Common Grounds
Our Wednesday News Analysis | Nakba denial is at the heart of pro-Israel lobbying
Source: Mondoweiss
By MITCHELL PLITNICK
Published May 21, 2023
Just as the Nakba is at the heart of Palestinian national existence, the denial of the Nakba is at the heart of the racist ideology that has so successfully warped U.S. foreign policy.
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Editor’s Note |
Two days ago I met a group of Israeli Jews at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam who’ve flown the coop, a living a hell inside the iron walls. “There is no life in Israel. Too much strive, so much animosity and division among us Jews. There is no life in Israel … we’re moving to Amsterdam to seek a new existence, peace.”
Imagine enduring life on the other side of the walls?
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For most of the past 75 years in the United States, the days around May 15 have seen celebrations of the anniversary of Israel’s creation. Pro-Israel marches, gushing articles breathlessly perpetuating myths about Israel’s “miraculous” creation and development, and, perhaps, an occasional mention of those Palestinians casting a shadow on it all, with their unreasonable hatred of the state.
It has been different recently, and especially so this year. Israel’s creation is still being celebrated in many corners, but the commemoration of the Nakba, the ongoing dispossession of and denial of rights to the Palestinian people, is getting more attention and consideration. This fact has not gone unnoticed by supporters of Israel...
Read more: Nakba denial is at the heart of pro-Israel lobbying
"A LAND WITHOUT A PEOPLE FOR A PEOPLE WITHOUT A LAND"
Source: Tehran Times
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/484736/A-land-without-a-people-for-a-people-without-a-land
By Ali Karbalaei
Published May 15, 2023
TEHRAN- The phrase “a land without a people for a people without a land” has historical context but has become a common slogan for Zionists to try and justify their illegal settler presence on Palestinian land.
How can you name a country Palestine if it was a land without a people?
Surely, the name of a desert would be on the map in the British parliament today next to Balfour's former office and not the name of a country.
Editor’s Note | The State of Israel was founded in 1948. Not ever in the history of the Israelites had the region been called ‘Israel.’
Before 1948, Israel was the name of a clan, not ever the name of a country.
It's also one of the biggest injustices the Zionists have portrayed against the Palestinian people as it wipes out their cultural heritage and identity. In this way Israel has tried to do in an effort to depict a tale that Palestine had no existence and the settlers have some kind of God-given right to squat on another people's indigenous land.
As freedom-seeking people across the world mark the 75th Nakba Day, when at least 800,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homeland by Zionists in 1948, experts point out the slogan was used as far back as 1831 and not something coined by the Zionists themselves.
Today, the Palestinians number 14 million, the majority of them living in refugee camps outside their occupied land. They still hold on to the keys of their homes and ancestral homes, which are currently occupied by Israeli settlers. They also strongly maintain the hope that they will return to their native land in the not-so-distant future...
Read more: "A land without a people for a people without a land"
Opinion | This Is How Israel Really Silences Palestinian Human Rights Advocates
By Nathaniel Berman
Published May 21, 2023
Ever since 1967, Israeli governments have effectively admitted that violating international law is essential to maintaining the occupation and violating Palestinians' human rights. And they try and silence criticism by using a kind of very effective intellectual blackmail
“But what is your solution to the conflict?”
This question is one that is increasingly being posed to critics of Israeli violations of Palestinians’ human rights
It’s a question I encounter in my own conversations, on social media and in public debate. The question tends to be posed by those who consider themselves “centrists” or even “liberals,” those who may even declare that they hope for an end to the occupation “some day.”
This phenomenon was given a great boost by the previous government of Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid government, whose coalition agreements proclaimed the deferral of any significant change in relations with the Palestinians.
More militant supporters of the present government are somewhat less likely to pose this question. After all, Bezalel Smotrich, the government minister with the greatest authority over the Occupation, unapologetically proclaims that West Bank Palestinians must be permanently subordinated to Israel, without the slightest regard for their human rights...
Read more: Opinion | This Is How Israel Really Silences Palestinian Human Rights Advocates
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