Evil Does'nt Become Kosher or Innocuous When Done by Jews.

Israel's Little Hitler

By Khalid Amayreh

There is always fresh evidence justifying the Israeli-Nazi analogy. In recent days and weeks, a number of Israeli officials and lawmakers proposed "draft laws" that would effectively formalize Israel's de facto racism and seriously restrict the human and civil rights of Israel’s non-Jewish citizens.

One of the proposals being discussed would criminalize the commemoration of Nakba by Palestinians holding the Israeli citizenship. Predictably, the brazenly racist proposal has infuriated Israel’s 1.5-million- strong Palestinian community.

One Israeli Palestinian parliamentarian compared the proposed law with an imagined promulgation by Germany of a law banning all Jewish activities commemorating the holocaust.

The lawmaker's remarks are not far-fetched. After all, the Nakba or catastrophe is the Palestinian holocaust, whether we like or not. True, the scope may not be identical in both cases. However, it is also true that Zionists have wrested the Palestinian people historical homeland form its rightful native inhabitants, destroyed their homes and towns, and expelled them to the four corners of the globe.

More to the point, the Palestinians are the longest-suffering people in modern history. They are still being haphazardly killed in the hundreds and thousands by a Gestapo-like army which claims to be the "most moral army in the world." Palestinian homes are still being demolished, Palestinian land is still being stolen on a daily basis, and millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and especially Gaza Strip are still being hounded, starved, tormented, savaged and terrorized by the very country that shamelessly claims to be the only true democracy in the Middle East.

Aryeh Eldad

One of the most thuggish Israeli leaders who has been promoting Israel's manifestly racist discourse against non-Jews in general and Palestinians in particular is Aryeh Eldad of the Nazi-like Ichud Leumi, or National Union.

This party holds more or less the same ideas and perceptions toward the Palestinian people that the German Nazis held against the Jews and other “untermenschen.” It advocates genocide, ethnic cleansing, discriminatory treatment of non-Jews as well as wanton home demolitions and land confiscation of land owned by Palestinians.

Some of the party's associates have called for "wiping off the goyem (non-Jews) from 'the Land of Israel pursuant Biblical methods."

The term "Biblical methods" refer to the genocidal wars the ancient Israelites waged against the Canaanite tribes in Palestine as recorded in the Bible.

A few days ago, Eldad proposed that Jordan be "transformed" into a Palestinian state and that Palestinians in the West Bank be granted the Jordanian citizenship.

The proposal would impose the Israeli sovereignty on "all mandatory Palestine" from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean and prepare the psychological and legal ground for the ultimate deportation of the estimated 5.1 million Palestinians from their ancestral homeland.

Interestingly, many Israeli leaders from various political parties have expressed keen interest in the diabolical proposal. Indeed, those who voiced reservations about the proposal did so on the ground that it was "unrealistic” and “impractical” not immoral and criminal.

In fact, even Labor party lawmakers in the Likud-led government voted in favor of referring the proposal to further discussion by the Knesset.

Eldad has a long history of making bluntly-fascist and racist provocations against the Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line as well as against Islam and Muslims.

Nearly six months ago, he hosted in West Jerusalem a virulently anti-Islam "seminar" in which a number of fascist-minded speakers from Israel and abroad took part.

The one-day seminar was addressed by notorious Islamophobes such as Daniel Pipes, an American-Jewish supremacist, Dutch Legislator Greet Wilders and Eldad himself.

After making characteristically venomous remarks against Islam, the Quran and Muslims, Wilders received a standing ovation.

A few years ago Eldad suggested that non-Jews were not true human beings.

He was quoted as saying during a protest against the eviction by the Israeli army of a small settler outpost in the West Bank that "it was sad that the army was treating real human beings as if they were Arabs."

Eldad has also been a focal advocate of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in East Jerusalem where successive Israeli governments have been trying to besiege Arab demographic presence while actively encouraging Jewish settlement activities in and around the occupied Arab city.

Arab Knesset member Ahmed Teibi has described Eldad and likeminded Jewish leaders as "representing and embodying the ugly face of racism and fascism."

