Hours after writing my last diary entry, I received an email containing an excellent piece from Zochrot, one of the most important, if overlooked, organizations in Israel/Palestine. They do tours and visits to the ruins of destroyed Palestinian villages and neighborhoods in Israel, and work to incorporate the Nakba into Israeli Jewish culture, where it is met with ignorance, if not outright hostility. And with the recent legislation coming through the Knesset, we need all the info we can get on the situation.
Palestinians, who were soon to become refugees to this day, forced to flee their homes in 1948.
The article is titled "A Response to the Proposal to Ban Commemoration of the Nakba on Independence Day" and is written by Eitan Bronstein, the founder and director of Zochrot, and he has given me full permission to repost it here on Dkos (as it is available on Israeli sites in Hebrew only). Here was his verbatim response to my request;
Of course!
Thanks,
איתן ברונשטיין
Eitan Bronstein
עמותת זוכרותZochrot
אבן גבירול 61 ת"א 64362
And it is also posted on Mondoweiss. So, before we get to it, a refresher on Eitan from IMEU (I also have permission from them to repost their material in full);
Eitan Bronstein: Israelis confront Nakba denial
IMEU, Mar 10, 2008
Eitan Bronstein has worked for years to tell a story many do not believe.
The 48-year-old, who moved to Israel with his parents when he was five, founded Zochrot, an organization that raises awareness among Israelis about the Nakba, or "Catastrophe."
"When it comes to the Nakba and what was there before Israel was created, it's a big hole, a black hole and people don't know how to deal with it," he said. "It's perhaps the most important period of our life in this region and it's not really known."
Bronstein and his colleagues at Zochrot work to tell the suppressed story behind Israel's creation. They post signs of the names of the more than 450 Palestinian villages that were destroyed or depopulated when Israel was established in 1948. The work is all in an effort to educate Israelis about the story underneath the lands they live on.
Bronstein says the idea for Zochrot came after the Argentinean native visited Canada Park, an Israeli national forest built on top of four Palestinian villages destroyed during the 1967 War. Bronstein was amazed that the guide's explanation of the Park did not include any mention of this.
"I was surprised to see signs detailing the presence of Jews, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines on the land but no mention of Palestinians who had lived there most recently," he said. "I said to myself that we should come and put signs here. And then I thought why only here? We have to do it all over the country."
Because Zochrot's work challenges the orthodox narrative of Israel's creation, the group faces criticism from many Israeli Jews. Bronstein has received angry letters and threatening phone calls. Yet Bronstein knows that Zochrot is tapping into a current of Israeli society that wants to know the truth about their history. The signs Zochrot puts up are routinely taken down, but there are always more volunteers to replace them.
"What many Israelis know today, they know it's not all lies, but a lot of it is lies," he said. "Many Jews are really interested to know the truth."
For Bronstein it is critical for Israelis to understand and acknowledge what happened to the Palestinians in 1948.
"1948 was the year that constructed relations between Jews and Arabs, that made it okay for Israelis to shoot Arabs in 2000," he said referring to the 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel who were shot and killed by Israeli police during a protest against Israeli practices in the Occupied Territories. "You can't understand what happened in 2000 without understanding the Nakba. Anyone who understands what happened in 1948 cannot continue to be blind."
And here's a video with Eitan
Program Description: Eitan Bronstein of the Jewish Israeli group, Zochrot, and Muhammad Jaradat of the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugees' Rights, present "Acknowledging the Past; Imagining the Future: Israelis and Palestinians on 1948 and the Right of Return."
And without further delay, the article in question; enjoy!
A Response to the Proposal to Ban Commemoration of the Nakba on Independence Day
The proposal to legally bar the commemoration of the Nakba on Israel's Independence Day reflects growing trepidation in Israel about the inevitable encounter with the Palestinian Nakba and the understanding that the Nakba is a foundational part of Israeli identity. Until recently, the threat of exposing the Nakba was barely felt. There was no need to fight this repressed demon, which might suddenly reveal itself and disrupt the seeming calm of a harmonious Jewish democracy. But the Nakba is not a demon, not the fruit of deceptive imagination, and therefore we should not underestimate the challenge facing Israeli society: to recognize Israel's part in the expulsion of most of the Palestinian inhabitants of the land in 1948, the destruction of most of their localities (upwards of five hundred), the annihilation of urban Palestinian culture, and tens of massacres, rapes, incidents of looting, and dispossession. Looking into so dark a mirror takes courage and maturity, demonstrated in the research of such scholars as Morris, Gelber, Milstein, Khalidi, Pappe, and others, as well as in the diaries of Netiva Ben Yehuda and Yosef Nahmani.
