The following is from David Hosey's blog City of…
[This] photo was taken by my Sabeel coworker Lydia on a trip we took last
fall to what is today northern Israel–northern Palestine in 1948. We
were visited villages that were depopulated and/or destroyed during
1948, including the village of Al Bassa (near the Mediterranean coast
and the Lebanon border), where this photo was taken. (I wrote an account of the trip in September if you are interested).
Al Bassa was a mixed Christian and Muslim village before it was
destroyed by Zionist militias in 1948. Two churches and a mosque are
still visible, although they are in ruins. The Christian and Muslim
cemeteries are also in ruins, and some of the graves were desecrated to
the point that we could see exposed bones–this picture is a piece of a
family grave marker in the Christian cemetery, with a memorial poem
written in Arabic still visible.
The nearby Jewish cemetery was perfectly maintained and protected–as all cemeteries should be.
Imagine for a second if this situation was switched, and it was a
desecrated Jewish cemetery with a nearby Christian cemetery perfectly
kept. It would make me sick. This made me sick, too.
Our guide told us that the Islamic Movement, the strongest Islamist
party in Israel (remember that 20% of Israeli citizens are not Jewish),
had come to Al Bassa not long ago and had tried as best they could to
clean up the Muslim and Christian cemeteries before being asked to
leave.
The cemeteries now lie in the middle of an industrial park.