"If Eldad and his ilk were living in any European country, they would be thrown behind bars immediately. The fact that they are thriving in Israel speaks volumes about the poisoned political environment in this country."

Teibi said the roots of Palestinians in occupied Palestine were deeper, much deeper, than the shallow roots of most Israeli Jews.

“Every honest person in this world can attest that every Jewish town or village is built on the ruins of an Arab town and village.”

I believe that honest people around the world are morally obligated to call the spade a spade, irrespective of whose hands the shovel happens to be.

Today, the ugly face of fascism is rising in Israel, and a Jewish Third Reich must never be allowed to evolve and prosper into a full-fledged Hitlerian monster at the hands of the very people who have made the epithet “Nazi” one of the ugliest words in all languages of the world.

Hence, the entire humanity is urged to combat and defeat the new Nazism now thriving in Israel. The fact that this Nazism is having a Jewish garment is totally irrelevant. Evil doesn’t become kosher or innocuous when done by Jews.

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Zionist Israel Resume It's Threats Dropping Leaflets Over Gaza

GAZA - PalestineFreeVoice: On May 25th, the Israelis dropped boxes of leaflets over Gaza Strip. The leaflets were a written warning to Gaza citizens to keep away 300 to 500 m from the heavy guarded "buffer" zone. In Arabic language the Israelis warned the Palestinians to keep away from fenced area, if not they would be shot (killed). Below a translation from the Arabic language, of the content in the leaflet;

"To the people of the strip! You have been warned, Israeli Defense Forces repeat their message alerting the prohibition of moving nearby the buffer zone, at a distance closer than 300 m. Those who come nearby will be subject to danger, whereby the IDF will take all necessary procedures to force him away, including the fire of live bullets if necessary, he who has alerted us shall be excused!"

To achieve their goal the Zionists used similar maneuvers through terrorizing, intimidating Gaza inhabitants, dropping leaflets with warnings, during their Cast Lead Operation - [Massacre], which was set off from four strategically positions, from north to south, in the early morning of December 27, 2008.The Zionist brutishly aggressively bludgeoned until it ended 23 days later on January 19,2009,in a carnage, a massive destruction of human life and the Gaza Strip infrastructure.

On Monday the 25th of May, heavy boxes of leaflets were dropped over residential homes across Gaza, from the northern parts of Bait Hanoun and Bait Lahia, Khan Younis and Gaza City, to the southern parts of Kerem Shalom and Rafah.A child, the 12-year old Muhammad Dughmush from Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, was struck and injured in his neck and back by a box of leaflets which was dropped by Israeli helicopters.

On Wednesday a member of Ezzedine Al- Qassam Brigades, Hamas armed wing, Adel Abdel Hakeem Al-Abdadela, 24 was killed in a car accident.” He was martyred after a long path of Jihad, against the Zionist occupation...” a statement from Ezzedin Al-Qassam brigade said. Another Hamas affiliated resistance fighter was killed when a tunnel collapsed in the northern Gaza Strip. Gaza medical officials have confirmed the death of two people in a tunnel collapses in the area...

Also on Wednesday, four Palestinian fishermen were apprehended and forced off their boats by Israeli Naval ships that surrounded them, and then abducted the four from their vessel, off the northern coast of Gaza territorial water. The assault came one day after that two other fisher men were forced from their boat outside the southern coast of Rafah. The four fishermen abducted on Wednesday, where taken to an undisclosed location.

The Zionists has resumed and escalated its assaults on Gaza fishermen, also their fishing boats has been confiscated.

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The Russell Tribunal on Palestine

Stephen Lendman

After two years of "underground" work, it was launched with a "successful press conference" and announcement that:

"The Russell Tribunal on Palestine seeks to reaffirm the primacy of international law as the (way to settle) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Its work will focus on "the enunciation of law by authoritative bodies. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its opinion on the (Separation Wall in Occupied Palestine, addressed relevant) "International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, as well as dozens of international resolutions concerning Palestine."