It is not surprising that the "appropriate Zionist response," to inscribe the forgetting of this human horror into law, comes from the circles of the political right-wing. They have always been more sincere in their racist attitudes toward Arabs in Israel, compared to the Left, which marketed to the world and to us its honest (yet illusory) longing for peace.
More than eighty years ago, it was clear to Jabotinsky, the leader of the historic Right and perhaps the most realistic Zionist thinker, that the establishment of the Jewish state required citizens to be forever soldiers under the protection of the "Iron Wall." Jabotinsky understood that a Zionist existence depended upon violent strength, on killing and being killed in a predominantly Arab region that would never accept them. A year ago his student, Tzipi Livni, suggested that Palestinians remove the word ‘Nakba’ from their lexicon as part of a comprehensive peace deal. Our current Prime Minister announced during his recent campaign that he would expunge the Nakba from educational curricula (since when has the Nakba been taught anyway?) and would order the teaching of Jabotinsky’s legacy.
The Greek philosopher Thrasymachus taught us that "the law is what is good for the stronger," but no law, not even that of the democratic Jewish Knesset, can erase the horrors of history. Traces of these horrors will always be visible, in both personal and collective memory and forgetfulness. In Israel, the sabras, prickly cactus bushes, have become vivid and thorny monuments of the Palestinian Nakba. This obstinate plant was brought by the Palestinians from Mexico to mark and defend their territory. The sabra not only persists in the landscape long after Israel expelled those who planted it, it also grows wild despite attempts to eradicate it. Perhaps, in response, the Israeli government should make it unlawful to eat its fruit?
At the same time, remembrance of the Nakba is growing and takes root in the deepening fissures in the Iron Wall. The Palestinian refugees – the majority of Palestinians are, indeed, refugees – have mourned the Nakba from the moment it occurred and demand justice. After the Oslo Accords, when they realized their concerns would be pushed aside indefinitely, they began to struggle effectively against the worldwide disregard for their tragedy. However, the proposed law to forget the Nakba is in actuality a response to cultural shifts in Jewish-Israeli society to coping with this disaster. The real threat to the colonialist Iron Wall occurs as the majority of its soldiers refuse to obey the commandment not to remember. In the last few years, hundreds of Jews in Israel (and around the world) have participated in events commemorating the Nakba during Israel's Independence Day. In recent years hundreds of Israelis have turned to Zochrot – an organization working to bring the Nakba to the consciousness of Jews in Israel – to request information on the topic. Journalists, writers, architects, as well as people in film, television, and theater who grew up on the good old stories of Israel seek to discover their repressed past. Educators are requesting the educational packet on the Nakba developed by Zochrot. Soldiers from the Palmach are turning to Zochrot towards the end of their lives to share stories of what they did and saw in 1948.
Who knows, maybe the day is not far off when the choice at the center of the political debate will be the State of Israel as it is today versus recognition of the Nakba and the right of return of the Palestinian refugees. When this day comes, the citizens of Israel will be able to choose between two clear visions: separation and perpetual violence versus a life of equality for all the country's residents and refugees. To hurry this day forward, maybe we should make up another Hebrew word: "de-colonization."
Eitan Bronstein
Zochrot
Translation: Yuval Orr (and Talia Fried)
Tel Aviv, May 2009
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I reserve the right to engage mainly with those that engage with me in a civil, decent fashion, as I always welcome discussion of this diary.
Those who come here simply to engage in HR abuse and personal attacks or leave racist remarks will be either ignored or given a non-response (such as a youtube clip, a recipe, poetry, or simply a blank response). Even better, I'll do my best to ignore such bile altogether. And any abusive and offensive comments regarding my handle will also not be tolerated and will be dealt with in the aforementioned manner.
I do not tolerate such behavior towards others, and I certainly do not tolerate it towards myself.
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after confering with Eitan Bronstein, a correction was made; the phrase "Jewish existence" was changed to "Zionist existence," which is a more correct reference to the ideas of Jabotinsky.