Filed under: 1948, Israel, Palestine | Tags: Anniversary, Birthday, diaspora, Umm el Zeinat
In Diaspora is a touching account of the return home to Palestine of a Palestinian-America woman. As a sample of her work I’ve included her post on her visit to her grandparents village, Umm el Zeinat, from which her family was uprooted in 1948.
As planned, yesterday we returned to my ancestral village, Umm el Zeinat, near Daliyat al Karmel, on Mount Karmel, in Haifa. Of course when I say “return” this is much greater than my brother and me. This return is about my family, about an oppression that they, along with all the people of Umm el Zeinat and the people of the other 500 destroyed villages of Palestine had to endure. What we undertook is the greatest act of resistance against the Zionist movement. Three generations later we remember, and though not under our own conditions, we return to a village from which they hoped to erase our traces.
On our way into the village we met a man and his wife, picking cactus fruit with their four children. My uncle pulled over to ask then how well they knew the village. As it turns out they are from the Fahmawi family of Umm el Zeinat. We told them we were returning and they offered to guide us through the village. Of course all that is left of the village is rubble from demolished homes, overgrown shrubbery, and trees– both indigenous and those planted by the state in an attempt to make it seem as though no one ever lived there.
Filed under: 2008, Israel | Tags: 25th September, 60, Anniversary, concert, Friendship First, Paul McCartney
‘Sir’ Paul shows he’s actually quite keen to go day tripping to apartheid Israel. I wonder if he’ll consider how Palestinians are suffering while he is having his ‘great evening’? Or if he’ll visit the occupied territories as well as Tel Aviv? It’s sad when people get old and lose the idealism of their youth. All Paul’s songs, that encapsulated the values of the sixties, values of love and peace, taste like ashes in the mouth with this careless attitude to the colonial aparthied project called Israel. Has he ever considered his friends who support Israel might be wrong? If he was truely thinking he’d at least consider why people have taken the time to write to him and investigate why it might be a bad idea. It’s not like he doesn’t have the time, it’s just he doesn’t think. ‘We can’t wait to get out there and rock’ – spoken like an ignorant cock. As a Beatles fan, I’m disappointed Paul. Also for those interested it appears the Israeli Government didn’t ban the Beatles after all. The following from the BBC:
In 1965 the Israeli government pulled a Beatles concert
Sir Paul McCartney has insisted his first show in Israel will go ahead, despite pressure from campaigners who want him to cancel it.
The 65-year-old will perform some of his biggest Beatles and solo hits at the Tel Aviv gig later this month.
But protesters asked him to reconsider over Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its Gaza Strip blockade.
He told newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth: “I refused. I do what I think, and I have many friends who support Israel.”
…
In a statement confirming the concert on McCartney’s website last month, he said: “I’ve heard so many great things about Tel Aviv and Israel, but hearing is one thing and experiencing it for yourself is another.
“We are planning to have a great time and a great evening. We can’t wait to get out there and rock.”
Filed under: 1948, Israel, UN | Tags: 16th September, 60, Anniversary, Count Folke Bernadotte, sixty
Press release from the Scottish Friends of Palestine:
Scottish Friends of Palestine remembers and commemorates the 60th Anniversary of the murder of Count Folke BernadotteSixty years ago on the 16th September 1948, UN appointed mediator in Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, completed the report which outlined his proposals for the resolution of the Palestine question. This report offered hope to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees created by the decision of the United Nations to partition the homeland of the Palestinian people between the indigenous Palestinian people and the Jewish colonial settlers who had arrived over the past three decades.
Within 24 hours, the UN mediator was dead, murdered by the terrorist Stern Gang. Directly implicated in the murder was Yitzhak Shamir, former prime minister of Israel. Also involved was the head of the Zionist Irgun terrorist group, Menachem Begin, another former prime minister of Israel.On this day, 60 years ago, the hopes of the Palestinian people were dashed. With the guilty escaping any form of justice, the time had arrived for the spoils of Israel’s so-called War of Independence to be subsumed within Israeli society using the laws of the victor, not laws of justice. At a time when all other colonial movements were crumbling, the Zionist colonial movement became entrenched – with full acquiesence and support of the world powers of the day.
Filed under: Israel, Israel's 60th Anniversary, Israel's 60th Birthday, Israel@60
Nonstop … humiliation and ethnic cleansing. Green … like land-coveting illegal settlers and uprooted Palestinian olive trees. Free … to act with impunity, ignoring human rights and international law as long as US zio-neocons keep US taxpayer money coming and keep blocking international condemnation for our atrocious acts.
Below: hasbara advertisement in the New York Times.
Filed under: 2008, Image, Israel, June, london, Palestine, Salute to Israel Parade, Video | Tags: 29th, 60
Footage and reporting from the recent demo against the Salute to Israel parade. A parade which was designed to celebrate 60 years since the rape, massacre and transfer that constituted the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and birth of Israel.