This Tribunal will "address the failure of application of law even though it has been so clearly identified." It begins where the ICJ "stopped: highlighting the responsibilities arising from the enunciation of law, including those of the international community, which cannot continue to shirk its obligations."

The Russell Tribunal is part of the larger BRussell Tribunal, named after noted philosopher, mathematician, and anti-war/anti-imperialism activist Bertrand Russell (1972 - 1970). Established in 1967 to investigate Vietnam war crimes, it's a hearing committee, most recently on the Iraq war and Bush administration imperialism. Its work continues as "the only game in town for the anti-war movement in America, Britain and Europe" - to unite non-violently for peace on various world's hot spots, now for Occupied Palestine to expose decades of injustice against a defenseless civilian population.

National committees will be formed globally, including expert ones composed of jurists, lawyers, human rights and international law experts, weapons experts, and others "to work on the evidence against Israel and third parties" to be presented in Tribunal sessions. Two are planned, "the earliest....by the end of this year."

Frank Barat of the Organizing Committee urges activists to spread the news and offer support for this vital project. After Israel's unconscionable Gaza attack, it's never been more vulnerable given mass world public outrage. It's long past time to hold Israel accountable for its decades of crimes of war and against humanity, flaunting international humanitarian law, waging aggressive wars, continuing an illegal occupation, expropriating Palestinian land, and committing slow-motion genocide, so far with impunity. No longer can this be tolerated. The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is dedicated toward that end. The Tribunal's Declaration on Iraq applies to Palestine. Substituting Israel for America and Palestine for Iraq, it reads as follows:

"The (Israeli) occupation of (Palestine) is illegal and cannot be made legal. All that has derived from (it) is illegal and illegitimate and cannot gain legitimacy. The facts are incontrovertible. What are the consequences?"

"Peace, stability and democracy in (Palestine) are impossible under occupation. Foreign occupation is opposed by nature to the interests of the occupied people, as proven" by:

-- the forced diaspora;

-- many others internally displaced or in refugee camps for decades;

-- harsh military subjugation;

-- a regimented matrix of control;

-- the genocidal Gaza siege;

-- state-sponsored mass incarceration, violence, and torture;

-- the flaunting of international law and dozens of UN resolutions;

-- targeted assassinations;

-- the many tens of thousands of Palestinians killed, injured, or otherwise grievously harmed;

-- massive land theft and home demolitions;

-- the lack of judicial redress;

-- denying all rights to non-Jews; and

-- a decades-long reign of terror against defenseless Palestinian civilians.

Western propaganda tries to justify the unjustifiable, vilify ordinary people, call the legitimate government "terrorist," rationalize savage attacks as self-defense, reject the rights of the occupied, and deny their self-determination.

"In (Palestine, people) resist the occupation by all means (including armed struggle), in accordance with international law. "The Commission on Human Rights has routinely reaffirmed" it. So have numerous General Assembly resolutions. The March 1987 Geneva Declaration on Terrorism states:

"Terrorism originates from the statist system of structural violence and domination that denies the right of self-determination to peoples....that inflicts a gross and consistent pattern of violations of fundamental human rights....or that perpetuates military aggression and overt or covert intervention directed against the territorial integrity or political independence of other states," such as Palestine.

The UN General Assembly has "repeatedly recognized" the rights of "peoples who are fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination (to) have the right to use force to accomplish their objectives within the framework of international humanitarian law."

It also recognizes the legitimacy of self-determination seeking national liberation movements and their right to strive for and receive appropriate support for their struggle. Further, under the UN Charter's Article 51, "individual or collective self-defense (shall not be "impair(ed) to respond against) an armed attack.

In other words, armed force is a legitimate form of self-defense as distinguished from "acts of international terrorism," especially by one state against another or any group, organization, or individual. Israel refuses to accept this. It continues an illegal occupation, calls armed resistance "terrorism," and imposes its will oppressively and illegally.

World leaders "continue to justify the negation of popular sovereignty under the rubric of (fighting terrorism), criminalizing not only resistance but also humanitarian assistance to a besieged (and beleaguered) people. Under international law, (Palestinian freedom-fighters) constitute a national liberation movement. Recognition of (them) is consequently a right, (an obligation, and) not an option." World leaders have a duty to hold Israel accountable under the law and no longer support its crimes.

