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Peace begins with Israel ending the Nakba

On Monday, the Trump administration broke with more than 70 years of official US policy and the position of the international community by moving its embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. As if to rub salt in their wounds, it was be inaugurated the day before Palestinians commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (the Catastrophe), when nearly a million Palestinians were displaced and became refugees during Israel’s establishment. In Israel, the Nakba is not only ignored, it is outright denied or even justified. Yet if there is to be peace in this region – and I think it is possible – it begins with acknowledging the Nakba, understanding it, and working to reverse it.

Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948, which saw the transformation of half of Palestine’s population into stateless refugees, is not a mere historic event: it has persisted unabated until today.  Since 1967, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were either expelled from or denied re-entry when they traveled outside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, inside Israel’s recognized borders, its policy of “Judaizing” the south and north of the country often result in a quiet transfer of Palestinians through expropriation of land and demolition of villages, as is occurring in Umm al-Hiran today, where an entire Palestinian community is being destroyed so a town for Jewish Israelis can be built in its place.

Today more than six million Palestinians are homeless due to the 1948 Nakba and its subsequent chapters. Failing to acknowledge their rights will not only lead to continued instability in the region but also prevents any lasting peace. By recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Trump is encouraging Israel to accelerate its dispossession of Palestinians in the city and elsewhere.

Only by revisiting the events of 1948 can one understand the essence of the conflict in Israel and Palestine, as well as the reasons for the failure to solve it. Even if there are still today, despite the clear archival evidence, people who refuse to acknowledge Israel’s responsibility for the catastrophe – the demolition of half of Palestine’s towns and villages and the exodus of 750,000 people – no one denies that the refugees were not allowed to return (in clear violation of the UN decisions and the international law).

The reasons for the expulsion and for the refusal to allow repatriation are the same. From the very onset of the Zionist project in Palestine, the main obstacle for the establishment of the Jewish state was the native population of Palestine. This still remains the problem for Israelis who regard themselves as Zionists, whether they are liberals, socialists or nationalists. The various political groups in Israel differ on the tactics of how to overcome the demographic reality of an Arab Palestinian country. They nonetheless concur on viewing the native Palestinians as a demographic existential threat simply because they are not Jewish.

The Palestinian leadership since the 1980s was willing to compromise on the territorial configuration of Israel, but could never, and will never, lend its consent to the overall Judaization of its homeland. Israeli laws that forbid Palestinians in Israel from commemorating the Nakba, Israeli demands that the Palestinians agree to recognize Israel as a “Jewish State,” – despite the fact that more than 20% of its population is Palestinian – are an insult added to an injury.  Israel is an established fact, but so are the circumstances of its establishment on the ruins of Palestine. For Palestinians territorial compromise does not include a license for a global amnesia or the acceptance of Israeli historical fabrications.

The Nakba defines many of the Palestinians who have been totally excluded by the “peace process”. This is particularly true about the younger generations. Whether in Israel, in the refugee camps or in the exile communities around the world, through cyberspace and actual meetings, these young Palestinians are creating a new vision for Palestine. While it is still not complete or articulated as a political program, it has a striking pair of messages:  a solution for Palestine has to include all Palestinians and cover all historical Palestine, and it has to rectify the worst consequence of the Nakba by implementing the Right of Return.

The Great Return march in Gaza, which was initiated and led by young people, has generated much excitement and enthusiasm. Many others are engaged in oral history projects, interviewing their grandparents and elders about the horrors of 1948, building models of villages and neighborhoods that were destroyed and imagining how the reconstructed ones would look like after they are finally allowed to return home.

American peacemakers, whether cynical or genuine in their efforts, have consistently failed to understand the essence of the conflict in Palestine. If they ever want to solve it, they need to revisit the dispossession of Palestinians that occurred in 1948 and understand its significance and the fact that 70 years later, Israel continues to systematically displace Palestinians from their homes.

With the collapse of the two-state solution, addressing the Nakba and events of 1948 should become the focus of a peace agenda. This is the original sin of the conflict in Israel/Palestine and it must be dealt with in an honest and just manner if we are ever to move forward.

