Review by: Jessica Purkiss

The Storyteller of Jerusalem is a remarkable and unique memoir of the life and times of Wasif Jawhariyyeh, a talented composer, oud player, poet and chronicler from the Old City of Jerusalem. 
The memoir is a collection of observations, notes on his personal life and recordings of historical moments in Jerusalem’s history. Spanning over four decades, they cover the city’s most turbulent changes.

His account takes us from the Ottoman period into the era of British control, and the lead up to the establishment of Israel, covering the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, known as the Nakba. Through his writings we gain an insight into the changing Jerusalem as it grows outside the confines of the city walls and passes hands. We are offered intimate glimpses into these times and the characters that shape them.

Jawahariyyeh writes in the foreword: “I am no skilled writer, famous historian, or experienced traveller. I am simply a civil servant who was forced out of school by the First Great war. But I feel compelled to document situations, surprises, and incidents which emerged in my life during the Ottoman and the British periods in my country of Palestine, some of which are amusing.”

In this admission lies the beauty of the memoir. It is not a memoir of a member of high society; Wasif is immersed in all strata’s of Jerusalem life and his heart seems to beat with the city. Born to Jiryus Jawhariyyeh, a mukhtar (communal leader) of the Eastern Orthodox community and a member of Jerusalem’s municipal council, and Hilaneh Barakat, the daughter of Andony Barakat, who belonged to one of Jerusalem’s Arab Greek Orthodox families, he is not from the wealthiest of families but enjoys the connections of his father when times are hard.

It is during his boyhood that Wasif constructs his first instrument from an empty can of Easter egg dye, inserting a wooden stick into which three nails were hammered and a piece of string tied to them. It begins his love for music, a love which is threaded throughout the book. Wasif gathers the music from the people he meets, from the fields and from the streets. In the process, we learn about the sounds of Palestine’s past, their meaning to local people and their shifting roles as the region undergoes huge changes.

Jerusalem now stands carved by the separation wall and expanding settlements, controlled by a policy which allows free access to the city for one people but not for another. Jerusalemites have been fractured and scattered. The beauty of this memoir is that it offers us a glimpse of a time when communitarian values threaded Jerusalem’s people together and builds in anyone that reads it a yearning for the Jerusalem of Wasif’s boyhood.

Source:

http://www.palestinebookawards.com/

Review by: Maha Salah

Born in Jerusalem on February 25, 1929, during the British Mandate of Palestine, the author, Issa Boullata, a prominent 
Palestinian scholar, writer and translator of Arabic literature living in Montreal, shares with us a memoir of his childhood living in Jerusalem in the years before the Nakba in 1948. According to Boullata: “No year is burnt into the memory of the Palestinians as deeply and as painfully as 1948.” However, despite all the tension that preceded the Nakba, Boullata paints a vivid, beautiful, and unique image of what it was like to be a boy in Jerusalem between 1929 and 1948 in a skilfully written memoir that is such a light read it leaves the reader hungry for more.

The book consists of seven chapters varying in length, the longest of which focused on his time in school when he attended the Christian College Des Frères. In another chapter, he focused describing the Old City. I found this to be nostalgic for those who have lived or visited Jerusalem and insightful, informative, and luring to those who dream about Jerusalem or wonder what it would be like to visit. I especially connected to the book as a Jerusalemite myself who has spent many summers there with my family and even lived there for a year. I have also heard countless stories from my grandfather about his childhood in Jerusalem and Boullata’s writings reminded me of his stories.

Boullata begins his memoirs by talking about his roots in Jerusalem, not only his ancient roots in the Land of Canaan, but more importantly, the roots that connect him to Jerusalem through his memories and life experiences, which have defined his identity, culture, and who he is today. He also gives us some background information on his family, mentioning that his paternal grandfather, who died before he was born, was a master mason who built monumental edifices that still stand in Jerusalem.

He was especially close to his paternal grandmother, and notes that his paternal aunts and uncles, and extended family is spread across the globe, some still in Palestine, while others are scattered in the US, Europe and the Arab world.

His maternal grandfather was a reputable goldsmith and the last Palestinian to be buried in the Orthodox Cemetery in the Nabi Dawood neighbourhood in 1947, before the Israelis took control of the area, but he did not know his maternal grandmother as she died before he was born.

His next chapter focuses on the “lady teachers” that taught him in primary school. Throughout his book, Boullata pays tribute to all of his teachers, naming most of them by name and how they have impacted his life; it is so heart-warming that after all these years, he remembers every detail about his teachers and friends from school, even giving us details about where some of them have reached in life. In this chapter he recalls the happy years he spent in primary school, between playful learning and his budding love for reading, and praises his female teachers who impacted his school life and nurtured his love of school.

The third chapter is titled Turbulent Times and it sets a different tone to the book. In this chapter, Boullata begins to show the tensions that were bubbling underneath the surface before 1948. During this time, the armed Arab rebellion began against the British Mandate, and although Boullata was a young child, he and his siblings sensed that things had changed, despite the fact that their parents sheltered them and provided them with a stable home.

Their home, along with the homes of many other Palestinians, was ransacked by the British army and he witnessed his father being dragged away in his pyjamas with shaving cream still on his face. He also lived through the Arab strike, and describes the hardships they experienced; praising his mother for always making the best of their provisions and food shortages, always making sure every family member was properly fed and satisfied.

As a nine-year-old boy during this time, he noted that he was fully aware of the significance of these events, but he kept up with the military advancements, as it was what the adults mainly talked about, and he witnessed an exchange of fire between a Palestinian rebel and British soldier. This period was not only turbulent, but traumatic and marks his realisation of the tension in the city.

In his fourth chapter, Boullata refers to himself as a bookworm, and shows how his love for reading and literature grew. He talks about the various librarians who helped and guided him to love books, which later became not only his passion, but source of livelihood as an Arabic literature university professor.

His fifth chapter is dedicated to the description of the Old City; it pays homage to the city where he grew up. I believe that this is the chapter most people will connect to, as its descriptiveness gives us a sense of nostalgia; a feeling most Palestinians feel when thinking about their homeland, whether or not they have ever visited. When reading this chapter, I felt like I was there, having breakfast with his family, walking down the cobblestone streets, hearing the merchants conversing with their customers, and experiencing Easter in the Old City; his description is truly remarkable.

His final chapter marks the time of the Nakba; the year that changed the lives of millions of Palestinians. This chapter gives us a real glimpse into how the tension that lasted all those decades finally exploded and how it impacted everyone’s lives at the time, and continues to affect generations of Palestinians until today. He even gives examples of the significance and effect it left on members of his family who were forced to leave their homes and either become refugees in Palestine or neighbouring countries, or to immigrate to Western countries, each going their separate ways.

