Common Grounds


Our Wednesday News Analysis | ‘It’s like 1948’: Israel cleanses vast West Bank region of nearly all Palestinians

September 06, 2023

Source: +972 Magazine
https://www.972mag.com/area-c-ethnic-cleansing-settler-violence/?EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_12_2022_11_20_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1fe821d25-2a5921dccb-318877973

 

By Oren Ziv
Published August 31, 2023

 

In mere months, entire Palestinian communities between Ramallah and Jericho have been chased out by settler violence and state policies — paving the way for a total Israeli takeover of thousands of acres of land.


There are almost no Palestinians remaining in a vast area stretching east from Ramallah to the outskirts of Jericho. Most of the communities who lived in the area — which covers around 150,000 dunams, or 150 square kilometers, of the occupied West Bank — have fled for their lives in recent months as a result of intensifying Israeli settler violence and land seizures, backed by the Israeli army and state institutions. The near-total emptying of the region’s Palestinian population shows how Israel’s slow but gradual process of ethnic cleansing is continuing apace, effectively annexing large swathes of the occupied territory for exclusive Jewish settlement.

 

More than 10 settler outposts — which are illegal even under Israeli law, though the current far-right government is working hard to legalize them — have been established in this area over the past few years, with their settlers weaponizing shepherding as a means to take over Palestinians’ land and force them out. The few small Palestinian communities that remain in the area may also soon be forced to leave, out of grave fear for their physical safety and mental wellbeing. In the last year alone, hundreds of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in this way.

 

To date, four Palestinian communities have been expelled from this region. In 2019, two groups of Palestinian families evacuated from the southern part of the area, near the Taybeh junction. In May of this year, the 200 residents of Ein Samia dismantled their own homes and fled following relentless settler violence. In July 2022, the 100-strong community of Ras a-Tin followed suit. In early August, the 88 residents of al-Qabun were forced to abandon their homes...

 

Read more: ‘It’s like 1948’: Israel cleanses vast West Bank region of nearly all Palestinians

 

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MISINFORMATION: ZIONIST DISTORTION OF RELIGIOUS SCRIPTURES

Source: Palestine Chronicle
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/misinformation-zionist-distortion-of-religious-scriptures/

 

By Jamal Kanj
Published September 2, 2023

 

Ignoring the genetic and historical facts, the European Zionist movement endeavored to utilize non-historical records to reconstruct history and propagate misinformation in order to establish a link with the ancient Hebrews.

 

21st Zionist Congress in Geneva, 1939. (Photo: via Wikimedia Commons, original uploader Golf Bravo)

 

Building on a prior article in the series, titled, Israel: A “Fairytale” history, this will explore the Zion-washing of non-historical religious texts like the Quran―which Zionist Jews do not accept as true―to engender ignorance and kosher the ethnic cleansing of historical Palestine.

 

First, the word “Hebrew” is not widely recognized to refer to the ancestral location of the earliest Hebrews. The word derived from the Hebrew “Ivri,” which translates to perates, a Greek word meaning to traverse or someone who came across, a migrant. The term is historically reserved to tribes that migrated from across the Euphrates and settled in the land of Canaan.

 

In Arabic, the singular word e’bri, (Hebrew) finds its origin in the verb a’bara, the act of crossing a waterway. Traversing a body of water is defined in the Akkadian, Aramaic, Arabic and Hebrew languages respectively, e’ber nhari, avar nahara, a’bara elnahara, and ever nahar. In contemporary Arabic, the plural word for Hebrews is e’braneieen, an adjective describing those who crossed over a waterway...

 

Read more: Misinformation: Zionist Distortion of Religious Scriptures

 

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MY PALESTINIAN MOTHER-IN-LAW AND THE GENERATION OF SURVIVORS

 

Source: Mondoweiss

https://mondoweiss.net/2023/09/my-palestinian-mother-in-law-and-the-generation-of-survivors/?utm_content=bufferc7db4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer

 

By MARION KAWAS
Published September 3, 2023

 

My mother-in-law recently passed away at age 97. Her generation, the Nakba survivors, are quickly leaving us, along with their important historical legacy.

 

FAMILY PHOTO, BETHLEHEM, CIRCA 1960

 

My mother-in-law recently passed away at age 97 surrounded by her extended family. Her generation, and their important historical legacy, is quickly leaving us. Any efforts we can make at recording their stories, in whatever format, will contribute to keeping this part of Palestinian history alive. In that spirit, here are glimpses into the story of Jamileh.

 

She was the one who introduced me to Palestinian family life and culture. I first met her in Beirut in 1974 when she came to visit her two sons, one of whom I was about to marry. She brought homemade date and walnut maamoul cookies sprinkled with powdered sugar, and that was the beginning of a long relationship.

 

She typified most Palestinians of her generation and was twice displaced by the Zionist forces, first during the Nakba from Jaffa and then economically forced to leave the West Bank after the Naksa in 1967. She had eight kids, multiple grandchildren, and great-grandchildren scattered throughout many countries, and although she herself never received much formal education, she was adamant that her children all be properly educated.

 

The greatest tragedy for all Palestinians in exile is that they are denied the right to be buried in the soil of Palestine, and not allowed to die with dignity in their own homeland...

 

Read more: My Palestinian mother-in-law and the generation of survivors