Remembering The Sons Of Eilaboun

[chefranden]

Posted in Lion's Den based on past experience.

 

 

Remembering the Sons of Eilaboun

 

Gilad Atzmon on the truth behind the Zionist project.

 

 

 

The truth of the Nakba has been hidden for many decades. Not many people except the Palestinians are aware of the scale of 1948 ethnic expulsions and even fewer are aware of the atrocities occasionally performed by the nascent Israel Defense Forces (IDF). As a young Israeli pupil I was taught to believe that the “Arabs” (this is what we called them) just run for their lives. We were told that no one forced “them” to do so – they were just a bunch of cowards. We were taught that they are not as attached to the land as we, the Israelis, are. While they fled for their lives without fighting back, we, the “chosens,” schlepped all the way back to Zion after 2,000 years to reclaim “our” historic land.

 

The truth about the hundreds of massacres of Palestinian villagers committed by a young and well-trained enthusiastic IDF was absolutely hidden. There wasn’t even a hint that such a thing took place. We knew of only one massacre, the one in Deir Yassin. We were aware of it because the so-called “left” Israeli leadership used it to vilify their right wing political rivals – namely Menahem Begin who was directly responsible for this very massacre.

 

In the last decade, the horrifying exposure of Israeli brutality in the Nakba has started to filter through. Nowadays we know that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine was an orchestrated operation that was planned well in advance. As we learn in the early Zionist texts, the intention to wipe out the Palestinian existence in the Holy Land was apparent from the very beginning of the movement. The national Jewish aspiration was all about the erection of a Jews-only state in Palestine. The indigenous habitants on the land had to be expelled for the Zionist project to prevail.

 

It is rather obvious that the scale of Israeli atrocities in the Nakba is far from being fully explored. This alone may also explain why many of us tend to believe that Israelis are becoming more and more vicious as time goes by. We tend to believe that Israelis have ethically deteriorated. The truth of the matter is pretty devastating. Israel was born into a colossal sin. The birth of the Jewish state was a tragedy involved with an endless chain of barbarian massacres and other war crimes. As we learn from Hisham Zreiq’s film Sons Of Eilaboun, the first Israelis –the 1948 IDF soldiers – were at least as sinister as their grandsons in Gaza 2009.

 

Sons of Eilaboun is a story of one small village in the Galilee, one village among many. It is a story of one massacre, one massacre among many. It is a story of a small community that is tormented and traumatized for generations. Sons of Eilaboun is, in fact, the story of Palestine.

 

With very minimal means, Zreiq manages to deliver a very deep and authentic reading of Palestinian history. He also manages to portray the intense emotional impact of the Nakba on those who survived the horror. It is a documentation of villagers that were dispossessed and have run for their lives. But it is also an unusual story of a small Palestinian community that managed to return (thanks to UN intervention) only to find out that their houses were looted and they were left with nothing. As if this is not enough they soon found out that Israeli invaders had poked out their beloved brothers’ and sons’ eyes. One may expect that just three years after the liberation of Auschwitz Israelis soldiers would be slightly more compassionate.

 

You better see it to believe it.

 

http://www.adbusters.org/features/eilaboun.html

[hereticzero]

Small wonder why the Palestinians want to destroy the Jewish state. I had read in the past of how the Israelis were the ones who originally began suicide bombings against the British UN peace-keeping force. I do not carry much sympathy for the Jews in Palestine and with both sides bombing each other night and day in which innocent civilians are murdered, I have little sympathy left for Palestinians too. I do wish the rest of the world would pull its collective heads out of their asses and take a hard critical look at what is happening in the mid east.

[pitchu]

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho,

It's Off to Work We Go...

 

Another Thread

Where We're Misled...

 

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho...!

 

Fortunately, Chef, it's been barely four months since you initiated the last knock-down-drag-out on this topic, so I should be able to do my work here simply by resurrecting pertinent posts from that most recent thread. Doesn't this ever get to be a bore for you? Why not just start a thread every four months that consists of links to all the threads you've started on this topic over the last two years?

 

Along with alluding to that little point about how the Palestinians successfully closed the Jews' last exit out of Hitler's Europe, bringing about the annihilation of approximately one million Jews, here's the history of who massacred whom first in the territory that was nobody's nation:

 

* "From late 1919, Arab attacks on Jewish settlements became more frequent and relentless, particularly in the Jordan Valley and the Galilee."

 

* "1920. Three days of rioting in Jerusalem, in which Arab mobs fell upon Jews with sticks, stones and knives. Five Jews and four Arabs were killed and 211 Jews and 21 Arabs were wounded."

 

* "1 March 1920 In an attack by large numbers of Arabs from the village of Halsa, eight Jews were killed ..."

 

* "In April 1920 Arabs rioted against Jews during the Nebi Musa festival."

 

* On May 1st, 1921 “Arabs of Jaffa murderously attacked Jewish inhabitants of the town and Arab raids were made on five Jewish rural settlements. Forty-seven Jews were killed and 146 wounded."

