Ethnic cleansing attended the birth of Israel but, more than 50 years later, the country is still in denial about its bloody past. Those who speak out risk their jobs.
Behind the turbulent news from Israel, a struggle for historical truth has passed almost unnoticed outside academic circles; yet its wider significance is epic. In May 1948, more than 200 Palestinians were killed by the advancing Jewish militia in the coastal village of Tantura, south of Haifa.
According to the recorded testimony of 40 witnesses, both Arab and Jewish, half the civilians were shot in a “rampage”. The rest were marched to the beach, where the men were separated from the women and children. They were taken to a wall near the mosque where they were shot in the back of the head.
The “cleansing” of Tantura (a term used at the time) was a well-kept secret. When they were interviewed four years ago, several Palestinian witnesses said they feared for their lives if they spoke out. One survivor, who as a child witnessed the murder of his entire family in Tantura, said to the interviewer: “But believe me, one should not mention these things. I do not want them to take revenge against us. You are going to cause us trouble… ”
Trouble yndied. De ûndersiker, in studint mei de namme Teddy Katz, hat syn masterstitel annulearre troch de Haifa University, ek al krige hy in topgraad troch de ôfdieling Midden-Easten. Doe't syn ûndersyk waard iepenbiere yn 'e Israelyske parse, Joadske feteranen fan' e oanfal op Tantura oanklage him foar laster, en ferskate Joadske tsjûgen werom.
Katz had breached the taboo of the ethnic cleansing that gave birth to Israel and which the Palestinians mourn as Nakba – the catastrophe. Without waiting for the case to come to court, the university struck Katz’s name from its honour roll. Whispered to be a traitor, and under pressure from his family and friends, Katz, a devout Zionist who lived on a kibbutz, apologised. Twelve hours later, he retracted his apology.
Professor Ilan Pappe is ien fan 'e pearen dy't alle transkripsjes fan mear dan 60 oeren fan Katz's opname fan eachtsjûge bewiis lêzen hat. "Se omfetsje," skreau hy, "ôfgryslike beskriuwingen fan eksekúsjes, fan it fermoardzjen fan heiten foar bern, fan ferkrêfting en marteling." Hy beskriuwt it proefskrift fan Katz "as in solide en oertsjûgjend stik wurk wêrfan de essensjele jildigens op gjin inkelde manier wurdt bedoarn troch syn tekoarten". De tekoartkommingen, seit er, komme del op fjouwer lytse flaters. Mar it belang fan it Katz-ûndersyk is har ferljochting fan 'e skiednis fan Israel yn termen fan "de ferdriuwing, direkte en yndirekte, fan sa'n 750,000 Palestinen, de systematyske ferneatiging fan mear as 400 doarpen en skoares fan stedske buerts, lykas ek de dieden fan guon 40 bloedbaden fan ûnbewapene Palestinen."
Although other prominent scholars supported Katz, a silence and hostility familiar to those who break academic and political ranks in Israel descended on the case. Since the election of Ariel Sharon last year, this hostility is such that not even national heroes are forgiven. Last month, Yaffa Yarkoni, “Israel’s Vera Lynn”, whose emotional, wistful songs have celebrated Zionist triumphalism from 1948 to the present day, lost her huge popularity overnight when she remarked that Israeli soldiers ought not to be writing numbers on the arms of Palestinians. “Isn’t that what the Germans did?” she asked.
One newspaper headline called her an “enemy of the people”; an editor said she “has joined the new anti-Semites in Europe”. In challenging the Zionist version of Israel’s past, Ilan Pappe is one of Israel’s “new historians”, a distinguished and courageous critic. He has likened the Israeli state to apartheid South Africa, with its Palestinian “bantustans” and plethora of humiliating controls which now restrict the movement of people within their own communities. He says that Sharon’s goal is to begin the mass expulsion of Palestinians across the Jordan; only a pretext is required. According to one poll, 44 per cent of Israelis support this latest “cleansing”, known as “transfer”, another euphemism from the past. In 1948, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding prime minister, wrote, “We have accomplished our settlement by transfer of the [Palestinian] population.”
Net krekt. It begryp fan in "finale oerdracht" wurdt stipe troch in oantal kabinetsleden yn 'e hearskjende Likud-regearing, troch liedende leden fan' e Arbeiderspartij en heechleararen en mediakommentators. "Hiel pear doare it no te feroardieljen", seit Pappe. "In sirkel is sletten. Doe't Israel yn 80 hast 1948 prosint fan Palestina oernaam, die dat troch delsetting en etnyske suvering. It lân hat in minister-presidint dy't in brede publike stipe geniet en dy't mei geweld de takomst fan 'e oerbleaune 20 prosint bepale wol."
No kin it de beurt fan professor Pappe wêze om út de Universiteit fan Haifa te ferdriuwen. Yn in iepen brief dy't twa wike lyn sirkulearre is, skriuwt er dat de dekaan fan 'e ôfdieling humaniora syn útsetting easke hat foar krityk op 'e universiteit oer de saak Katz. Dit rint djipper; Pappe hat in konsekwint tsjinstanner west fan 'e yllegale militêre besetting fan Israel fan Palestina. Hy beskriuwt de universiteit "gerjocht" dat driget te straffen him as in "McCarthyite charade". Hy hat "universiteiten wrâldwiid oproppen om te debattearjen oer in boykot fan Israelyske ynstellingen, sjoen har ferachting foar basisprinsipes fan akademyske frijheid en ûnpassyf ûndersyk". Hy seit dat allinich ynternasjonale skamte, frij fan 'e yntimidaasje dy't krityk op Israel lykstelt mei antysemitisme, de stilte oer "ferskriklike dieden yn 1948 brekke sil, en sa har herhelling foarkomme".
Others in Israel, as courageous as Ilan Pappe, are also under pressure, both crude and insidious. In Ha’eretz, Israel’s equivalent of the Guardian, two outstanding journalists, Amira Hass and Gideon Levy, have consistently reported the unpopular truth about Israel’s occupation of the remaining 22 per cent of the Palestine it conquered in 1967. They live daily with threats and hate mail. Upholding the bravest traditions of Jewish humanity, they need international solidarity. You can support Ilan Pappe, and the cause of justice in both Israel and Palestine, by e-mailing [e-post beskerme]
John Pilger’s latest book, The New Rulers of the World, is newly published by Verso
ZNetwork wurdt allinich finansierd troch de generositeit fan har lêzers.
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