The black days of 1948
view
Dominique Moisi
Israel will be forced to confront the reality of Palestinian despair, which the unique relationship with America has allowed it to obfuscate and evade for too long
Israel is one of the only places in the world where George W Bush can be greeted with real enthusiasm and even affection. The most unpopular American president in recent history thus relished his recent triumphal welcome in Jerusalem, where he was the guest of honour of the International Conference planned and devised by Israeli President Shimon Peres on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state.
Historical revisionism was near the top of the agenda, with the United States portrayed as Israel’s most faithful supporter and ally since 1948. But in fact, George C Marshall, the US secretary of state in 1948, sought to prevent President Harry Truman from recognising Israel. Likewise, the Suez crisis of 1956, when the US thwarted a joint French, British, and Israeli plan to seize the Suez Canal, was presented in a politically correct light, as were Henry Kissinger’s complex diplomacy during the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
The hugging and kissing between Bush, Peres, and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert were undeniably moving, but they were also troubling — and not only because serious references to the Palestinians were, for the most part, not on the agenda. One had the feeling that this was something akin to dancing on the Titanic — the culmination of a privileged partnership at its tipping point, a grand gala for something that was about to disappear.
--MORE--
The facts speak for themselves: In the Israeli Occupied Territories, ITISAPARTHEID. This web site will show you how and why apartheid exists in the Israeli Occupied Territories and give you the tools to fight it.
--MORE--
http://www.itisapartheid.org/
Related
Prisoners of Marda
Uri Avnery's 1948: A Critique
Al Nakba (The Catastrophe). Ethnic Cleansing: How Palestine Became Israel
By Special Notice and Brochure
Jun 7, 2008, 10:29
In the late 1800s a small, fanatic movement called “political Zionism” began in Europe. Its goal was to create a Jewish state somewhere in the world. Its leaders settled on the ancient and long-inhabited land of Palestine for the location of this state.1
Palestine's population at this time was approximately ninety-five percent non-Jewish (primarily Muslim and Christian).2
Over the coming decades Zionist leaders used various strategies to accomplish their goal of taking over Palestine:
I stumbled upon a link to Swiss Air 111 and Richard Tomlinson while perusing the Ehud Olmert money laundering link. An Israeli firm was involved in the Swiss Air crash.
Related
Bottomless basket
The ongoing Arab grief
60 Years of Nakba, 41 Years of Occupation ...
41 years ago today the USS Liberty was attacked by Israel, killing 34 U.S. servicemen and wounded at least 173: Phil Tourney's speech, USS Liberty survivor
The land, not the people
Israel's problem, since its 1967 victory, is that it wants Palestinian land but not the people who live on it
-
- guardian.co.uk,
- Friday June 6 2008
On June 8, 1967, just a few hours after the Israeli military captured Jerusalem's Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif), defence minister Moshe Dayan visited the site. Noticing that troops had hung an Israeli flag on the cap of the al-Aqsa shrine, Dayan asked one of the soldiers to remove it, adding that displaying the Israeli national symbol for all to see was an unnecessarily provocative act.
Those who have visited the occupied territories in the past years have no doubt noticed Israeli flags fluttering over almost every building Israel occupies as well as above every Jewish settlement. Ariel Sharon's highly publicised visit to the al-Aqsa compound in September 2000 – an act that served as the trigger for the second intifada – could be considered the final step in a process that has ultimately undone Dayan's strategic legacy of trying to normalise the occupation by concealing Israel's presence. "Don't rule them," Dayan once said, "let them lead their own lives."
***
The occupation's guiding principle has consequently produced the very conditions that are now impeding a peace agreement based on the two-state solution. Recognising the full ramifications of this principle is crucial since it allows us to see beyond the smoke screen of political proclamations and statements, and to improve our understanding of why the acrimonious conflict has developed in the way that it has. Just as importantly, the principle sheds light on how the conflict can be resolved, since the key to reaching a just and peaceful solution involves reuniting the Palestinian people and their land and offering them full sovereignty over the land. So long as the guiding principle is ignored, blood will continue to be spilled.
