The Nakba briefly appears in Tom Segev’s magisterial history of Israel and the Holocaust, The Seventh Million. In a single (very long) paragraph, Segev tells the story of how survivors of a genocide were transformed by the Zionist enterprise into participants in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Segev writes on pp. 161-62:
Then the War of Independence broke out, and tens of thousands of homes were suddenly available. This was what Shaul Avigur called ‘the Arab miracle’: Hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled, and were expelled from their homes. Entire cities and hundreds of villages left empty were repopulated in short order with new immigrants. In April 1949 they numbered 100,000, most of them Holocaust survivors. The moment was a dramatic one in the war for Israel, and a frightfully banal one, too, focused as it was on the struggle over houses and furniture. Free people–Arabs–had gone into exile and become destitute refugees; destitute refugees–Jews–took the exiles’ places as a first step in their new lives as free people. One group lost all they had, while the other found everything they needed–tables, chairs, closets pots, pans, plates, sometimes clothes, family albums, books, radios, and pets. Most of the immigrants broke into the abandoned Arab houses without direction, without order, without permission. For several months the country was caught up in a frenzy of take-what-you-can, first-come, first-served. Afterwards, the authorities tried to halt the looting and take control of the allocation of houses, but in general they came too late. Immigrants also took possession of Arab stores and workshops, and some Arab neighborhoods soon looked like Jewish towns in prewar Europe, with tailors, shoemakers, dry goods merchants–all the traditional Jewish occupations.
The post originally appeared on Max Blumenthal's blog.
‘Hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled, and were expelled from their homes.’
Great. Now here’s a complete history of the European Holocaust, inspired by the telegraphic conciseness of Tom Segev:
‘Hundreds of thousands of Jews fled, and were expelled from their homes.’
Any questions?
What’s fascinating and still shrouded in mystery is the precise method by which Arab land became state property allocated to Jewish use. Don’t get stuck on the big picture; think of all the internal competition over who get precisely which land, which movement got permission to establish a kibbutz or moshav, which roads got paved first and so on.
Between 1948 and 1952, most of it was over. The deed had been done, creating both winners and losers among the Jewish Israelis. It would be cool to read a detailed history of this period. Only…. so many of the records related this process remain a state secret until today.
“Between 1948 and 1952, most of it was over. The deed had been done, creating both winners and losers among the Jewish Israelis. It would be cool to read a detailed history of this period. Only…. so many of the records related this process remain a state secret until today.”(clenchner)
Clenchner, the Palestinians are themselves bringing this history out into the open. You wanted to know more about how the stolen land was divided up, here’s part of the recounting of what happened in Yaffa that gives you an idea of what happened in the rest of the land; it was posted here last December. From Sami Abu Shehadeh and Fadi Shbaytah, residents of Jaffa, and members of the Jaffa Popular Committee for the Defense of Land and Housing Rights:
“… After expelling most of Jaffa’s residents, militarily occupying the city and ghettoizing the remaining original inhabitants, Israeli authorities passed the Absentee Property Law (1950) through which it seized the property of all Palestinians who were not in possession of their immovable properties after the Nakba. Through the implementation of this unjust law, the state of Israel sent its operatives to all corners of the land, surveying the properties left behind by the expelled refugees, the internally displaced Palestinians banned from returning to their lands, and those relocated to the ghettos of Palestine’s cities. Title to these lands, buildings, homes, factories, farms and religious sites were then transferred to the state’s “Custodian of Absentee Property.” This is how the Palestinians of Jaffa, the refugees and the ghettoized, had their properties “legally” stolen by the State of Israel.
In the interviews conducted for our research, we heard dozens of stories from Nakba survivors telling us about how their homes, often just meters away from the ghetto, were seized, and how they could do nothing about it. Many told us stories of how their homes were given to, or simply taken by, new Jewish immigrants, and how they would try to convince the new residents of their homes to give them back some of their furniture, or clothes, or documents, or photographs. In some of these cases, the house’s new resident would give back some of the items, in most of the cases the response was to consider the original Palestinian owner an intruder, and to call the police or report him to the military commander. Former residents of the al-Manshiyya neighborhood, one of the city’s wealthier areas before the Nakba, described the sorrow they felt as they walked past their old houses, and the pain of seeing what remained of the neighborhood demolished to be replaced by a public recreation area.
