented now with the materials preserved by Sir Richard C. Catling, to be made available in The Plight of the Palestinians from Palgrave Macmillan in June, is the truth about the creation of the state of Israel: acceptance of UN Resolution 181 by the Jewish Agency Provisional Government as the designated Jewish state was not done with intent to abide by the goal of the UN General Assembly, to provide a state for two peoples in the land of Palestine, but rather to use it as a means of subterfuge to gain eventual control of all the land and cleanse that land of its indigenous people to whatever extent possible. Put bluntly, what was true then is true today; the current government in Israel continues the practices of past Israeli governments, cleanse the land of its rightful inhabitants to make that land part of the Jewish state. This is what is termed, "slow motion genocide," not, one would hope, a civilized policy to be extolled either by the Israelis or the international community.

This essay is a modification of the opening chapter of William A. Cook latest book, "The Plight of the Palestinians: A Long History of Destruction", to be issued by Palgrave Macmillan in June.

* William A. Cook is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California and author of The Rape Of Palestine: Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied, Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy and The Chronicles Of Nefaria. He can be reached at: wcook@laverne.edu.
www.drwilliamacook.com

NOTES:

[i] Eptstein, Eliahu. (1948). Agent, Provisional Government of Israel. Letter to President Harry S. Truman. May 14, 1948. Filed August 22, 1949. Truman Library. www.trumanlibrary.org/whistelstop/study_collections/Israel/large/documents/index. 12/15/2008.

[ii] Pappe, Ilan. (2006). The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld: Oxford.

[iii] Khalidi, Walid. (1992). All That Remains. Institute for Palestinian Studies: Washington, D.C. xv.

[iv] Kirchwey, Freda. (1948). President, The Nation Associates. Letter to President Harry S. Truman. May 10, 1948. Filed May 11, 1948. Truman Library.

[v] Prior, Michael. (1999) Zionism and the State of Israel: A Moral Inquiry. London: Rutledge.

[vi] Stein, Leonard. (1961). The Balfour Declaration. New York: Simon and Shuster, 470.

[vii] Harb, Jim. (2009). "The UN did not create Israel."

www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/04/what-theun-did-not-create-israel.html. 6-11-2009.

Why Iran won’t attack Israel

Yousef Munayyer — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:55:12 +0000

Illustration by Carlos Latuff

By Yousef Munayyer* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

This brief appeared today in the Los Angeles Times and is a response to a column written by Benny Morris that was published in the Los Angeles Times on 16 April 2010.

Palestinians are in Israel today because they managed to survive the depopulation of 1948, the year the Jewish state was founded (Arabs constitute about 20% of Israel's population). Ironically, while Benny Morris' scholarship suggests that the mere existence of these Palestinians in Israel -- and millions more in the occupied territories -- irks him, Israel's substantial Arab population also blows a hole in his argument about the need to deal with the supposed Iranian nuclear threat.

Morris is part of an increasingly vociferous chorus warning of an impending apocalypse for Israel at the hands of a nuclear Iran eager to rid the Middle East of its Jews. Yet Iran's religious leaders have repeatedly stated that such weapons are "un-Islamic" or "forbidden under Islam."

Morris' role in our understanding of the region's history is confounding. Arguably, no one played a more central role in exposing Israel's role in the depopulation of Palestinians from their homeland than Morris. In his seminal work, "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem," Morris, using declassified military documents, exposes the calculated effort by early Israeli leaders to impose a Jewish majority through ethnic cleansing.

Long considered a champion of modern Israeli historians who sought to shed light on the ugly side of Israel's birth, Morris shocked many Israelis and Palestinians alike when he later changed course. To Morris, the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians was no longer the problem at the heart of the conflict; in fact, he suggested that the problem was that Israel didn't finish the job in 1948.

Morris said in a 2004 interview "Under some circumstances expulsion is not a war crime. I don't think that the expulsions of 1948 were war crimes. You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. You have to dirty your hands."

Morris added later in the interview that if Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, "was already engaged in expulsion, maybe he should have done a complete job. ... If he had carried out a full expulsion - rather than a partial one - he would have stabilized the state of Israel for generations."

Yet the pesky Palestinian minority Morris wishes had been expelled decades ago serves as a deterrent from a nuclear-armed Iran, should the Islamic Republic ever build nuclear weapons and consider using them on Israel. The fact that Arab Israelis were among the casualties of the 2006 war with Hezbollah speaks to the reality that no nuclear attack on Israel could happen without the deaths of countless Palestinians and Israelis, not to mention the likely destruction of Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam.

The reality of Palestinian casualties, the destruction of Jerusalem, the onset of regional war and the immediate destruction of Iran's regime as a result of a multilateral conventional or even nuclear counterattack all serve as a credible deterrent to a nuclear Iran. The Iranian leadership has shown a demonstrable interest in self-preservation

The alarmism espoused Morris and company isn't grounded in reality. Rather - just as with Iraq, Syria and now Iran - Israel constantly needs an enemy that it says threatens its existence. Otherwise the Jewish state would have a harder time maintaining its overwhelming military supremacy in the region and continuously changing the subject from resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to practically anything else.

The ideology at the foundation of the state of Israel and the very justification for its existence requires the existence of apocalyptic anti-Semitic forces with the intent and capability to annihilate. Without these boogeymen, whether it is Saddam Hussein, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Arabs who "want to push Israel into the sea," the state of Israel ceases to have any justification for the maintenance of a Jewish majority by force or for its ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands.

The fact that Benjamin Netanyahu, the pro-colonization Israeli prime minister, has made every effort to connect the idea of a nuclear Iran to the Holocaust is evidence of this scare-mongering. Iran, like Iraq in 2003, is an inflated but necessary fear for Israel. No credible analysis of the situation envisions a scenario in which Iran would use nuclear weapons against the Jewish state. But proponents of Israel's colonial enterprise, who support maintaining a Jewish majority by the force of walls and soldiers in occupied territory, want everyone to believe that the focus should be on Iran, not on the occupation, and that Israel's security policies are justifiable against "existential threats."

The need for these inflated threats has increased in the years since Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. Despite these agreements, Israel still maintains and furthers its occupation of Palestinian lands through blockade and settlement expansion.

The emperor may be naked in Tel Aviv, but he can continue avoiding attention and shame if he persuades the world to look in Tehran's direction instead.

* Yousef Munayyer is Executive Director of the Palestine Center.

Palestine/Israel History since 1878

Haitham Sabbah — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:47:33 +0000

Pass this short video to your friends to answer the basic questions about the history of Palestine/Israel conflict and 1948 Nakba:

Video link: http://blip.tv/file/3467330

This video will answer the following questions:

- How were the Jews treated by Arab before 1948?

- Where and how did Zionism start?

- Was Palestine empty when the Jews came?

- What was the population of Arabs in Palestine between 1878 and 1948?

- How many Jewish immigrants arrived to Palestine between 1878-1948 and how did the UN partition plan divided Palestine between Arab and Jews? Did Israel stick to this plan?

- Did the Jews find "land without people" as they claim?

- How did the Jews treat the Palestinians in the occupied lands?

- How did the Nakba start and at what cost?

- Where the Palestinians expelled before or after the neighboring Arabs countries engaged in a war with the Israeli occupiers?

- What happened to the evicted Palestinian villages? How many were erased?

- Can the Palestinian refugees return to "visit" their occupied villages and lands? And can the Jews visit the occupied lands?

All these questions and more are answered in the above 10 min. documentary. A good video to pass to your friends who like to learn more about the history of the conflict and 1948 Nakba.

Spread the video! Embed code:

Nakba, the Forgotten Child of the Holocaust

SR Editor — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 10:05:30 +0000

By Steve Amsel* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Sunday evening at sundown, sirens will sound throughout Israel to commemorate the start of Holocaust Remembrance Day. On Monday, ceremonies will be held in various cities, the main one being at Yad Vashem, the memorial park in Jerusalem.

Friday was the anniversary of the massacre at Deir Yassin, the startof the 'other holocaust', known as the Nakba. There were no sirens tosignify this as the Nakba is the 'forgotten child of the holocaust'. In Israel today it is forbidden to even speak of this, to make sure itremains forgotten. You can read about The Children of Deir Yassin in this essay.

Let's take a brief look at what the Nakba was...

"We thought it would be a matter of weeks, only until thefighting died down. Of course, we were never allowed to go home." NinaSaah, Washington, DC

"My family's farm of oranges, grapefruits and lemons,centuries old, was gone." Darwish Addassi, Walnut Creek, California

"Those of us who left unwillingly in 1948 are plaguedwith painful nostalgia. My house in West Jerusalem is an Israeli nurseryschool now." Inea Bushnaq, New York, New York

"The people of New Orleans woke up one morning tocomplete devastation and had to flee. The Nakba was our HurricaneKatrina." Abe Fawal, Birmingham, Alabama

Sixty years ago, more than 700,000 Palestinians lost their homes andbelongings, their farms and businesses, their towns and cities. Jewishmilitias seeking to create a state with a Jewish majority in Palestine,and later, the Israeli army, drove them out. Israel rapidly moved Jewsinto the newly-emptied Palestinian homes. Nakba means "catastrophe" inArabic, and Palestinians refer to the destruction of their society andthe takeover of their homeland as an-Nakba, "The Catastrophe."

Ten Facts about the Nakba

1. The Nakba is a root cause of the Israeli/Palestinianproblem.

It is marked on May 15, the day after Israel declared itsindependence in 1948.

2. This traumatic event created the Palestinian refugeecrisis.

By the end of 1948, two-thirds of the Palestinian population wasexiled. It is estimated that more than 50% were driven out under directmilitary assault. Others fled as news spread of massacres committed byJewish militias in Palestinian villages like DeirYassin and Tantura (list of other massacres here and here).

