EDITOR: The Al Ahram Nakba Archive is a useful research source for finding sources and quotes, but has not been recently updated. It will be available as a permanent link on this website, on the right, within the LINKS category.
The Nakba Archive
David Ben-Gurion, one of the father founders of Israel, described Zionist aims in 1948 thus: “A Christian state should be established [in Lebanon], with its southern border on the Litani river. We will make an alliance with it. When we smash the Arab Legion’s strength and bomb Amman, we will eliminate Transjordan too, and then Syria will fall. If Egypt still dares to fight on, we shall bomb Port Said, Alexandria and Cairo… And in this fashion, we will end the war and settle our forefathers’ account with Egypt, Assyria, and Aram” *.
50 years after the Arab defeat in the1948 war, which resulted in the establishment of Israel, many of Ben-Gurion’s stated aims can still be discerned in the language of Israeli and Zionist leaders. Some modifications have become apparent, in large part as a result of Arab resistance, but the biblical language in which Ben-Gurion chose to state his meaning starkly expresses the deeply-rooted nature of these violent fantasies of conquest and destruction.
Resistance, in this instance through a better comprehension of the history of the struggle, as well as the writing of our own version of it, becomes more necessary than ever. Israel cannot be allowed to write the history of the past fifty years unchallenged. It is in this conviction that Al-Ahram Weekly presents the first in a regular series of articles designed to document the history and nature of Arab-Israeli struggle, as well as that of Palestinian dispossession and exile.
Policy of provocation: Al Ahram Weekly
Israeli provocations, including annexing Islamic sites to an alleged heritage list, are creating a powder keg in the occupied territories, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank
Palestinian officials have warned that recent Israeli provocations, including government-backed attempts by Jewish religious extremists to claim a foothold at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, are creating an incendiary situation in the occupied territories.
Visibly frustrated by Israel’s utter disregard for Palestinian objections to Israeli encroachment on Muslim holy places in Hebron, Bethlehem and East Jerusalem, Palestinian Authority (PA) officials have been appealing to the international community, especially Israel’s guardian-ally, the United States, to rein in the Israeli government.
“These provocations are killing the last hopes for peace. Israel is turning the occupied Palestinian territories into a powder keg. If these provocations continue, there can be no peace process, and the international community will have to bear the consequences,” said the erstwhile chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Arguing that Israel is provoking the religious sensibilities of Palestinians, Erekat urged the Obama administration to stop Israel “before it is too late”.
Similarly, Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the Gaza-based Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip has called for a new Intifada, or uprising, against Israeli provocations.
Haniyeh said it was unacceptable that Israel could seize Islamic holy places in the West Bank while the Palestinians watched passively.
In recent days, Israel took a series of provocative measures Palestinians insist would alter the status quo in occupied Palestine, including adding two important Islamic sites to an alleged Jewish heritage list.
The two sites are the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and the Bilal Ibn Rabah mosque in Bethlehem. Palestinian leaders, along with Arab and Muslim states, argue forcefully that the Israeli decisions nullify any serious talk of a peace process.
This view has been further enforced by the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israeli occupation police forces on Sunday 28 February.
Palestinians said that the police attacked Muslim worshipers in order to provide protection for Talmudic Jewish fanatics seeking to gain “prayer rights” at one of Islam’s holiest shrines. Israeli spokespersons said the police had to intervene in order to protect “visitors” from stone-hurling Muslims.
As many as 200 crack policemen and para-military soldiers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound to evict dozens of Muslims who had barricaded themselves inside the Mosque, ostensibly to protect the site and repulse Jewish fanatics who were celebrating a Jewish holiday called “Purim”.
Showing no discretion and failing to take the sacredness of the place into consideration, Israeli forces shot tear-gas canisters throughout the Haram Al-Sharif esplanade (Noble Sanctuary), causing several injuries, mainly as a result of tear- gas inhalation.
Earlier, the Israeli occupation police sealed all gates leading to the Haram Al-Sharif, apparently in order to prevent Jerusalemites from converging on the holy place, as has happened on previous similar occasions.
The storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque drew verbal reactions from Arab and Muslim capitals, that warned Israel that it was creating a tinder box.
Eventually, the Jordanian government seemed to have convinced the Israeli government to withdraw police forces from the Haram Al-Sharif and restore normality at the holy place.
