The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948 when
between 107 and 120 Palestinian Arabs, predominantly
old men, women and children living in the village of
Deir Yassin (transliterated Hebrew: Dirat HaYasmin)
near Jerusalem in the British Mandate of Palestine were
murdered by Jewish Irgun-Lehi force. It occurred while
Yishuv forces fought to break the siege of Jerusalem
during the period of civil war that preceded the end
of the Mandate. Contemporary reports gave an
initial estimate of 250 killed. These had a considerable impact on the conflict and became a major
cause of the Arab civilian flight from Palestine.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported today that Israel would
deny entry to Richard Falk, appointed by the UN Human
Rights Council to investigate human rights violations by
Israel. Falk is apparently persona non grata in Israel for
comments he made comparing Israel to the Nazis.
We all know Israel does not take to criticism well but it
is most livid when it comes to any reference to the
Holocaust. Is it possible that Israel’s radical response
is simply a reaction to the fact that Falk’s comments hit
too close to home?
It was not long ago that a member of Israel’s highest
political echelons made an offensive comment that could
only be construed as a direct reference to the Holocaust.
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said last
February that Palestinians could face a bigger “shoah”
[the Hebrew word for Holocaust] if the rocket attacks on
Israeli territory did not cease.
Of course, Israel mopped up its media mess almost
immediately after it was spilled, saying shoah actually
means disaster and was not necessarily synonymous
with Holocaust. However, the comparison was not lost
on anyone and the statement begged the question of why
an Israeli official would handpick this word to use in
reference to the Palestinians.
The truth is that while the events of the Holocaust are
horrific beyond imagination, Israel has systematically
continued to persecute the Palestinians over the past
half century through utilizing methods of oppression
also extremely horrific. Coincidence would have it that
the same day Israel’s statements on Richard Falk were
released, Palestinians marked the anniversary of the
massacre of Deir Yassin.
On April 9, 1948 the Stern and Irgun gangs entered the
Palestinian village of Deir Yassin and massacred 100 men,
women and children. The attack, one of many carried out
by Jewish gangs in Israel’s bid to create a Jewish state in
Palestine, was also one of the most horrendous. Several
weeks before the end of the British Mandate, the Zionist
movement was in full force, scrambling to take over as
much Palestinian territory around Jerusalem as possible.
Following the massacre, which was carefully planned, Zionist
leaders justified the attack saying Deir Yassin had become a
meeting point for Arabs planning to attack the western
suburbs of Jerusalem already in Jewish hands.
The fact that over 100 people were killed in cold blood,
dozens of children orphaned and made homeless and still
other men carted out to a stone quarry following the
bloodbath only to face their death by firing squad, did not
seem to faze the Zionist leadership one bit.
Deir Yassin was, unfortunately not an isolated incident.
Jewish gangs, particularly the Haganah, Irgun and Stern
gangs, systematically shot and bombed several Palestinian
villages and locations prior to the establishment of Israel in
May that year, while the official Israeli army took on the
gruesome duty after the state’s creation. While several
massacres were later documented, some of the most
appalling include the Kufr Qassem massacre on October
29, 1956 in which nearly 50 villagers, mostly farmers
coming in from their fields to meet an Israeli imposed
curfew were gunned down by awaiting officers. One
commanding officer even yelled to his soldiers to “reap
them” before fire was opened on the unknowing farmers.
On November 3, 1956, Israeli troops entered and occupied
the Gaza Strip city and adjacent refugee camp of Khan
Younis, ostensibly on reports of “resistance groups.”
Later reports would verify that all the victims were
unarmed civilians, many who were killed from gunshot
wounds to the back while their hands were tied in front
of them. According to a subsequent UNRWA investigation,
Israeli army soldiers killed 275 Khan Younis residents
that day.
The list is undoubtedly too long to cover here. However, the
point that must be made is that Israel has, for too long, been
immune to international scrutiny for the obvious atrocities it
has and continues to commit. When Richard Falk made his
statement comparing Israel to the Nazis, he was referring to
Israel’s actions in Gaza, which he said was comparable to the
Nazis because of their collective nature.
"If this kind of situation had existed, for instance, in the
manner in which China was dealing with Tibet or the
Sudanese government was dealing with Darfur I think
there'd be no reluctance to make that comparison,"
Falk said in a BBC interview. He was also quoted as
saying that Israel has been unfairly shielded from
international criticism. To add to his credibility, it
should be noted that not only is Falk professor emeritus
of international law at Princeton University,
he is also Jewish.
So, why is it that Israel is so immune to international
scrutiny, even when its own officials slip up and admit
to a possible Holocaust against the Palestinians? Why
can Israel kill hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza over
the course of a few weeks and justify them in the name
of Israeli security?
Surely there are several factors that come into play, but
no doubt the Holocaust, in all of its horrendousness, is a
major component in Israel’s invisible shield against any
condemnation of its behavior, which would have elicited
international sanctions or even war if perpetrated by
another country.
Israel has ingeniously wrapped itself in the protective
blanket of eternal victimization as a result of the
Holocaust and has, deliberately, fashioned out of this
blanket an equally eternal immune system, which
protects it from any outside criticism. That is why
when Matan Vilnai made such a hateful statement,
the world did not react like it should have. This
listlessness on the part of the international community
is basically an acute fear of being called an anti-Semetic
or a Holocaust-denier or whatever other preposterous
name-calling Israel uses as a means of diverting attention
away from its brutality against the Palestinians. It is all
right for Vilnai to say the Palestinians could expect a
holocaust but it is completely unacceptable for a renowned
UN official to draw any comparisons between Israel and
the Nazi regime?
For Israel, the comparison is simply too close for comfort.
Just like the Jewish ghettos in Europe in the 1940s, Israel
is confining Palestinians in the West Bank to similar cantons.
Palestinians are persecuted, killed and oppressed on the
sole basis of their identity. Israel does not have gas
chambers, thank God. But it does have 500-pound bombs
that it drops on apartment buildings and kills whole families
at a time. It has carried out massacres like Deir Yassin and
Kufr Qassem with impunity. Surely, some form of comparison
is warranted.
The wall surrounding the Qalandiya Checkpoint is full of
graffiti and artwork. Some show the wall with a huge gap,
the bright blue sky on the other side. There is only one
spray-painted phrase Israel would not allow. It is no
coincidence that the chilling slogan of Nazi concentration
camps during World War II “Arbeit Macht Frei”
[Work shall set you free] was painted over almost as
quickly as it went up. Apparently, Falk was not the
only one to see the similarities.
Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and
Information Programme at the Palestinian Initiative
for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
(MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mip@miftah.org .
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