As the word “apartheid” grows in popularity to describe Israeli oppression of Palestinians it is helpful to revisit another concept defined in the mid 20th century: genocide.
Over the past century more than 20 international commissions have been convened on the question of Palestine, Dr. Lori Allen uses them as the basis for her investigation into Palestinian political history.
Emad Moussa recalls his first trip out of Gaza, with his grandfather, as the pair rode by their original village of Al-Sawafir Al-Gharbiyya, now ruins sheltered by cactuses and trees. “He was, like every other Palestinian, a nomad traveling across a landscape of memory,” Moussa writes. “Like all others, his memory was premised on three main motifs: the praise of a long-gone paradise lost; the lamentation of a present defined by military occupation; and, the hopeful visualization of a return to Palestine, where justice will finally be served.”
“Unwilling to make territorial, symbolic, or other compromises, Israel has not merely missed but sometimes even deliberately sabotaged repeated opportunities for peace with the Arab states and the Palestinians,” writes Jerome Slater in his forthcoming book.
“Even a thousand films on the Nakba would not suffice,” says Ahlam Muhtaseb, co-director with Andy Trimlett of a new film, “1948: Creation & Catastrophe,” which is based in part on interviews with survivors, many of them of advanced years. The film has been subject to protests by Israel supporters, and a screening in West Hollywood was scratched under pressure in December, now rescheduled for March. Stephen Shenfield interviews the co-directors.
Marion Kawas’ return to Lebanon came with disappointments, “In many areas, there is nothing left to recognize from 45 years ago, especially given the destruction that occurred during the years of the devastating civil war and the subsequent 1982 Israeli military invasion.”
Today marks 70 years since the massacre at Deir Yassin. The latest repression in Gaza is a reminder that the spirit of this massacre lives on in Israel. In 1948, as today, massacres to push and keep Palestinians off of the land were dictated by core Israeli policies. It is past time to confront the Western part in this tragedy.
On the 70th anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre Jamal Najjab interviews historian Matthew Hogan on the events that transpired on April 9, 1948 and their lasting legacy today.
Israeli leaders were not only contemplating ethnic cleansing, but also Genocide, according to declassified governmental minutes from 1967. Labor politicians were obsessed with the fear that the 1.4 million Palestinians in the territories they had seized would overwhelm the state’s Jewish majority one day. And these liberal Zionists encouraged the settlements, too.
Olive branches, a huge Palestinian flag, a large cardboard drawing of Lord Arthur Balfour, and Theresa May cartoons were some of the creative props displayed during the 15,000-strong ‘Justice Now: Make it Right for Palestine’ march and rally in London to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration.