The 59-Year Catastrophe

Al-Nakba

By SONJA KARKAR
CounterPunch

".......The Palestinian al-Nakba has been extensively researched and documented by Israeli scholars whose works add weight to the Palestinians' own narrative. UCLA history professor Professor Gabriel Piterberg says "There's no question that there was substantial expulsion in 1948. I call it ethnic cleansing, and I am not the only Israeli to do so. People were removed from their homes, massacred, raped and lost their property on the basis of ethnic belonging . . . because they were Palestinian-Arabs." Israeli Professor Ilan Pappe is another academic who has recently written an eye-opening book on the subject ­ "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine". Lest anyone think that this has no relevance today, there is good precedence for remembering the victims of crimes against humanity. Jewish Holocaust museums, films and books are still proliferating around the world with no suggestion being made of laying the past to rest after more than 60 years. Remembering al-Nakba for the Palestinians is as important to them as remembering the Holocaust is for the Jews. The only difference is that the Palestinian refugees are a living reminder not only of Israel's past crimes, but of the crimes Israel is carrying out today. It is time to end the catastrophe."