Nonetheless, it is highly likely that tensions will continue to increase, especially in East Jerusalem, mainly due to further Israeli provocations, including plans to demolish dozens of Arab homes in the occupied city.
According to the Israeli media, the Jewish mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, has taken a final decision to demolish dozens of Arab homes, especially in the Silwan neighbourhood, in order to create flats for Jewish settlers.
The Silwan neighbourhood, labelled by Israeli sources “the second most incendiary place after the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” would witness the expulsion from their homes of hundreds of Palestinian families. Khalil Tufakji, an East Jerusalem geographer and cartographer, described the plan as “demographic ethnic cleansing”.
“They [the Israelis] want to obliterate the Arab identity of the city. They claim they want to develop the city, but in truth what they want is to destroy the Arab presence here. This is an ongoing demographic genocide.”
“The declared goal is not development. The real goal is depopulation of Arabs,” Tufakji said.
Israel has been planning to destroy hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Arab homes in Jerusalem that the occupation authority claims were built without a valid construction licence.
However, Palestinians and human-rights activists operating in the occupied territories argue that the licence issue is only an excuse since successive Israeli governments have routinely and systematically refused to grant non-Jews building licences, forcing frustrated Palestinians, languishing under a severe housing crises, to build unlicensed homes.
Arab sources in occupied Jerusalem have warned that the implementation of the Barkat plan would trigger a real Intifada in Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied territories.
“Of course, there will be violent reactions. What would you do if someone destroyed your home in order to build a flat for someone else? That would be an act of rape, and rape must be resisted,” said Jamal Moussa, a resident of the Silwan neighbourhood, the main focus of the Israeli plan.
Political and religious leaders of the estimated 350,000 Jerusalemite Palestinian citizens have reacted similarly, warning Israel that carrying out “this spate of ethnic cleansing would make the powder keg go off”.
Last week, Palestinian youths hurled stones at Israeli occupation soldiers in the southern West Bank town of Al-Khalil (Hebron). The soldiers fired rubber- coated bullets, stun grenades and shot tear-gas canisters.
Some eyewitnesses described the violence, which lasted for five days, as “a possible preview of things to come,” especially if the “present trend continues”.
Facing a difficult situation, stemming mainly from the refusal of the Obama administration to put pressure on Israel, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad decided to hold his weekly cabinet session in Hebron this week.
The meeting was meant to highlight Palestinian rejection of the latest Israeli decisions to take over Islamic holy places in Hebron and Bethlehem.
Fayyad and other PA officials have pointed out that they don’t want to see violence return to the streets of the West Bank.
However, it is abundantly clear that the possible return of violence to the streets of the West Bank depends more on what Israel does than on what the PA says.
Report: Hamas admits losing control in Gaza: Haaretz
Gaza in anarchy as extremist groups challenge Hamas regime, military chief tells Damascus leader.
In a letter to Hamas political chief Khaled Meshal, the group’s senior military commander has admitted losing control in Gaza, the Arabic-language newspaper As-Sharq Al-Awsat reported on Saturday.
According to the London-based newspaper, quoted by Army Radio, Ahmed Jabri sent an urgent dispatch to the Damascus-based Meshal, warning him that the security situation in Gaza is “deteriorating”.
“Recently a series of explosions has raised fears in Gaza,” Jabri wrote. Gaza had descended into “anarchy”, he said.
In the letter, Jabri reportedly admitted to a string of errors in governing the strip, where Islamist Hamas seized control in a bloody confrontation with its rival secular movement, Fatah, in the summer of 2007.
Hamas is convinced that extremist ‘jihadi’ Islamist movements are behind the bombings, which could mark the start of a push to oust the de facto government, the newspaper said.
Other Palestinian sources told As-Sharq Al-Awsat the attacks were the result of internal strife within Hamas, however.
On Thursday, Haaretz correspondents Amos Harel and Avi Issacharroff wrote in their MESS Report blog that extremist groups pose a growing threat to Hamas rule in Gaza.
They wrote: “Israel, which until now has viewed Hamas as its biggest enemy in Gaza, needs to take into account that within a couple of years Hamas will be the moderate force in Gaza protecting the calm while a monstrous and more dangerous threat is growing in the form of the ultra-radical groups.”
How to build the house of your dreams in Gaza: The Only Democracy?
March 5th, 2010, by Jesse Bacon
From Gisha’s Gaza Gateway.