Some of the most difficult stories are those of the Palestinian farmers and peasants from the villages of the Jaffa district. They describe how they were forced off of their land, how they managed to stay in Palestine, how the Israeli government handed their land over to Jewish settlers, and how these settlers then hired the same Palestinian farmers to work on their own land as day laborers exploited for the personal profit of the Jewish settler off the produce of the land that Palestinians had cultivated for generations. In fact, after their properties and enterprises were seized or shut down, the vast majority of the Jaffa Palestinians who remained became cheap labor for Jewish employers. Their employment was contingent on their “loyalty” to the new state. And so it was that the people who ran the economic hub of Palestine before 1948, became its orphans feigning loyalty to the ones who orphaned them in order to feed their own children. ”
Full article for anyone doubting the land theft:
link to electronicintifada.net
when i was in israel i took one of the alternative tours up north. our guide was 6 yr old in 48 and recalled his expulsion. he took us to the land of his old village. he lives just a few miles away. i never realized before there were people in israel for whom ‘return’ meant waiting to return to their land just right down the street. and their families owned the land but now it belongs (for all practical purposes) to the jnf. he showed us the old well/spring that fed all the irrigation for the region. it’s now a commercial spring water company, they bottled water from it for a profit.
See, I told you Palestinians mourn the creation of the state of Israel on Nakbah day. Darn anti-Semites. {Sarcasm off}
The BBC, Al-Jazeera English, CNN, Voice of American, the New York Times, NPR, Reuters, Ha-Aretz, Yediot Ahronot, the Jerusalem Post, all joined the Hasbara frenzy today like obedient monkeys.
Lets not repeat it, anywhere.
More, Witty. Let’s rectify it while the Nakba survivors are still living, and their offspring are being severely oppressed. In short, Witty, it’s being repeated daily by the Israelis. You should understand this, after all, didn’t Demejuk just get sentenced at age 91, simply for possibly being there, at that camp for Jews in Poland (if not, than some other camp in Poland? (Oh wait, that’s been done)?
If justice can reach back before 1945, why can’t we reach back to 1947-’48, especially since the dispossession and maltreatment still continues to this day? Israel needs to cough up reparations too–and pay for them themselves, not by Uncle Sam handouts. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Justice is blind, remember?
you have to remember that only goes for people who commited crimes against jews. if it is a jew who committed heinious crimes like this than no nothing can be done. poland has been trying to extradite soviet jews who particapated in soviet crimes in poland for years only to have Israel go that happened in the past it to far away the statute of limitations ran out.
Lets not repeat it, anywhere.
i thought you said it was worth it. if it was worth it why wouldn’t it be worth repeating?
This post is tailor-made for you jon s – you were worrying the other day about the video that said the occupation of Palestine began in 1948 rather than 1967. The Nakba must be acknowledged, apologised for and reparations negotiated and paid. If Israel doesn’t want Palestinian refugees returning to Israel it must offer to buy their citizenship individually, and pay more reparations to whatever state agrees to settle them as citizens. Then it must respect the wishes of those Palestinians who do wish to return to the country they and their families were cleansed from: Israel.
In a sense, whether the author of that video clip would be satisfied with a two-state solution or not, they are factually correct that the occupation of Palestine began in 1948: at least half of the area designated by the UN as being for the Palestinian state was invaded and permanently occupied by Israel. And, as talknic has pointed out many times: Israel never legally annexed that land. The only legitimate area for an Israeli state is the ~55% of mandate Palestine specified by the UN as being for Israel, which Israel acknowledged in 1948 to the UN and US as being the legitimate borders of Israel. 100% of mandate is not Israel, and neither is the entire 78% Israel claimed as it’s own between 1948 and 1967.
I’d be interested to know if there’s any movement to have Israel rolled back to the borders it is on record as agreeing to, those of the UN Partition Plan. If a Palestinian state ever comes into existence, anything less than the 45% of mandate Palestine as specified by the UN must be viewed as a massive Palestinian concession.
“If a Palestinian state ever comes into existence, anything less than the 45% of mandate Palestine as specified by the UN must be viewed as a massive Palestinian concession.”
22% of Palestine isn’t enough.
link to indianermusik.de
We don´t care
Who they think they are
They look like Treaty makers to us
Making one more promise
So they´ll have another promise to break
Sumud, Sorry I didn’t continue on the other thread, been busy…
Anyway, I still don’t think that I ever said or implied a denial of the Nakba. Obviously, the Palestinians suffered a catastrophe (“nakba” ) in 1948, but the question is who bears, or shares, the blame for it. If reparations are ever discussed, Israel could bring up the property left behind by the Jews who had to leave the Arab countries, and could seek compensation for the wars the Arab side initiated. I have the feeling that any such discussions will lead nowhere.
The borders proposed in the UN partition plan are long dead, killed by the Arab side, which rejected the plan and started a war to prevent its implementation, by force. It reminds me of those who like to bring up UN resolution 194.
