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[Big_Bird]

Ilan Pappe, a well known Israeli historian, has a new book out. It looks worth a butcher's...

The ethnic cleansing of Palestine

In this controversial new book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Ilan Pappe uses recently declassified archival sources to investigate the fate suffered by the indigenous population of 1940s Palestine at the hands of the Zionist political and military leadership, whose actions led to the mass deportation of over a million Palestinians from their cities and villages, over 400 villages wiped from the map, and hundreds of civilians dead.

Exploring both the planning and the execution of the Jewish operations during the British Mandate period and the run-up to independence, Pappe focuses in particular on the activities of the Hagana, the Irgun, and the Palmach. Drawing on such meticulously-researched documents as the minutes from meetings of Ben-Gurion�s unofficial "war cabinet" as well as the personal diaries and memoirs of a large number of key officials in all sectors of the Jewish leadership of the day, Pappe pieces together and re-examines the attitudes and motivations that influenced the conduct of the Jewish community towards the indigenous population. He goes on to offer a detailed account of the events of 1947-8 that eventually led to one of the biggest refugee migrations in modern history. This is no moral rant against the past, but a passionate plea to acknowledge the Nakba, as Palestinians call the catastrophe that befell them in 1948, as the root cause of the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict.

Many political commentators and historians trace the roots of the recent stages of the conflict back only so far as Israel�s occupation of the West Bank following the 1967 war, rightly regarding the occupation, the settlements and the Security Barrier as a violation of international law.

The first and second Intifadas may be seen as protests against the continuing occupation and a reflection of the deep despair of the Palestinians, who feel they have been severely let down by their own leaders, by Israel, by Arab states, by the United Nations, and by western powers.

Pappe argues persuasively, however, that the continued denial of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 and the consequent dispossession of a million native Palestinians from their homeland represents a gross injustice that requires redress. The refusal to acknowledge this event, and allow those dispossessed the right of return to their ancestral lands and homes, are not only an abuse of their human rights, but a rejection from the peace process of the essential foundation for a lasting peace in the Middle East and beyond.

To read more click here

[Junior]

What has been the situation for Christians in Israel/Palestine?

In the last census conducted by the British mandatory authorities in 1947, there were 28,000 Christians in Jerusalem. The census conducted by Israel in 1967 (after the Six Day War) showed just 11,000 Christians remaining in the city. This means that some 17,000 Christians (or 61%) left during the days of King Hussein's rule over Jerusalem. Their place was filled by Muslim Arabs from Hebron.

During the British mandate period, Bethlehem had a Christian majority of 80%. Today, under Palestinian rule, it has a Muslim majority of 80%. Few Christians remain in the Palestinian-controlled parts of the West Bank. Those who can - emigrate, and there will soon be virtually no Christians in the Palestinian Authority controlled areas. The Palestinian Authority is trying to conceal the fact of massive Christian emigration from areas under its control.

- from PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS (Prime Minister's Office ) November, 1997

As a result of unceasing persecution, the Christians are forced to behave like any oppressed minority which aims to survive. Christians in PA-controlled areas have taken to praying in secret. The wisdom of survival compels them to assess the "balance of fear", according to which they have nothing to fear from Israel but face an existential threat from the Palestinian Authority and their Muslim neighbours.

They act accordingly: they seek to "find favour" through unending praise and adulation for the Muslim ruler together with public denunciations of the "Zionist entity."

- Middle East Digest - Nov/Dec 1997

Time magazine (April 23, 1990): "After years of relative harmony, friction between Christians and their fellow-Arabs [in the disputed territories] has intensified sharply with the rise of Muslim fundamentalism." (Time went on to cite various examples of Muslims pressuring Christian Arabs).

The Jerusalem Post (May 2, 1991): "Muslim activists have been trying to convert Bethlehem, home of some of Christianity's holiest sites and once predominantly Christian, into a Muslim town. In contrast to the world-wide fuss over the purchase of a hostel in Jerusalem's 'Christian Quarter' by Jews, this steady and often violent encroachment has met with a thunderous silence in the Christian world. The pattern of increased violence has been unmistakable. Last December 21, a school for nuns was torched. During the first week in March, there was an attempt to break through the wall of the Carmelite monastery, followed by a break-in at a Christian school. On March 3 vandals desecrated Bethlehem's Greek Orthodox cemetery, removing crosses and disinterring and mutilating corpses ..."

La Terra Sancta (A Vatican publication, dated 1991): "The Christians are abandoning the Middle East ... [although] the Jewish presence has alarmed the Arabs ... more than anything else, the commercial, cultural and technological contacts of recent years have caused a confrontation between Western civilisation and Middle Eastern culture, or, as is commonly known, Islamic culture against Judeo-Christian."

The Jerusalem Post (May 6, 1994): In April 1994, Israel's Hebrew press reported that Christian Arabs had accused activists of Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO of harassing Franciscan nuns in the Aida convent near Bethlehem. One nun described as a "reign of terror" the behaviour of the activists, who allegedly regularly invaded the convent, vandalised graves, destroyed equipment and painted graffiti.

