Nakba Plays in London, How Long Before It Hits Broadway?

Today’s Independent in England features an opinion piece on the Nakba that uses the word "sh-t" three times in describing the repulsive practice of Israeli colonies, pumping their raw sewage on to Palestinian land. Then Johann Hari brings the Nakba home:

The people who ask angrily why the Palestinians keep longing for
their old land should imagine an English version of this story. How
would we react if the 30m stateless, persecuted Kurds in the world sent
armies and settlers into this country to seize everything in England
below Leeds, and swiftly established a free Kurdistan from which we
were expelled? Wouldn’t we long forever for our children to return to
Cornwall and Devon and London? Would it take us only 40 years to
compromise and offer to settle for just 22 per cent of what we had? If
we are not going to be endlessly banging our heads against history, the
Middle East needs to excavate 1948, and seek a solution.

The question Americans must ask is, Why isn’t this conversation happening in our  mainstream press? Why isn’t Ghada Karmi being quoted after her visit last week? (As my friend Dan Swanson points out) why is it that when a pro-Palestinian piece appears in the U.S. press, it is almost always by a Palestinian–as if the discourse must signal to readers, Well of course, they would say that, their ox was gored!  When as Hari shows, this is a universal issue, any liberal has a right to be offended. Noah Schwartz, a Columbia student, last year made a similar analogy to Hari’s London analogy and called for the "excavation" of 1948.

“You live in Philadelphia, and all of a sudden 1
million Chinese move to the place. Speaking a different
language. You wouldn’t like it… The issue of 1948– that’s the main
argument we have here. You couldn’t have a Jewish state without the
displacement of another people. The idea of a distinct people in a vacuum may
work for Antarctica. But the standard history,
and it is not disputed, is that transfer arrangements were [discussed by]… the Jewish
Agency, once the civil war broke out after Partition….” When do we get to read Op-Eds from Noah Schwartz? 

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