Aref Assaf

The other side of memory: commemorating the Palestinian Nakba

May 10, 2008,  See a shorter version as published in the Record, May 11, 2008

The sixtieth anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel does not call for celebration but for an honest assessment of how the manner in which the State was created and its consequences. The creation of the State is the single event that led to on-going hostility between Arabs and Israelis, led to the instability of the Middle East region, a humanitarian crisis, and the continuation of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that literally worsens by the hour sixty years later.

Every year, on May 15, we Palestinians commemorate the Nakba ("the catastrophe"): the expulsion and dispossession of hundreds of thousands Palestinians from their homes and land. In 1948 more than 60 percent of the total Palestinian population was expelled. More than 530 Palestinian villages were depopulated and completely destroyed. To date, Israel has prevented the return of approximately six million Palestinian refugees, who have either been expelled or displaced. Approximately 250,000 internally displaced Palestinian second-class citizens of Israel are prevented from returning to their homes and villages.

This year's anniversary is particularly somber for me. My father passed away this past January after six decades of waiting to return to his native village, Allar, west of Jerusalem, from which he and his parents, were expelled in 1948. He so fondly recalled his youthful life in the village and always dreamt of returning even to be buried there. The memory of Palestine that was my father's burden is now mine to shoulder, an inheritance to leave for my children lest they forget from whence we all came. My father's legacy also includes my inalienable right of return to my homeland, Palestine that has been affirmed by the UN Resolution 194 over 115 times since 1948.

The right of the Palestinian refugees and the uprooted to return to their homes is a fundamental right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights among others. This right  is an inalienable right.  This Right follows from the sanctity of private ownership, which cannot be extinguished by new sovereignty or occupation and has no expiration date It is according to this principle that the European Jews claimed successfully the restitution of their lost property in World War II, without the benefit of a single UN resolution. The Right of Return is essentially my right as  an individual which cannot be delegated, reduced or nullified by any representation on my behalf.

Most importantly, the Right of Return is not substituted or affected in any way by the establishment of a Palestinian state in any form. My Right of Return must be recognized by Israel irrespective of my ability or desire to exercise it or seek compensation thereof. Israel's moral, political and physical salvation hinges on its readiness to accept the full moral, political and financial obligations the Catastrophe has brought unto the Palestinians.

One of the most open secrets about Israel’s creation is its deliberate and systematic use force to expel Palestinians off their lands. In fact Jewish leaders spoke openly of the need to use military clashes to expel as many Palestinians as possible before other Arab countries could come to their defense. The Haganah militia's Plan Dalet was the blueprint for this ethnic cleansing. Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, said "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.

The Israeli historian Ilan Pappé takes a new look at the expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948. According to Pappé's new book, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" , but an act of ethnic cleansing planned long in advance. According to Pappé, the Palestinians' exodus was not an unfortunate side-effect of the war, As in any case of ethnic cleansing, whether in ex-Yugoslavia or elsewhere, ideological and socioeconomic factors played a crucial role in Palestine prior to the actual expulsion. Benny Morris outlined this intellectual and economic context in a recent publication.

By contrast, Pappé concentrates on the logistical and operative aspects of the expulsion. An important instrument was provided by the so-called "village dossiers", files in which the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund had scrupulously documented all Arab villages and their inhabitants beginning from the 1930s onward.

As early as 1943 members of the Jewish intelligence service announced that the catalogue was complete. In 1948, Pappé claims, the dossiers were used to facilitate the evacuation of Palestinian villages and to nip all resistance in the bud – in part with target executions among Palestinian men.

Ilan Pappé provides a detailed description of the methods used by members of the Israeli military in Arab towns between 1947 and 1949, often following the pattern of the so-called "Plan Dalet": attack, taking of prisoners and in some cases the killing of men, expulsion of the remaining inhabitants, the plundering and subsequent destruction of the buildings and the laying of mines in the rubble to prevent a return. Subsequently the fleeing women and old people were often robbed of money and jewelry as well.

It made no difference whether or not a village had taken part in military actions. The goal was to create a majority Jewish population in British Palestine (and after the foundation of the state of Israel).  The diaries of high-ranking officers reveal that rapes seem to have occurred on a regular basis during Jewish attacks on Palestinians. In an especially egregious case a twelve-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped for days by more than 20 soldiers, and finally killed. This was one of the few cases in which the soldiers involved were later sentenced by an Israeli court – to a maximum of two years in jail. Many other cases came to light, but were never investigated.

Sixty years later, Israel and Palestine are consumed in violence. Innocent Palestinians and Israelis are both dying in the conflict. The United States contributes to the violence by providing military aid. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza spirals out of control. The majority of Palestinians live in abject poverty. Those populations remain vulnerable to extremist organizations. Israel continues collective punishment of the Palestinian population through the military occupation of Palestinian lands. This collective punishment includes home demolitions, expansion of illegal outposts and settlements, barrier walls, blocked access to medical care, checkpoints, and targeting of the civilian population by the Israeli Army.

Celebrating Israel’s creation on Arab lands, represents a questionable morality that renders theses celebrations unacceptable from any ethical perspective. First, they never mention the terrible fact that Israel came into being and is intrinsically linked to the dispossession of the indigenous Arab population who now comprise the world’s oldest and largest refugee population. This anniversary cannot be celebrated in a vacuum, but at a moment during which Israel is one of the states systematically violating the basic rules of international law, humanitarian law, and human rights, as confirmed by the International Court of Justice. 

The United States Congress  has erred when it recently passed a one-sided resolutions that failed to address the entirety of what the creation of the State of Israel has meant to the very people that live there -- Palestinians and Israelis. Instead, the US should support a just and lasting peace between these communities by encouraging dialogue, diplomacy and the efforts of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians to seek peace and justice with one another.

We are gravely concerned that President’ Bush’s upcoming visit to Israel will again ignore the other side of Israel’s creation; the agony of the Palestinian people, many of whom are now American citizens. History stands to look back favorably at President Bush should he use his visit to celebrate Israel's creation by awakening Jewish conciseness to recognize Palestinian suffering and concretely moving his vision of a Palestinian state into reality. Closure of the Palestinian suffering will hence commence.

On May 15, I will join fellow Palestinians  who will release 21,915 black balloons (one for every day of the last 60 years) into the sky from my former refugee camp, Kalandiya checkpoint and Bethlehem to counter Israel’s celebrations and to remind the world of the destruction and death Israel has brought upon the Palestinians since then.

Related: Palestine Right Of Return, Sacred, Legal, and Possible By Dr. Salman Abu Sitta