Building the “perfect home” is a dream shared by many people, especially if you are one of the tenants of the 3,500 homes that were destroyed or of the 56,000 homes that were damaged in last year’s military operation in the Gaza Strip. This week, we’ve pulled together some instructions to help you build your dream house in Gaza. Make sure to keep these useful tips handy!
First of all, because of Israel’s prohibition on the entry of building materials to the Strip since the June 2007 start of the closure, we will need to use locally available materials. Mud will be used to build the foundation and the walls of the house, easily found during the wintertime in Gaza’s natural surroundings. Make sure to avoid collecting mud from areas where raw sewage flows. Have patience, once the ban on the entry of spare parts, equipment and fuel is lifted, the water and sewage systems will operate at better capacity.
We’ll need to mix the mud with gravel. Due to Israel’s ban on the entry of this material, we will use limestone instead. To the limestone-mud mixture, add rocks found scattered around the area and mix for a long time until a thick mass is formed. In order to hasten the hardening of the mud, approach the nearest wheat field, cut off some shafts of wheat, and add them to the mixture. Place the mud into a baking dish, wait until it dries and presto — you now have material to make bricks and begin construction!
One of the mud houses recently built in Gaza, which serves as an example of the way the Strip’s residents are coping with the ban on the transfer of raw materials.
Now, to build the house. For the support structures we will need iron. However, as you can already guess, since June 2007, Israel has prevented the entry of iron to the Gaza Strip. If you can afford to pay for the iron available in Gaza coming in via the tunnels at 4000 shekels ($1,060) a ton compared to only 2600 ($690) before the closure, fantastic! If not, you will need to mix sand, straw and glue and then roll the mixture into long beams.
Next, we will use the most basic building material, which we have avoided using so far: cement. Cement, the entry of which is also banned by Israel, will be purchased from the tunnel operators. Due to the fact that cement is extremely expensive — 900 shekels ($238) a ton, compared with about 450 shekels ($119) before the closure — we will only use it to build the bathroom, though we’re itching to use it for the rest of the house!
We’re almost finished. All that’s left to build is the roof and for this we will use plates of glass. Finally, something that is found in Gaza! Despite the prohibition on the transfer of glass to Gaza for two and a half years, since the end of December 2009, glass is no longer considered a security threat, and so far about 100 trucks of glass have entered the Strip.
Now, after all your hard work, turn on the light switch that you’ve just installed and look around at the fruits of your
labor. Oh, is there a blackout in the area again? At least you can enjoy the magnificent view of the sky and the light of the stars shining through the glass ceiling of your cozy, little house.
Gisha reiterates its call on Israel to lift the ban on the entry of building materials so that people in Gaza may rebuild their homes with dignity.
The power of nonviolence: Haaretz
By Ziad AbuZayyad
There are signs of mounting distress among the Israeli police and other security forces in the way they are dealing with the Palestinians who stage weekly demonstrations in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. These protests, in which Palestinians are joined by foreign sympathizers and activists of the Israeli left, are intended to express opposition to the eviction of Palestinians from their homes, which are then inhabited by Jewish families.
The edginess of the security personnel has spilled over beyond Sheikh Jarrah and become particularly noticeable in a number of villages where protests are held regularly against the separation fence, land confiscations and restrictions on residents? freedom of movement, as is the case in Bil?in, Na?alin, Nabi Saleh and Deir Nitham, in the Ramallah Governorate, and al-Ma?sara, in the Bethlehem Governorate.
What appears to be turning into a source of worry for the Israeli side is the fact that these protest activities are crystallizing into a weekly tradition, and are bound to draw increasingly larger numbers of participants – especially Palestinians who have become fed up, and who see the demonstrations as an opportunity to express their rejection of Israel?s policies of discrimination, persecution and abuse.
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In addition to the steady increase in the numbers of protesters, there is also a “qualitative” rise. Among the prominent Israeli figures who joined the Sheikh Jarrah demonstrations in recent weeks were MK Haim Oron, the chairman of New Movement-Meretz. In a statement made at the site, Oron strongly criticized the policy pursued by the Israeli government and the Jerusalem Municipality against Arab residents of the city holding blue ID cards. Another figure is the respected writer and intellectual David Grossman.
