Why is Israel allowed to personal Palestinian historical past? – Center East Monitor

An investigative report in Haaretz — “Categorized Docs Reveal Massacres of Palestinians in ’48 – and What Israeli Leaders Knew” — is a must-read. It ought to be learn particularly by all who contemplate themselves to be “Zionists” in addition to those that, for no matter purpose, assist Israel, wherever on the planet.

“Within the village of Al-Dawayima… troops of the eighth Brigade massacred about 100 folks,” reported Haaretz, though the variety of the Palestinian victims later grew to 120. One of many troopers who witnessed that horrific occasion testified earlier than a authorities committee in November 1948: “There was no battle and no resistance. The primary conquerors killed 80 to 100 Arab males, ladies and kids. The youngsters have been killed by smashing their skulls with sticks. There wasn’t a home with out folks killed in it.”

The Haaretz report of practically 5,000 phrases is full of such painful particulars: tales of Palestinian elders who couldn’t flee the Zionist invasion and ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine (1947-48), and have been lined up towards varied partitions and massacred; of an older lady being shot at point-blank vary with 4 bullets; of different elders who have been crammed inside a house which was then shelled by a tank and hand grenades; of many Palestinian ladies raped. The devastating tales simply go on and on.

Historians typically confer with the best way that Palestine was ethnically cleansed of its native inhabitants by making a typical assertion that Palestinian refugees have been “…those that fled or have been expelled from their houses”. The usage of the phrase “fled” has been exploited by supporters of Israel, who declare that the Palestinians left Palestine of their very own accord.

It was additionally Haaretz that, in Could 2013, reported on how Israel’s founding father and first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, had fabricated historical past to guard Israel’s picture. Doc quantity GL-18/17028, which was discovered within the Israeli army archive, demonstrated how the story of the Palestinians who “fled” — supposedly on the behest of Arab governments — was invented by the Israelis themselves. Sadly, as the newest revelations unearthed by Haaretz show, Palestinians who stayed behind attributable to their incapacity, age or sickness weren’t spared; they have been massacred in probably the most horrific manner possible.

Nevertheless, one thing else struck me concerning the newest report by the Israeli newspaper. There was (and nonetheless is) a continuing emphasis by delusional Israeli leaders that those that carried out the numerous grisly murders have been few in quantity and don’t characterize the conduct of a complete military. It is very important notice right here that “military” refers to Zionist militias, a few of whom operated underneath the title of “gang”.

We do exist: Why the Palestinian voice should take centre stage

Furthermore, a lot emphasis has at all times been hooked up to the idea of “morality” relating to those that don uniforms representing the occupation state. Thus, “Israel’s ethical foundations” have been, in keeping with these early “moral Zionists”, jeopardised by the misconduct of some “troopers”, for which learn militiamen and girls, and even “terrorists”.

“For my part, all our ethical foundations have been undermined and we have to search for methods to curb these instincts,” Haim-Mosh Shapira, the then Minister of Immigration and Well being, was reported by Haaretz as saying throughout a gathering of the federal government committee.

Shapira, who represented the voice of purpose and ethics in Israel on the time, was not arguing about Israel’s proper to be established on the ruins of colonised — and finally destroyed — Palestine. Nor was he questioning the killing of tens of hundreds of Palestinians or the ethnic cleaning of a whole lot of hundreds in the course of the Nakba. As a substitute, he was referencing and protesting towards the violent excesses which adopted the Nakba, as soon as the way forward for Israel and the destruction of Palestine have been assured.

For sure, only a few Israelis, if any, have been held accountable for the crimes of the previous. Seventy-three years later, Palestinian victims proceed to cry out for a justice that continues to be deferred.

Shapira’s model of “humanistic” Zionism, with its selective and self-serving morality, continues to exist to today. As odd as this will likely appear, the editorial line of Haaretz itself is the proper manifestation of this supposed Zionist dichotomy.

Some might discover this conclusion to be considerably harsh. Zionist or not, they might protest that Haaretz has at the very least uncovered these massacres and the culpability of the Israeli management. Such assumptions, nonetheless, are grossly deceptive.

Era after technology of Palestinians, together with many Palestinian historians — and even some Israelis — have identified about most of those “beforehand unknown” massacres akin to these at Reineh, Meron (Mirun) and Al-Burj, as reported by Haaretz. The idea right here is that these massacres have been “unknown” till unacknowledged by the Israelis themselves. Since Haaretz’s editorial line is pushed by Israel’s personal misconstrued historic narrative, the killings and destruction of those villages merely did not occur formally till an Israeli researcher acknowledged that they did.

Walid Khalidi, certainly one of Palestine’s most authoritative historians, has been conscious, as have many others, of those massacres for many years. In his seminal book, All That Stays: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Khalidi speaks of Al-Burj, of which the one signal of its existence now could be “one crumbled home… on the hilltop.”

The Palestinian historian discusses what stays of the village of Meron (Mirun) intimately: “Whereas the Arab part of the village was demolished, a number of rooms and stone partitions nonetheless stand. One of many partitions has an oblong door-like opening and one other has an arched entrance.” His data are very exact.

READ: Words without action expose the West’s role in Israel’s illegal settlement expansion

This isn’t the primary time that an Israeli request for forgiveness, though at all times conditional, has been thought-about because the validation of Palestinian struggling. Each Palestinian declare of Israeli misconduct, though it might be verified by eyewitnesses and survivors, and even filmed, stays questionable till an Israeli newspaper, politician or historian acknowledges its validity. Why is Israel allowed to personal Palestinian historical past on this manner?

Our insistence on the centrality of the Palestinian narrative is turning into extra pressing than ever, as a result of marginalising Palestinian historical past is a type of denial of that historical past altogether; the denial of the bloody previous and the equally violent current. From a Palestinian viewpoint, the destiny of Al-Burj isn’t any totally different to that of Jenin; the destiny of Mirun isn’t any totally different to that of Beit Hanoun; and the destiny of Deir Yassin isn’t any totally different to that of Rafah — the truth is, the entire of the Gaza Strip.

Reclaiming historical past just isn’t an mental train, it’s a necessity. Sure, there are mental and moral repercussions, however there are political and authorized penalties too. Palestinians don’t must re-write their very own historical past, as a result of it’s already written. It’s time for many who have paid much more consideration to the Israeli narrative to desert such sophistry and, for as soon as, hearken to Palestinian voices. The reality conveyed by the sufferer could be very totally different to that claimed by the aggressor.

The views expressed on this article belong to the writer and don’t essentially replicate the editorial coverage of Center East Monitor.