3. Jewish leaders saw "transfer" as an important step in theestablishment of Israel.

Jewish leaders spoke openly of the need to use military clashes toexpel as many Palestinians as possible before other Arab countries couldcome to their defense. The Haganah militia's PlanDalet was the blueprint for this ethnic cleansing. Israel's firstPrime Minister, David Ben Gurion, said "We must use terror,assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of allsocial services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." (See whatother leading Israelis have said about transfer.)

4. Hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed.

Jewish forces depopulated more than 450 Palestinian towns andvillages, most of which were demolished.

5. Palestinian property and belongings were simply taken.

The newly-established Israeli government confiscated refugee land andproperties without respect to Palestinian rights or desires to returnto their homes.

Israeli historian Tom Segev reported that: "Entire cities andhundreds of villages left empty were repopulated with new [Jewish]immigrants... Free people – Arabs – had gone into exile and becomedestitute refugees; destitute refugees – Jews – took the exiles' placesin the first step in their lives as free people. One group[Palestinians] lost all they had while the other [Jews] found everythingthey needed – tables, chairs, closets, pots, pans, plates, sometimesclothes, family albums, books radios, pets....

6. Some Palestinians stayed in what became Israel.

While most Palestinians were driven out, some remained in what becameIsrael. Although citizens of the new state, they were subject toIsraeli military rule until 1966. Today, Palestinian citizens of Israelcomprise nearly 20 percent of Israel's population. They have the rightto vote and run for office, but more than 20 Israeli laws explicitlyprivilege Jews over non-Jews. Nearly one-quarter of Israel'sPalestinians are "internally displaced" persons, unable to return to thehomes and lands that were taken from them.

7. There are still millions of Palestinian refugees dispersedaround the world.

Today, there are 4.4 million Palestinian refugees registered as suchwith the United Nations, and at least another estimated 1 million whoare not so registered. Thus a majority of the Palestinian people, around10 million persons, are refugees.

8. Refugees have internationally-recognized rights.

All refugees enjoy internationally-recognized rights to return toareas from which they have fled or were forced out, to receivecompensation for damages, and to either regain their properties orreceive compensation and support for voluntary resettlement. This righthas been explicitly acknowledged in recent peace agreements in Cambodia,Rwanda, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guatemala, Northern Ireland,Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Burundi, and Darfur. This right was affirmed forthe Palestinians by the UnitedNations Resolution 194 of 1948. Israel, however, does not allowPalestinian refugees to return, although a Jew from anywhere in theworld can settle in Israel.

9. Justly resolving refugee rights is essential to MiddleEast peace.

An overwhelming majority of Palestinians believes that refugee rightsmust be fulfilled for peace between Palestinians and Israelis toendure. And according to an August 2007 poll by the Jerusalem Media andCommunications Center, nearly 70 percent believe that refugees should beallowed to return to "their original land".

10. The Nakba has implications for Americans.

Israel's ongoing denial of Palestinian rights – and unconditionalU.S. financial and diplomatic support for Israel – fuels anti-Americansentiment abroad. A 2002Zogby poll, conducted in eight Arab countries showed that "thenegative perception of the United States is based on American policies,not a dislike of the West." The same poll showed that "the Palestinianissue was listed by many Arabs among the political issues that affectthem most personally." Resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue wouldundoubtedly improve America's international image, by proving that theU.S. government supports the consistent application of internationallaw. (Source)

A video showing the horrors of the Nakba...

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EAmtgfPz-k

Two years ago Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was quoted as saying that there can be no Palestinian state unless and until the victims learn to forget the word Nakba.

"The Palestinians will celebrate their statehood when they erase the word Nakba from their lexicon," said Livni, whose father, Eitan, who died in 1991, played an active part in effecting the genocidal campaign of murder and terror that culminated in the establishment of Israel.

Last year, Livni had the temerity to say that the creation of a Palestinian state on parts of the West Bank would have to address Israel's Arab citizens.

NEWS FLASH.....

The Nakba will NOT be forgotten and there WILL be a Palestinian State!

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuem7Hi76Aw

* Steve Amsel is a Jewish active peace and civil rights worker living in Israel. He can be reached at manopeace@gmail.com

Source: Desert Peace

Total Boycott Against Total Occupation

Antoine Raffoul — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 06:40:42 +0000

By Antoine Raffoul* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

In an Opinion submitted to the Electronic Intifada on 4 March 2010 entitled: Moment of Truth, Rifat Kassis rightly asks: what does ‘boycott’ mean, how far does it go, and what does it call for?

We, at 1948: Lest We Forget, wish to respond to any call for a selective boycott of Israel, and to defy those voices which warn us Palestinians (and many international activists, for that matter) who criticise Israel for fear of being labelled 'anti-semites' (although we are Semites). We also wish to challenge politicians who call for yet another round of talks (proximity or otherwise) on the Palestine/Israel question as we lost count of how many of these talks have we had in the last 62 years? All to no avail. In fact, with each set of talks, Palestine seems to be shrinking and it people squeezed within dozens of Bantustans.

A boycott cannot be selective anymore. As Mr Kassis wrote: "The occupation is not a random onslaught of power, and it isn't conducted on some remote soil: it is a complete matrix of control, a strategic, consistent, deliberate, historically constructed, externally condoned..." and, lest we forget, perpetrated on Palestinian land.

The point being missed by many calling for a selective boycott is that the decisions being made inside Israel, inside the OPT and throughout historic Palestine, are made by the Zionist leadership (and its collaborators), whose aim is the total annexation, occupation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territories, not just post UNRES 181, not just post the Armistice Lines of 1949, not just post the 1967 conquests, but throughout historic Palestine. The recent tug of war of words between the US Administration and Israel on the settlement question proves that this most rightwing of Israeli administrations under B Netanyahu is adamant in its drive to build more settlements throughout annexed East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.

The last 62 years of illegal Zionist conquest and occupation, cannot be swept aside by simply agreeing to a temporary status-quo pending final status agreements. These painful 62 years cannot be parcelled into some kind of colonial areas called A, B, C, Gaza or Jerusalem. They cannot be relegated to the dustbin of history by a ceasefire, a checkpoint or an Apartheid Wall. As the occupation is total and internationally illegal, then the boycott must also be total and considered legal.

We should not just boycott the olive oil produced in the 'West Bank' because it is produced in an illegal settlement on the West Bank, but must also boycott all products produced in all illegal settlements. We should not just boycott an academic institution involved in state financed military projects, but must also boycott others involved in state financed cultural, scientific and academic activities. We should not just boycott an Israeli sports teams playing internationally under the Israeli banner, but must also boycott an Israeli dance or theatre company sent abroad to whitewash the fascist image of a cruel fascist State. We should not only boycott Caterpillar for demolishing homes and uprooting Palestinian olive groves, but must also boycott other contracting companies which supply the sand and cement that build the Apartheid Wall.

We challenge those who call for a mild and selective boycott to identify any Israeli institution, whether large or small, which is not part of this 'matrix of control' that suffocates our Palestinian nation.

As this occupation is total and unmerciful, so must our universal approach to fighting it and ending it be. As Israel's cruel occupation covers all of historic Palestine, so must our call be for the reversal of the processes which lead to that occupation and replacing them with the instruments of democracy and justice to include all of historic Palestine. A Palestine for all its people: Jews, Muslims, Christians, Coptic, Atheists, and non-Conformists.

In order to achieve this goal, we need a total boycott of the Zionist State. In order to achieve this aim, we need to identify that State. In order to identify that State, we need to untangle the politics of intrigue which produced the 181 UNRES which paved the way for the creation of that State. In order to untangle the tangled politics of that Resolution, we need to sit down, dust-off and read the official archives that go back to the 1917 Balfour Declaration. We need to dig deep into the dark politics and personalities that gave the nation of one people to the people of many nations. And to do this against the will of the over 1 million indigenous Palestinians simply adds insult to injury.

We have come full circle now and so our boycott must be a full boycott.

Therefore, let us not read the pages of only one chapter of this saga and leave others unturned simply because it is easy to 'let bygones be bygones'. Israel has never compromised on its aims, its goals or its determined aggression against the Palestinian people. It has never compromised its defiance of international law. It has never compromised its arrogance towards its most powerful ally, the United States.

Why should we compromise the boycott battle. The initial cure to all this is a total boycott.

Total boycott against a total occupation. Nothing less will do.

* Antoine Raffoul, is a Palestinian architect working in London, and the coordinator of 1948.Lest.We.Forget, a campaign group aiming at the roots of the Palestinian/Israeli problem. 1948: LEST WE FORGET

Katya Adler – Israeli Arabs struggle for land

SR Editor — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:04:31 +0000

After Sami Salameh's house was destroyed (l) his 14-member family moved to an illegally built three-room house (r)

By Katya Adler

After Israel's housing minister called on Jews to move to the north of the country to stop what he described as "the spread of Arabs" there, the BBC's Katya Adler reports on the struggle for land in the area.

Sami Salameh has taken me to what used to be his home before the Israeli authorities flattened it.

Metal rods and slices of skirting board are all that's left, among an expanse of sun-scorched wild grass.

He has brought along some photographs and kicks the earth as he shows them to me. The wiry 65-year-old man is angry and emotional.

"When the house collapsed so did my dreams," he says.

He insists this plot of earth belonged to his family dating back to Ottoman times. But Israel has claimed it as state land. He is not allowed to build here now.

Mr Salameh's new home is in the Arab town of Majdal Krum, in northern Israel. It's illegally built, as is the whole neighbourhood.

His family of 14 lives in three rooms. The sewage system is poor.

Mr Salameh's wife, Ashi, tells me the atmosphere in the house is listless and depressed.

He blames their birthright - living as Arabs in the Jewish state of Israel, he says.

"I lost everything when they demolished my house. If I had equal rights, I wouldn't be in this mess. Jewish communities get building permits easily. They have electricity, water, sewage, street lights and parks. How come they live like that and we don't?"

Just outside Mr Salameh's home, a group of boys plays football in the street. Their identity, like his, is complex.

They are Israeli but also Arab. Their families stayed put in Israel after its war of independence 60 years ago.