 

* "On May Day, 1921, Arab mobs attacked Jewish residents of Jaffa and stormed the Zionist Immigration Center, killing 13 persons. On the 3rd May Hebrew colonies at Kafr Saba and Ain Hal were looted. On the 5th May the village of Petah Tiqvah was attacked by several thousand armed Arabs in semi-military formation, and was saved from destruction only by the arrival of several squadrons of cavalry. On the 6th May Arabs besieged Haderah and attempted an attack on Rehovoth. In these disorders 47 Jews were killed and 146 wounded, mostly by Arabs, and 48 Arabs were killed and 73 wounded, mostly by police and military action."

 

*"In 1929 general anti-Jewish riots spread throughout Palestine. From August 23rd to the 29th, “murderous attacks were made on the Jews in various parts of the country. The most violent attacks were those against the old established Jewish communities at Hebron and Safed; there were also attacks in Jerusalem and Jaffa and against several Jewish rural settlements. There was little retaliation by Jews, of whom 133 were killed and 339 wounded.”

 

Another account reads, "... Arabs armed with knives and clubs invaded the new city of Jerusalem and began a massacre of the Jews. On the following day more than 60 Jews were killed at Hebron, and in the succeeding days a number of Jewish colonies were attacked. The police had to open fire to prevent outrages in Nablus and Jaffa, and Arabs attacked the Jewish quarter in Safed, killing or wounding 45 persons. In all, 133 Jews were killed and 339 wounded, and six Jewish colonies were destroyed. There were 116 reported Arab deaths, many of them as a result of police and military activities."

 

* "The years 1930 and 1931 saw a series of terrorist murders of Jews. In October 1931, Arab demonstrations and riots directed against the Government, as well as against the Jews, took place in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa and Babes."

 

* “By July [1938] the Arab gangs had become thoroughly organized and their activities co-ordinated. Rebel courts were set up by which many loyal Arabs and a number of Jews who had been abducted were tried and executed in the following months … the Old City of Jerusalem became a rallying point of bandits from which acts of violence, murder, and intimidation were organized and perpetrated freely and with impunity.”

 

* For almost three years (1936-39) there was a general Arab uprising protesting Jewish immigration which resulted in many Jews being murdered and beaten including yet another massacre of 20 Jews in Tiberius.

[edited]

http://www.middleeastpiece.com/palestinianviolence.html

 

This list contains a number of massacres of Jews by the hands of Arabs only between when the UN partition plan was passed (November 29, 1947), and by May 15, 1948. The list is probably incomplete, so updates are welcome (Source: Seth Frantzman, Jerusalem Post Guest Column).

 

December 1947 - Small kibbutzim were subjected to attacks - Gvulot, Ben-Shemen, Holon, Safed, Bat Yam and Kfar Yavetz. Sixty-two Jews were murdered by Arabs around Palestine.

 

December 30, 1947 - 39 Jews were killed by Arab rioters at Haifa’s oil refinery

 

January 16, 1948 - 35 Jews were killed trying to reach Gush Etzion

 

February 22, 1948 - 44 Jews were murdered in a bombing on Jerusalem’s Rehov Ben-Yehuda

 

February 29, 1948 - 23 Jews were killed all across Palestine, eight of them at the Hayotzek iron foundry.

 

January and February 1948 - Rishon Lezion, Yehiam, Mishmar Hayarden, Tirat Zvi, Sde Eliahu, Ein Hanatziv, Magdiel, Mitzpe Hagalil and Ma’anit were all subjected to attacks. Arab attackers also bombedThe Palestine Post

April 13, 1948 - 35 Jew were murdered during the Mount Scopus convoy massacre

 

March and April - Assault on Hartuv by 400 Arabs based in the village of Ishwa and an attack on Kfar Darom by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Jewish Agency, the Solel Boneh building in Haifa and an Egged bus were bombed.

 

May 15, 1948 - 127 Jews were massacred at Kfar Etzion, after 30 others had died defending the Etzion Bloc.

 

During this timespan(November 29, 1947 to May 15, 1948), a total of 1,256 Jews had been killed, most of them civilians. These deaths were caused by Arab militias, gangs, terrorists and army units which attacked every place of Jewish inhabitation in Palestine. During this time, all Jewish villages in the Negev were attacked, and Jews had to go about the country in convoys. In every major city where Jews and Arabs lived in mixed neighborhoods the Jewish areas came under attack. This was true in Haifa’s Hadar Hacarmel as well as Jerusalem’s Old City.

 

The above list does not include Jews killed and synagogues burned in Arab countries during the timespan in question. However, it is known that more than 100 Jews were massacred and synagogues were burned in Aleppo and Aden, driving thousands of Jews from their homes.

 

http://middleeastfacts.com/weblog/israel/a...ws-before-1948/

 

So, do I also have to lift the post from the old thread about how, at this time, all the Arab nations expelled all the Jews who had been living among them as citizens of their lands for generations? About how their homes, properties and possessions were confiscated as they fled?

 

Anything else you want me to cover here?