The Palestinian refugee problem will have to be addressed in the context of the 2-state solution . Those who so wish will be able to exercise the right of return to Palestine, to the Palestinian State. They won’t be able to return to their actual former homes.
“I still don’t think that I ever said or implied a denial of the Nakba. Obviously, the Palestinians suffered a catastrophe (“nakba” ) in 1948, but the question is who bears, or shares, the blame for it.”
This is Nakba denial in the same manner as saying, “sure some Jews in Europe were killed, just not 6 million” is Holocaust denial.
“If reparations are ever discussed, Israel could bring up the property left behind by the Jews who had to leave the Arab countries…”
This is such a disgustingly racist statement. If I’m ripped off by Bernie Madoff, can I swipe money from your bank account, because you’re both Jews?
“…could seek compensation for the wars the Arab side initiated.”
Except that the Arab side did not initiate the war.
same thuggish behavior. we stole it far and square how dare you demand your legal right to your rightfully owned property. So jon parden my french but piss off. the partitian was killed not by the arab side rejecting a grossly discriminatory partitian that basicly treated them as 2 thirds of a person and jews as 2 people but by the jewish sides war of conquest. ie. absent a partitian agreement by both sides the land remained the politcal property of the native palestinian population as a whole.
If reparations are ever discussed, Israel could bring up the property left behind by the Jews who had to leave the Arab countries
this is stupid logic. you might as well say if reparations are ever discussed you could bring up jewish property in poland. or if your daughter is raped her rapist could bring up the rape of his own daughter and seek to amend his crime because of his daughters pain. the only relation between palestinians and lost jewish property in iraq or egypt or whereever is..nothing. the fact they are from similar ethnicities? this is crazy. i don’t know why you connect them at all.
israel always wanted to ‘trade’ it’s crime against the palestinians for the losses of the immigrants for other arab countires. in fact zionists facilitated the immigration for this very purpose often w/the assistance of the colonialosts in those arab countries (the british)
it’s a false equivalence and you should be ashamed for suggesting it. why should a palestinian in yaffa pay a price for something that occurred in baghdad? arabs are not interchangeable. your being racist w/your suggestion.
“The borders proposed in the UN partition plan are long dead, killed by the Arab side, which rejected the plan and started a war to prevent its implementation, by force.”
The Zionists were already expanding beyond those borders before the 1948 war started.
They were the ones forcing the issue.
“Those who so wish will be able to exercise the right of return to Palestine, to the Palestinian State. They won’t be able to return to their actual former homes.”
How can it be “return” if not to one’s former home? This is sheer nonsense.
exactly the thing racist revisionists like jon ignore is that the zionists started stockpiling weapons long before the palestinian civil war began in late 46 early 47.
RoHa, The war indeed started before May 1948,by the Palestinian and Arab side, who rejected partition.
As to “return”- a person could, for example, leave Hartford and return to New Haven, and would still be considered as having returned to Connecticut. A Palestinian who left a village in what is now Israel, will be able to return to the Palestinian state, but not to Israel.
Jon s, the war started six months before January of 1948, and a hallmark of this jewish terrorist initiative was the massacre at Deir Yassein in April 0f 1948. Arab forces began to arrive in the disputed land in November of 1947. Israel declared itself a state in May of ’48.
“As to ‘return’- a person could, for example, leave Hartford and return to New Haven, and would still be considered as having returned to Connecticut.”
Except the human right we are talking about isn’t limited to existing within the geographic sphere, but the ability to take back possession of your property and your life. It means going back to your home.
jon s. was apparently absent or came in late on the day we discussed how Ben-Gurion convened a special meeting in early January 1948 to discuss the non-violent pacts Palestinian towns were forming with their neighboring Jewish towns, pledging not to wage attacks. Ben-Gurion viewed that as a problem since he needed a way to provoke violence in order to take over more land under the guise of protecting Jewish communities (Source: Simha Flapan).
Perhaps jon s. is as clueless on this issue as he was on such issues involving Israeli soldiers having sadistic fun with Palestinians while claiming he served in the army and never saw anything to that effect. Feeling your way in the dark, eh?
>> A Palestinian who left a village in what is now Israel, will be able to return to the Palestinian state, but not to Israel.
Interesting. Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed from their homes and lands, and who are barred from returning to them, will be permitted to “return” to some scrap of land somewhere in the vicinity.
Meanwhile, Jews from around the world, whose ancestors for countless generations resided anywhere but within the former Mandate Palestine, get to “return” to the religion-supremacist “Jewish state” of Israel.
The injustice and immorality is breath-taking.
if this is true wouldn’t that mean they would have you know tried to prepare for it? so than why was it it the jews stockpiling weapons and not the arabs oh that’s right because the war was started by the jews. so please quit lying and revising history.