Israel's Basic Law says all its citizens are equal, but Israeli Arabs say some Israelis are more equal than others.

Neighbouring the town is the leafy, affluent, self-proclaimed Zionist village of Manof.

It is one of the growing predominantly Jewish communities encouraged in the north by Israeli governments since the late 1970s.

'No discrimination'

Northern Israel is home to the highest concentration of Israeli Arabs.

They complain they are being squeezed. Intentionally.

But Ron Shani, the head of the Regional Council, insists there is no discrimination here.

Ron Shani - Head of Misgav regional council

"Zionism is not racism. Not for me. Not for most people who live in Israel. Northern Israel is Arab, it's Jewish, it's Druze. We have to value and admire each other.

"We have a few Bedouin villages in my council. And it's not true that Israeli Arabs are barred from our Zionist Jewish villages - as long as they understand and accept this is a village under the Jewish Israeli ethos.

"Of course I came to live in the north with Zionist ideals in mind but Misgav villages were formed on government-owned land. No confiscation was done from Arab-owned land."

But a lot of Arab land was turned into Israeli state property in the years following Israel's independence.

The majority of Arab land expropriated was labelled "deserted property" by Israel's authorities before its acquisition by the state.

Towns 'restricted'

Hanan Swaid is an Israeli-Arab member of Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

He takes me to a vantage point overlooking the Israeli-Arab town of Sakhnin.

An Israeli government commission found many Israeli-Arab towns are effectively blocked from expanding

He points out the problems Israeli Arabs face - overcrowding, poverty and the ways, he says, Israel's authorities strangle Arab towns, restricting construction, progress and growth.

"You can see surrounding Sakhnin this military base - which of course prevents Sakhnin and the people from using these lands which they used to own," he says.

"You can see there are only tens of metres between the houses of Sakhnin and the industrial zone.

"Of course all the benefits of this industrial zone go to Misgav - which is the Jewish regional council."

An Israeli government commission came to the same conclusions.

The Orr Commission published a report on the status of Israeli Arabs in 2003.

It says Israel has effectively blocked the expansion of its Israeli Arab towns by surrounding them with highways, nature reserves, Jewish councils, military zones or other entities.

'Cultural, not political'

The Israeli-Arab population has roughly increased sevenfold since Israel's independence.

Bearing in mind loss of land and building restrictions, human rights groups say the land available to Israeli Arabs has actually shrunk over the years.

The Orr Commission concluded that "the Israeli government's handling of the Arab sector has been primarily neglectful and discriminatory".

Hanan Swaid says it is not that the rights of Israeli Arabs are ignored, but they are given low priority.

"Israel is Jewish and democratic in theory but on the ground the two things don't mix.

"The definition of Israel as a Jewish state leads to giving the best to Jewish citizens. We Arabs are therefore discriminated against."

In Jerusalem I put the complaints and concerns of Israeli Arabs to Israel's Housing Minister Ariel Atias.

He dismissed them. He has caused quite a storm here, suggesting what he called the "spread of the Arabs" in northern Israel should be curbed and urging Jews and Arabs in Israel to live separately.

"We believe that the land of Israel was given to us Jews by the Lord. Eighty percent of Israelis are Jewish," he says.

"Having said that, there are citizens of Israel who are Arab. We want them to identify with the goals of the state of Israel. We don't intend to put them in ghettos, or limit their growth, they receive all the rights.

"They work for us, with us in factories, in all the restaurants. But each one wants to live with his own culture. It's not that, God forbid, we have anything against Muslims. We want to prevent friction. You may not like what I'm saying, but it's cultural. Not political."

One in five Israelis is Arab.

But academic studies, such as those completed by Oren Yiftachel, a professor at Israel's Ben Gurion University, suggest this 20% of Israel's population lives on around 3% of Israel's lands.

Living separately is one thing, but Israeli Arabs say no new Arab town has been built for them since 1948, when the state of Israel was created.

Story from BBC NEWS

Pogrom Acre-style

Khalid Amayreh — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:27:39 +0000

The word takes on a new meaning as Jews celebrate the Day of Atonement, reports Khaled Amayreh from Acre

Racism raised its ugly head in the northern coastal town of Acre this week, exposing Israelis' shocking bigotry and intolerance towards its non-Jewish citizens, especially the sizeable Palestinian minority which constitutes nearly one fourth of Israel's population.

It all started the evening of 8 October, the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, when an unsuspecting local Arab resident of the city drove his car through a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood, reportedly to pick up his daughter from her fiancÃ©'s family home.

Upon spotting the middle-aged man, dozens of Jewish fanatics ganged up on the man, beating him and stoning his car, injuring him and his son.

"Suddenly, five metres from the building we were trying to reach, a group of young men came out and started shouting Mavet le Arabim! [Death to the Arabs!] and throwing big rocks at us. My son was hit in the face, back and chest. I dragged my son out of the car and we all ran up the stairs," said Jamal Tawfik.

Soon, hundreds of Jewish fanatics converged at the scene, shouting anti-Arab slogans, and preventing Tawfik and his son, who was badly bleeding, from reaching hospital.

"We eventually succeeded in leaving the building, jumped over a number of ditches, and headed for a police car. Suddenly Jewish youths spotted us and began throwing rocks at us. We got into the car, but the police officer couldn't get the engine started.

"Eventually, the officer told us, 'Forget it. Run for your lives!' So we all ran away though we had no idea where we were. I saw a construction site. We entered a guard's hut and asked him to protect us. We hid on the floor, and the mob passed us by. It was the Jewish guard, Nessim, that saved our lives."

Having let the man escape "from under their very eyes" -- remember, this is at the start of the Day of Atonement, when Jews ask God for forgiveness for their sins -- the fanatics then laid siege to the Arab home where the man's daughter was staying, chantting Mavet le Arabim! and "Arabs out of Acre!"

Soon afterwards, word reached the old town, where the town's Arabs are concentrated, that a local Arab was being lynched and killed by Jewish extremists and that Jews were laying siege to an Arab home in a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood. This prompted dozens of youths to take to the streets in an effort to rescue the Arab family.

However, as the disgruntled youths were heading towards the home in the northeastern suburb of the town, police reinforcements intervened, shooting tear gas, rubber bullets and beating the Arab protesters, effectively preventing them from reaching the building where the Arab family was being besieged. As many as 20 protesters were reportedly injured.

Infuriated by police brutality, the protesters vented their frustration on parked Jewish cars and shops, smashing windscreens and vandalising property. Israeli sources said some 40 shops and a hundred cars were damaged, which further enraged the Jewish inhabitants of the city.
The Jews retaliated by torching several Arab homes.

Seeking to justify the hysterical overreaction to the original "provocation", the rumour was spread that the hapless prospective father- in-law was paid by "extremist Arab elements" to provoke the Jews and that he was drunk, smoking and playing his car stereo loud.

The man categorically denied all these charges, saying, "I am a religious man and the last thing I would do is to hurt people's feelings. I just want to go home, I am a religious Muslim. I don't drink at all, and I wasn't playing music. I wonder where the police are getting this information from?"

Some sources spoke of dozens of Jewish settlers from the West Bank, including followers of Rabbi Meir Kahana, who advocates ethnic cleansing of non-Jews from Israel-Palestine, arriving in Acre to further incite violence against the Arabs.

However, even without the arrival of such settlers, many Jews of Acre needed no further incitement to jump on the bandwagon of hate. One Jewish lady shouted at reporters, "Get all the Arabs out of here. We don't want them here. They've made our lives a misery."

One particularly nasty message that was posted on extremist Jewish sites reads, "We will no longer buy anything from Arabs, we will not honour any of their holidays or any of their holy places. Arabs of Acre, go find you place in the villages." The message was signed with the following epigram: "A Jew is the son of a king; and Arab is the son of a dog."

As tension and incitement continued, Jewish and Arab youths hurled rocks at each other at the Acre train station and other "friction areas" with several people sustaining injuries.

According to the Mosawwa (equality) Centre for Arab Human Rights, 14 Arab families, a total of 50 people, were left homeless after Jewish hooligans either burned their homes or forced them to fee, stealing or destroying their property. Earlier, the families narrated to reporters how Jewish thugs threatened to lynch them if they didn't leave their homes, forcing them to leave without taking anything with them but the clothes they were wearing.

Arab leaders, including Knesset members, accused the police of siding with Jewish rioters against the Arabs. The charges are supported by the fact that the police failed to stop rampaging Jewish fanatics even five days after the original incident.

The Israeli government called on the police to take decisive action to stop the violence, with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert saying that there was a feeling that the inhabitants of the city were being "held hostage by a group of extremists".

However, despite this seemingly even- handed approach to the violence, it was clear that Israeli politicians were reluctant to call a spade a spade, given the pre-electioneering atmosphere in Israel.

Avigdor Leiberman, a notorious right-wing politician and former cabinet minister, described the events in Acre as a clear vindication of his calls for the expulsion of non-Jews from Israel.

On Monday, 13 October, the police arrested Jamal Jawfik, apparently to appease Jews in Acre. Arab Knesset member Ahmed Teibi called the arrest "unreasonable" and "amounting to punishing the victim instead of punishing the criminal. This is a kind of appeasement, the police are only trying to appease Jewish hooliganism at the expense of the Arab citizens of Israel."

The communal violence in Acre, Jewish and Arab leaders admit, epitomises the simmering tension that could eventually spark a wider conflagration in the so-called "mixed towns" such as Jaffa, Haifa, Ramleh and Lod.

Haaretz quoted a community activist in Lod (Al-Led) as saying that they were worried that the violence could spread to their town. "I don't know if it will be happen in a day, two days, or two months, but it is certainly a possibility," said Buthaina Debit, who pointed out that the Arab community was suffering from social and economic distress due to long-standing discrimination by the Israeli state.

"It happened in Acre, but I thought it would happen in Lod because there are masses of Arab residents who have nothing to lose, and there are many poor Jews stuck here. Acre could just be the beginning."