I believe he was able to perfectly sum up what the Palestinians are experiencing in his final chapter when he said: “There are still more thousands who own no land and, like me, have not even lost their homes, Yet they feel the injustice resulting from the Nakba as strongly and as deeply as all the other Palestinians, because, like them, they have lost the dignity of having a country of their own, of being citizens of their own state, and of living a life of free human beings with all the inalienable rights that out to be theirs. They suffer and they remember.” These simple words carry a lot of meaning and weight and I would consider them the perfect answer to those who cannot understand how many Palestinians can love a country they have never seen.

In short, this book is a touching recollection of a Jerusalemite’s childhood, in which he gives us a glimpse into the pre-Nakba period, when people of varying religions and cultures co-existed in harmony. It gives us hope that one day, peace can be achieved and that, one day, the suffering and pain of the Palestinians will come to an end.

Source:

http://www.palestinebookawards.com/

Jerusalem is never far away in Sweden.
In fact, it is just next door for many Swedes.

Our long country is dotted from north to south with villages, hills, moorlands, mills, meadows, and mountains that have borrowed their names from the faraway Holy City. 
In all, thirty-eight “Jerusalems” are registered in the Swedish Place-name Register. There is even a “Joy of Jerusalem”. And then we have one city, the fifth largest, Jönkoping, which is known as “the Jerusalem of Sweden”, because of its many free churches and reputation as a place largely inhabited by religious people.

The Jerusalems of Sweden are – with some exceptions – situated in the four counties surrounding Stockholm. A thousand years ago this region, with Uppsala as its centre, was also a battleground for the power struggle between the old pagan beliefs and new Christian teachings. When members of the Swedish nobility embraced Christianity – not firmly established in the whole of Sweden until 1160 – the dream of Jerusalem also came into being.

The most pious among them decided not only to name a Swedish hill or settlement in honour of the Holy City but also actually to visit this cradle of the new religion, and so embarked on the long and dangerous pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Source:

http://www.passia.org/

Posted on: November 2012

By Noam Chomsky

Even a single night in jail is enough to give a taste of what it means to be under the total control of some external force.

And it hardly takes more than a day in Gaza to appreciate what it must be like to try to survive in the world’s largest open-air prison, where some 1.5 million people on a roughly 140-square-mile strip of land are subject to random terror and arbitrary punishment, with no purpose other than to humiliate and degrade.

Such cruelty is to ensure that Palestinian hopes for a decent future will be crushed, and that the overwhelming global support for a diplomatic settlement granting basic human rights will be nullified. The Israeli political leadership has dramatically illustrated this commitment in the past few days, warning that they will “go crazy” if Palestinian rights are given even limited recognition by the U.N.

This threat to “go crazy” (“nishtagea”)–that is, launch a tough response–is deeply rooted, stretching back to the Labor governments of the 1950s, along with the related “Samson Complex”: If crossed, we will bring down the Temple walls around us.

Thirty years ago, Israeli political leaders, including some noted hawks, submitted to Prime Minister Menachem Begin a shocking report on how settlers on the West Bank regularly committed “terrorist acts” against Arabs there, with total impunity.

Disgusted, the prominent military-political analyst Yoram Peri wrote that the Israeli army’s task, it seemed, was not to defend the state, but “to demolish the rights of innocent people just because they are Araboushim (a harsh racial epithet) living in territories that God promised to us.”

Gazans have been singled out for particularly cruel punishment. Thirty years ago, in his memoir “The Third Way,” Raja Shehadeh, a lawyer, described the hopeless task of trying to protect fundamental human rights within a legal system designed to ensure failure, and his personal experience as a Samid, “a steadfast one,” who watched his home turned into a prison by brutal occupiers and could do nothing but somehow “endure.”

Since then, the situation has become much worse. The Oslo Accords, celebrated with much pomp in 1993, determined that Gaza and the West Bank are a single territorial entity. By that time, the U.S. and Israel had already initiated their program to separate Gaza and the West Bank, so as to block a diplomatic settlement and punish the Araboushim in both territories.

Punishment of Gazans became still more severe in January 2006, when they committed a major crime: They voted the “wrong way” in the first free election in the Arab world, electing Hamas.

Displaying their “yearning for democracy,” the U.S. and Israel, backed by the timid European Union, immediately imposed a brutal siege, along with military attacks. The U.S. turned at once to its standard operating procedure when a disobedient population elects the wrong government: Prepare a military coup to restore order.

Gazans committed a still greater crime a year later by blocking the coup attempt, leading to a sharp escalation of the siege and attacks. These culminated in winter 2008-09, with Operation Cast Lead, one of the most cowardly and vicious exercises of military force in recent memory: A defenseless civilian population, trapped, was subjected to relentless attack by one of the world’s most advanced military systems, reliant on U.S. arms and protected by U.S. diplomacy.

Of course, there were pretexts–there always are. The usual one, trotted out when needed, is “security”: in this case, against homemade rockets from Gaza.

In 2008, a truce was established between Israel and Hamas. Not a single Hamas rocket was fired until Israel broke the truce under cover of the U.S. election on Nov. 4, invading Gaza for no good reason and killing half a dozen Hamas members.

The Israeli government was advised by its highest intelligence officials that the truce could be renewed by easing the criminal blockade and ending military attacks. But the government of Ehud Olmert–himself reputedly a dove–rejected these options, resorting to its huge advantage in violence: Operation Cast Lead.

The internationally respected Gazan human-rights advocate Raji Sourani analyzed the pattern of attack under Cast Lead. The bombing was concentrated in the north, targeting defenseless civilians in the most densely populated areas, with no possible military basis. The goal, Sourani suggests, may have been to drive the intimidated population to the south, near the Egyptian border. But the Samidin stayed put.

A further goal might have been to drive them beyond the border. From the earliest days of the Zionist colonization it was argued that Arabs have no real reason to be in Palestine: They can be just as happy somewhere else, and should leave–politely “transferred,” the doves suggested.

This is surely no small concern in Egypt, and perhaps a reason why Egypt doesn’t open the border freely to civilians or even to desperately needed supplies.

Sourani and other knowledgeable sources have observed that the discipline of the Samidin conceals a powder keg that might explode at any time, unexpectedly, like the first Intifada in Gaza in 1987, after years of repression.

A necessarily superficial impression after spending several days in Gaza is amazement, not only at Gazans’ ability to go on with life but also at the vibrancy and vitality among young people, particularly at the university, where I attended an international conference.

But one can detect signs that the pressure may become too hard to bear. Reports indicate that there is simmering frustration among young people–a recognition that under the U.S.-Israeli occupation the future holds nothing for them.

Gaza has the look of a Third World country, with pockets of wealth surrounded by hideous poverty. It is not, however, undeveloped. Rather it is “de-developed,” and very systematically so, to borrow the term from Sara Roy, the leading academic specialist on Gaza.