Palestine "cannot recover lasting stability, unity and territorial integrity until its sovereignty is (recognized, affirmed,) guaranteed," and enforced by the world international community.

"If (world leaders) and (Israel want) peace, stability and democracy in (Palestine), they should accept that only the (Palestinian) resistance - armed, civil and political - can achieve these by securing the interests of (their) people. (Their) first demand....is the unconditional withdrawal of (Israeli forces) illegally occupying" their land

Palestinians are the only legitimate force to secure their own security and rights under international law. "All laws, contracts (and other occupation-related) agreements....are unequivocally null and void. According to international law and the will of the

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=1355

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Al-Aqsa Facing "Real, Immediate” Danger

Khaled Amayreh

Continuing Israeli excavation threaten the foundation of the Haram al-Sharif and Al-Aqsa. May 20, 2009 OCCUPIED AL-QUDS – Palestinians are sounding the alarm that Israel's continuing excavation works beneath the Haram al-Sharif (Noble sanctuary) in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) is posing a "real and immediate" danger to its Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine. "Israeli excavations and continuing digging right beneath the Haram al Sharif’s esplanade have already caused irreparable damage to the stability of Al-Aqsa Mosque’s foundations," Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement, told IslamOnline.net. Salah, who has been closely monitoring Israeli excavations in the Old City of Al-Quds for over 25 years, says Israel is paying no attention to protests by Arab and Muslim countries over the perils its digging poses to Islamic holy places. In recent years, the Israeli government, in coordination with powerful settler groups, began digging an extensive tunnel network throughout the Old City. Israel describes the tunnels as "tourist projects" that pose no threat to Islamic holy places. However, Palestinians and some Israeli organizations, including the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition, believe that the ultimate goal is to create a subterranean access route to attack Al-Aqsa and other Islamic shrines in the area. Last year, an Israeli lawyer representing the anti-settlement group, Ir Amin, revealed that government-funded settlers were trying to establish "irreversible facts" as part of a takeover scheme. "I have no doubt that the Aqsa foundations have been greatly weakened due to these tunnels and other excavations," maintains Sheikh Salah. "You don’t have to be a great architect to realize this. We have already seen holes and cracks all over the area." A section of the Aqsa Mosque’s yard caved in last year as a result of Israeli excavations underneath. The collapse happened near the Qaitbay fountain in the western section of the mosque. The one-meter deep hole was viewed as an ominous harbinger for things to come. A school in Silwan neighborhood also partially collapsed due to Israeli excavations in the area. Demolishing Al-Aqsa Sheikh Salah says he is completely certain Israel wants to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque. "They want to do it in a way that would appear as is happening as a result of natural causes, such an earthquake." Salah says that Israel has a "diabolical plan" and is acting on it while Muslims are still just watching and contenting themselves with verbal protestations. "Verbal reactions won’t stop Israeli designs against Islamic holy places, especially the Aqsa Mosque," he stressed. "We need a proactive stance by Muslim peoples and governments. Muslims must send an unmistakable message to Israel and its supporters that Islamic holy shrines in Al-Quds are red lines." Al-Aqsa is the Muslims’ first Qiblah [direction Muslims take during prayers] and it is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka`bah in Makkah and Prophet Muhammad's Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. Its significance has been reinforced by the incident of Al Isra'a and Al Mi'raj — the night journey from Makkah to Al-Quds and the ascent to the Heavens by Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be Upon Him). Israeli religious leaders, including Knesset members, are making no secret of their schemes regarding Al-Aqsa. The Temple Mount Faithful, an extremist fanatical group, is dedicated to the demolition of Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The Temple Mount Institute, another extremist Jewish society, had prepared detailed plans for the rebuilding of the alleged Solomon Temple on the rubble of Al-Aqsa. It has a large prototype of the temple, special clothes for its rabbis, special places for sacrificial offerings, incense chalice, copper vessels for meal offerings, silver vessel for wine libation and other offering implements. No Exaggeration In recent years, the Israeli occupation authorities have allowed Jewish extremists to pray inside the Haram al Sharif esplanade. Muslim Waqf (religious endowment) officials have warned that allowing Jews to pray at the Haram is only part of the larger scheme to usurp the Islamic shrines. "I think they want to secure a foothold, which they would later use to consolidate and expand Jewish presence," maintains Sheikh Muhammed Hussein, Head of the Supreme Muslim Council which oversees the Haram al Sharif. "This is why Muslims all over the world, people and governments, must protest loudly this brazen and provocative aggression on the sanctity of Islamic sanctuaries." Sheikh Raed Salah, who has dedicated himself to exposing Israeli schemes in Al-Quds, says Muslims around the world should realize that his repeated warnings are not at all exaggerated. "When will Muslims come to realize that the dangers are real? When the Mosque is destroyed and the news of its destruction appears on Al-Jazeera?" He had one clear message to Muslims and those who care about Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa. "Only a genuine and fast awakening by Arabs and Muslims can help, and this is exactly what we are trying to effect."