A Jewish activist, also interviewed by Haaretz, warned that what happened in Acre was a signal to all those involved. "Too many people are sitting on the fence. This is the time to act, for both government and social organisations. We must invest in the mixed cities," said Aviv Wasserman.

Interestingly, even Olmert himself recognised that the Arab citizens of Israel are discriminated against and that this discrimination creates frustration and indignation amongst the Arabs against the state.

But Olmert, as was the case with all his predecessors, wouldn't say why he failed to rectify this systematic discrimination which renders the claim that Israel is "democratic state" devoid of meaning.

Cartoons Commemorating Nakba @ 60

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:58:56 +0000

How did the cartoonists in the Arab media Commemorate the 60th anniversary of Nakba?

I've been monitoring most of the Arab media, especially newspapers, during the last 5 days to read what they have to say on this event. To tell you the truth, you haven't missed much. On the air, Aljazeera made a big difference this year by dedicating a full day (May 15th) to covering al-Nakba @ 60. Honestly, I think they did a great job. In fact if a person who is ignorant about al-Nakba (and you can expect millions in the Arab World to be) watched any part of Aljazeera that day, s/he would have learned a lot about history and what the Nakba means.

Back to the cartoonists. In newspapers, one of the very few things that I find most interesting to see are the cartoons. Looking at as many as I could, I kept on reviewing http://arabcartoon.net/ on daily basis from May 14th until last night. Some of the cartoons were very creative. Other were so worthless, I don't know how any serious paper decided to publish them.

I would like to share with you what I have found, most of them from http://arabcartoon.net/ (at least until the time I wrote this).

Please feel free to share with us which one is your favorite, if you like any.

PS. I will follow each cartoon with a quick translation into English whenever necessary. Also keep in mind that we (Arab) read from right to left, so the drawing follows the same transition if separate frames are depicted.

# 1

Comment: Key for peace
By Abdulla Darqawi - Addustour Newspaper, Jordan

# 2

Comment: N/A
By Abdulla Darqawi - Addustour Newspaper, Jordan

# 3

Comment: 60 years since Nakba
By Abdulla Mahraqy - Akhbar Alkhaleej Newspaper, Bahrain

# 4

Comment: On the 60th anniversary of al-Nakba
By Abdelghani Benhariza - Sawt Alahrar Newspaper, Algeria

# 5

Comment: Right of Retrun - To Mars
By Adel Saead - Alnadwah Newspaper, Saudi Arabia

# 6

Comment: On the anniversary of dividing Palestine between Occupation and Settlers
By Ahmad Toghan - Aljomhoria Newspaper, Egypt

# 7

Comment: (from right to left) al-Nakba, May 14th, May 15th, May 16th
By Alaa al-Laqta - Palestine Newspaper, Palestine

# 8

Comment: Pushing peace process forward
By Alaa-al-Laqta - Almadin Newspaper, Saudi Arabia

# 9

Comment: 60 years since nakba
By Alaa al-Laqta - Palestine Newspaper, Palestine

# 10

Comment: No return on the Right of Return
By Alaa al-Laqta - Palestine Newspaper, Palestine

# 11

Comment: Bush/Olmert - long live the anniversary
By Alhayat Aljadedh Newspaper, Palestine

# 12

Comment: N/A
By Ali Khalel - Alkhaleej Newspaper, UAE

# 13

Comment: 60 - Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq
By Ali Khalel - Alkhaleej Newspaper, UAE

# 14

Comment: Palestine (on his shoulders), 60 years (sign board)
By Ali Khalel - Alkhaleej Newspaper, UAE

# 15

Comment: Nakba anniversary
By Ali Khalel - Alkhaleej Newspaper, UAE

# 16

Comment: Nakba anniversary (man's back), Arabian mass (locked door)
By Alquds Newspaper, Palestine

# 17

Comment: al-Nakba
By Amer al-Zohbi - Akhbar Al-Arab Newspaper, UAE

# 18

Comment: Celebrating the establishment of Zionist state (Palestine word on the cake)
By Amer al-Zohbi - Akhbar Al-Arab Newspaper, UAE

# 19

Comment: Our Palestine
By Bahaa Bokary - Alayam Newspaper, Palestine

# 20

Comment: Nakba 60th anniversary
By Baqi Bu Khalaf - Alarab Newspaper, Qatar

# 21

Comment: N/A
By Emad Hajjaj

# 22

Comment: Nakba 60th anniversary
By Eley Saleba - Alwatan Newspaper, Palestine

# 23

Comment: Dream of returning (crossed word on flag - Palestine)
By Elkhabar Newspaper, Algeria

# 24

Comment: Nakba 60th anniversary
By Emad Hajjaj - Alghad Newspaper, Jordan

# 25

Comment: N/A
By Emad Hajjaj - Alquds Newspaper, london

# 26

Comment: N/A
By Faris Qarabeat - Alraya Newspaper, Qatar

# 27

Comment: Nakba 60th anniversary
By Hameed Qaroot - Tishreen Newspaper, Syria

# 28

Comment: N/A
By Hasan Idleby - Albayan Newspaper, UAE

# 29

Comment: N/A
By Hasan Idleby - Albayan Newspaper, UAE

# 30

Comment: N/A
By Jalal Alrefaie - Addustor Newspaper, Jordan

# 31

Comment: N/A
By Jalal Alrefaie - Addustor Newspaper, Jordan

# 32

Comment: Palestine (printed on the book). Man: "I heard this name before."
By Jalal Alrefaie - Addustor Newspaper, Jordan

# 33

Comment: 60 years of Nakba
By Jehad Awartany - Alwatan, Saudi Arabia

# 34

Comment: On the Nakba anniversary. Babies: Somalia, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan
By Jehad Awartany - Alwatan, Saudi Arabia

# 35

Comment: N/A
By Jehad Awartany - Alwatan, Saudi Arabia

# 36

Comment: Anniversary of Israel State establishment
By Khaldoon Garaedh - Alrai Newspaper, Jordan

# 37

Comment: N/A
By Khaldoon Garaedh - Alrai Newspaper, Jordan

# 38

Comment: How Bush sees the future of Palestinian State? "Swiss Cheese."
By Khalel Aboarafa - Alquds Newspaper, Palestine

# 39

Comment: Date - May 15 - Anniversary of Israel State Establishment
By Khaldoon Gharaybah - Aljarida Newspaper, Kuwait

# 40

Comment: Palestine Nakba since 1948
By Khaled Alhashemy - Alayam Newspaper, Bahrain

# 41

Comment: N/A
By Naser Al-Jafari - Alquds Newspaper, Palestine

# 42

Comment: Israel at the age of 60
By Naser Jafary - Alarab Alyawm Newspaper, Jordan

# 43

Comment: N/A
By Naser Jafary - Alarab Alyawm Newspaper, Jordan

# 44

Comment: Bush standing next to "Middle East" sign
By Naser Jafary - Alarab Alyawm Newspaper, Jordan

# 45

Comment: N/A
By Oman Newspaper, Oman

# 46

Comment: N/A
By Omaya Juha - Alhayat Aljadedah Newspaper, Palestine

# 47

Comment: N/A
By Omaya Juha - Alhayat Aljadedah Newspaper, Palestine

# 48

Comment: N/A
By Omaya Juha - Alraya Newspaper, Qatar

# 49

Comment: "We will Return" (on the signboard). Old man: Yes I have Blood Pressure, Rheumatism, Diabetes, etc... but my sight is still perfect.
By Omaya Juha - Alraya Newspaper, Qatar

# 50

Comment: N/A
By Raed Khalel - Albath Newspaper, Syria

# 51

Comment: The branches on the shape of "Nakba" word. Flower - "Right of Return."
By Sasead Haggo - Assafir Newspaper, Lebanon

# 52

Comment: Quote 1 - 60th anniversary of Israel State establishment. Quote 2 - Lier 60 times
By Sasead Haggo - Assafir Newspaper, Lebanon

# 53

Comment: N/A
By Staphro Jabra - Aljareda Newspaper, Kuwait

# 54

Comment: "Middle East"
By Tareq Bahar - Akhbar Alkhaleej Newspaper, Bahrain

Israel’s twilight years

Khalid Amayreh — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:34:13 +0000

Palestinians are increasingly rejecting the crumbs of a two-state solution in favour of justice for all in a single state, Palestine, writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah

As Israel ostentatiously celebrates the passage of 60 years since its creation in Palestine in 1948, more than nine million Palestinians at home and in exile are commemorating the Nakba, the violent seizure of their ancestral homeland by Zionist Jews and the dispossession, expulsion and dispersion of the bulk of Palestinians to the four corners of the globe.

This year, activities are taking place in many parts of the world where Palestinian refugees and expatriates reside, dreaming of and awaiting a return to their homeland that appears nowhere on the horizon of political reality.

Palestinians, irrespective of their political affiliations, are not only reasserting the legal and moral status of their right to return to the homes and villages from which they were expelled at gunpoint, or otherwise made to flee 60 years ago, but are also emphasising to all who will listen, including their own leaders, that the right of return remains -- and will always be -- the heart, soul and centrepiece of the Palestinian issue.

To the chagrin of most Palestinians, the commemoration of the Nakba this year coincides with the ongoing crisis between Fatah and Hamas, which some Palestinian intellectuals are already referring to as the "second Nakba". Fortunately, however, and despite all differences, the national rift between Fatah and Hamas has not shaken national consensus on the paramount importance of the right of return.

But while the "second Nakba" looks more or less reversible, ostensibly at least, the first Nakba is something entirely different, given its historical and strategic dimensions and the indelible physical realities it created and keeps creating, even today, 60 years later. Many Israelis and Palestinians believe that the Nakba is still ongoing. The deadly Israeli blockade of Gaza, along with daily killings by the Israeli occupation army of ordinary Palestinians, is dÃ©jÃ -vu for elderly Palestinians who lived the nightmare of mass murder, mass terror and ethnic cleansing in 1948.