The Gaza Strip could have become a prosperous Mediterranean region, with rich agriculture and a flourishing fishing industry, marvelous beaches and, as discovered a decade ago, good prospects for extensive natural gas supplies within its territorial waters. By coincidence or not, that’s when Israel intensified its naval blockade. The favorable prospects were aborted in 1948, when the Strip had to absorb a flood of Palestinian refugees who fled in terror or were forcefully expelled from what became Israel – in some cases months after the formal cease-fire. Israel’s 1967 conquests and their aftermath administered further blows, with terrible crimes continuing to the present day.

The signs are easy to see, even on a brief visit. Sitting in a hotel near the shore, one can hear the machine-gun fire of Israeli gunboats driving fishermen out of Gaza’s territorial waters and toward land, forcing them to fish in waters that are heavily polluted because of U.S.-Israeli refusal to allow reconstruction of the sewage and power systems they destroyed.

The Oslo Accords laid plans for two desalination plants, a necessity in this arid region. One, an advanced facility, was built: in Israel. The second one is in Khan Yunis, in the south of Gaza. The engineer in charge at Khan Yunis explained that this plant was designed so that it can’t use seawater, but must rely on underground water, a cheaper process that further degrades the meager aquifer, guaranteeing severe problems in the future.

The water supply is still severely limited. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which cares for refugees but not other Gazans, recently released a report warning that damage to the aquifer may soon become “irreversible,” and that without quick remedial action, Gaza may cease to be a “livable place” by 2020.

Israel permits concrete to enter for UNRWA projects, but not for Gazans engaged in the huge reconstruction efforts. The limited heavy equipment mostly lies idle, since Israel does not permit materials for repair.

All this is part of the general program that Dov Weisglass, an adviser to Prime Minister Olmert, described after Palestinians failed to follow orders in the 2006 elections: “The idea,” he said, “is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”

Recently, after several years of effort, the Israeli human rights organization Gisha succeeded in obtaining a court order for the government to release its records detailing plans for the “diet.” Jonathan Cook, a journalist based in Israel, summarizes them: “Health officials provided calculations of the minimum number of calories needed by Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants to avoid malnutrition. Those figures were then translated into truckloads of food Israel was supposed to allow in each day … an average of only 67 trucks–much less than half of the minimum requirement–entered Gaza daily. This compared to more than 400 trucks before the blockade began.”

The result of imposing the diet, Middle East scholar Juan Cole observes, is that “about 10 percent of Palestinian children in Gaza under age 5 have had their growth stunted by malnutrition. … In addition, anemia is widespread, affecting over two-thirds of infants, 58.6 percent of schoolchildren, and over a third of pregnant mothers.”

Sourani, the human-rights advocate, observes that “what has to be kept in mind is that the occupation and the absolute closure is an ongoing attack on the human dignity of the people in Gaza in particular and all Palestinians generally. It is systematic degradation, humiliation, isolation and fragmentation of the Palestinian people.”

This conclusion has been confirmed by many other sources. In The Lancet, a leading medical journal, Rajaie Batniji, a visiting Stanford physician, describes Gaza as “something of a laboratory for observing an absence of dignity,” a condition that has “devastating” effects on physical, mental and social well-being.

“The constant surveillance from the sky, collective punishment through blockade and isolation, the intrusion into homes and communications, and restrictions on those trying to travel, or marry, or work make it difficult to live a dignified life in Gaza,” Batniji writes. The Araboushim must be taught not to raise their heads.

There were hopes that Mohammed Morsi’s new government in Egypt, which is less in thrall to Israel than the western-backed Hosni Mubarak dictatorship was, might open the Rafah Crossing, Gaza’s sole access to the outside that is not subject to direct Israeli control. There has been a slight opening, but not much.

The journalist Laila el-Haddad writes that the reopening under Morsi “is simply a return to status quo of years past: Only Palestinians carrying an Israeli-approved Gaza ID card can use Rafah Crossing.” This excludes a great many Palestinians, including el-Haddad’s own family, where only one spouse has a card.

Furthermore, she continues, “the crossing does not lead to the West Bank, nor does it allow for the passage of goods, which are restricted to the Israeli-controlled crossings and subject to prohibitions on construction materials and export.”

The restricted Rafah Crossing doesn’t change the fact that “Gaza remains under tight maritime and aerial siege, and continues to be closed off to the Palestinians’ cultural, economic and academic capitals in the rest of the (Israeli-occupied territories), in violation of U.S.-Israeli obligations under the Oslo Accords.”

The effects are painfully evident. The director of the Khan Yunis hospital, who is also chief of surgery, describes with anger and passion how even medicines are lacking, which leaves doctors helpless and patients in agony.

One young woman reports on her late father’s illness. Though he would have been proud that she was the first woman in the refugee camp to gain an advanced degree, she says, he “passed away after six months of fighting cancer, aged 60 years.

“Israeli occupation denied him a permit to go to Israeli hospitals for treatment. I had to suspend my study, work and life and go to sit next to his bed. We all sat, including my brother the physician and my sister the pharmacist, all powerless and hopeless, watching his suffering. He died during the inhumane blockade of Gaza in summer 2006 with very little access to health service.

“I think feeling powerless and hopeless is the most killing feeling that a human can ever have. It kills the spirit and breaks the heart. You can fight occupation but you cannot fight your feeling of being powerless. You can’t even ever dissolve that feeling.”

A visitor to Gaza can’t help feeling disgust at the obscenity of the occupation, compounded with guilt, because it is within our power to bring the suffering to an end and allow the Samidin to enjoy the lives of peace and dignity that they deserve.

Relevant Books on Gaza

– Eyes in Gaza by Mads Gilbert

–The Punishment of Gaza by Gideon Levy

– Gaza-Kitchen-Palestinian-Culinary-Journey by Laila El-Haddad Maggie Schmitt

– Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky

– I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish 

– Gaza Narrates Poetry by Ahmed Miqdad 

–A Month by the Sea: Encounters in Gaza Dervla Murphy

–Meet Me in Gaza: Uncommon Stories of Life Inside the Stri by Louisa B. Waugh

– Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine, by Refaat Alareer

–The Book of Gaza: A City in Short Fiction (Reading the City) by Atef Abu Seif and Abdallah Tayeh

– Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco

Source:

http://www.towardfreedom.com

http://www.amazon.co.uk

Posted on: March 17, 2015

By OccPalGaza

Official UN death-toll in the 2014 war shows 1,549 Palestinian civilians were killed for four Israeli, and 504 Palestinian children were killed for one Israeli child. 