Link: www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1242759049454&pagename=Zon e-English-News/NWELayout

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Israeli Tourism Poster Taken Down in London Underground Israel Government Tourism Website Criticized by ASA

May 21 2009

One week ago the London based Palestinian Solidarity Campaign received information calls from the organizations members about posters they had observed in the London Underground.

The posters, according to the PSC was originating from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and ThinkIsrael.com, included a map over the region of Golan Heights,the Palestinian West Bank and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Members and supporters of the PSC and Jews for Justice for Palestine and their members and supporters of the PSC, began an immediate action of removing the posters and they also notified the Advertising Standard Agency (ASA), the Transport of London and the CBS Outdoor, that is the company that performed the Israeli Tourism Campaign.

The PSC stated in a press release today, that they find it astonishing that a map which is displayed in public is showing not only Israel, but also the West Bank, Gaza strip and the Golan Heights, which is “illegally occupied” by the Israelis.

The posters in the Israelis tourism campaign” wiped Palestine off the map”. It is particularly grotesque given that Gaza strip is suffering from a two year long general blockade which has paralyzed the entire region. Even humanitarian aid organizations were forbidden to enter the devastated enclosed coastal enclave.

According to PSC, the Advertising Standard Agency (ASA ) already upheld a previous complaint against ThinkIsrael.com for deliberately using deceptive advertisement that was used in the Radio Times year 2007.ASA ruled on that occasion, that ThinkIsrael.com had breached the ‘truthfulness’ clausal, and also the ‘non-response’ clausal, when it failed to reply to ASA's correspondence.


_____


The poster, produced by the Israeli government-funded ThinkIsrael.com, claimed: "You can travel the entire length of Israel in six hours." The poster displayed a photo of Qumran on the Dead Sea, situated inside the occupied Palestinian territories.A previous ASA ruling stated that,"We noted that Qumran was inside the occupied West Bank, not in the state of Israel, and considered that the advertisement was therefore misleading."

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61 Years Since the Nakba

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Palestine Monitor

14 May 2009

As Israel celebrates “61 Years of Independence”, Palestinians remember the anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) and the beginning of a long period of oppression and occupation.


All over Israel, the number of Israeli flags doubled or even tripled in an effort to show nationalistic pride. Posters for their Independence Day contained pictures of Jewish families, happy and smiling.

In the West Bank, however, the mood of this “holiday” was quite different.

Posters with the number 61 can still be found, but the pictures and message are the opposite of those in Israel. Instead of happy and smiling people, there were pictures of Palestinians old enough to have lived through the Nakba, and they are seen crying or with their faces in their hands.

They say history is written by the victor; this must be the reason that the dispossession of millions of Palestinians, the massacres and ethnic cleansing of the early years of “Israel’s Independence” be remembered by Israelis and, thanks to the media—most of the western world, as happy moment.

In Israel, families celebrate the anniversary of their independence in the same way Americans celebrate the 4th of July—with picnics, barbeques, and fireworks.

