The Israeli's are extremely sensitive about Holocaust denial, and rightly so. It was a crime of incomprehensible magnitude that only the most vile and inhuman minds could envisage, plan and execute. Having said that, one must expect that they would be amenable and understanding, about how the Palestinian people feel about the tragic events of 1948. The methods utilised by the Israeli's in that year are akin to ethnic cleansing. Very few towns and villages were abandoned by the Arabs voluntarily, only upon Arab orders, issued to avoid a massacre, did that take place. The other factor that acted as a catalyst, was the influence of a nearby town's fall. This would be immediately taken advantage of by the Haganah of that period by a whispering campaign instigating a psychological campaign i.e. "...the Haganah/IDF are coming to rape your daughters..." etc. The other villages abandoned by the Arabs would occur because of the fear of being caught up in the fighting by defenceless villagers. However, the majority of towns and villages were by expulsion via the IDF and the Haganah, military assaults by the following main method:
An armed column of Jewish forces would arrive at the targeted village and surround it on three sides, leaving a fourth side open. The three surrounded sides by the Jews would begin to advance, forcing the inhabitants to flee through the unguarded side.
Whichever reasons are accepted and embraced by whomever, the facts remain. It suited the British,"...The panic flights of Arabs from the Jewish occupied areas of Palestine has presented a very serious immediate problem but may possibly point the way to a long term solution of one of the greatest difficulties in the way of a satisfactory implementation of partition, namely the existence in the Jewish state of an Arab community very nearly equal in numbers to the Jewish one...Previous examinations of this problem have always led to the rejection of transference of populations as a solution...for the reason that the number of Arabs to be transferred from the Jewish state was 40 times greater than the number of Jews to be transferred from the Arab state...Now that the initial difficulty of persuading the Arabs of Palestine to leave their homes has been overcome by Jewish terrorism and Arab panic..." The preceding quote is from an analysis sent in a report to the British Foreign Office by the London Middle East Intelligence centre, based in Cairo. It is publicly accessible from the Public Record Office, Kew, London, BMEO to FO, 3 August 1948, PRO FO 816\139.
The Americans took a similar view,"...Despite the attendant suffering...it is felt security in the long run will be served best if the refugees remain in the Arab states and Arab Palestine instead of returning to Israel. Since the US has supported the establishment of a Jewish State, it should insist on a homogeneous one which [sic] will have the best chance of stability. Return of the refugees would create a continuing "minority problem" and form a constant temptation both for uprisings and intervention by neighbouring Arab states." The Americans got it wrong as usual. Several wars occurred because of their ignorance, again, the whole document can be obtained from the PRO, Kew, London; Burdett (Jerusalem) to Secretary of State, 5 February 1949, PRO FO 371-75420.
The Jews, through their master architect of displacing the Palestinians, viewed it thus,"...We must expropriate...spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our country...both the process of expropriation and removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly." The whole rationale behind this can be read in , The Complete Diaries of Theodore Hertzl, I, page 88.
In yesterday's New York Times, the comment page (editorial) was given over to the editor of Haaretz, a national Israeli newspaper. Highly unusual, but when taken into consideration, the amount of mass media in Jewish hands and that of their supporters, not surprising. He lamented that President Obama will not come to Israel and talk to the Israeli people. Hardly surprising that the risk of assassination is the highest in Israel for President Obama, after all, Israel cannot even protect it's own prime ministers from assassination.
In conclusion, a law must be passed in all the Arab countries, making it a criminal offence to deny the Nakba and international pressure made to bear upon Israel, to allow the Palestinians, the right to mourn 1948, through the marking of el-Nakba.
Acknowledgements and courtesies to Professor Benny Morris
THE BIRTH OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE PROBLEM REVISITED.
Cambridge University Press, CAMBRIDGE, 2004
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