Auto-SummaryA group of Jewish-Americans of conscience is commemorating Al-Nakba, or the Palestinian Catastrophe, which occurred in 1948 when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes to make way for the establishment of the State of Israel. These individuals are calling for solidarity with the Palestinian people and advocating for their right to self-determination, an end to Israeli occupation, and the dismantlement of settlements. They argue that Israel's founding was built on the destruction of Palestinian society, with 418 villages razed and Palestinians living as second-class citizens in their own country. Today, millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants continue to suffer in exile, denied the right to return to their homes. The group is also criticizing the US for failing to enforce international law and for providing military aid to Israel, which they argue is used to enforce unjust policies. They are calling on the US to cut off aid to Israel and support an international peacekeeping force to protect Palestinian lives and property.
So where do those 750,000 palestinians fleeing in terror back in 1948 fit into this cute belief system you have? Or do you just refuse to accept they ever existed?
Here's how some jews see the history of Palestine themselves:
The establishment of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948 inflicted an historic injustice upon the Palestinian people. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven from their homes into exile. A whole society and way of life were destroyed. To Palestinians, this is known as Al-Nakba, The Catastrophe, whose tragic consequences still reverberate today and fuel Palestinian resistance to ongoing Israeli occupation and dispossession.
We, as Jewish-Americans of conscience, are here to commemorate Al-Nakba and to demonstrate solidarity with the people of Palestine. We join in their demand for basic rights and call on the United States to bring its policy on Palestine into accord with UN resolutions, international law, and the global consensus: self-determination for Palestinians; an end to the Israeli occupation and the dismantlement of settlements; a sovereign, and territorially and economically viable Palestinian state with a shared Jerusalem as the capital of both Palestine and Israel, and Israeli recognition of the right of refugees to return to their homes.
1948
--Palestinians were driven from their homes at gunpoint, by acts of terrorism and massacre, and by the threat of war and further atrocities. Some 750,000 men, women, and children became exiles living in refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries. Under UN resolutions and international law, they have, and always have had, the right to return to their homes. Israel has refused to acknowledge this right and the United States has failed to enforce it.
--The State of Israel was founded on the destruction of Palestinian society. Israel razed 418 Palestinian villages, expropriated land, and built Israeli towns on the ruins. Palestinians who remained in Israel lived under military occupation until 1966 and today continue to live as second-class citizens in their own country, without full and equal rights in regard to employment, housing, health care or the purchase of land.
Today
--Refugees: The 1948 refugees and their descendants now number several million. A great many of them live in acute misery in camps in Lebanon and other neighboring countries. They have never been allowed to return, never been compensated for the tremendous loss of property, livelihood, and their entire homeland. There can be no peace until Israel acknowledges their right to return their homes.
--Occupation: The West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem have been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. Israel has annexed Palestinian territory, expropriated Palestinian land, demolished homes, destroyed olive groves, undermined the Palestinian economy, and built illegal fortified settlements inhabited by nearly 400,000 settlers, many of whom are armed and hostile extremists. All of this has been done in violation of the Geneva Conventions and international law.
--Repression: Palestinian resistance and defiance of the occupation has been met with a policy of violent repression. Israel has fired live ammunition into crowds of unarmed demonstrators, employed military tactics against a civilian population, and responded to guerilla attacks in an indiscriminate and disproportionate fashion with helicopter gunships, artillery shells, and rockets. They have brutalized and tortured political prisoners and openly acknowledge assassinating Palestinian leaders.
Justice and Peace:
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) made a historic compromise in 1988, when it formally recognized the State of Israel, and in the Oslo Agreement, where it relinquished any territorial claim to 78% of the land of historic Palestine, and accepted a Palestinian state in the remaining 22%. Yet Israel has refused to accept this compromise and has demanded concession after concession from the PLO in an attempt to whittle down the viability and practicality of a two-state solution. Israel has repeatedly refused to abide by international law or accept the basic minimum demands of justice that a two-state solution to the conflict necessitates: an end to the occupation and the settlements, the right of refugees to return, and an independent and sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with a shared Jerusalem as the capital of both Israel and Palestine. This would be the basis for a genuine peace.
U.S. Policy
The United States has the power to pressure Israel to rectify this injustice, but has refused to exercise it. Even worse, U.S. tax dollars and military equipment are used to enforce unjust Israeli policies that are inimical to the establishment of a just and lasting peace between Israel and Palestine. At the same time, the United States claims to be an even-handed and objective broker in peace negotiations, all the while backing Israel negotiating positions.
Instead of unflinchingly accepting unjust Israeli policies and negotiating positions, the United States should use its close relationship and leverage with Israel to persuade it to accept the conditions for a just peace. To do so, the United States should cut off the $3 billion in annual taxpayer-funded aid to Israel and immediately end all delivery of Apache helicopters and other armaments which are being used against civilians in violation of U.S. Arms Export Control Act of 1976 and the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. Furthermore, the United States should support the creation of an international peacekeeping force under the auspices of the UN to protect Palestinian lives and property.
http://www.jppi.org/statement_53rdnakba.html
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Don't worry, B. Caapi
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