CNN (December 20, 1995): "Today, Bethlehem is a predominantly Muslim town. At Friday prayers, they spill into Manger Square [the traditional site of Jesus' birth], so crowded are the mosques. Christians complain they're publicly harassed and harangued for their faith. The Christian cemetery has been desecrated and vandalised ... this Christian boy said the Muslims are fascists, bad people. Muslim families of 10 and 12 children leave smaller Christian families awash in an Islamic sea, afraid they will be overwhelmed by the refugee camps and Muslim villages around Bethlehem. Many of the town's Christians are afraid to talk openly now."

The Times (London, December 22, 1997): "Life in [PA-ruled] Bethlehem has become insufferable for many members of the dwindling Christian minority. Increasing Muslim-Christian tensions have left some Christians reluctant to celebrate Christmas in the town at the heart of the story of Christ's birth".

http://www.sullivan-county.com/z/christians.htm

The plight of Christians in the Islamicized land of "Palestine" today.

Arafat's Islamo-fascist storm troopers have shown nothing but contempt for Christians and their holy sites � particularly in the last five or six years.

In 1997, Arafat turned the Greek Orthodox monastery in Bethlehem into his own personal residence during visits to that city. The same year, the Palestine Liberation Organization seized Abraham's Oak Russian Holy Trinity Monastery in Hebron, evicting monks and nuns.

When the Arab uprising of September 2000 began, Arafat's Tanzim terrorist forces chose the Christian town of Beit Jala as an outpost from which its snipers shot at Jerusalem. They hid themselves in Christian homes, hotels, schools and churches so that return fire from Israel would rain death and destruction on Christians.

Last year, about 150 armed PA terrorists took over Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, holding 40 Christian clergy and nuns hostage, while firing out at surrounding Israeli forces. Rather than risk the lives of the captives and the destruction of the historic church, Israel negotiated the release of the terrorists � but the church was irreparably scarred. The terrorists stole gold, prayer books, crosses and anything else that was not nailed down.

About the same time, Palestinian terrorists took over St. Mary's Church in Bethlehem, holding a priest and several nuns against their will. Again, the terrorists used the church to fire out at Israeli troops, who were ordered not to fire on the Christian church.

Even in Jerusalem, where Israel permits the Palestinian Authority-appointed Waqf autonomy over the Temple Mount, Christians as well as Jews are prohibited from entering the site holy to both faiths.

Christian cemeteries are defaced in the areas under control by the PA. Anti-Christian graffiti, such as "First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people," is commonplace. Christian businesses are burned. Christian women are raped. There is no legal recourse for the victims in this budding Islamic state.

As far back as 1997, the London Times observed: "Life in Bethlehem has become insufferable for many members of the dwindling Christian minorities. Increasing Muslim-Christian tensions have left some Christians reluctant to celebrate Christmas in the town at the heart of the story of Christ's birth."

As a result of the intimidation, the harassment and the persecution of Christians in "Palestine," Christians are fleeing for their very lives. They are abandoning their homes, their churches and their businesses.

This is the stark truth of the Arab and Muslim occupation of what were formerly Christian towns in Judea and Samaria.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31285

[ddeubel]

Will have to give you a new name...

Edward Scissorhands....

I love your sources. Hate and Hate and more hate and intellects without any intellect and just spouting, " we are righteous." however they wrap it.

Quit it with such suspect articles of hate and dissention......or better, sharpen and better use those hands of yours...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/ Tabloid internet at its best. All they need is a little more tittie and 3rd page stuff and the crossword for dummies..

DD

[Junior]

Christians dissapearing from palestine. Those that can emigrate, do. Why would that be, Ddeubel? Any thoughts?

Palestinian demographics statistics
http://www.rfcnet.org/beth/maps.html

Palestinian treatment of Christians
http://www.theprismgroup.org/articles/palestinian_treatment_of_christian_arabs.html

Life at Islams cutting edge:

*Millions of black Africans have been killed, wounded, raped, enslaved and displaced by Jihadis in Sudan, Mauritania, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria.
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=371768

[Atassi]

Sorry Big Bird that your thread was hijacked. Thanks for the info about the book. Many Israeli historians have written similar accounts, despite the death threats they receive in Israel. They are brave souls.

[thepeel]

If the Israeli war machine is 'cleansing' them, will you be supposed to know that the single largest killer of "Palestinians" is other muslisms? Will you be posting about them?

Or, do we only worry about dead people if it is a Jew or American involved?

You are a cog, big Bird. Your little mind has been corrupted.

The Jew WERE cleansed. Not, the Jews ARE cleansing.

Big difference.

[ChuckECheese]

The ethnic cleansing of Palestine

It seems they are better at cleansing themselves with AK-47's. Watch the CNN. It's like watching old western movie. Highly entertaining and just love it.

[bucheon bum]