May 15 marks its 68th anniversary. Israeli historian Ilan Pappe documented the horror in his book titled “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.”
One of history’s great crimes was committed. Israel’s war without mercy depopulated Palestinian villages and cities. It massacred innocent victims, committed rapes and other atrocities.
Its forces burned, bulldozed, blew up or stole homes, property and goods. To this day, Israel prevents diaspora Palestinians from returning home, despite international law supporting their right.
About 800,000 were displaced or slaughtered. Genocidal ethnic cleansing destroyed 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and other cities.
The late Edward Said called what happened Palestine’s “holocaust,” explaining its people are as powerless and abused as Jews were under Hitler.
They continue enduring what he called “a slow death,” their lives shattered by Israeli viciousness – denied all rights, collectively punished, murdered in cold blood, arrested and imprisoned solely for political reasons.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) called the Nakba “a catastrophe born of discrimination and impunity.”
A shocking two-thirds of Palestinians worldwide are internally or externally displaced. Besieged Gazans endure “inhuman conditions with no end to their displacement (and suffering) in sight.”
Untenable conditions exist throughout the Territories. On Nakba day, Israeli forces rampaged through multiple West Bank Palestinian communities, terrorizing families, traumatizing children, kidnapping innocent victims.
Tear gas and stun grenades were used indiscriminately. Olive trees were set ablaze and destroyed.
Kafr Qaddum village coordinator Murad Shtewi said soldiers created “a cloud of poisonous gas.”
Civil defense vehicles were prevented from entering areas set ablaze, forcing firefighters to walk up a hill to battle it.
Punitive overnight raids came as Palestinians commemorated Nakba Day. PLO official Hanan Ashrawi issued a press release titled “The Nakba Continues,” saying:
“Since 1948, Israel has employed deliberate and systematic acts of violence, colonialism, and destruction at the expense of the Palestinian people, their rights, lands, and resources.”
Occupation since June 1967 is nearly half a century in duration with no end of human misery in sight.
The world community continues turning a blind eye to the suffering of millions of Palestinians – ruthlessly persecuted by Israeli viciousness.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
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