Al-Awda Executive Committee
15 May 2008
Palestinians from across the world are marking and commemorating the 60th Year of the Nakba or Catastrophe. This Nakba began when roughly 800,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and villages of historic Palestine in carefully planned attacks by Jewish militias led by British trained officers. Their tactics included massacres and forced evacuation. During that period 531 indigenous Palestinian Arab villages, 11 towns and cities were de-populated and destroyed and the largest refugee problem in the world was created. Today the population of Palestinian refuges stands at over 7.0 million people. Three quarters of the entire world population of Palestinians are refugees and/or living in exile (shatat). There are 59 refugee camps scattered all over Palestine and the Arab World. To this day, justice has been denied. Justice has been denied because our inalienable right to return to our homes and lands in Palestine has been put on hold and subverted by the creation of a racist Zionist Apartheid State and the collusion of many other countries. But make no mistake, the Palestinian right to return is an inalienable natural right that is protected and guaranteed under International law, the Geneva Conventions, and by United Nations resolutions. No country, individual, or international body can stop the return home of our people to Palestine. At this historical moment, however, it is important to assess where we are in our process of returning.
From a narrow and myopic point of view, it would be very easy to feel hopeless. The current status of life in historic Palestine is very disturbing. Israel’s racist policies and processes, as a means to pacify and control our people, have created profoundly inhuman and immoral conditions on the ground for Palestinian men, women, and children. The Israeli Annexation Wall, despite being declared illegal by international courts and condemned by the international community continues its serpentine chokehold on the daily life of every Palestinian living in the West Bank. The Wall, together with some 600 or so Israeli military checkpoints scattered strategically throughout the West Bank to destroy any possibility of freedom of movement, access to health care, and the building of economic infrastructures for independence have produced a significant decline in the health, wellness, and economic viability for every Palestinian. In addition, Israel continues its voracious consumption and theft of Palestinian land in the West bank to create illegal Jewish-only colonies armed against our people and protected by the military. There are now close to 500,000 illegal Israeli ‘settlers’ living in Jerusalem and the hills of the West Bank.
Although the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is brutal and illegal, it sadly pales in comparison to the catastrophic conditions in the Gaza Strip. The cruel racist manifestations of Israel’s occupation are no more painfully evident than in the Gaza Strip where 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children are literally starving to death under the watchful eye of the Israeli military and international community. At the time of the writing this article, the only power plant in the Gaza Strip was shut down because Israel refuses to allow fuel to enter the Strip. Hospitals and clinics have no fuel for their emergency generators and have stopped functioning in any meaningful way. The steady Israeli diet of forced starvation for Palestinians living Gaza has reduced the food supply to below subsistence levels. Our people are starving. The Israeli military and government, control every aspect of the inflow of food, medicine, and water into and out of Gaza. They also control the outflow of people. Chronically ill cancer patients who have already been given permission to leave Gaza for emergency life-saving treatment have been left for dead at the Erez Crossing in Gaza. Literally left for dead-- Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch report that scores of Palestinians have died at that checkpoint waiting for medical care. Gaza is a large Bantustan where millions of Palestinians are imprisoned, feel the pain of starvation, and wait to taste the fruit of freedom and self-determination. While they wait, Palestinian men, women, and children die every day in Gaza from Israeli air strikes, incursions, and the denial of rights.
Israel negotiating peace? Oh, really? : Israel Destroys House of PA Deputy Labor Minister
The Jordan Valley's forgotten Palestinians
European Parliament member: situation in Hebron "barbaric'
IOF troops kill 70 year old Palestinian woman in Gaza
"The language used by Morris was particularly shocking for its racist undertones. In a 2004 interview with Ha'aretz, he described the Arab world as "barbarian" and the Palestinians as wild animals who had to be locked up in "something like a cage". Morris's personal journey is interesting to note because it mirrors the journey of Israeli society at large from the heady days of the Oslo accords to the dark pessimism of the second intifada.
Against this background, I must confess, I had low expectations of Morris's new book on the 1948 war. I expected it to be history with a political agenda, to display prejudice against the Arabs and partiality towards the Jews. But I was in for a pleasant surprise. This is Benny Morris at his best: immensely well informed, thorough, careful in the use of evidence, thoughtful and thought-provoking. While the entire book is underpinned by formidable scholarship and 72 pages of meticulous endnotes, it is presented in a fluent and readable style. Morris has used the full panoply of secondary and primary sources to produce a lively, absorbing and fast-moving narrative history of the war. All in all, it is a most impressive achievement of original research and synthesis."
