Over the years, a recurring hasbara trope has accused Arab states of ethnically cleansing their entire Jewish populations in the years between 1948-1956. They marshal vivid maps displaying the numbers of Jews originally in these countries and how many are left currently. Phrases like “expulsion,” “refugee,” “Jewish Nakba,” and “pogroms” are bandied about as if […]
Israeli Ethnic Cleansing, Bedouin Murder and the Inevitable Cover-Up
In 2017, Israeli Border Police arrived in a Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, which was slated for demolition to make way for a Jewish settlement to be built on its land. This ethnic cleansing is standard operating procedure for Israel’s indigenous Bedouin, who have never been allotted the grazing and agricultural lands they worked for […]
Israeli Holocaust Commemoration Marred by Political Infighting
Last week, Israel hosted the World Holocaust Forum. This is a considerably expanded version of the article Middle East Eye published a few days ago, which profiled it. I guess it should come as no surprise. Everything about contemporary Israel is embroiled in exploitation of traditions and history for political gain. So why should the […]
World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem: Hijacking the Shoah, Whitewashing Nakba
This week, thirty world leaders are converging on Jerusalem to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I wrote about it in my new piece for Middle East Eye. All appearances to the contrary, this is not an official “Israeli” commemoration. Despite the fact that the country’s president is welcoming the dignitaries and […]
