Another Nakba is possible
JVL Introduction
Peter Beinart is never alarmist. Always quiet, calm, reasoned he approaches difficult and divisive issues with a measured authority.
So, we should sit up and take notice when he writes that a further massive dispossession of Palestinians is on the horizon.
Most Zionists have always wanted a society without Palestinians but the circumstances in which mass expulsion have been possible in the past were only in the wars of 1947-49 and 1967. In between times, it has just been a steady dribble.
With the new right-wing government in Israel, however, new possibilities are opening up with frightening speed.
For the government is set on launching a process of land registration in the West Bank in which Jordanian, British Mandate, or even Ottoman era titles to the land – all most Palestinians have ever had – do not meet Israel’s legal criteria. From confiscation of their land to expulsion is a short step.
And, says Beinart, “there is one final factor that makes mass expulsion more likely: The Israeli government’s belief that it can get away with it.”
Nothing suggests that any US administration, whether Republican or Democrat, will enforce laws barring US aid from being used to violate human rights, or will cease to obstruct efforts to investigate and condemn Israeli abuses in international forums.
Prospects look ominous.
This article was originally published by Jewish Currents on Wed 19 Apr 2023. Read the original here.
Could Israel carry out another Nakba?
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Your intro says “In between times, it has just been a steady dribble.”. Actually there have been collective mass expulsions of hundreds and even thousands in other years, including the first 5 years of the state. The massacre at Kafr Qasim in 1956 was also directed at forcing the villagers across the border. The differences in the main Israeli body politic are over the speed of the ‘transfer’ as it is euphemistically called. The pressure on Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank is intensifying. Conditions are very bad for most. Many do leave and too many are killed.
There will be more resistance and that may give Israel excuses to expel or drive out more. The formation of the National Guard is to give a more organised and better armed form to a force of Jewish vigilantes whose prime purpose is to harass and attack Palestinians in any part of the territory Israel controls. Talk of Jordan becoming the other half of the “two state solution” never went away and is now higher up the agenda.
When the time is right for them, if nothing changes to prevent it, Israel will move against Palestinian cities. Maybe Bethlehem first and then Hebron.
This is why the 2-state solution is a nonsense. There can never be two independent states so long as the one which has been established through international law, is determined to win, and keep for itself, using overpowering force, the territory which the other state could otherwise reasonably claim to be its by right but for which it cannot get legal recognition on its own terms. That has always been the case, and any argument that such a solution is still open to reasoned and rational negotiation is worthless. If there is a solution, it depends on the Israeli people itself finally realising that its fate and that of the Palestinians have been increasingly wedded together by a philosophically debased and morally corrupt political elite.
All much worse and further advanced than I had thought. If these plans go ahead the Palestinians will become yet another of the lost peoples of the earth. They have already lost their civilization and their freedom. Within a few months they may also lose their right to stay in their own land. It is intolerable, but what can be done to stop it?
An important article. I wrote similarly in Scottish Left Review special on-line edition March-April: ‘Tipping Point for Palestine’ (aka Chris Sutherland).
I find this highly scary and unsettling. How can that very Right wing Government and those western groupings, who support it, live with themselves?
I actually feel desperate for the Palestinians, their fate is in the hands of the US, if the US wanted to stop this persecution of the Palestinians, they could quickly get enough countries to come together, threaten Israel with sanctions, no more trade and no more Arms and billions of dollars in aid BUT they wont, I know I keep repeating myself but I seriously believe that I’m right. The US sees Israel as its Fully Armed Military Base in the Middle East, its strategic position is essential as far as they are concerned.
My suggestion is, we should keep pressing the point, on Social Media, especially on Twitter, where many US politicians have accounts and hopefully they’ll get the message, as more people challenge them on their warmongering position.
Another ‘Nakba’ is possible? NO! It is a never ending process that will continue until all Palestinians are cauterised from ‘the holy land’. There has been blood on the hands of the powerful elites in Britain; USA and Europe for generations, as reflected in the deafening silence of their public relations dept. aka Mainstream Media. The genocide continues to be kept hidden.