Avi Shlaim praises a study of Israel's first armed conflict, 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War by Benny Morris, that confronts national myths head on
Saturday May 31, 2008
The Guardian
 |  Buy 1948 at the Guardian bookshop |
by Benny Morris
524pp, Yale, £19.99"Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation," wrote Ernest Renan, the 19th-century French philosopher. Israel is no exception. Nineteen forty-eight was a seismic year in the history of the Jewish people and that of the modern Middle East. It witnessed the birth of Israel and its first war with the Arabs. Israelis call it "the war of independence"; Arabs call it the nakba or the catastrophe. The literature on this conflict by Zionist and pro-Zionist writers is vast, but it also incorporates a number of myths. Like most nationalist versions of history, this literature tends to be one-sided, selective, demonising of the enemy, and self-congratulatory.
| ||||
| | ||||
| ||||
Written by Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Ten years ago, when the State of Israel was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, our main duty was to explain that the creation of Israel was also the Palestinian Nakba, and often people asked "what does Nakba mean?" In most of the cases, the question was the result of ignorance. Today, whoever is asking "what does Nakba mean?" is not an ignorant, but rather a Nakba-denier, a kind of cousin of the Shoah-denier who is asking "what does Shoah mean?” The concept of Nakba and the reality of the Palestinian catastrophe have become public knowledge.
Moreover: all over the world, and not only in the progressive media, any mention of Israel's sixtieth anniversary has been followed by the mention of the Palestinian Nakba, including by those—and they are the majority—for whom the creation of Israel is an event that deserves feasts and celebrations.
No doubt that this recognition is a big victory for the Palestinian people, whose tragic history has been denied for decades: the battle over history has finally be won, and the Zionist narrative concerning "a land without people for a people without land" and Palestinian refugees who either have never existed (sic) or have been forced to flee by their own leadership, are lying today in the garbage heap of old-propaganda lies. In its great majority, international public opinion recognizes that the price for the creation of a Jewish State was the destruction of Palestine and the creation of hundreds of thousands of refugees.
In Israel too, the Palestinian tragedy is largely recognized, thanks to the New Historians, who, twenty years ago, started to demystify the events surrounding the creation of Israel and have almost become today the official historians of Israel. No doubt, recognizing the "original sin" of the birth of Israel is an important evolution, allowing the Israeli people to look at its own existence with much less self-deception and mystifications, and, therefore, able to better understand the roots of the Israeli-Arab conflict and the way out of this conflict.
--MORE--
For The Register-Guard
Published: May 25, 2008 12:00AM
As Israel celebrates 60 years of statehood this May, Palestinians worldwide mourn the loss of their homes and homeland. Because while one people — Jews fleeing persecution in Christian Europe — gained a country, another people — the land’s indigenous Palestinians — lost nearly everything they had. Rabbi Maurice Harris presented one perspective on this story (“A place to call home,” Commentary, May 4), and we would like to offer another.
In 1948 hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were exiled and replaced by new Jewish immigrants. This tragedy still shapes the conflict between our two peoples. Palestinians live without freedom and equal rights in the land of their ancestors, or as refugees scattered throughout the world. Israelis live as occupiers of another people — plagued with a sense of insecurity, though they possess one of the world’s strongest militaries. This side of Israel’s establishment and its inescapable connection to our current strife has been overlooked in the anniversary celebrations.
Some Israelis believe reconciliation with Palestinians is possible by forgetting this past. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni recently asked that upon the establishment of a Palestinian state, “the word ‘Nakba’ (which refers to the expulsion of the Palestinians by Jewish militias in 1948) be deleted from the Arabic lexicon.” Imagine asking Americans to excise Sept. 11, 2001, from their collective memory, or Jewish people to forget the Holocaust. It is precisely “not forgetting” that allows us to build a just future.
That is why we — an Israeli Jew who as a child unwittingly played among the ruins of Qaqun, a destroyed Palestinian village in what is now Israel, and a Palestinian whose family in Hebron welcomed destitute Jewish refugees who had fled their homes in fear — choose to work together to raise awareness of the Nakba. We know that our two peoples are destined to live together, that our fates are intertwined. And we know that only by acknowledging injustice can we overcome it.
The Nakba — Arabic for “catastrophe” — is the defining Palestinian experience.
--MORE--
To conclude Al Jazeera's special coverage of the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel - an event known to Palestinians as 'al Nakba' (the catastrophe) - senior political analyst Marwan Bishara hosts a debate examining why the events of 1948 still have wide-ranging political ramifications today.