And we should let this young generation lead us on that path. For them, rectifying what happened in 1948 and subsequently is an issue of human and civil rights and not of retribution, and their vision of the future is of a place where normal human life can be resumed, where it was denied for the last seventy years.

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Nicely stated, but this is the same old, same old Palestinian prescription for peace.

Israel must take down it borders, the Jewish people must admit to not being a people, they must accept being a minority, they must forfeit any right to self determination and they must allow for Israel itself to be completely dissembled. Israel is supposed to surrender.

Cue the replies of “of course” and whats wrong with that”.

All that bloodshed for what? 60 civilians plus a little baby died because the only democracy in the ME decided to massacre them for protesting their suffering, their losses, and the loss of lives. No religion will condone this massacre.

Rabbi Shapiro Reacts to Jerusalem Announcement

https://www.facebook.com/torahjews/videos/1552062438217914/?hc_ref=ARQp4qoRsWH034kHQmKQKLdP8wFTE1KLCWqEwAQME_165axbPB9G67-h1FCBF73jQvg

In essence Israeli Zionists when they are optimistic regarding the future reconciliation, see the first step one of negotiating a peace treaty, a cease fire under the name of mutual recognition. (reconciliation will follow, but first comes negotiation.)
this peace treaty will make somewhere between zero and meager concessions to the losses the Palestinians suffered in 1948 and will make somewhere between 93 to 96% of the concessions regarding the conquest of 1967.

Ilan Pappe is proposing a real reconciliation. But the time is not near for real reconciliation, so he is in fact telling the “optimistic” Israeli Zionists- your way won’t work, only reconciliation and not negotiation is the essence.

A word or two about Gaza. If I was a Gazan Palestinian I would yearn for my hometown barely 30 miles away. I would not consider Gaza my hometown, but whatever town is on the list in the photo. There are two ways to accomplish that: Ilan Pappe’s way or some kind of a war, some change in balance of forces that goes to war and defeats Israel (not on television, but on the tarmac of Lod Airport ). Ilan Pappe’s way is not near and the other way, well I was surprised by the sudden change of mind of deKlerk, I was surprised by the fall of the Berlin Wall, so maybe I’ll be surprised again.

Since Israel’s withdrawal in 05, there have been two major attacks by Israel killing somewhere near five thousand. Israel is trying to squeeze Hamas and get it to yell “Uncle!” I can’t believe that will happen. Therefore I favor Israel dealing with Hamas. This is not the thought of Bibi and Lieberman. I think for Lieberman it is heartfelt. I think Bibi is too addicted to getting reelected to ever attempt anything revolutionary, even if in his heart he sees the lack of strategy as harmful in the long run, but he is a short run kind of guy, from here to the next election.

The alienation of the Democratic Party from Zionism is something that I’ve been predicting since Jesse Jackson in 88. we have passed through a bit of history since then, both in America and in Israel. I think the grass roots of the democratic party will be naturally opposed to Israel and there will be a struggle between the older generation of donors and the new generation of activists and the activists will win. how long that will take is anyone’s guess.

i assume nasrallah will not attack israel this summer, but i wonder what iran will do in reaction to Israel’s assertion of the long arm of tzahal kicks iran out of syria. seems to me from my corner of america/brooklyn, that the pressure on iran will cause a bifurcation between practicality and emotional self satisfaction in the regime and if emotional self satisfaction wins the day, there could be a war, but it seems that the imams are quite practical so i am betting on practicality.

i think hamas is under tremendous pressure, but they would go underground before giving up their weapons to fatah and that’s why i am in favor of dealing with them, rather than pressing the population like is happening. I feel there is a demand for a next act (from Hamas or from the anti Zionist front) and I don’t see what it could be.

Israeli society is insane. The treatment of Gaza is part of it. Behind it all is the fear of the settler. Israel is right in the middle of a huge Muslim region. Jewish Israelis are afraid of Muslims. Israel will not aim for peace because it is afraid of the Palestinians shafting Israel.
Because Israeli society is not rational it cannot analyse systemic problems rationally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJOV_cN-JP8

Brilliant piece by the brilliant Pappe.