In the Gaza Strip the seven weeks of hostilities between Palestinian armed groups and the Israeli military during July and August 2014 resulted in an unprecedented level of loss and human suffering, which aggravated the already fragile situation that preceded the conflict.

A total of 1,549 Palestinian civilians, a third of them children, were killed and around 11,000 people were injured; 13 per cent of the housing stock was damaged or destroyed, including some 20,000 homes totally destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, leaving over 100,000 people displaced; unexploded ordnance spread over Gaza pose a serious threat to the life of Palestinians and humanitarian workers; and access to already insufficient basic services has been further undermined. Four Israeli civilians were killed during the hostilities and hundreds injured.

Gaza remains in crisis with most of the 100,000 made homeless by last year’s war still homeless. The United Nations has had to suspend assistance to families made homeless by the war because of a $600 million shortfall in promised donations.

The ban on exports has no plausible justification on grounds of Israel’s security. It leaves factories idle and most Gazans dependent on food aid.

The ban on import of construction materials causes huge hardship (most of the 100,000 made homeless by the war are still homeless).

The restrictions on humanitarian aid (running at half the pre-blockade levels) is another form of collective punishment.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation renounced violence nearly 30 years ago but their strategy of non-violence only makes sense if it is backed by international action to put pressure on Israel to end settlement-building and land theft and allow an independent Palestinian state within viable and secure borders. It is our failure to deliver our part of the bargain that is the trouble.

Israeli naval forces shot and killed a Palestinian fisherman who was fishing west of Gaza city, in unclear circumstances. On another 30 occasions, Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinian boats sailing near the Israeli-imposed 6 nautical mile fishing limit, including one incident resulting in the injury to two fishermen and in damage to their boat, and another in the detention of six fishermen.

Two Palestinians were injured by explosive remnants of war (ERW) in Gaza, including a farmer northwest of Rafah city and a man in his house in Nuseirat Refugee Camp. Since the ceasefire of August 2014, 11 Palestinians, including a child, were killed in ERW incidents, and another 42, including 16 children, were injured.

The Egyptian authorities opened the Rafah crossing in both directions for one day (9 March), allowing 361 Palestinians, mainly patients and students, to leave and 956 people to cross into Gaza. The crossing has been continuously closed since 24 October 2014, following an attack in Sinai, except for 12 days on which it was opened, but with restrictions.

Funding Needs

US$ 175 million has been pledged in support of UNRWA’s emergency shelter programme, for which a total of US$ 720 million is required. This leaves a current shortfall of US$ 545 million. UNRWA urgently requires US$ 100 million in the first quarter of 2015 to allow refugee families with minor damage to repair their homes and to provide ongoing rental subsidies.

As presented in UNRWA’s oPt Emergency Appeal, for its 2015 emergency operations in Gaza, the Agency is seeking USD 366.6 million, including USD 127 million for emergency shelter, repair and collective centre management, USD 105.6 million for emergency food assistance, and USD 68.6 million for emergency cash-for-work. More information can be found here:

Crossings

The Israeli blockade of Gaza entered its 8th year in June 2014 and continues to have a devastating effect as access to markets and people’s movement to and from the Gaza Strip remain severely restricted. The economy and its capacity to create jobs has been devastated, with the majority of the population becoming dependent on humanitarian aid to meet basic needs. The number of Palestine refugees relying on UNRWA for food aid has increased from fewer than 80,000 in 2000 to almost 868,000 today.

Gaza: Facts and Figures

1.26 million refugees out of 1.76 million total population

8 refugee camps

Almost 12,500 staff

252 schools for almost 240,000 students

21 health centres

16 relief and social services offices

12 food distribution centres for almost 868,000 refugees

Living under a tightened land and sea blockade since 2007

Shattered local economy

Long standing restrictions on movement of people and goods has led to a de-development of Gaza

Potentially unliveable place by 2020.

Relevant Books on Gaza

– Eyes in Gaza by Mads Gilbert

– The Punishment of Gaza by Gideon Levy

– Gaza-Kitchen-Palestinian-Culinary-Journey by Laila El-Haddad Maggie Schmitt

– Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky

– I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish 

– Gaza Narrates Poetry by Ahmed Miqdad 

– A Month by the Sea: Encounters in Gaza Dervla Murphy

– Meet Me in Gaza: Uncommon Stories of Life Inside the Stri by Louisa B. Waugh

– Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine, by Refaat Alareer

– The Book of Gaza: A City in Short Fiction (Reading the City) by Atef Abu Seif and Abdallah Tayeh

– Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco

Source:

https://occpalgaza.wordpress.com

http://www.amazon.co.uk/

Posted on: February 2015

By Mohammed Omer

After the ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas government in Gaza began last August, Palestinians were, at last, supposed to be allowed to travel out to six nautical miles to fish, instead of three as before.

But the reality for Gaza’s fishermen is a frightening and potentially deadly game of Russian roulette as their attempts to eke out a living are sabotaged by Israeli navy attacks on their vessels.

Describing a nightmare that almost cost him his life, fisherman Rami Al-Habeel states: “We were forced to strip naked and swim closer to the Israeli navy.”

The 37-year-old father of seven describes how Israel’s navy shot at his fishing boat on 26 January as he tried to bring in some fish. “We are glad to be alive today after this terrifying experience.”

One of Rami’s fishing partners tells how around 50 people regularly rely on the boat to bring in much-needed food. Other fishing boats rallied to try to help the crew of the sinking boat, following Israel’s attack.

The original cost of his vessel was $500,000. Now the repair costs are estimated at $40,000. But Habeel knows he cannot afford to buy the materials needed to rebuild it.

The boat engine, which cost him $13,000, is one of the major losses after being severely damaged by Israeli navy sniper fire, he says.

Habeel is not alone in his suffering. His friend, also a fisherman, experienced similar Israeli attacks and also sustained much damage to equipment and livelihood.

Sufian Abu-Owda faced similar problems on 24 September when his boat sank under Israeli attack. “We were shot at, with the intention to sink the boat,” he says.

With his job and livelihood ruined by Israel and his family forced into poverty, he feels there is nowhere to go and nobody to support him after his losses.

But despite Habeel’s frustration and anger, he is still glad to be alive, along with his 13-year-old son and four other fishermen friends. “To survive, we only have the sea as our resource option,” he says while pointing to possibly hundreds of entry and exit holes in his boat left by Israel’s bullets.

After the ceasefire deal began last August, Palestinians are, at last, supposed to be allowed to travel out to six nautical miles to fish, instead of three as before.

“We did nothing to provoke Israeli security. We were taken by surprise and our GPS system proves that we only went out to 5.5 nautical miles,” he said, before the boat’s engine stopped and they were forced to wait for help to come, after the Israeli naval vessel had shot at the front of the boat and drew alongside it.