For more excellent photographs see Terence Bunch’s work or try flickr
Indymedia: Today, a series of non-violent protest actions disrupted the ‘Salute to Israel’ parade. The parade celebrated 60 years since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Activists wished to remind the public that since its inception, Israel has been maintained through the constant oppression of the Palestinian people, in particular through ethnic cleansing.
The ‘Salute to Israel’ parade was a shameful show of support to a government engaged in war crimes. Sponsors included the Jewish National Fund, an organisation deeply involved in the colonisation of Palestinian land as well in anti-Palestinian discrimination within Israel. Activists wish to stress that the British government’s authorisation, protection and support of this event is entirely unacceptable.
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Filed under: Anniversary, Israel, london, manchester, Palestine, Salute to Israel Parade, UK | Tags: 60, Brithday
Press release from the groups involved in todays demo against the Salute to Israel parade.
Buses will travel round central London 29 June to explain the catastrophe experienced by Palestinians.
Salute Israel, a parade and rally in Trafalgar Square on 29 June, will celebrate 60 years since the establishment of the state of Israel. For millions of Palestinians, this is no cause for celebration. It is the Nakba – or catastrophe – which started in 1948, when 13,000 Palestinians were killed and over 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes. The Nakba continues today, as those refugees and their descendents are still denied by Israel their basic right to return to their homes, and Palestinians living under occupation continued to be killed in military attacks. Dr Hafez al-Karmi, President of Palestinian Forum of Britain, described the planned activities as “a reminder to the British public that the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people has gone unabated and has never ceased since 1948. The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, the Apartheid policies imposed on Palestinians and the starvation of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza today are sufficient proof that the plan to ethnically cleanse Palestine remains in action.”
Filed under: Anniversary, Israel, June, london, manchester, Parade, Salute to Israel Parade, Uncategorized | Tags: 29th, 60
Good luck to all those protesting against the Salute to Israel Parade in London on Sunday the 29th. The parade is designed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the rape, massacre and transfer that constituted the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and birth of Israel.
Jewish Chronicle: The Community Security Trust will mount what is thought to be its biggest-ever operation on Sunday to ensure that two Salute to Israel parades in London and Manchester pass without incident.
Around 500 volunteers will join police officers on the streets of
London to shadow 25 floats and 29 marching groups, representing a wide range of communal organisations.
A similar turnout is expected at a parade and rally due to take place in Manchester’s Heaton Park.
Float organisers were told that up to 1,000 police may line the route, although police sources suggested the figure may be closer to 250.
Filed under: Israel's 60th Birthday, New York | Tags: Ben Stiller, Big Apple, Robin Williams, Time Square, Tom Cruise
Hollywood’s finest morons line up to celebrate the rape, massacre and transfer that constituted the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and birth of Israel 60 years ago.
YNET: The 60th anniversary celebrations also reached the Big Apple on Friday, as the four giant screens in Times Square broadcasted blessings from Hollywood’s best for Israel’s 60th. Tom Cruise, Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Brooke Shields, Kirk and Michael Douglas, and Donald Trump were among the celebrities waving banners wishing Israel a happy Independence Day.
The square’s top screen wished Israel a happy holiday, and the three other screens showed the 30-second celebrity clips, which could be seen for blocks. The project was organized by the Israeli Consulate in New York with help from Steven Spielberg’s sister, Nancy Katz, and is expected to be broadcast for one month. Consul-General Asaf Shariv said that the celebrity cooperation helps the consulate to tell Israel’s story better.
Another project currently headed by the consulate includes the famous Fifth Avenue, which was chosen as the site on which to display pictures of successful Israelis who have made aliyah. Among the faces displayed are Derrick Sharp, a Florida born basketball star who arrived in Israel in 1993, and is currently captain of Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Sasha Grishkov, a Soviet Union born singer. Other participants in the project include Cabra Kasai, a singer who came to Israel from Ethiopia, Mirit Greenberg, Israeli beauty queen of 1997, and Israeli Arab Diplomat Rania Jubran.
Filed under: 1948, Ethnic Cleansing, History, Ilan Pappe, Israel, Israel's 60th Anniversary
As part of Al Jazeera’s coverage of the anniversary of the creation of Israel and the Palestinian ‘Nakba’, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe reflects upon the events of 1948 and how they led to 60 years of division between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Between February, 1948 and December,1948 the Israeli army systematically occupied the Palestinian villages and towns, expelled by force the population and in most cases also destroyed the houses, looted their belongings and took over their material and cultural possessions. This was the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
During the ethnic cleansing, wherever there was resistance by the population the result was a massacre. We have more than 30 cases of such massacres where a few thousand Palestinians were massacred by the Israeli forces throughout the operation of the ethnic cleansing.
Filed under: Ethnic Cleansing, History, Ilan Pappe, Israel, Israel's 60th Anniversary, Nakba
The excellent Israeli historian Ilan Pappe writing on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and why Israel cannot face up to her crimes. Worryingly Pappe states that ‘The moral implication [of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine] is that the Jewish State was born out of sin—like many other states, of course—but the sin, or the crime, was never admitted. Worse, among certain circles in Israel, it is acknowledged and, in the same breath, advanced as a future policy against Palestinians wherever they are.’