In Palestine, there are no celebrations. Just lost memories of Jaffa, Haifa, and many other places where the Arab population was driven out.

And if the past wasn’t heartbreaking enough, this Israeli Independence Day is another painful reminder that the Palestinians have no such independence.

Instead, they have an Israeli occupation. The price the Palestinian people had to pay, and are still paying, for Israel to have their independence is too high.

For 61 years, the Palestinian people have had to deal with a life most westerners cannot even imagine.

Being driven out of their homes, villages, and cities. Millions of Palestinians having to leave their land completely in the Diaspora. The continuing theft of their land because of the separation wall and the illegal Israeli settlements that are still expanding in the West Bank.

Arbitrary beatings, arrests, and torture by Israeli soldiers. Targeted killings, or murders, by the Israeli military leading to walls being filled with posters of martyrs—some of them teenagers or younger. Hundreds of checkpoints and road barriers making travel inside the West Bank humiliating and long. And so much more…

As Israelis celebrate 61 years of Independence, created from the pain and suffering of the Palestinian people, the world needs to recognize that the Palestinians deserve to have the same independence that most of the world takes for granted. They deserve freedom and security— and the chance to rebuild their lives and community in an independent state.

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Gaza Government Invite International Solutions to Solve Conditions in Unstable Region

"This is my land and my property"
Photo from a Gaza refuge Camp, Fady Adwan / PalestineFreeVoice Images

61 Years Ago, The Days of Al Nakba

Thursday May 14 2009

GAZA PalestineFreeVoice - During the weekly plenum of the Gaza governments legislative body on Thursday, the Gaza based Palestinian government of Hamas praised the steadfastness of the Palestinian peoples resistance, in holding on to their land, and to the commemoration of the 61st anniversary of Palestinian land occupation in year of 1948.

Siege on Gaza a new Al Nakba

The Hamas government draw the attention to the events that recently occurred, comparing the situation equivalent of a new Al Nakba, characterized by the siege,a consequence of an mentally deranged Israeli offensive carried out against the Palestinian people in the Palestinian region of Gaza.The speaker concluded " we will confront all attempts carried out to give up any part of the Palestinian people’s rights, especially the right of the Palestinian people's return."

Arab and Islamic Nations urged prompt actions

The government addressed to Arab and Islamic nations the need of prompt actions, urging them to take a serious stance concerning the Israelis Judaization of East Jerusalem in particular the continued plots to destroy Jerusalem’s most holy Islamic shrine, Al - Masjid, Al Aqsa. The holy Islamic site was disgraced and East Jerusalem was occupied by the Israelis in 1967.The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem the capital of the future State of Palestine.

International solutions invited

During Thursday's plenum the Gaza government also cordially invited any International solutions of the existing lamenting devastating conditions in Gaza, declared that it will expand reparations and developments that will focus on recent realities of the region simultaneously firmly holding on to and remaining determined to defend the Palestinian eligible rights.

Reality of the conflict - Israeli occupation

The fight for the Palestinian rights will continue, and the Hamas movement will stand in the forefront of a forthcoming national consensus concerning a lasting truce with Israel among Palestinian factions, under conditions that Israel cease its assaults and put an end to the siege."The reality of the conflict and the core of confusion in the region, is the occupation. Ending the occupation of Palestinian lands is the only way to achieve security, stability and peace in the region".

Mind- set forming West Bank government to deepen division

During Thursdays meeting in Gaza City, the government said it regard the mind-set toward forming a government in the West Bank, as defensiveness efforts which are aimed to deepen the division, a clear evidence of no good intentions towards Hamas diligent efforts of having a serious dialogue.

Gaza gov. denounce PA's obstruction of Palestinian dialogue

The Gaza government denounced the continued Fatah controlled Palestinian Authorities attempts to obstruct a success of an internal Palestinian dialogue,in particular by the continuance of sweeping arrest campaigns across the West Bank, aggressive intrusions into the homes of Hamas affiliated West Bank citizens and Hamas movements popular social charities.

