NO HISTORY ALLOWED

“Stories of the Nakba still harrow us and live in us, giving us hope of return. Palestinian Nakba survivors have not forgotten their homeland 73 years on.” “Our village resisted the Jewish militias with what little we had. But the well-armed Zionist gangs were singling out unarmed civilians and butchering them in hundreds.” – Omar Abedelal, 82, was only 9 years old when he, along with his family members and neighbors, was displaced from his village, Burayr.

Every year on May 15th, millions of Palestinians around the world commemorate the Nakba, the catastrophe, inflicted upon them in 1948. But as told in “The Conversation International:”

“When Palestinians commemorate the Nakba on May 15, they are not only remembering a violent historical event that took place 75 years ago which led to the uprooting of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland. Nor just the destruction of more than 400 villages and towns and the killing of thousands of others. They are also marking the fact that the Nakba did not end in 1948, but continues in different forms to this day.

What Palestinians call “ongoing Nakba” still generates suffering, destruction of homes and loss of Palestinian lives. They experience it in the continuing Israeli annexation of their land and attacks launched regularly against their homes in Gaza. And they see it in the regular violations of their human rights, both inside Israel and in the “occupied territories” and Gaza Strip.”

Let this register. Between 1947 and 1949, 750,000 to 1,000,000 Palestinians were violently driven from their ancestral homeland of over a thousand years by Jewish militias and Zionist gangs. Over 400 of their villages and towns were leveled. Their orchards and farms were gone. Thousands of unarmed Palestinians were brutally murdered by the Israelis. Women and children were not spared. Those who survived were left homeless, driven into what were effectively tent concentration camps.

Nakba continues to this day. It continues in the open-air prison, the open-air ghetto, the open-air concentration camp called Gaza. It continues in the Israeli occupied territories, in the West Bank, in all the places where Palestinian families are still being violently driven from their homes. It continues in the slaughter of Palestinian women and children, in the slaughter of innocent Palestinian families.

If one must ask where the terrorist organization called Hamas came from, one must also ask where the terrorist organization called Israel came from.

I will no doubt be cursed and condemned for what I have written. I will be called antisemitic, a hater of Jews and Judaism. But this will be false. What I am is against any violation of human rights and dignity. I am against the blatant lies of western media, against their unethical refusal to include any historical context in their “news” coverage whether it be in Palestine/Israel, Ukraine, or in the US slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, especially Iraqi children, based on the disgusting lies of my own political “leaders” about “weapons of mass destruction.” I am against a congress and a president who do little real to actually help and defend the people of my own country, America, while spending over a trillion dollars each year on the greatest terrorist organization the world has ever known, the US military/industrial/congressional complex, spreading human misery to all corners of the globe, to enrich billionaires in the arms industry and fill their own campaign coffers.

I would ask people to begin following the work of “Jewish Voice For Peace,” of “Jewish Currents Magazine,” of the Jewish organization “If Not Now,” and the Jewish magazine, “Tikkun.” Quoting from a recent article in Tikkun:

“This statement is written and signed by Palestinians, Jews, and others who are committed to holding complex truths and striving to overcome polarization. We feel the pain of our people, identify with their pain, and need to work together to uplift our shared humanity.

The unfolding horror in Israel and Gaza is an escalation of decades of state-sanctioned violence by Israel against Palestinians. We condemn the horrific actions of Hamas against Israeli civilians. We likewise condemn Israel’s unbridled bombing and cutting off access to all basic needs, including food, water, electricity, and medical care. Attacks on Palestinian and Israeli civilians are repugnant.

Israeli violence against Palestinians has been intentionally hidden, slow, and steady. Contrary to what the media is reporting, this attack was not unprovoked. The Israeli and American governments have worked together to suppress and deny the inhumane acts against Palestinians that have led to this moment. There are Palestinians and Jews who have been raising red flags and warning about this inevitable outcome for decades, only to be dismissed and ignored.

The world’s failure to challenge Israel’s ongoing occupation, apartheid, and unbridled violence by settlers and soldiers in the West Bank provides the context for what is happening now. The recent Israeli government’s escalation of violence, encroachment of Al Aqsa Mosque, and its 16-year siege of Gaza has led to the current explosion.

We repeat: the brutality of Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians is unjustified.

As we watch the violent attacks and rallying of xenophobia on both sides, we are brokenhearted. Although it feels like a time to stand with “our people,” we know this is a time to come together. This is a time of great suffering for all; a time of painful emotions. It is only by recognizing our shared fears and our shared tears that we will find our way through this nightmare. It is a struggle we need to undertake jointly.”

Please take the few minutes needed to listen to the latest words of Jewish Doctor Gabor Mate on the Grayzone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxensYM2R40