With Israel continuing the process of annulling whatever prospects still remaining for a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, many Palestinians are quietly turning to the one-state option. In reality, the one-state solution has been the Palestinians' unconscious and undeclared baseline for years.

This week, Ahmed Qurei, head of the Palestinian negotiation team, revealed that he told visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently that the Palestinians would "resort to the one-state option if Israel refused to withdraw to the pre-June 1967 borders."

Qurei said he didn't know if ongoing talks with Israel would lead to a breakthrough. "The overall situation is very difficult and discouraging. The Israeli position is rapacious, the Palestinian position is weak, the international community is hypocritical, and the Arab world is nearly impotent."

Al-Ahram Weekly asked Qurei if the occasional evocation of the "one-state solution" was a tactic used by the Palestinians to get Israel to be more forthcoming, or whether it was a serious option. Qurei replied: "It is not a tactic. One doesn't have to be a great expert in politics to realise that if the two-state solution failed, the only remaining alternative would be the one-state solution. There is no other alternative, apart from the occupation, apartheid and colonisation, which are unsustainable."

Qurei, who came under a barrage of criticisms lately for engaging in "endless" negotiations without determining how the "endgame" would look, said he didn't know whether Israel was really interested in peace with the Palestinians. He pointed out that Israel has reached a critical point where it has to choose between being a Jewish state or a bi-national state in which at least half its citizens are non-Jews.

Qurei's incertitude about negotiations is drawing the ire of a growing sector of Palestinian intellectuals, encompassing elites from across the Palestinian political and ideological spectrum. This week, the Palestine One State Forum formulated a manifesto for the one-state solution, which calls for the creation of a unitary democratic state in all of mandatory Palestine from the Mediterranean to the River Jordan, and where Israelis and Palestinians would live as equal citizens.

The manifesto, published Thursday 15 May, comprises six points:

- Palestine: The historical land of Palestine is the patrimony and motherland of the Palestinian people which in the context of a durable and comprehensive settlement would accept Israelis as equal citizens in a unitary democratic state.

- The right of return: Every Palestinian forced to flee his homeland (Israel proper) has an inalienable right to return as well as receive compensation and reparations for the psychological, economic and social losses he or she incurred.

- Zionism: Zionism is an exclusionary ideology and part of the international colonialist movement, which created and consolidated a racist state for Jews at the expense of the Palestinian people, resulting in the murder and expulsion of over half the Palestinians. Hence, we see that this ideology must be declared illegal and the political infrastructure based on it dismantled.

- One state for all: The creation of one state in historical Palestine is the most just, realistic, moral and humane solution of the Palestinian question which would guarantee peace and stability in the region. The creation of a unitary democratic state encompassing Israelis currently living in Israel and Palestinians, on the basis of equality as citizens and justice for all regardless of religion, race or sex, is the ideal way of resolving this conflict that has been raging since the outset of the 20th century.

- Historical reconciliation: The one-state solution would serve as the beginning of a historical reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians that would erase the destructive effects of decades of occupation and colonisation. However, the process of reconciliation would have to be preceded by genuine acknowledgement of and apology by Israel for the historical injustices and losses inflicted on the Palestinian people. Moreover, Israel along with the international community would have to compensate the Palestinians for their suffering and losses.

- This vision requires the concerted efforts of the Palestinian people everywhere as well as the efforts of peace-loving Israelis and Jews and all men and women of good will around the world.

Such ideas are anathema for Israel, Zionism and the vast bulk of Jews, since they imply the ultimate dismantling of Zionism and the creation of a bi-national state where Palestinians would eventually have a numerical majority. They also represent a jolt to collective Palestinian thinking, long inured in the idea of Palestinian statehood.

But as Qurei pointed out, the one-state solution will become the Palestinian option not as a matter of choice, but rather because all other alternatives have been effaced. Continued Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, coupled with shrinking political prospects for a viable Palestinian state, is already presenting Palestinians with a dilemma, namely to face national dissolution (i.e. the Jordanian option in the West Bank and the Egyptian option in the Gaza Strip), or embark on a lengthy re- evaluation towards adopting the one-state solution.

The Weekly asked two prominent Palestinian intellectuals if they thought the two-state option was still valid. Nasser Al-Qidwa is the former Palestinian representative to the UN. He says that, "time is really running out for the two-state solution" in light of the changing realities on the ground in the occupied territories.

"What the Palestinians ought to do now is to reassert the essence of the conflict, which is the Israeli military occupation of our country. We must also take a decisive stand on the issue of Jewish settlements; we simply can't negotiate while Israel is stealing more of our land.

"The other thing is that we must stop babbling about creating a state. Instead, we must demand national independence, independence from foreign military occupation."

When asked how he would imagine the future of the conflict with Israel if the two-state scenario failed, Al-Qidwa said the alternative would not be good for anyone, the Israelis, the Palestinians, the region and the world at large. "There would be a lot of violence, turbulence, and bloodshed the scope of which is difficult to predict now."

Azzam Tamimi is founder of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought in London and author of several books on the Palestinian issue. He believes that Israel has already reached its zenith and is beginning a downward slide as a racist entity that would end with its dissolution and disappearance.

"I don't know for sure how many years Israel will survive. However, Israel will definitely get smaller. The trend since Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 has been the decline of the Zionist project and the shrinkage of its territorial colonialism. It is likely that a few heavily fortified areas will remain under Zionist control, but it is more likely that Israel as a Zionist state will disappear."

Tamimi, who recently wrote a book on Hamas, said he didn't think that any conceivable Palestinian state on all or parts of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem would be viable.

"An entity created on any part of the territories, even if called a Palestinian state, will simply be a dependent unviable entity whose purpose is to prolong Israel's life. There is the possibility that unilateral withdrawals by Israel from here or there will leave the Palestinians with no option but to emulate statehood, but that prospect can never be a viable state."

Deir Yassin: The Palestinians’ Wounded Knee

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 05:47:43 +0000

A recent poll found that 76 percent of Jewish Israelis support "transferring" the Palestinian citizens of Israel - more than 1.4 million people - out of the country. Today, April 9, marks the 60th anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre - the most traumatic incident in the campaign to expel Palestinians from their homeland.

Deir Yassin Remembered (previously published a year ago)

Early in the morning of April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. The village lay outside of the area to be assigned by the United Nations to the Jewish State; it had a peaceful reputation. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Deir Yassin was slated for occupation under Plan Dalet and the mainstream Jewish defense force, the Haganah, authorized the irregular terrorist forces of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to perform the takeover.

In all over 100 men, women, and children were systematically murdered. Fifty-three orphaned children were literally dumped along the wall of the Old City, where they were found by Miss Hind Husseini and brought behind the American Colony Hotel to her home, which was to become the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi orphanage.

This is another example of Israel's brutality and history of barbarism:

FAQ on Deir Yassin (via: IMEU)

The massacre at Deir Yassin is one of some two dozen documented massacres of Palestinian civilians by Zionist forces seeking to transform Palestine into a Jewish state. If the import of catastrophes were gauged only in numbers of people slaughtered, Deir Yassin may not have taken on its central role in the Palestinian national consciousness. However, the terror at Deir Yassin triggered a mass flight of Palestinians who feared for their own lives. When Israel was established sixty years ago this May, more than 700,000 Palestinians lost their homes and belongings, their farms and businesses, their towns and cities. Jewish militias, and later, the Israeli army, drove them out. Israel rapidly moved Jews into the newly-emptied Palestinian homes. This tragic event and its consequences lie at the core of the Palestinian/Israeli problem.

1. What happened in the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin and why does it matter today?

In the early morning of April 9, 1948, three Zionist militias - the Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang -- attacked the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin, located west of Jerusalem. More than 100 men, women and children were massacred. Some were mutilated and raped before being murdered. Twenty-five men from the village were paraded through Jerusalem and then executed in a nearby quarry. Those able to escape fled to East Jerusalem.

Word of the terror attacks spread rapidly, causing many Palestinians to flee, fearing for their lives. Within a year of the massacre, Deir Yassin, which had been emptied of Palestinians, was re-populated with Jewish immigrants and its name was removed from the map.

For Palestinians, Deir Yassin became the symbol of the sudden loss of their homes and homeland and the near destruction of their society, a situation which endures until today. When Israel was established sixty years ago, more than 700,000 Palestinians were exiled and 78 percent of the land of historic Palestine was lost.

Today, Palestinian refugees number nearly four million, out of a total population of approximately ten million. They are still deprived of their internationally-recognized right to return to their homeland. In the West Bank, Israel continues to seize land for Israeli-only settlements and Israeli-only roads.

2. Who carried out the massacre?

The Haganah, which became the Israeli army, fired mortars at the village while the Irgun and Stern Gang attacked from close range. At the time of the massacre, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's 1st prime minister, directed Haganah policy; Menachem Begin, Israel's 6th prime minister, led the Irgun; and Yitzhak Shamir, Israel's 7th prime minister, was a leader of the Stern Gang.

3. What resulted from the Deir Yassin massacre?

As news of the massacre spread, the ensuing terror triggered the mass flight of Palestinians. A few days after the attacks, in fact, the Irgun asserted that the incident advanced "terror and dread among the Arabs in all the villages around, in Al Maliha, Qaluniya and Beit Iksa a panic flight began ..." The flight of Palestinian refugees fit into the plans of Zionist military and political leaders at the time. During the first week of April, a concerted campaign - known as Plan Dalet - to systematically expel Palestinians from areas sought for the soon-to-be-founded state of Israel went into effect. Zionist forces conducted eight major military operations against Palestinian cities and villages between April 1st and May 15th when Israel declared independence and Arab states intervened in response to the growing refugee crisis. Some 250,000 Palestinians had been expelled by then.

