1948 and the Anglo–Saxim: on Western involvement in expulsion of the Palestinians – Mondoweiss

11.5.18

1948 and the Anglo–Saxim: on Western involvement in expulsion of the Palestinians – Mondoweiss: For people concerned about Palestine, the 70th anniversary of 1948 is an important time to reflect. The devastation produced too many grim landmarks to commemorate them all–hundreds of villages destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people driven from their lands. Yet some dates stand out. One is today. What happened in the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948, was the most infamous massacre of the war. Members of two right-wing Zionist militias, the Irgun and the Stern Gang, entered the village around dawn. They proceeded to carry out a massacre which they themselves then helped to publicize. Panic, they apparently judged, would be a useful force in clearing Palestine of its population.

Memories of Deir Yassin need to be kept alive. But it was no isolated incident. I want to connect it with Rabin’s live-fire order of July 19 for two reasons. First, because it’s past time to pop the bubble of liberal Zionist sensitivities. Yes, the legacy of 1948 is one of open brutality, as at Deir Yassin; but it’s also one of forgotten atrocities–of massacres denied, dismissed, covered up. Our memories of each need to intermingle. Palestinians were forced into Gaza, for example, mainly through the decisions of labor Zionist leaders. There’s no Zionist golden age to return to.