Unsettling 1948 – the nakba revisited
JVL Introduction
A recently published book by on the 1948 war, reviewed here by Josh Ruebner, throws valuable new insight into the hidden complexities of that conflict.
Among other things, the author Shay Hazkani exposes Ashkenazi racism towards Moroccan Jewish soldiers, as well as revealing the tensions between the Arab League Army (ALA) and those of the indigenous Palestinians.
When all is said and done, this account reinforces the view that there never was any genocidal intent on the part of the ALA to “throw the Jews into the sea” nor any encouragement by them for Palestinians to leave their homes. Quite the contrary.
It also reveals “disturbing, blood-curdling calls to genocide in the indoctrination materials produced by the Israeli military”.
[updated 27 June]
This article was originally published by Mondoweiss on Thu 24 Jun 2021. Read the original here.
Unsettling 1948: A Review of Shay Hazkani’s ‘Dear Palestine’
Shay Hazkani’s “Dear Palestine” is an incredibly valuable contribution that uses meticulous archival research to upend our understanding of the 1948 war.
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The secret history of colonialism is replete with stories of unimaginable cruelty. Inevitably, in the interests of constructing a sanitized history, much of it gets suppressed or erased, but when a great body of ordinary people is caught up in events of this magnitude, enough accounts survive to give us an idea of what really occurred.
I remember a Jewish friend telling me that the story of 1948 – the founding of Israel – was a great modern miracle, an unfolding of God’s masterplan, not just for the Jews but for the whole of humanity. For the sake of our common humanity it is essential that such dangerous notions are subjected to a cold bath of reality. Ethnic cleansing, genocide, the oppression of one people by another: if we allow such abuses to be covered up, validated and perpetuated by a deceptive coating of heroism and religiosity, we will all have to suffer the consequences.