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Nakba Day…"They Killed Anyone They Saw"

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Khalid Amayreh, IOL Correspondent

"My wish has remained , it is to return to my village, to die and be buried there," Mohammed told IOL.


OCCUPIED WEST BANK -- Mohammed al-Saghir Abu Sharar was 37 when the Hagana and other Jewish terrorist gangs attacked al-Dawayema, a village located 18 kilometers northwest of Al-Khalil (Hebron) in 1948.

"When they came they started killing the civilian population en mass, men, women and children," recalls Mohammed, now nearly 100-year-old.

"They killed anyone they saw. They broke the heads of children and cut open the bellies of women with bayonets. They even raped some women before murdering them."

* Palestinian Refugees…Nation in Diaspora

Mohammed said one of the bloodiest chapters of that day took place in the mosque.

"It was Friday and many elderly people had already gone to the local mosque for the congregational prayer," he remembers.

"About two hours before the prayers, around 10:00 or 10:30 a.m., a number of vehicles carrying gunmen arrived. They sprayed everyone with bullets, killing all the 75 elderly people. Not a single one survived," he added with tears in his eyes.

"They then started going into the houses, killing entire families. The killings forced people to flee eastward. However, the Hagana men pursued the fleeing civilians, killing more people."

In his book "All That Remains," Walid al-Khalid, a Palestinian historian of impeccable credentials, wrote that al-Dawayema had a population of 3710 in 1945.

The world marks on May 15 the "Nakba Day," when Israel was created on the rubble of their country.

On April 18, 1948, Palestinian Tiberius was captured by Menachem Begin's Irgun militant group, putting its 5,500 Palestinian residents in flight. On April 22, Haifa fell to the Zionist militants and 70,000 Palestinians fled.

On April 25, Irgun began bombarding civilian sectors of Jaffa, terrifying the 750,000 inhabitants into panicky flight.

On May 14, the day before the creation of Israel, Jaffa completely surrendered to the much better-equipped Zionist militants and only about 4,500 of its population remained.


*No Shelter

Mohammed, who now lives with his family at the small village of al-Majd, about 7 kilometers southwest of al-Dawayema, says dozens of families had sought shelter at a big cave called "Turel Zagh".

"The Jews told them to come out and get into a row and start to walk. And when they started walking, they sprayed them with machinegun fire from two sides," he adds.

"One woman, the wife of Mir’ie Freih, survived the massacre by pretending to be dead."

Mohammed said the victims of the massacre were later buried inside the Bir al-Sahra and Bir al-Sil wells.

His testimony was corroborated by Israeli historians and researchers relying on the de-classified archives of the Israeli army and interviews with veteran soldiers.

Israeli historian Benny Morris had interviewed a participant in the massacre who told him that about 80 to 100 people, including women and children, were killed by "the first wave of conquerors."

In 1984, an Israeli journalist interviewed the former Mukhtar (village notable) of al-Dawayema, Hasan Mahmoud Ihdeib, and took him back to the site for the first time since the massacre.

Ihdeib told him about the people killed in the mosque and the families
slaughtered at the cave, showing him the cistern where the bodies had been buried.

A few days later, the Israeli journalist brought workers who dug and discovered bones and skulls.

In 1955, the Jewish settlement of Amatzya was built on the ruins of al-Dawayema.

Aharon Zisling, Israel's first agriculture minister, had likened the massacre, codenamed "Operation Yo’av", to Nazi crimes.


*Living Memory

A few years ago, Mohammed and his family visited the ruinous cite of his village where his father, mother, grandfather and their ancestors are buried.

"I stood their crying. I saw our home, badly dilapidated. I saw the chamber where my father used to receive guests. I saw the abandoned wells of water."

The century-old Palestinian still hopes he would be allowed to live in his old home village.

"My wish has remained unchanged, it is to return to my village, to die and be buried there."

Asked further if he would accept compensation for his lost property, he lapsed into a moment of silence before answering.

"It is not a matter of property and compensation," he said.

"This is my country, my history, my home, my childhood memories. My forefathers and foremothers are buried there. Would you trade the grave of your father for all the money in the world?"

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