His friend added: “At this point, we were ordered to strip naked and get on the deck of the Israeli boat” as it continued to shoot at the fishing vessel until it began sinking.

“Returning back on the Israeli boat, we were questioned about our names and family member names, including our children – the next day we were freed and had to walk back home.”

The fishing business hardly makes enough money to sustain his family after spending $1250 on equipment, there is often only $250 left over to be divided between him and 15 other fishermen. “At best a fisherman might make only $6 dollars per day – which is too little, but we never complain – it is better than nothing,” he says.

January, for Habeel, has not been a good month. On 26 January, their boat was riddled by Israeli bullets and on 3 January, his cousins Khalid and Omar, aged three and four, died in a house fire in Al-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip caused by electricity outages.

Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights said it has opened an investigation into the beach and fishing boat attacks by Israel, and has urged the international community to protect fishermen and allow them into Palestinian waters.

“These are organised violations against principles of international humanitarian law and human rights international law,” stated Al-Mezan in a press statement.

Meanwhile, Habeel knows that the damage done to boat P00394 will deprive 50 family members of a basic income, making them a new burden on humanitarian relief groups. Habeel said this is the only work he knows, inherited from his parents and grandparents. But despite the danger, he will pass it on to his children, because there are no other options in Gaza.

“I wish Israel would just leave us alone to live our lives and sustain ourselves – we leave politics to those who want to fight,” he says.

Nizar Ayesh, head of Palestinian Fishermen Syndicate, says there are 3,500 fishermen who survive through the fishing industry in the coastal enclave of Gaza. Including family members and customers, an estimated 30,000 people depend on the fishing industry.

Ayesh said Gaza fishermen, on average, are only able to collect a half a ton of fish each day. But there are many more fish available outside Israel’s limited fishing zone of six nautical miles – a zone which Ayesh said is “now virtually fished out”, or depleted.

Fishermen can only catch sardines and a few other types of fish that come within the limited miles. “All other fish are beyond the six miles,” says Ayesh.

Meanwhile, Habeel acknowledged that when Egyptian ex-president Mohamed Morsi was in power, fuel would reach Gaza through smuggling tunnels and was half the cost of today’s prices, making work more affordable.

Fishermen were able to fish in Egyptian waters beyond the six-mile limit. For Habeel, those were – relatively – the “golden days”, to which Gaza’s fishermen would like to return.

Relevant Books on Gaza

– Eyes in Gaza by Mads Gilbert

– The Punishment of Gaza by Gideon Levy

– Gaza-Kitchen-Palestinian-Culinary-Journey by Laila El-Haddad Maggie Schmitt

– Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky

– I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish 

– Gaza Narrates Poetry by Ahmed Miqdad 

– A Month by the Sea: Encounters in Gaza Dervla Murphy

– Meet Me in Gaza: Uncommon Stories of Life Inside the Stri by Louisa B. Waugh

– Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine, by Refaat Alareer

– The Book of Gaza: A City in Short Fiction (Reading the City) by Atef Abu Seif and Abdallah Tayeh

– Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco

 Source:

http://www.middleeasteye.net

http://www.amazon.co.uk/

Al-Nakba was marked by the destruction of Palestinian villages and the exodus of over 750,000 Palestinians. Historical 
records confirm that in 1947 Palestine comprised more than 900 Palestinian villages. More than 400 villages were destroyed by Israeli forces as well as their houses and buildings.

The Israelis wiped off all these destroyed villages of the map. Mayor urban centers exclusive for Palestinians such as Nazareth, Baysan, Beersheba, Acre, Ramla, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Haifa and many others were depopulated and in their places Israeli settlements were built.

Israeli and international historians confirm the number of these destroyed villages to be at least 418 and possibly up to 472.

Here we have a list of the destroyed villages within the pre-1967 borders of Israel, which were destroyed and depopulated in 1948.

The District of Acre (26 villages)

Amqa, Arab Al-Samniyya, Al-Bassa, Al-Birwa, Al-Damun, Dayr Al-Qasi, Al-Gabisiyya, Iqrit, Irbbin Khirbat, Jiddin Khirbat, Al-Kabri, Kafr Inan, Kuwaykat, Al-Manshiyya, Al-Mansura, Miar, Al-Nabi Rubin, Al-Nahr, Al-Ruways, Suhmata, Al-Sumayriyya, Suruh, Al-Tall, Tarbikha, Umm  Al-Faraj, Al-Zib.

The District of Baysan (29 villages)

Arab al-‘Arida, Arab al-Bawati, Arab al-Safa, al-Ashrafiyya, al-Birra, Danna, Farwana, al-Fatur, al-Ghazzawiyya, al-Hamidiyya, al-Hamra, abbul Kafra, Kawkab al-Hawa, al-Khunayzir, Masil al-Jizl, al-Murassa, Qumya, al-Sakhina, al-Samiriyya, Sirin, Tall al-Shawk, al-Taqa, Khirbat, al-Tira,  Umm ‘Ajra, Umm Sabuna, Khirbat, Yubla, Zab’a, al-Zawiya, Khirbat.

The District of Beersheba (3 villages)

Al-‘Imara, al-Jammama, al-Khalasa.

The District of Gaza (45 villages)

Arab Suqrir, Barbara, Barqa, al-Batani, al-Gharbi, al-Batani, al-Sharqi, Bayt ‘Affa, Bayt Daras, Bayt Jirja, Bayt Tima, Bi’lin, Burayr, Dayr Sunayd, Dimra, al-Faluja, Hamama, Hatta, Hiribya, Huj, Hulayqat, ‘Ibdis, ‘Iraq al-Manshiyya, Iraq Suwaydan, Isdud, al-Jaladiyya, al-Jiyya, Julis, al-Jura, Jusayr, Karatiyya, Kawfakha, Kawkaba, al-Khisas, al-Masmiyya al-Kabira, al-Masmiyya al-Saghira, al-Muharraqa, Najd, Ni’ilya, Qastina, al-Sawafir al-Gharbiyya, al Sawafir al-Shamaliyya, al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya, Summil, Tallal al-Turmus, Yasur.

The District of Haifa (51 villages)

Abu Shusha, Abu Zurayq, Arab al-Fuqara’, Arab al-Nufay’at, Arab Zahrat al-Dumayri, Atlit, Ayn Ghazal, Ayn Hawd, Balad al-Shaykh, Barrat Qisarya, Burayka, al-Burj, Khirbat, al-Butaymat, Daliyat  al-Rawha’, al-Damun Khirbat, al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa, al-Ghubayya al-Tahta, Hawsha, Ijzim, Jaba’, al-Jalma, Kabara, al-Kafrayn, Kafr Lam, al-Kasayir Khirbat, Khubbayza, Lid khirbat, al-Manara Khirbat, al-Mansi, al-Mansura Khirbat, al-Mazar, al-Naghnaghiyya, Qannir, Qira, Qisarya, Qumbaza, al-Rihaniyya, Sabbarin,al-Sarafand, al-Sarkas Khirbat, Sa’sa’ Khirbat, al-Sawamir, al-Shuna Khirbat, al-Sindiyana, al-Tantura, al- Tira, Umm al-Shawf, Umm al-Zinat, Wa’arat al-Sarris, Wadi Ara, Yajur.