4. Was Deir Yassin an isolated incident?

No. While Deir Yassin may be the most infamous, Israeli historian Benny Morris documents 24 massacres of Palestinians conducted by Zionist, and then Israeli, forces in 1948. According to Morris, "In some cases four or five people were executed, in others the numbers were 70, 80, 100. There was also a great deal of arbitrary killing. Two old men are spotted walking in a field - they are shot. A woman is found in an abandoned village - she is shot. There are cases such as the village of Dawayima [in the Hebron region], in which a column entered the village with all guns blazing and killed anything that moved. The worst cases were Saliha (70-80 killed), Deir Yassin (100-110), Lod (250), Dawayima (hundreds) and perhaps Abu Shusha (70)... The fact is that no one was punished for these acts of murder. Ben-Gurion silenced the matter. He covered up for the officers who did the massacres."

The Irgun and Stern Gang also attacked British and United Nations institutions and officers who they believed stood in the way of the Zionist enterprise in Palestine. The Irgun was responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel, which was used as British military headquarters, in Jerusalem in 1946. Ninety-one people were killed. The Stern Gang assassinated Lord Moyne, the British minister of state for the Middle East, in 1944, attempted to assassinate Harold MacMichael, the High Commissioner of Palestine, in 1944 and assassinated Count Folke Bernadotte, the United Nations representative in the Middle East, in 1948.

5. What was the total destruction and how it is still relevant today?

In total, at least 450 Palestinian towns and villages were depopulated due to Zionist military attacks or fear of such attacks. Most of these were demolished. By the end of 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians - two-thirds of the Palestinian population - were exiled and their society was destroyed. Even today, a Jew from anywhere in the world is welcome to settle in Israel, while Palestinians with the keys and deeds to their seized homes do not enjoy the right to return.

Nakba: For Palestinians, memory matters

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 14 May 2007 19:38:07 +0000

Despite gains made to make 'occupation' the frame of reference in understanding what is going on in the Occupied Palestine, to a large extent the occupation continues to remain "invisible".

The occupation's invisibility is mainly credited to propaganda-influenced media reports. Repeated studies of the media's coverage of Palestine/Israel have highlighted the prevalent pro-Israeli bias. A bias that flows from the refusal to frame individual events in the context of the occupation or a colonisation-resistance dynamic. Thus to average Western readers and listeners, terms like "Palestine" and "occupation" become almost completely alien.

It is time to show, explain and uncover the reality of occupation to those in the West who really can make a difference. It is time to make the occupation the primary lens through which people see the sad events in Occupied Palestine from sea to river.

May 15 may be the most important - and the most overlooked - date in Palestinian history. Here are few noteworthy words from a Palestinian American to commemorate the 59th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe).

For Palestinians, memory matters
It provides a blueprint for their future

by George Bisharat

Sunday, May 13, 2007 - San Francisco Chronicle

Why do some people have the power to remember, while others are asked to forget? That question is especially poignant at this time of year, as we move from Holocaust Remembrance day in early spring to Monday's anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence on May 14, 1948.

In the months surrounding that date, Jewish forces expelled, or intimidated into flight, an estimated 750,000 Palestinians. A living, breathing, society that had existed in Palestine for centuries was smashed and fragmented, and a new society built on its ruins.

Few Palestinian families lack a personal narrative of loss from that period -- an uncle killed, or a branch of the family that fled north while the others fled east, never to be reunited, or homes, offices, orchards and other property seized. Ever since, Palestinians worldwide have commemorated May 15 as Nakba (Catastrophe) Day.

No ethical person would admonish Jews to "forget the Holocaust." Indeed, recent decades have witnessed victims of that terrible era not only remembering, but also regaining paintings and financial assets seized by the Nazis -- and justifiably so.

Other victims of mass wrongs -- interned Japanese Americans, enslaved African Americans, and Armenians subjected to a genocide that may have later convinced Hitler of the feasibility of mass killings -- receive at least respectful consideration of their cases, even while responses to their claims have differed.

Yet in dialogues with Israelis, and some Americans, Palestinians are repeatedly admonished to "forget the past," that looking back is "not constructive" and "doesn't get us closer to a solution." Ironically, Palestinians live the consequences of the past every day -- whether as exiles from their homeland, or as members of an oppressed minority within Israel, or as subjects of a brutal and violent military occupation.

In the West we are amply reminded of the suffering of Jewish people in World War II. Our newspaper featured several stories on local survivors of the Nazi holocaust around Holocaust Remembrance Day (an Israeli national holiday that is widely observed in the United States). My daughter has read at least one book on the Nazi holocaust every year since middle school. Last year, in ninth grade English literature alone, she read three. But we seldom confront the impact of Israel's policies on Palestinians.

It is the "security of the Jewish people" that has rationalized Israel's takeover of Palestinian lands, both in the past in Israel, and more recently in the occupied West Bank. There, most Palestinian children negotiate one of the 500 Israeli checkpoints and other barriers to movement just to reach school each day. Meanwhile, Israel's program of colonization of the West Bank grinds ahead relentlessly, implanting ever more Israeli settlers who must be "protected" from those Palestinians not reconciled to the theft of their homes and fields.

The primacy of Jewish security over rights of Palestinians -- to property, education, health care, a chance to make a living, and, also to security -- is seldom challenged.

Unfortunately, remembering the Nazi Holocaust -- something morally incumbent on all of us -- has seemingly become entangled with, and even an instrument of, the amnesia some would force on Palestinians. Israel is enveloped in an aura of ethical propriety that makes it unseemly, even "anti-Semitic" to question its denial of Palestinian rights.

As Israeli journalist Amira Hass recently observed: "Turning the Holocaust into a political asset serves Israel primarily in its fight against the Palestinians. When the Holocaust is on one side of the scale, along with the guilty (and rightly so) conscience of the West, the dispossession of the Palestinian people from their homeland in 1948 is minimized and blurred."

What this demonstrates is that memory is not just an idle capacity. Rather, who can remember, and who can be made to forget, is, fundamentally, an expression of power.

Equally importantly, however, memory can provide a blueprint for the future -- a vision of a solution to seek, or an outcome to avoid. My Palestinian father grew up in Jerusalem before Israel was founded and the Palestinians expelled, when Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in peace and mutual respect. Recalling that past provides a vision for an alternative future -- one involving equal rights and tolerance, rather than the domination of one ethno-religious group over others.

Thus, what Palestinians are really being commanded is not just to forget their past, but instead to forget their future, too. That they will never do.

George Bisharat is professor of law at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. He writes frequently about the Middle East. Contact us at insight@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page E - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle and reprinted with permission from the author.

We shall not forget, and occupation will not conquer our souls.

Uniting For The Return of Palestinians

Haitham Sabbah — Sat, 12 May 2007 17:03:37 +0000

The Palestinian refugee problem was created as the result of two wars (Al-Naqba of 1948 and Al-Naksa of 1967), massacres, and other aggressions perpetrated by Jewish underground and terror groups such as Haganah, Irgun, and Stern. After the War of 1948, the UN Conciliation Commission estimated that 726,000 Palestinians (75% of the Arab population of Palestine) had fled outside ("1948 refugees") while 32,000 remained within the armistice lines. Some 531 villages and towns were destroyed or resettled with Jews only (see attached map below). The total losses of destroyed or confiscated Palestinian property is estimated at US$209 billion. In addition to the refugees, there are the internally displaced Palestinians, who were expelled from their villages - located in what became Israel - during the 1948 War. At the end of the war, they numbered some 30-40,000 people who were not allowed internally to return to their homes and placed under military rule to facilitate the expropriation of their land. Until today, Israel does not recognize internally displaced Palestinians, whose number is estimated at 263,000-300,000 (BADIL Center, Bethlehem).

In 1950, 914,221 refugees were registered with UNRWA. In 1967, some 300,000 Palestinians were displaced from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (WBGS) ("1967 displaced persons"), including around 175,000 UNRWA registered refugees who became refugees for a second time.

Today, the total 1948 refugee population is estimated at 5.5 million, incl. 4 million registered with UNRWA and 1.5 million not registered. In addition, there are 263,000 internally displaced (of 1948) and some 773,000 1967 displaced persons. (PLO Negotiations Affairs Department, Factsheet on Palestinian Refugees, May 2003).

In 2005, 42.2% of Palestinian children under 18 years living in the WBGS were refugees: 37.9% in the West Bank and 62.1% in Gaza Strip. (The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Palestinian Children - Rights and Numbers (PDF), p. 134, Ramallah, 2005.)

After Oslo, all camps in the WBGS except Shu'fat Camp in Jerusalem came under the control of the PA, but the overall fate of the refugees remains one of the most complex issues still awaiting a solution in the context of the 'final status' talks between the PLO/PA and Israel. Israel rejects the 'right of return' for the refugees and displaced persons, given the demographic threat to the Jewish state, and wants to solve the problem by resettlement in Arab host countries, international efforts to improve the refugees' living conditions, and restricted readmission based on humanitarian considerations.

The Palestinians, conversely, demand the absolute 'right of return' to the area of mandatory Palestine for all 1948 refugees, based on UNGA Res. 194 (Dec. 1948), which recognized the right of refugees to return or receive compensation and which has been affirmed by the UNGA over 110 times so far. However, Israel continues to dispute the legality of the Palestinian claim based on Res. 194 and refuses to repatriate refugees, even though Israel's admission to the UN in 1949 was conditional upon accepting UN Resolutions, incl. 194.

15 May 2007 commemorate the 59th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe). On Nakba Day, Palestinians renew their commitment to struggle against Israel's discriminatory, apartheid-like regime which prevents our return to our homes and properties, and continues to displace us. We affirm that there can be no peace without our right to return.

Israel's Jerusalem municipality launches official celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the "liberation and unification of Jerusalem" on 15 May. This, while last Friday, a courageous minority of Jews in Israel conducted a concerted effort to remind Israelis that, in many respects, the Nakba is also the story of Jews who live in Israel, and that acknowledgment of the Palestinian right of return will not only be a first step towards correcting the historical injustice committed against the Palestinian people, but will also usher in a new beginning for both, Jews and Arab in Palestine.

