Al Nakba Still Goes On

Al Nakba of 1948 is indeed the most devastating event in Palestine’s 5,000 year history compared to any other event. The Crusaders came, conquered, butchered people and left. There has been no major dislocation in the country. The spread of Islam in the 7^th century gained adherents and accommodated neighbours who were not strangers to Palestine. The spread of Christianity merely changed the beliefs of the same population from one religion to another. The Jewish Hebrew tribes, meaning transient tribes, were very small in number and their arrival and departure left no physical presence of any kind. So how come this exceptionally tragic Nakba took place in the twentieth century at an age when civilization was supposed to be given high prominence?

The contradictions and ironies abound. At a time when the Allied planes were dropping leaflets on the Arabs promising them independence and freedom if they defeat the Turks, Mark Sykes and George Picot were huddled in a room dividing the Arab lands between them. One year later, Balfour promised a land, which he did not own to European land of Palestine. Meanwhile, the owners of this land were totally oblivious to this conspiracy. Weizmann prepared for the takeover of Palestine while the war to conquer it was being fought. He formed an advisory committee for the Zionist Commission headed by a Zionist, a young civil servant by the name of Herbert Samuel. Samuel would be, two years later, a trusted British High Commissioner whose task was to convey “the Sacred Trust of Civilization” of the League of Nations to Palestinians, granting them independence and freedom. In his four years of office, Samuel laid the foundation of the State of Israel by promulgating laws to facilitate land transfer, immigration, setting up separate Jewish education, banking, and labour institutions and a new paramilitary army, later known as Haganah, all under a quasi-government known as the Jewish Agency.

This blatant British betrayal had to be justified and explained by the Zionists. There was a need for myth fabrication in order to convince the reluctant politicians and the unwitting European public. Consider these slogans which had a powerful effect at one time; we know today they are all false:

“Palestine is a land without people”, “the Zionists were in self defense”, “the few won against the many”, “the refugees left on their own accord or by Arab orders”, “Israelis are peace loving and the IDF is merely saving the lives of innocent civilians against the Palestinian terrorists”, “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East”, “there is no possibility for the refugees to return to Israel”, “Israel is an ethnically and legally Jewish state”, “there is no Palestinian partner for peace”, “Palestinians turned down the Israelis’ generous offer”

Today, a simple surfing on the internet is all that is needed to prove that all these statements are entirely false or at least highly exaggerated. To prove that, let us go through a set of maps showing the truth which no propaganda can refute.

Slides

Slide-1: 1917 Land & People

Slide-2: 1947 Land & People Partition Plan

Slide-3: 1947 Details of Partition Plan

Slides-4 to 25: Al Nakba Animation

Here is a description of an eye-witness to al Nakba.

About a million people became refugees in 1948. Their life had suddenly been transformed from a state of tranquility to a state of utter destitution: families expelled at gunpoint in the middle of night or in the heat of a summer day, screams of help, cries of pain, children lost, mothers clutching pillows instead of their children, thirsty old men shot in the head if they stopped for water in the forced march, a whole family dismembered to pieces by a bomb dropped from a plane while having supper, survivors of massacres walking about in a daze.

The scenes of devastation filled the landscape: the sea of wrecked humanity trailing along the sea coast in Gaza or in the ravines of the West Bank, resting under a tree, in a mosque or a school, counting their number; the distraught father or mother rushing back aimlessly looking for a missing loved one; houses deserted with a bed unmade, hot food in the kitchen; a dog looking for its owner; plants remain unwatered; cattle and sheep wandering about out of their open sheds. Screams of Yahud, Yahud (Jews, Jews) are heard and the tired crowd disperses frantically in crevices and behind rocks.

A jeep with mounted machine guns sprays all moving objects. A plane hovers gently, almost soundlessly, then drops barrels of destruction on concentrated masses, limbs flying in the air, hanging on a branch.

Slide-26 A, B: (Double) Before & after Al Nakba

Slide-27: Direction of Ethnic Cleansing

Slide-28: Exile

Slide-29: JNF Confiscation

Slide-30, 31, 32: Apartheid Wall

Slide-33: 1967-2008

Slide-34: Global distribution of Pal

Slide-35: (50% Pal) How do they live under Israel–3 examples

Slide-36, 37, 38: 1st Qalqilya

Slide-39, 40, 41: 2nd Gaza–The new Auschwitz

Slide-42, 43, 44: 3^rd Beer Sheba

Slide-45: RoR–Sacred, Legal, Possible

Slide-46 A, B: Myth–No room

Slide-47: Russians are coming

Slide-48 A, B: Village sites empty

Slide-49: Proximity

Slide-50: Jewish Character–4 options

Slide-51: Can it be done? 7 phases

Slide-52: 1^st Phase-North

Slide-53: (Double) Ethnic-North

Slide-54: 2^nd Phase-South

Slide-55: Ethnic-South

Slide-56: 3^rd, 4^th Phase-Central

This presentation before you reveals, I hope, several facts:

First, starting with Balfour, continuing on today with Ben Gurion, Sharon and Olmert the Palestinians have been subjected to the largest, longest ethnic cleansing operation in modern history. It has come about through an unholy alliance between Western colonialism and anachronistic racist Zionist ideology. This evil must be reversed. It is a shame for ll of us today to condone it or do nothing to eliminate it.

Second, the universal rise in the awareness of upholding human rights the world over and the efficiency of electronic communications created a genuine people’s voice, parallel to, sometimes better than, elected parliaments. This voice is increasingly gaining importance in making political decisions. Witness the great show of people’s voice against racism in Durban 2001 and more in 2009 and against the war in Iraq and for the support of Palestinians in many cities in Europe. The voice of the people transcended the political turn-speak and became a force to be reckoned with.

Third, refugees have returned home in Kosovo, Bosnia, East Timor, Rwanda, Guatemala, Abkhazia, Afghanistan and Iraq. They returned everywhere on the strength of international law, enforced by the Security Council and at times by NATO soldiers. Everywhere except in Palestine. Why? Because US Supports Israel unconditionally in every field politically, economically, militarily, even to the detriment of US interests.

Fourth, international law is solidly behind Palestinian rights. The international consensus, barring the rogue states, is solidly behind them. So are the Treaty-Based Human Rights Committees. So are practically all human rights groups in the world. But there is an anomaly. Compare the extent and strength of people’s support for the Palestinian rights with the strength and persistence of Western governments’ to support Israel and to undermine Palestinian rights. Tolerating Israel’s policies today means that no Western politician has learnt anything from the tragedies and betrayal of the Palestinians.

Last but not the least, in spite of 90 years of continuous struggle, the Palestinians did not surrender or give up their rights. They never will. Their resilience, endurance and resistance are admired by the whole world.

Slide-57: What to do?

Slide-58: Way to peace

It behoves every man and woman in the world with free conscience to support them.

For peace has only one road leading to it. That is justice. Let us follow that road.

Slide-59: Return is inevitable