The District of Hebron (16 villages)

‘Ajjur, Barqusya, Bayt Jibrin, Bayt Nattif, al-Dawayima, Dayr al-Dubban, Dayr Nakhkhas,  Kudna, Mughallis, al-Qubayba, Ra’na, Tall al-Safi, Umm Burj Khirbat, Zakariyya, Zayta, Zikrin, Al-Nabi Rubin.

The District of Jaffa (23 villages)

al- ‘Abbasiyya, Abu Kishk, Bayt Dajan, Biyar ‘Adas, Fajja, al- Haram, Ijlil al-Qibliyya, Ijlil al-Shamaliyya, al-Jammasin al-Gharbi, al-Jammasin al-Sharqi, Jarisha, Kafr ‘Ana, al-Khayriyya, al-Mas’udiyya, al-Mirr, al-Muwaylih, Rantiya, al-Safiriyya, Salama, Saqiya, al-Sawalima, al-Shaykh Muwannis, Yazur.

The District of Jerusalem (38 villages)

‘Allar, ‘Aqqur, ‘Artuf, ‘Ayn Karim, Bayt ‘Itab, Bayt Mahsir, Bayt Naqquba, Bayt Thul, Bayt Umm al-Mays, al-Burayi, Dayr Aban, Dayr ‘Amr, Dayr al-Hawa, Dayr Rafat, Dayr al-Shaykh, Dayr Yasin, Ishwa’, Islin Ism Allah, Khirbat, Jarash, al-jura, Kasla, al-Lawz Khirbat, Lifta, al-Maliha, Nitaf, al-Qabu, Qalunya, al-Qastal, Ras Abu ‘Ammar, Sar’a, Saris, Sataf, Suba, Sufla, al-Tannur Khirbat, al-‘Umur Khirbat, al-Walaja.

The District of Jinin (6 villages)

Ayn al-Mansi, al-Jawfa Khirbat, al-Lajjun, al-Mazar, Nuris, Zir’in.

The District of Nazareth (4 villages)

Indur, Ma’lul, al-Mujaydil, Saffuriyya.

The District of Ramla (58 villages)

Abu al-Fadl, Abu Shusha, ‘Ajanjul, ‘Aqir, Barfiliya, al-Barriyya, Bashshit, Bayt Far Khirbat, Bayt Jiz, Bayt Nabala, Bayt Shanna, Bayt Susin, Bir Ma’in, Bir Salim, al-Burj, al-Buwayra Khirbat, Daniyal, Dayr Abu Salama, Dayr Ayyub, Dayr Muhaysin, Dayr Tarif, al-Duhayriyya Khirbat, al-Haditha, Idnibba, ‘Innaba, Jilya, Jimzu, Kharruba, al-Khayma, Khulda, al-Kunayyisa, al-Latrun, al-Maghar, Majdal Yaba, al-Mansura, al-Mukhayzin, al-Muzayri’a, al-Na’ani, al-Nabi Rubin, Qatra, Qazaza, al-Qubab, Qubayba, Qula, Sajad, Salbit, Sarafand al-‘Amar, Sarafand al-Kharab, Saydun, Shahma, Shilta, Al-Tina, Al-Tira,  Umm Kalkha, Wadi Hunayn, Yibna, Zakariyya Khirbat, Zarnuqa.

The District of Safad (77 villages)

Abil al-Qamh, al-‘Abisiyya, Akbara, Alma, Ammuqa, ‘Arab al-Shamalina, Arab al-Zubayd, ‘Ayn al-Zaytun, Baysamun, Biriyya, al-Butayha, al-Buwayziyya, Dallata, al-Dawwara, Dayshum, al-Dirbashiyya, al-Dirdara, Fara, al-Farradiyya, Fir’im, Ghabbatiyya, Ghuraba, al-Hamra’, Harrawi, Hunin, al-Husayniyya, Jahula, al-Ja’una, Jubb Yusuf, Kafr Bir’im, al-Khalisa, Khan al-Duwayr, Karraza Khirbat, al-Khisas, Khiyam al-Walid, Kirad al-Baqqara, Kirad al-Ghannama, Lazzaza, Madahil , al-Malikiyya, Mallaha, al-Manshiyya, al-Mansura, Mansurat Al-Khayt, Marus, Mirun, al-Muftakhira, Mughr al-Khayt, al-Muntar, Khirbat, al-Nabi Yusha’, al-Na’ima, Qabba’a, Qadas, Qaddita, Qaytiyya, al-Qudayriyya, al-Ras al-Ahmar, Sabalan, Safsaf, Saliha, al-Salihiyya, al -Sammu’i, al-Sanbariyya, Sa’sa’, al-Shawka al-Tahta, al-Shuna, Taytaba, Tulayl, al-‘Ulmaniyya, al-‘Urayfiyya, al-Wayziyya, Yarda, al-Zahiriiyya al-Tahta, al-Zanghariyya,al-Zawiya, al-Zuq al-Fawqani, al-Zuq al-Tahtani.

The District of Tiberias (25 villages)

‘Awlam, al-Dalhamiyya, Ghuwayr Abu Shusha, Hadatha, al-Hamma, Hittin, Kafr Sabt, Lubya, Ma’dhar, al-Majdal, al-Manara, al-Manshiyya, al-Mansura, Nasir al-Din, Nimrin, al-Nuqayb, Samakh, al-Samakiyya, al-Samra, al-Shajara, al-Tabigha, al-‘Ubaydiyya, Wadi al-Hamam, al-Wa’ra al-Swawda’, Khirbat, Yaquq.

The District of Tulkarm (17 villages)

Bayt Lid Khirbat, Bayyarat Hannun, Fardisya, Ghabat Kafrr Sur, al-Jalama, Kafr Saba, al-Majdal, Khirbat, al-Manshiyya, Miska, Qaqun, Raml Zayta, Tabsur, Umm Khalid, Wadi al-Hawarith, Wadi Qabbani, al-Zababida Khirbat, Zalafa Khirbat.

Bibliography:

-All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948 by Walid Khalidi.

-For more detailed information you can visit http://www.palestineremembered.com/

More than 400 Palestinian villages were destroyed –in its entirety or partially– by Zionist gangs as part of a
 programmed plan of uprooting native Palestinians from their homeland, Palestine, and breaking new ground for a bizarre colonial project called Israel, which the days of its first stage were closing in on that awful year of 1948.

