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Israel’s Creation and Ethnic Cleansing: The 1948 Palestine War, which led to the creation of Israel left Palestinian society leaderless, disorganized, and scattered. More than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs –about half of prewar Palestine’s Arab population— fled from their homes or were expelled by Zionist militias during this war.
The exodus, known as Nakba, was the central component of the fracturing, dispossession, and displacement of Palestinian society. Around 400 to 600 Palestinian villages were destroyed. In a biological warfare programme, village wells were poisoned, and properties were looted to prevent Palestinian refugees from returning. About 80 percent of the Arab inhabitants of what became Israel left or were expelled from their homes.
About 250,000-300,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled during the 1947-1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, before the declaration of independence by Israel in May 1948. Causes of Palestinian mass exodus are many such as destruction of Arab villages, Jewish military advances, psychological warfare, fears of yet another massacre by Zionist militias after the Deir Yassin massacre, direct expulsion orders by Israeli authorities, fear of losing everything by wealthier classes, typhoid epidemic in some areas caused by Israeli well-poisoning, total collapse in Palestinian leadership, Arab evacuation orders and unwillingness to live under Jewish control.
Later on, the Israeli government passed a series of land and property laws that prevented Arabs who had fled, from returning to their ancestral homes or claiming their properties. They and many of their descendants remain refugees still and are not allowed back into Palestine while since its founding, any Jewish person can come and settle in Israel.
Israel has been a criminal state bent on destroying the very existence of Palestinian people. America and the western countries call Israel “a democracy”! It is a laughable lie. Israel is not a democracy. It is an apartheid nation. It treats its own Palestinian citizens as third-class citizens. Most of their rights as citizens are denied to them.
U.S. Aid: United States has given Israel some $317.9 billion as combined military and economic aid since World War-II plus around $10 billion additionally in contributions for missile defense systems like the Iron Dome, as per usafacts.org and U.S. News analysis. This means Israel is the highest recipient of U.S. aid. United States gave $3.8 billion in 2020, $3.31 billion in 2021 and $4.8 billion in 2022 to Israel. Briefly, U.S. has doled out $3 billion to $4 billion a year in military aid during the past decade and a half. Israel is the highest recipient of America’s total foreign aid programme. In per capita terms, the United States gives each Israeli a direct subsidy worth about $500 per year, every year. Mind you, Israel is not a poor country.
Adjusted for inflation in 2022 dollars. Data for 2020–2022 is partially completed. Source: US Agency for International Development
As per Forbes Magazine, Israel is among the top 20 global economies in GDP per capita. In other words, Israel’s economy is similar to those of Europe. While America doles out 3 to 4 billion dollars to Israel year after year, around 11.4% of Americans are below poverty line. According to usafacts.org, 33.98 million Americans were in poverty in 2019, 16.1 percent of children under the age of 6 were in poverty in 2021, 10.5 percent of households were food-insecure and 582,462 people including 106,364 children were homeless in 2022. Thus, for our ruling class, Israelis are more important than millions of poor Americans and their children. What a shame!
Balfour Declaration: The idea of the creation of Israel came after the famous Balfour Declaration of 1917.
The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War. It announced its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, then an Ottoman region where only a small minority of Jews lived.
Britain’s foreign secretary Arthus Balfour sent a letter dated 2nd November 1917 to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. In the letter he proposed the creation of an independent state of Israel in the Palestine.
The idea was to enlist Jewish support in their war against the Ottoman Empire in Palestine. Thus, this was the beginning of the creation of Israel in Palestine. As in other areas of the Middle East, Africa and the partition of India, the British have been the culprit, using “The divide and rule” strategy everywhere. The rest is history.
Gaza Strip: Some 2.2 million people live in the Gaza Strip. It is hardly 140 square miles, more than 2 times the size of Washington D.C. It is one of the most densely populated regions of the world. Israel controls everything in and of Gaza. Israel has maintained it as the open-air concentration camp. It controls its food, water, and electricity supply. During the current war between Hamas and Israel, Israel has cut off Gaza’s food, water, and electricity supply, punishing all its citizens for the attack carried out by Hamas.
Hamas and Hezbollah: Of course, Hamas’s recent attack was a terrorist attack on Israeli civilians and should be condemned. It doesn’t help the cause of the Palestinian people. But Israel is punishing the whole population of Gaza as a revenge.
In the first 13 days of relentless bombings of Gaza, Israel flattened many buildings, hospital, etc. and killed more than 3,300 innocent civilians. No people of any nation should suffer such horrible conditions as the Palestinians of Gaza are suffering at present. As of now, more children have been killed in 13 days by Israeli bombing in Gaza than those killed in Ukraine in one year. The fact remains that Israel has killed many times more Palestinians than Hamas or Hezbollah have killed the Israelis. Thus, Israel is committing crimes against humanity. Yes, violence by Hamas and by Hezbollah against Israeli citizens is terrorism and deplorable. It should be stopped. Also, the destruction of Israel as their main goal is foolish and unacceptable. At the same time, Israel’s extreme violence against the Palestinian people is unacceptable too.
America’s Failed Middle East Policy: America is not a peacemaker in this matter. America is Israel’s big brother. For so many decades, United States has failed to bring peace in this region, no wonder. It is quite likely that United States doesn’t want peace in the Middle East. Then who would they sell billions of dollars’ worth of arms to?
It should be noted that Israel is constantly committing crimes against humanity since its creation torturing and killing Palestinians in Gaza as well as in the West Bank. Since its birth in 1948, Israel has expanded its territory in 1967 war, annexing the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria. It is constantly expanding its illegal settlements in Jerusalem.
Partners in Crime: This is only possible because of the unwavering military, financial and diplomatic support of the United States for last many decades. In other words, United States is equally responsible for the crimes committed by Israel. Both countries are partners in crime. Without America’s total support, Israel could not commit these crimes.
No wonder, during every debate regarding Israel and Palestine issue at the United Nations, usually, United States and Israel are on one side while the rest of the world is on the opposite side.
Two State Solution: If Israel wants to live in peace, it must seek a two-state solution. Otherwise, it will never be able to live in peace. Foolishly, the right-wing government of Netanyahu doesn’t want that. So, occasional attacks by Hamas and Hasbullah against Israel and out of proportion bombings of Gaza by Israel will continue too.
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Chaitanya Davé is a Chemist and a Chemical Engineer. He has authored three books: CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: A Shocking Record of US Crimes since 1776-2007, COLLAPSE: Civilization on the Brink-2010, CAPITALISM’S MARCH OF DESTRUCTION: Replacing it with People and Nature-Friendly Economy. Author of many articles on politics, history, and the environment. Founder/President of a non-profit charity foundation helping the poor villagers of India, Nepal, Haiti, USA-homeless and other poor countries. He can be contacted at [email protected].
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: ETHNIC CLEANSING: Palestinian refugees in 1948 Photo: Public Domain