May 20, 2008
Linda McQuaig
Canada has a long history of supporting Israel. But the nature of that support, particularly under the Harper government, is almost unrecognizable from its earlier form.
Shocked by the horrors of the Holocaust, Canada played an important role in United Nations decisions that led to the establishment of Israel in 1948. But what Canada supported was a package deal in which Palestine would be partitioned into two states, one Jewish and one Arab.
Whatever the flaws of that model, one thing is clear. No Canadian official ever advocated what has become the reality today: that a Jewish state would be created, while the much larger Arab population in Palestine would be left stateless six decades later, and in fact living under Israeli military occupation.
That Canadian attempt at even-handedness has utterly disappeared under Stephen Harper, who lavishly celebrated Israel's 60th anniversary with promises of Canada's "unshakeable" support, while utterly ignoring the fact that this is also an anniversary – although a very different one – for the Palestinians.
--MORE--
The aniversary that Americans do not celebrate
FOCUS 60 YEARS OF DIVISION
Ilan Pappe says Israel needs to acknowledge the crime it committed against the Palestinian people
As part of Al Jazeera's coverage of the anniversary of the creation of Israel and the Palestinian 'Nakba', Israeli historian Ilan Pappe reflects upon the events of 1948 and how they led to 60 years of division between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Between February, 1948 and December,1948 the Israeli army systematically occupied the Palestinian villages and towns, expelled by force the population and in most cases also destroyed the houses, looted their belongings and took over their material and cultural possessions. This was the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
During the ethnic cleansing, wherever there was resistance by the population the result was a massacre. We have more than 30 cases of such massacres where a few thousand Palestinians were massacred by the Israeli forces throughout the operation of the ethnic cleansing.
--MORE--
The year 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe marked by the destruction or depopulation of more than 400 Palestinian villages and the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinian people from their lands, communities and homes. Since then, Palestinians have lived under occupation, as refugees, and as second class citizens on their own land; Israel's assault against the indigenous Palestinian communities continues with unremitting brutality. In Gaza, with the support of the US government and its allies, Israel has effectively cut off food, water, electricity, humanitarian aid, medical supplies and the means of basic employment or trade, despite the pretence of ‘disengagement’ offered by Israeli withdrawal of settlements.
On the contrary, this withdrawal has facilitated Israel's ever-increasing grip on the area. Israel controls entry and exit from this small, sealed internment camp. The people of Gaza have nowhere to go. Israel's policy towards Gazans is inhumane and racist. How can it be otherwise, when Israel's existence is predicated on ethnic cleansing? Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai's vicious threat of a ‘shoah’, or holocaust, is an outrage yet unsurprisingly consistent with the military's tactics and Israel's historic designs for the region. The US and Europe are not just standing by indifferently: they are accomplices. As Western states honour the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel, the groundwork for the further expulsion of Palestinians into Egypt and for genocide is thus being laid.
As Jews, this anniversary also highlights other histories: sixty years of the hijacking of Jewish participation in liberation struggles; sixty years of dishonoring and exploiting the persecution, displacement and genocide of European Jews by using their memory to justify and perpetuate European racism and colonialism; and sixty years of extensive displacement and alienation of Mizrahi Jews (Jews of Arab and African descent) from indigenous identities, languages, histories, cultures and homelands. This anniversary implicates us in the oppression of the Palestinian people and in the debasement of our own heritages, struggles for justice and alliances with our fellow human beings.
--MORE--
New Israeli scholars face up to country's origins
Full transcript of Ilan Pappe interview
Alan Philps
* Last Updated: May 18. 2008 9:08PM UAE / May 18. 2008 5:08PM GMT
Ilan Pappe, interviewed by Alan Philps, associate editor of The National, in Bristol, United Kingdom, on April 27 2008.
***
Q: Finally, how much do Israelis think of 1948?
Not very often. For the younger generation, it’s the distant past, and the older generation who lived through it is very old now. I think 48 plays a very important role in the educational system. It is part of the initiation of Israelis into Zionism. They know – they have a metaphoric image of 1948. Every school ceremony is connected to 1948, every army initiation ceremony is connected to 1948. Every national festival which is not a religious one is connected to 1948. The year that everything that happened was moral, right and just. So people used a lot of 1948 in talking. If you tell them that in 2006 the Israeli army was not very good they would immediately compare it to 48 when everything went right. If you point to an atrocity they would say unlike 48 when Israel was pure and moral and just. The Palestinians cannot pass a day without thinking about it – mainly because there is no closure. Imagine being mugged, raped or wounded, or your family being murdered, and for 60 years, everyone tells you , this didn’t happen. You made it up. Sometimes it’s worse than the crime itself. I think they would love to put it behind them – the Palestinians – but you cannot if everyone denies it.