For Israelis, 1948 is the year in which two things happened, one of which contradicts the other.
On the one hand, in that year the Jewish national movement, Zionism, claimed it fulfilled an ancient dream of returning to a homeland after 2,000 years of exile. From this perspective, 1948 is a miraculous event, the realization of a dream that carries with it associations of moral purity and absolute justice. Hence the military conduct of Jewish soldiers on the battlefield in 1948 became the model for generations to come. And subsequent Israeli leaders were lionized as men and women devoted to the Zionist ideals of sacrifice for the common cause. It is a sacred year, 1948, the formative source of all that is good in the Jewish society of Israel.
On the other hand, 1948 was the worst chapter in Jewish history. In that year, Jews did in Palestine what Jews had not done anywhere else in their previous 2,000 years. Even if one puts aside the historical debate about why what happened in 1948 happened, no one seems to question the enormity of the tragedy that befell the indigenous population of Palestine as a result of the success of the Zionist movement.
Filed under: Canada, Israel, Israel's 60th Birthday, Nakba | Tags: Yoram Elron
The Israeli consul general to Canada is upset about the Nakba. Not about it actually happening, theres nothing wrong with the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, but why the hell do Canadians have to keep talking about it? Israel’s birthday is a time for celebration – they need the skeletons firmly in the closet! Ethnic cleansing is not an image he wants associated with ‘brand Israel’ ™: they’ve spent a lot of time and money on birthday PR, they doesn’t want it disrupted. Shame on you liberal media!
MONTREAL — Israel’s 60th anniversary year provides renewed opportunity for Jews the world over – including in Quebec – to reaffirm their strong attachment to the Jewish state.
Yet despite such ongoing commitment from Jews, Israel continues to face wary and unfriendly attitudes in the media and on campuses, said Israel’s consul general to Montreal and eastern Canada.
Yoram Elron, LEFT, – who succeeded Marc Attali last August – said in an interview that he was “very moved and extremely excited” by the recent 60th anniversary rally organized by a coalition of Jewish organizations that drew thousands to the heart of downtown Montreal for a mass and massive expression of love and solidarity.
Gordon Brown seems to have been a little sheepish about celebrating the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Deciding only at the last minute to attend the party. I think he needs a party to take his mind of flushing as his premiership disappears down the pan – not sure why he chose this one though…
Britain’s prime minister made a surprise visit to the Israel’s Independence Day reception at the Israeli embassy in London.
Gordon Brown was the first British prime minister to attend the reception since Tony Blair in 1998, when Israel celebrated its 50th anniversary. Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor told JTA he didn’t know until the last minute whether Brown would attend the 60th birthday event.
Stolen from the lovely Ann of Peoples Geography - sorry!
Palestinians mark the 60th anniversary of the Nakba with, among other things, large symbolic keys and black balloons over Al Quds-Jerusalem.
This video clip comes from our good friends over at the great Italian Guerrilla Radio site (4.36)
The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation also has this striking poster and terrific advertisement (click on thumbnail for larger image).
The Campaign will be placing more than 1,000 of these posters on the streets of Manhattan, educating New Yorkers about the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Filed under: Independence, Israel, Israel's 60th Anniversary, Jonathan Cook, Nakba, Parade | Tags: Nazareth
Jonathan Cook describes how a Nakba memorial procession was blocked by a small number of Zionist protestors and then attacked by armed police.
This attack was most likely planned as Israel views commemoration of the Naba as deeply subversive. In fact, Israel’s Public Security Minister Avi Dichter (who recently cancelled a trip to the UK for fear of being arrested for war crimes) warned as much in December saying “whoever speaks for 60 years about the ‘catastrophe’ [Nakba] befalling them will suffer a real catastrophe in the end.” By his poisonous tear gassing of infants we can assume he wasn’t joking. Dichter was also pressured by the World Likud Chairman, Danny Danon, to cancel the Nakba parade as Danon felt its goal was “to oppose and incite against the state.” He called for leaders of the demonstration to be arrested as well as anyone seen brandishing the flag of an enemy state or a terrorist organization. In other words – no Palestinian flags and forget your PAlestinian history. There’s no room in Israeli history for the Nakba (ethnic cleansing of Palestine).
It has been a week of adulation from world leaders, ostentatious displays of military prowess, and street parties. Heads of state have rubbed shoulders with celebrities to pay homage to the Jewish state on its 60th birthday, while a million Israelis reportedly headed off to the country’s forests to enjoy the national pastime: a barbecue.
But this year’s Independence Day festivities have concealed as much as they have revealed. The images of joy and celebration seen by the world have failed to acknowledge the reality of a deeply divided Israel, shared by two peoples with conflicting memories and claims to the land.
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Filed under: Art, Cartoon, Illustration, Image, Israel's 60th Anniversary, Logo, Nakba | Tags: Imad Hajjaj
Palestine Think Tank, Nakba 60, Imad Hajjaj
