The Bay Area seems to be the epicenter of the changing discourse on Israel/Palestine. Last week it was the screening of the documentary "Rachel" at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle ran a piece called "The Continuing Nakba" about the sales of Palestinian property in Israel, thousands of homes Palestinians fled in 1948. The piece ran on page A9, and is by Timothy Crawley, a law student in the Bay Area who is interning with Adalah.
The evacuation of the villages and the demolition of Bedouin homes represent the next step in the historical process of forcible displacement of Palestinian Arabs in favor of Jewish residents.
The Kanafani family loses a home in Haifa; lands in the West Bank including East Jerusalem are further colonized; and Bedouin citizens of Israel are displaced yet again. The Nakba did not just happen in 1948. It is continuing for thousands of Palestinians who are systematically denied their basic rights to property, housing, employment – and their right to live at peace in their own homes.
Peace will remain elusive so long as Israel’s approach to Palestinian refugees is to erase them from history
Two days ago, a likud spokesman referred to Israel’s acknowledgement of the trauma experienced by Palestinians in 1947-1949.
The San Francisco Chronicle is really, really, really establishment. I was rather shocked when I read it yesterday and found this article because usually it’s run of the mill Zionist propaganda.