23rd January
Bethlehem.
The ethnic cleansing continues. It began in November 1947 when following UN Resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine, a mass expulsion of Palestinians was undertaken by the new Zionist regime. Although it only fully got underway at this point, it had been brewing for decades - especially following the Balfour Declaration of 1917. As Winston Churchill put it, “there are Jews whom we are pledged to introduce into Palestine, and who take it for granted that the local population will be cleared out to suit their convenience”. The Zionist Comission put it differently, “as many Arabs as possible should be persuaded to emigrate”. Unfortunately the type of persuasion they had in mind involved lots of guns, knifes, bombs and rape.
A continuous line of this persuasion can be drawn from then until now, and today we watch as thousands flee the desperation of the Gaza Strip into Egypt, after a siege imposed by this same Zionist Israel, and the number of refugees climbs. The denial of historic events, particularly such evil ones such as the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, is rightly regarded as a dangerous business - firstly, because it is simply a moral outrage, but secondly because it endangers further generations of suffering the same fate.
How then, can we expect the crimes of current day Israel, and there are many to choose from, to be accounted for when the colossal crime of the Nakba in 1947and 1948 is passed over? Nakba Denial should be regarded alongside the denial of other ethnic cleansings, the Holocaust and Armenia 1915 included.
Israel is the spoilt child of the Middle East, and has been allowed to have its own way for too long. When we criticize spoilt children the condemnation falls on the parents, and that I am sorry to say is on the British. Unfortunately for everyone else, this spoilt child is now also best friends with the playground bully, so it seems there is no-one left to insist on justice.