Few researchers, and historians, Palestinians and Israelis, have attempted to document this tragic chapter of al-Nakba (catastrophe). Among Palestinians were Aref El-Aref who prepared shortly in the aftermath of 1948 war a list of villages occupied and its Arab citizens were forced to leave in the course of battles. He published few years later a six-part volume about 1948 war under the title al-Nakba (1956-1960). The historian Mustafa Dabbagh published an eleven-part volume titled “Our Land Palestine” (1972-1986). A thorough description of the destroyed villages or otherwise was included in the book.

Other writers followed suit including the late Palestinian geographer Bashir Najm who coauthored with Engineer Bsharah Muammer comprehensive tables of statistics covering the people and the land.

On 1987, Abdul Jawad Saleh and Walid Mustafa published a booklet concerning the mass destruction of the Palestinian villages.

At last the Israeli historian Benny Morris published on 1989 his important book “ The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947-1949”.

All in all, 418 villages were destroyed, depopulated or simply taken over by Zionists for various purposes. Others were utilized as sites for building Zionist settlements.

In 1992 , the distinguished Palestinian historian, Walid Khalidi, author and editor of many valuable publications, books and researches, narrating the untold story and history of the Palestinians before and after their Nakba (catastrophe), a paramount referential research work titled “ All that Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948”. Its Arabic version appeared on November 1997.

In addition to these major works, a group of researchers prepared a list of names for destroyed villages — among them was Israel Shahak, president of Israeli Human Rights group who published on 1973 somehow modified text of Aref Al-Aref list.

Shahak based his work on Al-Aref list of 399 occupied villages, omitting from it the undestroyed villages—reducing the figure to 383 villages.

The Palestinian geographer Kamal Abdul Fattah classified on 1986 another list in preparation for the forthcoming list of Ber Zeit University.

But Christoph Uehlinger from the Swiss “Association for the reconstruction of Emmuas” village prepared a list based on Al-Aref-Shahak list, and to the preliminary list of Kamal Abdul Fattah (1983)—adapting it to the Israeli maps.

Although the Israeli authorities failed to issue a list of the destroyed villages, it republished on 1950s topographic maps –originally prepared by British Mandate –giving Hebrew names to the places printing over the destroyed villages the Hebrew word “Hrous” – meaning: destroyed.

Barring Dabbagh’s book (Our Land Palestine) and the Palestinian Encyclopedia, none of these works has referred to the destroyed village with more than a name and few statistics—merely as a single element amid general sight of destruction.

General Moshe Dayan stated in 1962:

We came to this country, which was already populated by Arabs, and we are  establishing a Hebrew, that is, a Jewish State, here. Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because those geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books, not  exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahal arose in the place of Mahalul; Gevat in the place of Jibta; Sarid in the place of Tell Shaman. There is not one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.
Bibliography:

-All that Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948 by Walid Khalidi

-The Catastrophe and the Lost Paradise by Aref al-Aref

Upon Lydda’s and Ramla’s occupation on July 11-12, 1948, the Israelis were surprised to find that over 60,000
 Palestinian civilians didn’t flee their homes. Subsequently, Ben-Gurion ordered the wholesale expulsion of all civilians (including man women, children, and old people), in the middle of the hot Mediterranean summer. The orders to ethnically cleanse both cities were signed the future Prime Minister of Israel, by Yitzhak Rabin. Many of the refugees died (400+ according to the Palestinian historian ‘Aref al-‘Aref) from thirst, hunger, and heat exhaustion after being stripped of their valuables on the way out by the Israeli soldiers.

From the quotes below, it shall be conclusively proven that the Palestinian version of the events (at least in the cases of Lydda and Ramla) is the true version. It should be noted the Zionist account of this war crime was intentionally suppressed until Yitzhak Rabin reported it in his biography and in a New York Times interview (which was censored in Israel at the time), however, it was later confirmed in the declassified Israeli and Zionist archives.

Famous Quotes

Yitzhak Rabin wrote in his diary soon after Lydda’s and Ramla’s occupation on 10th-11th of July 1948:

“After attacking Lydda [later called Lod] and then Ramla, …. What would they do with the 50,000 civilians living in the two cities ….. Not even Ben-Gurion could offer a solution …. and during the discussion at operation headquarters, he [Ben-Gurion] remained silent, as was his habit in such situations. Clearly, we could not leave [Lydda’s] hostile and armed populace in our rear, where it could endangered the supply route [to the troops who were] advancing eastward.
Ben-Gurion would repeat the question: What is to be done with the population?, waving his hand in a gesture which said: Drive them out! [garush otam in Hebrew]. ‘Driving out’ is a term with a harsh ring, …. Psychologically, this was on of the most difficult actions we undertook“. (Soldier Of Peace, p. 140-141 & Benny Morris, p. 207) .

Later, Rabin underlined the cruelty of the operation as mirrored in the reaction of the soldiers, he stated during an interview (which was censored in Israeli publications) with David Shipler from the New York Times on October 22, 1979:

“Great Suffering was inflicted upon the men taking part in the eviction action. [They] included youth-movement graduates who had been inculcated with values such as international brotherhood and humaneness. The eviction action went beyond the concepts they were used to. There were some fellows who refused to take part. . . Prolonged propaganda activities were required after the action . . . to explain why we were obliged to undertake such a harsh and cruel action.” (Simha Flapan, p. 101)

It should be noted that just before the outbreak of the war in 1948, the residents of the two cities, Lydda and Ramla, constituted close to 20% of the total urban population in central Palestine, including Jewish Tel-Aviv. Currently, these people and their descendants number nearly half a million, and they mostly live in deplorable refugee camps around Amman (Jordan) and Ramallah (West Bank). Based on Rabin’s personal account of events, the decision to ethnically cleanse the two cities was not an easy one, however, that did not stop him from giving a similar order, 19 years later, to ethnically cleanse and destroy the villages of ‘Imwas, Yalu, and Bayt Nuba. The exodus from these cities was portrayed firsthand by Ismail Shammout, the renowned Palestinian artist from Lydda, click here to view his exodus gallery. Similarly, Mr. Youssif Munayyer have a written on this subject part of the 64 anniversary of Nakba in an OP-ED article to the NY Time, click here for details

On July 24, 1948 the Mapai Center held a full-scale debate regarding the Palestinian Arab question against the background of the ethnic cleansing of Ramla and Lydda. The majority apparently backed Ben-Gurion’s policies of population transfer or ethnic cleansing. Shlomo Lavi, one of the influential leaders of the Mapai party, said that:

“the … transfer of the [Palestinian] Arabs out of the country in my eyes is one of the most just, moral, and correct that can be done. I have thought of this for many years.” (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 192)

