State’s Creation
Had Ugly Side
Palestinian
refugee problem
cannot be
ignored
By Ehab
Lotayef
07/05/08 "The
Gazette"
-- - Abou-Yasser
was still hoping
to return to his
house in Tel-es-Safi
when I met him
in the Dehaishah
refugee camp in
the occupied
West Bank in
2005. He still
had the keys to
a door that
might not exist
any more. He
left that house
fleeing Israeli
occupation in
1948, and now
lives under that
same occupation
but as a
refugee. When
Israel occupied
the West Bank in
1967, Abou-Yasser
refused to flee
again and become
a double
refugee. As he
was telling me
his story I was
wondering, what
kind of refugee
is he now?
In May of 1948,
Abou-Yasser was
in his late
teens training
in a British
“police academy”
in Bethlehem.
The “cadets”
were a mix of
Jews and Arabs,
Abou-Yasser told
me. They studied
together to
become
colleagues in
the police force
under the
British mandate
government of
Palestine or in
the new country
that would be
founded when the
mandate ended.
One morning, the
Arab cadets
arrived for
class to find
none of the Jews
there. On the
blackboard there
was writing in
Hebrew, which
most of the Arab
cadets couldn’t
read, addressing
the Jewish
cadets. But Abou-Yasser
had enough
knowledge of
Hebrew to
translate what
was written.
“Rise up! The
Jewish state is
born,” it read.
The state of
Israel was
declared. The
Palestinians
refused to
accept it or the
UN partition
plan (which
allocated
approximately
half the land of
Palestine to a
Jewish state
when the Jewish
population was
about 30 per
cent and owned
less than six
per cent of the
land) upon which
it was based.
Soon after, the
Jewish militias,
which were
better equipped
and prepared
than any
Palestinian
forces,
surrounded Tel-es-Safi
as they did many
other Arab
villages and
towns.
Outgunned, the
villagers
decided to
surrender. Most
of the villagers
took whatever
belongings they
could carry,
locked their
doors and fled.
The same was the
case of hundreds
of thousands of
Palestinians
from hundreds of
villages.
Stories of the
massacre of
Deir-Yaseen,
where more than
100 Palestinians
— many of them
women and
children — were
murdered by the
Stern Jewish
militia, made
staying under
occupation a
risk most did
not want to
take.
A few weeks ago,
I had Passover
dinner in
Montreal. We
Jews and Muslims
of different
ages and genders
gathered
together and
followed the
traditional
Jewish Passover
rituals
remembering the
plight of the
Jews in my own
native Egypt,
and their escape
from injustice
thousands of
years ago. But
at a certain
point our hosts
deviated from
tradition and
read from the
“Rabbis for
Human Rights
Pesach Seder
Supplement,”
which included
questions that
very closely
touches
Abou-Yasser’s
hopes and right
to return: “Is
the vision of
Israel as a
democratic state
and a Jewish
state ultimately
reconcilable?”
“Can there be
equality in some
areas and not in
others?” “What
are some ways in
which Israel can
resolve the
tensions between
being a
democratic state
and a Jewish
state?”
As I reflected
on the singing
of Dayenu (It
would have been
enough for us),
and how God’s
bounties are so
gratefully
remembered by
the Jewish
people
generations
after the
Exodus, I
wondered when
Abou-Yasser or
his descedents
will be able
sing a song of
thanks.
The creation of
Israel had an
ugly side to it
which shouldn’t
be forgotten or
ignored. It is
the destruction
of a people and
the creation of
the world’s
largest refugee
population and
longest-lasting
refugee crisis.
Albert Einstein
commented on
these events,
which are at the
core of this
problem, 60
years ago. In a
letter he wrote
on April 10,
1948 to the
executive
director of
American Friends
of the Fighters
for the Freedom
of Israel, in
response to a
request for a
meeting, he
wrote, “When the
real and final
catastrophe
should befall us
in Palestine the
first
responsible for
it would be the
British and the
second
responsible for
it the terrorist
organizations
built up from
our own ranks. I
am not willing
to see anybody
associated with
these misled and
criminal
people.”
Abou-Yasser,
then soon to be
at the receiving
end of the
actions of
Einstein’s
“terrorists,”
was probably not
seeing things as
clearly as
Einstein did.
I don’t know if
Abou-Yasser is
still alive.
Maybe it is too
late for him to
return to Tel-es-Safi
anyway but his
granddaughter, a
child with an
angelic face who
I met in 2005
and whose photo
with her
innocent gaze
hangs in my
living room, has
a lot to look
forward to.
I am hoping
that, for her
sake, the plight
of the
Palestinian
refugees would
be remembered
while many cheer
Israel’s 60th
anniversary and
that she, one
day and in her
own way, would
sing, “If it
would be only
for rebuilding
my ancestral
home in Tel-es-Safi,
Dayenu! If it
would be only
for seeing Tel-es-Safi
with my own
eyes, Dayenu!”
–Ehab Lotayef
© The Gazette
(Montreal) 2008
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