By Dr Firoz Osman
As Nakba Day is commemorated annually on May 15, it is extremely important to provide both a historical as well as contemporary account of the tragic events that marked the catastrophe that befell Palestine in 1948, and continues to this day.
In order to gain an understand of the Nakba, MRN’s Dr Firoz Osman provides detailed responses to a series of questions usually posed by media.
It is hoped that the background and context provided by him, will not only assist in gaining knowledge of the Nakba, but also ensure that the Palestinian narrative is kept alive.
Question 1: What does Nakba Day represent historically, and why is it still significant today?
Answer:
Moshe Dayan: ‘There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.”
May 15 marks the anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948; the year Israel was created, from the rib of terrorism , and it is the year that marks the dispossession and the expulsion of three-quarters of a million Palestinians and the destruction of more than 500 villages and localities.
Nearly two-thirds of 1,2 million Palestinians were displaced, rendering them refugees. There is a United Nations Resolution that only 150,000 Arabs remained in Israel at the Nakba’s end.
In 1948, the Zionists did not merely evict the Palestinians from their homes and lands; they also launched a campaign of terror. In the period from 1948 to 1950, the Zionists – both terror gangs like Irgun and Haganah and regular army units – committed more than 70 massacres resulting in the murder of at least 15 000 Palestinians.
Especially gruesome was the massacre in the village of Deir Yasin on 9 April 1948.
Menachem Begin, who was head of the Irgun gang at the time, and later became the prime minister of Zionist Israel, (and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient!) led the attack and proudly wrote in his book, The Revolt, that if there had been no massacre at Deir Yasin, there would be no Israel.
Begin went on to write:
‘Meanwhile, the Haganah was carrying out successful attacks on other fronts … The Arabs began fleeing in panic, shouting “Deir Yasin”.’
Begin’s Irgun gang murdered 254 women, children, and the elderly. There were also pregnant women among them whose bellies were ripped open and their bodies dumped in the village well.
Israeli cabinet minister Aharon Cizling wrote:
‘When they entered a town and forcibly removed the rings from the fingers and jewellery from someone’s neck, that’s a very grave matter … many were guilty of it.’
In July 1948, Ben Gurion gave orders for the operations in Lydda and Ramleh: ‘Expel them!’ he told Yigal Allon and Yitzhak Rabin. This section was censored out of Rabin’s memoirs, but published thirty years later in the New York Times. (Yitzhak Rabin was the prime minister of Israel from 1992-1995.)
In the town of Jish in Galilee, Israeli soldiers pillaged Arab houses and, when the residents protested, took them to a remote location and shot them dead.
Ilan Pappe writes: ‘It took six months to complete the operation [the ethnic cleansing of Palestine]. When it was over, more than half of Palestine’s native population, close to 800,000 people, had been uprooted, 531 villages had been destroyed, and eleven urban neighbourhoods emptied of their inhabitants.’
The plan decided upon on 10 March 1948, and above all its systematic implementation in the following months, was a clear-cut case of an ethnic cleansing operation, regarded under international law the fingers and jewellery from someone’s neck, that’s a very grave matter … many were guilty of it.’
Refugees number over 10 million today. And this is the day that we commemorate the great injustice done to the Palestinian people.
Question 2: How do you interpret the current situation in Gaza in relation to the Nakba?
Answer:
There is an Arabic term Istamir which means uninterrupted, lasting, perpetual.
The Nakba is not merely an event that occurred in 1947/48. Palestinians face it on a daily basis in their homes, schools, villages, towns, and in the field and lands. For Palestinians every day is a Nakba because the original theft of the land continues to this day with new housing demolitions, land theft, and killings.
In Gaza, They are raining military explosives on top of a giant concentration camp packed full of children while deliberately starving the entire civilian population to death.
Can u imagine exploding the equivalent of 6 atomic bombs over a tiny strip measuring 365 square kilometers!
Nearly 200,000 people murdered, 70%of them women and children, 90% buildings destroyed, hospitals, schools, mosques, ambulances, water and sanitation infrastructure,
And we are witnessing this horrific destruction and devastation live 24/7 on our screens.
And still Hamas and Islamic Jihad resist!
Remember, they are facing the strongest military power in the region, backed by the strongest global military powers.
Question 3: What has been the International community’s response to the escalating crisis?