As the number of participants in these peaceful demonstrations grows – whether in East Jerusalem or in West Bank villages threatened by the separation fence or settlement activity – Israel’s reaction is becoming increasingly tougher. After all, the Israel Defense Forces has long been used to countering Palestinian violence with even harsher and fiercer measures, which it has justified to itself and to the world by saying they were a response to violence. Today, however, with the widespread adoption by Palestinians of peaceful means of protest, the task of repression has become more difficult, with the use of excessive force unjustified and subject to Israeli and international condemnation.
There is a lesson to be learned here by us Palestinians: We cannot quash the Israeli repression machine with violence, because our violence will be used to justify and legitimize the brutality of the strong against the weak. Furthermore, Palestinians need to take into account the fact that they have allies on the Israeli side who share their rejection of the occupation and of discrimination; it is crucial to reinforce and nurture this relationship with them.
Disseminating a culture of passive resistance against the oppression and atrocities of the occupation is the most efficacious method for fighting it: It should be promulgated and its circle expanded. It must not remain restricted to pockets of protest here and there, but should become a generalized modus operandi that encompasses all points of contact with the occupation and the settlements, which are trying to gobble up the land and obliterate all features of Palestinian identity. It must be clearly said that nonviolence is morally superior to force.
Spreading such a culture is not an easy matter: Palestinians have grown accustomed to opting for force in all its forms in opposing the occupation. Some of their actions allowed the occupation to use this violence to tarnish Palestinians? image as civilized and humane people and to portray them as bloodthirsty and given to indiscriminate killings of children, women and the elderly. This eventually turned local and international public opinion against them. Being victims of the occupation and having the legitimate right to resist should not mean compromising on moral values.
In their asymmetric battle with the occupation, Palestinians must turn to peaceful resistance. It is the only way to tilt the balance of power in their favor, by neutralizing the arms of the occupation and its military and technological capacities, while at the same time gaining the respect, sympathy and support of the world for their battle against racial discrimination, the subjugation of peoples and the denial of their freedoms.
Ziad AbuZayyad is editor of the Palestine-Israel Journal, and a former minister and PLC member in the Palestinian Authority
EU foreign policy chief to visit Gaza in March: Haaretz
Catherine Ashton will be the first senior EU figure to enter Hamas-ruled terrirory in over a year.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said Saturday she was planning to stop in Gaza during an upcoming Middle East trip later on this month.
It would be the first high-level visit in over a year of an EU representative in the area, which is under an Israeli blockade and is ruled by Hamas, a Palestinian movement listed as a terrorist organization by the EU and the United States.
“I have asked to go to Gaza, yes,” Ashton said at the start of the second and last days of talks with EU foreign ministers in Cordoba, Spain.
She added that she does not have a precise date yet, but pointed out that her Middle East trip “starts a week on Sunday.”
Ashton’s predecessor Javier Solana last visited Gaza in February 2009, in the aftermath of an Israeli invasion that caused significant destruction in the area.
Israel intervened and launched a large-scale military operation in late December 2008 with the aim to stop rocket launches from Gaza, which it blames on Hamas.
Thousands of protesters rally against Jewish presence in E. Jerusalem: Haaretz
About 5,000 left-wing activists and Palestinians gathered Saturday to protest the eviction of four Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
Protesters carried Palestinian flags and chanted “Stop the destruction of homes” and “There is no sanctity in an occupied city.”
Despite the heavy police presence, the demonstration has remained peaceful.
For the past six months, a group of independent left-wing activists have demonstrated every Friday in the East Jerusalem neighborhood, protesting the takeover of Palestinian homes by groups of Israeli settlers.
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Last week, the demonstrators asked Jerusalem police for permission to hold a large rally in the street leading to a contested house, to protest against the settlers and show solidarity with the Palestinian residents of the neighborhood.
The police refused to authorize the rally and instead approved a much smaller gathering at a soccer field situated 300 meters from the home. The demonstrators said that the field is surrounded by a wall, it cannot be seen from the outside and is entirely cut off from the area near the contested home, which is the main focus of the protest.
Supreme Court justices were highly critical of the Jerusalem police decision this week after they refused the request by demonstrators.
“The police are taking the right to demonstrate 30 years backward,” Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch said during deliberations.
The justices ruled that 300 demonstrators would be allowed to approach the contested house at the conclusion of the rally.
