A member of the Israeli parliament, Israel Katz, warned Palestinians of another “Nakba” if they fly the Palestinian flag. The Likud lawmaker put up a video on his twitter this morning featuring him speaking at the parliament, with the message:
Yesterday I warned the Arab students, who are flying Palestine flags at universities: Remember 48. Remember our independence war and your Nakba, don’t stretch the rope too much. […] If you don’t calm down we’ll teach you a lesson that won’t be forgotten.
His actual speech elaborates a bit more:
Ask your elders, your grandfathers and grandmothers, and they will explain to you that in the end, the Jews awaken, they know to defend themselves and the idea of the Jewish state. Don’t stretch the rope too much.
The plenum seems to be quite empty, but Palestinian Israeli lawmaker Aida Touma-Sliman from the Joint List of Palestinian parties is there, and at this point she counters him: “Are you threatening?”
Katz answers, “Listen, listen, this is also meant for you.” He then tells her how Arabs in Israel have it better than in any Arab country, with welfare and democracy, and chides Touma-Sliman for being a Communist, who joins “the worst of Israel’s enemies – they speak of coexistence, while supporting the enemies of Israel… we will bring this to an end”.
Then he comes with that final sentence: “If you don’t calm down, we’ll teach you a lesson that won’t be forgotten”.
Touma-Sliman responds with a “Wow”.
Well it is wow, isn’t it? Katz is a former minister of finance, foreign affairs, and intelligence under Netanyahu– he is from the heart of the Israeli political establishment. But it’s not a very new occurrence, that Israeli lawmakers come up with warnings of another Nakba.
In May 2018, Likud lawmaker Avi Dichter (former head of Shin Bet) warned that the Great March of Return in Gaza would turn into “the great Nakba”. This is where Israel took the liberty to target unarmed civilians who posed no danger with live ammunition, targeting also journalists and humanitarian workers. The carnage resulted in over 200 dead and 33,000 wounded, many maimed for life, over those 86 weeks. As Israeli journalist Orly Noy says, “the IDF has done little more than whitewash its own violence”.
One really has to ask oneself why there is so much discontent among Israeli apologists, when Rep. Rashida Tlaib sponsored a resolution to recognize the Nakba. I mean, the Israeli fascists use the term regularly! And they deliberately taunt Palestinians with it. They threaten Palestinians with it.
It’s not like this is a novel and exclusive Palestinian narrative – Israelis know exactly what it’s about, and they use the term as a weapon.
This points to the fact that the Nakba is not merely an historic event, but rather an ongoing reality, just as Tlaib said:
The Israeli apartheid government’s ongoing ethnic cleansing seeks to degrade Palestinian humanity and break the will of the people to be free. Fortunately, as Palestinians and their allies prove time and time again, we will persist no matter the circumstances until peace, freedom, equity and respect for all people are secured and protected.
So let’s not just recognize and commemorate the Nakba – let’s oppose it as it keeps unfolding.
H/t Annar Follesø
Israel Katz:“Yesterday I warned the Arab students, who are flying Palestine flags at universities: Remember 48. Remember our independence war and your Nakba, don’t stretch the rope too much. […] If you don’t calm down we’ll teach you a lesson that won’t be forgotten.”
Ah yes, no surprise! Katz spews forth his venom in true character, i.e., a dedicated, racist, fascistic Zionist.
Israel Katz warned Palestinians that the Jews “know to defend themselves and the idea of the Jewish state”, citing the Nakba history of night attacks on Palestinian villages and slaughtering sleeping civilians. For example,
“Terrorism: How the Israeli state was won”
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2017/01/terrorism-israeli-state
Of this he is openly proud.
Re the Nakba, this is an interesting point of view: what did the U.S. know about the Nakba as it unfolded? By Josh Ruebner, a contributor to Mondoweiss:
https://www.mei.edu/publications/five-things-united-states-knew-about-nakba-it-unfolded
As the refugee crisis persisted into 1949, President Harry S. Truman declared himself to be “rather disgusted” with Israel’s refusal to repatriate Palestinian refugees21 and his appointed delegate to the Palestine Conciliation Commission, Mark Ethridge, concluded that “Israel’s refusal to abide by the GA assembly resolution, providing those refugees who desire to return to their homes, etc., has been the primary factor in the stalemate” in the Palestine refugee crisis. “Aside from her general responsibility for refugees,” Ethridge noted, “she has particular responsibility for those who have been driven out by terrorism, repression and forcible ejection.”22 However, the Truman administration’s commitment to the political rights of Palestinian refugees proved to be short-lived due to a combination of Israeli intransigence and a concomitant U.S. unwillingness to sanction Israel.
Obviously it is israel that didn’t learn the Nazi lessons…
jon s
Reply to RoHa
May 27, 2022 12:55 am
From the UN Charter:
Zionists are like evangelical Christians. I show that their arguments are dud. They shift the debate a little. Then they repeat the previous arguments as if no criticisms had been made. The intellectual dishonesty is impressive.
I have already shown, often, that self-determination can only make sense if it is the self-determination of all the people in a territory.
In the UN charter, then, “peoples” means “the people of a territory”, and was particuarly aimed at the people of territories which were under colonial control. It does not mean “tribes” or “ethnic groups”, for that conflicts with “equal rights”.
Hostage took a legal line. I will quote one of his arguments.
“Likewise, your exposition on self-determination of peoples is at odds with the applicable principles of customary and conventional international law.
Article 1 of the UN Charter contains an obligation for member States to respect “the principle of equality and self-determination of peoples”. It makes it perfectly clear that those are two indivisible parts of one legal precept and that member states are prohibited from discriminating against their citizens on the basis of distinctions as to race, sex, language, or religion.
In both the Namibian and the Palestinian Wall case, the ICJ findings of fact were grounded in that treaty obligation. The Court found that the policies and practices adopted by the governments of South Africa and Israel had violated the UN Charter obligation – and East Jerusalem was cited as one of the specific examples.
The right of self-determination is explained in:
*The UN Charter
*The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The UN Human Rights Conventions,
*The Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations,
*The Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
*The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action