Under the slogan "day of hope Jerusalem two capitals for two states " dozens of Israelis and Palestinians on Friday afternoon, held a gathering organized by the Israeli Peace Now movement to mark the 40th anniversary of the occupation of Jerusalem. (Source: imemc.org)

To add salt on wounds, few days ago the Israeli authorities announced its plans to build three new Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, primarily on territories occupied from the West Bank following the Six Day War.

Dr. Saeb Erekat, chief PLO Negotiation department said called Friday the international community to dissuade Israel from going ahead in judiazing occupied east Jerusalem, urging for International swift and immediate move to press on Israel to abandon its decision to build three settlements neighborhoods that would connect E.Jerusalem with West Bank settlement blocs...

Maps and layouts of the Israeli illegal settlement activities and the new settlement plan were circulated to all foreign media outlets, including in detail survey pf the all the Israeli unilateral measures and destruction of handicapped children association in Wadi Al Jouz.

All three proposed settlement neighborhoods lie on land Israel seized and occupied in the 1967 Mideast war; one calls for the construction of 500 apartments in the heart of an area of east Jerusalem densely populated by Palestinians. (Source: IPC)

What can you do?

Join the Fifth Annual International Al-Awda Convention

UNITING FOR THE RETURN - FIFTH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL AL-AWDA CONVENTION

VENUE: Embassy Suites Hotel - Anaheim South, 11767 Harbor Boulevard, Garden Grove, CA 92840

DATE: May 25-27, 2007

The host committee of the Fifth Annual International Al-Awda Convention will now be held at Embassy Suites Hotel - Anaheim South, 11767 Harbor Boulevard, Garden Grove, CA 92840. The convention will take place on the May 25-27 memorial day week-end.

The date of the convention commemorates the Nakba, the 59th year since the "State of Israel" was declared on stolen Palestinian land, and which led to the Zionist occupation of all of Palestine.

The community-based local host committee currently includes the Southern California chapters of Al-Awda (Al-Awda Riverside, Los Angeles and San Diego), Students for Justice in Palestine at UCR, The Palestinian American Women's Association, The Free Palestine Alliance, The National Council of Arab Americans, The Middle East Cultural and Information Center, The Muslim Students Association at Palomar College, The Muslim Students Association at UCSD, Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA, The Muslim Students Union at UCR, The Arab Community Center of the Inland Empire, Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid - Southern California, Students for International Knowledge at CSUSB, and The Muslim Students Association at CSUSB.

THE PROGRAM

The Fifth Annual International Al-Awda Convention promises to be an amazing three-day event from speakers and workshops, film showings, to a Palestine Cultural Dinner Event. The opening will be held on the evening of Friday 25 May and include a moving event at which survivors of the Nakba, the great catastrophe, share their recollections of their first-hand experience in 1948.

On Saturday May 26, the convention will devote itself to political assessments, and to developing the ongoing work of organizing right to return campaigns such as refugee support, media work, student, art/culture, etc., in addition to our recruitment and outreach projects.

On Sunday May 27, the convention will arrive at its resolutions based on the concrete recommendations of the various workshops.

The Saturday evening Palestinian Cultural Dinner Event will include keynote addresses as well as music by world-renowned maestro Dr. Nabil Azzam, poetry readings and more. A Naji el-Ali exhibition will also be on display in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of his assassination. The cartoons for this exhibit were kindly provided by Khalid el-Ali, his son.

Among the confirmed convention speakers are:

* Dr. Jamal Zahalka, new leader of Balad (National Democratic Assembly, al-Tajamu' al-Watani al-Dimuqrati) who will discuss the current situation of Palestinians living in the areas of their country occupied in 1948 and in the context of the persecution of Dr. Azmi Bishara, former leader of Balad.
* Leila Al-Arian, journalist, daughter of political prisoner Sami Al-Arian.
* Dr. Naseer Aruri, former member of The Palestine National Council.
* Elias Rashmawi, National Coordinator National Council of Arab Americans.

INVITATION

We urge all Al-Awda members, groups and individuals who support our goals to join us in our landmark Fifth Annual International Convention. It is extremely important to show those trying to silence us that they will not succeed. The convention is a superlative forum for right to return activists to listen to expert presentations and to share their own thoughts on how they would like to see our collective efforts and campaigns develop for the implementation of Palestinian refugee rights. With your support, Al-Awda's Fifth International Convention, like its predecessors, will be one of the largest annual gatherings of Palestinian Arab activists and their supporters.

Don't Wait! Reserve Your Place Today!

To reserve, go to:
http://al-awda.org/convention5/reservations.html

Additional information

Program: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/prog.html
Speakers/Panelists: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/speakers.html
Registration: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/reservations.html
Hotels: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/hotels.html
Travel Directions: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/maps.html
For Media: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/media5.html
Convention Flyer: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/convflyer-embas.pdf
Sponsorship: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/support.html
Exhibitor Tables: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/table.html
Advertising: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/adverts.html
T-shirt: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/shirts.html
Host Committee: http://www.al-awda.org/convention5/hosts.html
Al-Awda's Points of Unity: http://al-awda.org/pou.html

We thank you for your support and look forward to seeing you soon!

The Fifth Convention Host Committee
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is the largest network of grassroots activists and students dedicated to Palestinian human rights. We are a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible.

---------------------------------
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
http://www.al-awda.org/youtube.html
Become an Al-Awda Sustainer:
Monthly: http://al-awda.org/sustainers.html
Annually: http://al-awda.org/sustainers2.html

Reprinted with permission from Al-Awda

It's noteworthy to mention that the initial venue for this convention was University of California at Riverside, however, Al-Awda received new unacceptable conditions and demands by certain UCR administrators well after they had approved the venue. For example, the administrators levied new administrative, security and other fees in the thousands of dollars which the hosts of the convention at UCR viz. the Students for Justice in Palestine would be expected to pay. Such prohibitive fees were highly unusual and have almost certainly never before been levied at UCR on any other student group, as Al-Awda report. Additionally, the university administrators insisted that a Zionist group be allowed to attend the convention, and that they film the convention and its participants, a remarkable attempt at intimidation.

All these new conditions and unreasonable demands were considered by the host committee as an attempt to shut down the Fifth Annual International Al-Awda Convention. Hence, the committee decided to move the convention to the Embassy Suites Hotel - Anaheim South, 11767 Harbor Boulevard, Garden Grove, CA 92840 - The committee felt that this private venue would provide a safer and more secure environment for Al-Awda community and convention attendees.

‘May Day’ is a ‘Mourn Day’ for Ein al Zeitun Massacre

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 21:20:49 +0000

May Day is May 1, International Workers' Day. It is recognized internationally for the celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labor movement. Put for Palestinians, this day has more than celebration. It is a mourn day.

It was not enough that Palestinians should have their homes and farmland stolen; they faced the death penalty if they should try to carry out any of their belongings with them!

Sometimes a villager would try to sneak back to his home to save some of his worldly possessions. His fate was often death at the hands of the Zionists. Ein al Zeitun massacre is one of many examples that shows the barbaric history of Zionists in Palestine.

Ethnically cleansed 'Ayn al-Zaytun', District Of Safad (photo source: Palestine Remembered)

'Ein ez Zeitun' (also known as Ein Zaytun, Ein ez Zeitun, Ain el Zeitun, Ayn-al-Zaytun, etc) is a village on the northern outskirts of the city of Safad, with a population of approximately 900 Palestinian Arabs, It became the scene of barbarous cruelties.

Timeline: (source: Palestine Encyclopedia)

19 JANUARY 1948 Galilee. 0800 hours, Safad. Near Ein Zeitun village, armed Jews attempted to hold up an Arab bus. When T.J.F.F. troopers arrived on the scene, the Jews retired towards Ein Zeitim Colony. No shots were fired during the incident.

29 JANUARY 1948 Galilee. 1525 hours, Safad. It was reported that, throughout the day, Arab males and females working in fields near Ein Zeitoun came under fire which is believed to have come from the direction of Ein Zeitim Colony.

2 FEBRUARY 1948 1030 hours, Jews from Ein Zeitim stole Arab truckload of flour. Arabs attacked Jewish colony. Troops restored order. 1 truckload flour stolen.

2 FEBRUARY 1948 Galilee. Morning, Safad. Two Arab trucks loaded with flour and traveling from Haifa to Safad were fired on near Ein Zeitim Colony. One of the trucks was forced to stop, and the driver was allegedly taken into the colony.

7 APRIL 1948 Galilee. 2200 hours, Safad. On the Acre/Safad road near Ein Zeitoun village, fire was directed at an Arab taxi from the Jewish Quarter of Safad. A passenger in the vehicle, Ribbi Khadouri of Safad, was wounded and died whilst being conveyed to the hospital.

11 APRIL 1948 Galilee. 0830 hours, Safad. An Arab truck proceeding from Safad to Bin Zeitun was fired on from the Jewish Quarter of Safad. Military personnel returned the fire. There were no casualties.

May 1, 1948 - The massacre day:

The attack on Ein al Zeitun was conducted by the 3rd Battalion of the Palmach* under the command of Moshe Kelman, as a preliminary operation to relieve the Arab siege of the Jewish quarter of Safed. Davidka mortar bombs were used for the first time. The village was taken without much difficulty. Most of the villagers fled during the battle, and the remainder, apart from 30-100 men aged 20-40 were forcibly expelled afterwards.

The Palmach soldiers then began to destroy the village. Palmach officer Elad Peled recalled that:

"at noon, our men began blowing up the village. The intoxication of victory blinded them and they went berserk, breaking and destroying property. The Jews of Safad saw Ein Zeitun blown up and crushed, and were overjoyed." (Morris p. 233, Abbasi p. 14)

According to Palmach soldier Nativa Ben-Yehuda, the captive men were tied up and thrown into the deep gully between Ein al Zeitun and left for two days. Kelman then decided to "get rid of this problem altogether" but most of his men refused. Finally he found two willing to do it and the prisoners were killed. Two days later, word of the massacre leaked out and it was feared that British or UN investigators would arrive, so some soldiers including Ben-Yehuda were detailed to untie the corpses and bury them.