Answer:
Seven years ago on May 14, 2018, Donald Trump officially moved the US embassy to Jerusalem defying the Arab and Muslim world as well as international law including Security Council resolutions dating back to 1980, which explicitly do not recognize occupied East Jerusalem as part of the Zionist regime.
Arab and Muslim leaders said then that this move was a red line and will not be without consequences. Sadly today such rulers and governments are head over heels giving Trump hundreds of billions of dollars and red carpet treatment in the midst of a genocide that was aided, abetted and financed by the US.
Sadly it reflects an abundance of hypocrisy and cowardice, as well as betrayal of principles and utter lack of courage by them.
Germany, Britain, France- all of them give financial, military and diplomatic support to Israel.
In 2018, Trump declared that close ally Saudi Arabia and its king would not last “for two weeks” without US military support at a rally in Mississippi on Tuesday.
“We protect Saudi Arabia. Would you say they’re rich? And I love the king, King Salman. But I said ‘King – we’re protecting you – you might not be there for two weeks without us – you have to pay for your military,’” the president said to cheers at the rally.
The Saudi regime has banned any and all kind of support for Gaza, even wearing a kuffiyeh.
They even arrest Palestinians or imams expressing criticism of Israel or the West.
Arabs countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Emirates who have normalized with Israel are actively aiding and abetting the genocide against the Palestinians. About 3000 food and fuel trucks are outside the Rafah border, blocked by them.
Other Arab countries Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, have been supportive of the Palestinians, but Ansarullah of Yemen stand out among them.
Their misslies have terrified the Zionists.
South Africa, Latin America, Maldives, Mauritania
a few countries have expressed their support for South Africa or joined its case at The Hague, such as Nicaragua, Colombia, Libya, Belgium, Turkey and Ireland.
Civil society, Students, Unions and human rights advocates have advocated support for BDS.
Question 4: How important is public remembrance and advocacy on Nakba Say?
Answer:
Israel is the last Apartheid outpost in the world.
Israel is an Occupying Power. It has violated International Conventions, committed crimes against Humanity and now Genocide.
In addition to killing and maiming innocent Palestinians for over 77 years, it has invaded many other countries destabilizing the region and the world.
A decolonised entity in Palestine/Israel would be a major step in the decolonisation of the world order itself and its liberation from US and Western and American -led imperial power.
As much as the US needs a settler-colonial Israel to stave off its decline, the world, particularly the Global South, needs a de-
colonised Palestine to hasten US decline. Palestine, not just metaphorically but literally, stands in the way of US and Western imperialism’s onward march towards continued global supremacy.
Question 5: What role can South Africans and civil society play in supporting the Palestinian struggle?
Answer:
South Africa has displayed enormous courage at great risk to the country, by taking the historic step to charge Israel at the Hague, at the international court of Justice, on the charge of genocide.
The ICC has also charged Netanyahu and Galant and issued wardants of arrest.
South African Civil Society must continue its protest against the Zionist Apartheid entity, and their supporters, not only the United States of America, Germany, and France, but also the collaborators in the Muslim world, the Emirates, Egyptians, Jordanians, and the Saudis.
We must not entertain or allow their representatives to speak to us in our mosques because it is in that way that they will pressure their puppet and corrupt regimes to change their attitude towards the Palestinian and against Israel.
We also need to pressurize government to shut down Israeli embassy completely.
We need to pressurize national prosecuting authority, the NPA, to prosecute South African Zionists, who go to Israel as soldiers actively committing crimes of genocide.
We need to further pressurize government to stop the private sector from supplying coal to Israel that’s fueling the genocide in Gaza.
I think it’s time to derecognize the Palestinian Authority, which is complicit with Zionist in their intelligence and security cooperation in suppressing the Palestinians.
The Messenger of Allaah (pbuh) said, “Whoever among you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand (by taking action); if he cannot, then with his tongue (by speaking out); and if he cannot, then with his heart (by at least hating it and believing that it is wrong), and that is the weakest of faith.” Saheeh Muslim.
Dr Firoz Osman
MEDIA REVIEW NETWORK
Cell +27823376976
email firozosman@yahoo.com
Firoz Osman is a medical doctor by profession and a highly-respected South African commentator on the Zionist occupation of Palestine. A founding member and executive member of Media Review Network, he has a special interest in Palestinian political and resistance movements, Zionism, and Islamophobia