When the First Truce ended, Operation Dani headquarters (near Ramle and Lydda) informed the Israeli General Staff on July 10 1948:

“a general and considerable [civilian] flight from Ramle. There is great value in continuing the bombing.” During the afternoon, the headquarters asked the General Staff for renewed bombing, and informed one of the brigades: “Flight from the town of Ramle of women, the old, and children is to be facilitated. The [military age] males are to be detained.” (Benny Morris, p. 204)

Soon after the Lydda massacre was carried out by the Israeli Army Yiftah Brigade on July 10, 1948, Mula Cohen (the brigade’s commander) wrote of his experience when expelling the 50,000-60,000 Palestinians who inhabited Ramle and Lydda:

“There is no doubt the Lydda-Ramle affair and the flight of the inhabitants, the uprising and the expulsion [geirush in Hebrew] that followed cut deep grooves in all who underwent [these experiences].” (Benny Morris, p. 206)

Yitzhak Rabbin, the commander of Operation Dani in Ramle area, communicated the following explicit orders at 1:30 PM on July 12, 1948 to Yiftah Brigade (see above quote):

“1. The inhabitants of Lydda must be expelled quickly without attention to age. They should be directed towards Beit Nabala. Yiftah [Brigade headquarters] must determine the method and inform [Operation] Dani HQ and the 8th Brigade.
2. Implement immediately.” The order was signed “Yitzhak R[abin].” A similar order, concerning Ramle, was apparently communicated to Kiryati Brigade headquarters at the same time. (Benny Morris, p. 207)

On July 16 1948 Aharon Cizling, the 1st Israeli Agriculture Minister, cautioned the Israeli cabinet (a few weeks after the ethnic cleansing of 60,000 people from Lydda and Ramla):

“We are embarking on a course that will most greatly endanger any hope of peaceful alliance with forces who could be our allies in the Middle East …. Hundreds of thousands of [Palestinian] Arabs who will be evicted from Palestine, even if they are to blame, and left hanging in the midair, will grow to hate us. If you do things in the heat of the war, in the midst of the battle, it’s one thing. But if after a month, you do it in cold blood, for political reason, in public, that is something altogether different.” (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 191)

And on the same subject, Cizling also said during a Cabinet meeting:

“I have to say that this phrase [regarding the treatment of Ramla’s inhabitants] is a subtle order to expel the [Palestinian] Arabs from Ramla. If I’d receive such an order this is how I would interpret it. An order given during the conquest which states that the door is open and that all [Palestinian] Arabs may leave, regardless of age, and sex, or they may stay, however, the army will not be responsible for providing food. When such things are said during actual conquest, at the moment of conquest, and after all that has already happened in Jaffa and other places. . . . I would interpret it as a warning: save yourself while you can get out.” (1949, The First Israelis, p. 27)

And also went on to describe his dismay at the looting of the Palestinian Ramla City (but not at the raping of Palestinian women), Cizling stated:

“. ..It’s been said that . ‘there were cases of rape in Ramla. I can forgive rape, but I will not forgive other acts which seem to me much worse. When they enter a town and forcibly remove rings from the fingers and jewelry from someone’s neck, that’s a very grave matter. … Many are guilty of it.” (1949, The First Israelis, p. 71-72)

All the Israelis who witnessed the events agreed that the expulsion of the inhabitants of Lydda and Ramle, under the hot July sun, was an extended episode of suffering for the Palestinian refugees, especially those from Lydda. Some were stripped by Israeli soldiers of their valuables as they left the town or at checkpoints along the way. An Israeli archeologist, known by Guttman, subsequently described the trek of the Palestinian refugees out of Lydda:

“A multitude of inhabitants walked one after another. Women walked burdened with packages and sacks on their heads. Mothers dragged children after them . . . Occasionally, warning shots were heard . . . Occasionally, you encountered a piercing look from one of the youngsters . . . in the column, and the look said: We have not yet surrendered. We shall return to fight you.” For Guttman, an Israeli archeologist, the spectacle conjured up “the memory of the exile of Israel [a the end of the Second Commonwealth, at Roman hands.]” (Benny Morris, p. 207)

A Palmach (the Israeli strike force) report, probably written by Yigal Allon soon after Operation Dani, stated that the expulsion of the Lydda and Ramla Palestinian inhabitants, besides relieving Tel Aviv of a potential, long-term threat, had:

“clogged the routes of the advance of the [Transjordan Arab] Legion and had foisted upon the Arab economy the problem of “maintaining another 45,000 souls . . . Moreover, the phenomenon of the flight of tens of thousands will no doubt cause demoralisation in every Arab area [the refugees] reach . . . This victory will yet have great effect on other sectors.” (Benny Morris, p. 211 & Israel: A History, p. 218)

And in response to report above, the Israeli MAPAM party co-leader, Meir Ya’ari, criticized Allon’s use of tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees to achieve a military strategic goal, he stated:

“Many of us are LOSING their [human] image . . How easily they speak of how it is possible and permissible to take women, children, and old men and to fill the road with them because such is the imperative of strategy. And this we say, the members of Hashomer Hatzair, who remember who used this means against our people during the Second World] war. . . . I am appalled.” (Benny Morris, p. 211)

Related Links

• The Washington Report: Expulsion of the Palestinians- Lydda and Ramlehin 1948
• Zionist FAQ: Palestinian people in 1948 left their homes based on the orders of their leaders
• “Our exodus from Lydda depicted in a series of art paintings” By Ismail Shammout
• Cleansing Jaffa: Detailed eyewitness account By Shukri Salameh

Source: Palestineremembered.com

Occupation date: 22nd of April 1948. Kirad al-Ghannama was mostly ethnically cleansed and terrorized soon after the massacre 
 committed at the nearby village of al-Husayniyya.

In mid-March 1948, a Haganah massacre in the neighboring village of al-Husayniyya “left dozens of dead,” according to Israeli sources, and led to the temporary evacuation of Kirad al-Ghannama. The following month, it was temporarily (or partially) evacuated again during Operation Yiftach (see Abil al-Qamh, Salad District). On 22 April the villagers reportedly left during that operation under the influence of a direct mili­tary assault on a nearby village, perhaps al-’Ulmaniyya (which was attacked on 20 April). In July 1949, Israel signed an armistice agreement accord­ing to which Kirad aI-Ghannama was to be located within a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the inhabitants of the area were to be protected. However, the Israeli authorities were determined to drive out those villagers who had remained, and deployed a variety of means over the following seven years to do so (see Kirad al-Baqqara, Salad District). By 1956, the DMZ’s 2,200 inhabitants had been pushed out, and Kirad al-Ghannama was evacuated for the third time.

Land ownership before occupation

Source: palestineremembered.com