According to the eyewitness testimony of Hussain 'Ali Harnid of the Arab village of 'Ein ez Zeitun (Source: Palestine Encyclopedia):

I and five other villagers went back to get the money that we had buried in our courtyards. Rashid Khalil, the first to enter the village, was shot dead by a Jewish soldier. We saw it was too dangerous to go in and decided to leave to Lebanon.

After the Palmach terrorists occupied the village on the night of May 1, 1948 they ordered the villagers to assemble at Mahmud Hamid's courtyard. Then the women were separated from the men and were taken to a courtyard behind the village mosque. According to the eyewitness testimony of Muhammad Ahmad Hamid. a mechanic:

I decided not to leave the village and hid in a nearby stable, close to my house. I remained in hiding for a while and then decided to join the people assembled at Mahmud Hamid's courtyard. As I was crossing the street, I was caught. The Jewish soldiers took me to the center of the village. There I saw Jamil Ahmad Idris crucified on a tree. I was beaten and questioned, then I was ordered to join the men in the courtyard.

In 'Ein ez Zeitun, Palestinians were killed as they tried to surrender. According to villager Mansur Shaibi:

We were terrified and decided to remain in our house with some of our relatives. We were afraid to surrender because Rashid Shaibi, who was hiding with us, had seen 'Abdullaj Shaibi killed as he was trying to surrender.

At the courtyard a horrible crime took place. According to the testimony of eyewitness Munira Harnid Shaibi, after being taken to the courtyard where the villagers had been gathered,

A Palmach officer ordered his soldiers to choose thirty seven teenage boys at random, ordering the rest of the villagers to move into the storage rooms of the mosque. Those boys were taken away and were never seen again. One was my brother. I do not think my brother is alive. I think the Jews killed him. Why would the Jews keep him for so long? What use is he to them?

Good question!

It is unreasonable to believe that not even one of thirty seven teenaged boys in 1948 would try to contact their families during the four decades since they were separated from them. The only reasonable assumption is that they cannot speak because they are buried in an unmarked mass grave.

After expelling those Palestinian Arabs they had not murdered, the Zionists wantonly burned and destroyed the houses of the inhabitants they had expelled.

Town Today:

According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, all that remains of the village:

The rubble of destroyed stone houses is scattered throughout the site, which is otherwise overgrown with olive trees and cactuses. A few deserted houses remain, some with round arched entrances and tall windows with various arched designs. In one of the remaining houses, the smooth stone above the entrance arch is inscribed with Arabic calligraphy, a fixture of Palestinian architecture. The well and the village spring also remain. (Source: Palestine Remembered)

* Palmach:

The Palmach is one of the armed terrorist wings Haganah, the unofficial army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the British Mandate of Palestine. Significant leaders of the Palmach include Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Sadeh, Yigal Allon and Yitzhak Rabin a future prime minister.

The Palmach contributed significantly to Israeli culture and ethos, well beyond its undoubtable military contribution. Its members formed the backbone of the Israel Defense Forces high command for many years, and were prominent in Israeli politics, literature and culture (source: Wikipedia).

No doubt about that. Look at Israel history, the terrorist barbaric culture is a major pillar of it's foundation. And they call OTHERS terrorists!!!

Zionist propaganda and “Nakbah Denial”

Haitham Sabbah — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:01:00 +0000

From time to time, I receive some hate emails and comments from sick Zionist with the very infamous subject line: â€œPalestinian people do not exist.â€

Just a while ago, one of these history denial comments were attempted to be posted here by someone calling himself Doron Zielinski. The spam comment was long enough and full of naive and unsupported lies that the Zionist like to spread all over. Of course there is no point in arguing with such ignorant people, specially that we know that their objective is not discussion, but spreading poison.

Never the less, this incident reminded me of a video interview I saw recently (although it goes back to 2002). In this interview, the Israeli famous historian Ilan Pappe talks about exactly the same subject: â€œZionist denial of Palestinian ID and existence.â€ Therefore, I see this as a good opportunity to link to this video (unfortunately the video is not available for sharing).

This 45 min interview with leading Israel academic and â€œNew Historianâ€ Dr Ilan Pappe, videoed in Manchester in September 2002. Dr. Ilan Pappe is an Israeli historian at Haifa University who writes on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the history of the 1948 war. He was interviewed before addressing a public meeting and open debate at the University of Manchester. It is a â€˜must seeâ€™ interview to learn more about the history of â€œEthnic Cleansingâ€ and â€œNakbah (Catastrophe) Denial.â€

Excerpts from the interview:

I think there are 3 main myths that inform mainstream Israeli Jewish society. A lot of them still believe, because thatâ€™s the way they have been educated, that Palestine had been empty when the Jewish settlers came there in the late 19th century. There is still a feeling there that basically the Palestinian inhabitants of Palestine are either a nuisance or newcomers, or irrelevant. They are an obstacle, but not people with rights or indigenous rights.

The second myth is more directly connected to 1948. Most Israeli Jews believe that the Palestinians left voluntarily in 1948. They are not aware, or do not want to be aware of the fact that an ethnic cleansing took place in 1948.

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Going back to 1948 for a bit, could you give a little more detail of your own historical research.

A group of us are called the â€œNew Historiansâ€, those who revise and challenge the main Israeli version of 1948. We debunk several myths. The first myth is that Israel was fighting the whole of the Arab world in a kind of David and Goliath war. Although there was a lot of war rhetoric from the Arab side, very few Arab soldiers were sent into the battlefield, and actually for most of the war there was superiority on the side of the Israeli army. In fact one of the most important Arab armies, the Jordanian army, had colluded with the Israelis before the war to divide Palestine. So the first myth we undermine is the â€œfew against manyâ€ - which is very important in the Israeli psyche, the Israeli mentality.

The second and most important myth is that the Palestinians left voluntarily. We found out that there was a systematic expulsion of Palestinians and an ethnic cleansing operation taking place. We also found there had been willingness on the Arab side in general and on the Palestinian side in particular, to conclude some sort of an agreement with the Jewish State after the war, and it was the Israeli intransigence and inflexible position that failed the peace efforts after the 1948 war.

The strategy was set out even well before 1948 with the Transfer Committee.

Yes. The Transfer Committee was part of the outfit in pre-1948 Palestine, that belonged to the Jewish Agency, to the Jewish leadership. And its main position was actually to evaluate the â€œqualityâ€ of the 500 - 600 Arab villages, i.e. to find out which village had fertile land, what was the wealth of each and each village. It was preparing for the day that Israel would take over these villages. And then, after the ethnic cleansing took place, it was renamed and became more like a distribution committee. It had to divide the spoils between the various Kibbutzim movements, and the various Jewish agencies that dealt with Settlement. And so it was an important official facet of the leadership. But it was all conceived by the leader of the Jewish Agency and later the first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion.

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How was all of this covered up? If one of the myths was that this never happened, how could this be sustained?

Itâ€™s an interesting question! I still try to find my answers to that. One way was by creating an indoctrinating system of education, in which the people who perpetrated the ethnic cleansing cooperated. From the moment the war ended the people who fought in the war were also the people who wrote the history books of the war. And they already had a story they made up about what had happened, and that story was integrated into the Israeli education system, the media, the political discourse. And with the help of the launderette of words all kind of new words were invented to hide what had really happened on the ground. Because of the Holocaust it was easier for Israel to do it than for any other nation, I think. And it succeeded.

The second reason is that the Palestinians were under such a shock and trauma, that when they started to tell the story it was a bit too late. It was so many years after, that it was less relevant in the eyes of many good people in the world.

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So thatâ€™s on one level. The second level is no less important, that there is what I call the â€œNakbah Denialâ€, â€œCatastrophe Denialâ€. I think there is a similar â€œHolocaust Denialâ€ on the Palestinian side, and I am a great believer that in order to further the chances of reconciliation, you have to have a kind of link, an association between the ability of the Israelis to stop denying the Nakbah, and the Palestinians accepting that the Holocaust plays a role in the life of Jews in Israel, and the life of Jews everywhere. Iâ€™m not inventing the wheel, this was first mentioned by Edward Said in his book â€œThe Dispossession of the Palestiniansâ€, but I think itâ€™s a good idea. That we are all there victims also of the Holocaust, not only of what we are doing to each other.

Does it cause ripples in Israeli society now when people see these things?

Oh no, unfortunately not. No the Israeli society is still numb, and very indifferent. We have a national singer who was appalled when she saw that, Yaffa Yarkoni, probably The National Singer, and sheâ€™s boycotted ever since she dared to say that it reminded her of Nazi Germany. No no, in a way itâ€™s a non-starter in Israeli political debates, youâ€™re not allowed to do this. I think you should, but youâ€™re not allowed to. No unfortunately there is no sensitivity in the Israeli Jewish society. On the contrary I think the major thing that Israelis are doing now is blaming anyone who criticises them of being pro-Nazi, at worst, or someone who doesnâ€™t understand the Holocaust, at best.

You yourself have also suffered some victimisation.

Well I suffer it in 3 levels. One is that Iâ€™ve written several books in English, but they are not translated into Hebrew, so this is a kind of boycott of books which goes on. The second one is the more sort of personal intimidation through the phone and letters, and so on. And the third one is sort of the climax of this whole campaign, there was an attempt to expel me from my University in May 2002. And it was difficult because I have tenure, I have a permanent position at the University. It was a legal procedure that has been suspended, because of international pressure.

The concrete reasons for the last phase was that I protected a student, not my student but someone I know very well, who in his MA dissertation revealed that there was a massacre in the village of Tantura in the 1948 war, one of the worst massacres in that war. And although he received the highest grade possible for his excellent thesis, because the veterans of the Unit that he accused of perpetrating the massacre sued him in court, the University changed its attitude. He is being disqualified and robbed of his title. And I accused the University of certain things because of that, and because of these public accusations I was myself brought to trial, which can still be resumed next academic year.

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Download a full transcript of this interview (PDF File).