--MORE--l
Abu Zaid: Gaza is experiencing its own unique Nakba |
| [ 17/05/2008 - 04:55 PM ] |
 |
|
GAZA, (PIC)-- Karen Abu Zaid, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, stated on Saturday that Gaza is experiencing its own unique Nakba, a catastrophe which was wrought on it by the cruelties of continuing occupation and the tightening siege. These statements came during a photo exhibition held in Gaza by UNRWA, "I am from there and I remember," which commemorates and celebrates the Palestinian life before the Nakba. "As you view each photograph, I urge you to spare a thought for the lives and the humanity that lie behind them, the sheer human resourcefulness, and the sense of lost potential. These are real people, people whose history cannot be airbrushed away. Indeed they are a people with a past, a history that will cannot be denied," Abu Zaid said at the opening of the exhibition. |
Related
Palestinian-Americans mark 60th anniverary of Nakba at UN rally 
May 16, 2008
Link
Eulogy before the Inevitability of Self-Destruction: The Decline and Death of Israel
by nepos libertas
Tue May 13, 2008
"On Friday May 14, 1948 -- the day the British Mandate over Palestine expired -- the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel was signed by members of the National Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, representing the Jewish community in the country and the Zionist movement abroad. It went into effect at midnight, Tel Aviv time.
Eliahu Epstein of The Jewish Agency sent a letter to President Truman, dated May 14, 1948 announcing the event. Truman responded with recognition of Israel by the United States only 11 minutes after the declaration in Tel Aviv."1
--MORE--
Tell Me More, May 16, 2008 · Palestinian American Nina Cullers and her family lost their home and way of life when Israel became an independent nation in 1948. As Israel marks its 60th anniversary, Cullers reflects on how that event affected her life as a Palestinian.
Listen Now [10 min 30 sec] :
--MORE--
PM to be probed in 48 hours
Fast forward to the past
Palestinians waiting
Helen Thomas: Israelis celebrate birthday while Palestinians mourn loss
Expressions of Nakba Gallery
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 06:15 16/05/2008
Olmert petitions High Court against Talansky deposition
By Ofra Edelman and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his former office manager, Shula Zaken, petitioned the High Court of Justice on Thursday against the prosecution's decision to have a court depose American fundraiser Moshe Morris Talansky. The petition will be heard on Monday by a panel of three justices.
Attorneys for Olmert wrote, "Were it not a case involving the prime minister, the prosecution would not have considered seeking a deposition from Mr. Talanksy." Since it is not even clear what crimes their client is suspected of, they argued, there are no grounds for asking the court to hear testimony from Talansky now, and doing so would undermine Olmert's ability to cross-examine the witness effectively.
The premier's attorneys also accused the prosecution of speaking out of both sides of its mouth regarding Talansky: "Talansky is presented as a suspect who may be indicted for the offenses about which he is being asked to testify. However, despite his status as a suspect, no legal steps are being taken against Talansky to restrict his movements and ensure he appears before an Israeli court if and when a decision is made to try him."
--MORE--
Related Weekly report of Israeli war crimes, 5/14/08
IOF troops shoot at Palestinian protesters at Biet Hanon | |
| [ 16/05/2008 - 12:28 AM ] | |
 | |
|
GAZA, (PIC)-- At least nine Palestinian children and a woman were wounded on Thursday after IOF troops stationed at the Beit Hanon (Erez) crossing point north of Gaza Strip opened their fire at thousands of Palestinian citizens demonstrating near the crossing to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba and protest against the Israeli economic siege on the Strip. Hamas Movement called for the rally to mark the occasion, challenge the Israeli occupation, and in a clear demonstration of an exemplary Palestinian steadfastness and determination to get rid of the occupation. IOF troops stationed at the border crossing opened fire at the Palestinian demonstrators and Palestinian youth replied with stones. There were a number of casualties and . Palestinian ambulances were dispatched to the clashes scene, and immediately rushed the wounded Palestinians to nearby hospitals. |
Profile
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
mparent7777_1- CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS
- Marc Parent
Syndicate