Jerusalem District police commander, Aharon Franko, was asked to appear before the justices and said that the the contested house is in “one of the most explosive locations.” He explained that “not a day goes by when there are not confrontations, fighting and stone throwing.”
Police said that closing off the street, as the demonstrators would like, would make it difficult for worshippers to make their way to the nearby tomb of Simon the Just (Shimon HaTzadik).
At the start of Saturday’s rally, Palestinian director and playwright Samih Jabarin criticized demonstrators who arrived at the rally carrying Israeli flags with the word “peace” on them, saying the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one bi-national state.
However, one of the rally’s organizers said, “It is important to clarify that we have people of all stripes here, supporters of a bi-national state and supporters of two states for two peoples. But we are all united against the ‘Judaization’ of East Jerusalem.
The Palestinians, who want to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future state, say the property belongs to them.
Some 200 right wing activists held a counter demonstration nearby, although police managed to keep the peace between the two groups of protesters, Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Earlier Saturday, three men were injured in clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers in the northern West Bank village of Burin.
The clashes erupted when soldiers stopped a group of Palestinians trying to approach a Jewish settlement, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.
Palestinians residents said the settlers were trying to bathe in a water cistern in their village.
Palestinians hurled rocks at the soldiers who responded with tear gas and rubber-coated steel pellets.
Tensions have been high in the West Bank since Israel declared last month it would add two contested shrines there to its national heritage list
Thousands march in Jerusalem rally: Al Jazeera TV
The largest Israeli police contingent ever watched over the demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah [AFP]
At least 3,000 protesters, including Israelis and Palestinians, have rallied in an Arab quarter of east Jerusalem to protest the eviction of Palestinians from their homes there in favor of Jewish settlers.
The protesters waved red flags bearing the inscription “Shalom,” or peace in Hebrew, during the demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah on Saturday.
They chanted slogans such as “No to ethnic cleansing,” and “Sheikh Jarrah residents don’t lose hope, we are blocking the road to settlement.”
A large Israeli police contingent watched over the demonstration, the largest of its kind for several decades against Jewish settlements in Jerusalem.
Police had intended to ban the gathering, but it was finally approved by the supreme court on an appeal launched by the far-left movement.
Old City evictions
The demonstration came amid tensions in the Old City after days of clashes between Israeli riot police and Palestinian protesters in and around the Al-Aqsa mosque and several Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem.
Several Palestinian families of Sheikh Jarrah have been expelled in recent months in favour of Israeli settlers on the grounds their houses belonged to Jews before the creation of Israel in 1948.
The evictions led to demonstrations that were put down by the police who arrested Israeli peace activists and pro-Palestinian foreigners.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war and built new quarters to house more than 200,000 Israelis.
The annexation has never been recognised by the international community. Palestinians denounce settlements in east Jerusalem, which they want to make the capital of their future state.
In early February, the daily Haaretz revealed Israeli authorities had given the green light to a project to build 600 homes in an area set aside for settlement in the eastern sector.
Hundreds protest police brutality at Jaffa rally: Haaretz
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Jaffa Saturday to protest police violence toward citizens, which they say has been escalating.
“We are calling out, together, against violence, violence from the police,” said Gabi Abad, head of the Arab Jaffa organization. “The body that is supposed to protect us is attacking us.
“We tell the police – we are against violence, especially against the innocent,” he added.
The demonstrators marched through Jaffa from the central square toward the police department.
Among the demonstrators was the family of film director Scandar Copti, whose film Ajami, about crime and tension in Jaffa, has been nominated for the best foreign film at this year’s Academy Awards.
Copti’s brother, Jeras, who was arrested last month by police, claimed that the arresting officers used excessive force against him. He said he and his brother Tony were trying to prevent police from arresting a number of children in Jaffa who were suspected of hiding drugs.
According to the Coptis, the children were merely burying the body of their pet dog.
“We are not leaving Jaffa,” he said, “no matter what they do to us if we stay.”
Leftist MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) participated in the demonstration Saturday and said, “We have come here today to say clearly that human rights do not end at the borders of Jaffa.”
“We demand that residents of Jaffa receive equal rights, be treated decently by the authorities, especially the police,” he added.
Copti’s sister, Mary, told Haaretz that “the basic human rights are to live in security without fear,” adding that, “after what happened to those boys who were captured by the police without any justification, and abused, we have been left without our basic human rights, and with a sense of fear.”