Comments on: Why Jews need to talk about the Nakba

By: Karin Simon

Karin Simon — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:52:14 +0000

May 15, 2012. I just received Noams article here today on Facebook. I found his article very touching and especially his visual description of Wounded Knee. Unfortunately decisions on either side in these matters are made by men. It seems to me that at some future time, monuments, even historical sites, will be set aside for all to remember and a place for people to come. For students to come, learn and reflect. This is atonement and redemption. Mistakes are made under great tragic duress. The world now, since arab spring, is asking everyone to shift priorites and to work for all humanity and not exclusive groups. To honor our past is a way of being able to spiritually move on while not forgetting. I would love to see a beautiful monument constructed at wounded knee in SD with a place for everyone to come and to learn and to grow beyond. I remember the words of Bob Marley, ” All I ever had, was redemption songs, redemption songs.” Let us hope for the same for the Nabka.

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 23 May 2011 05:12:23 +0000

comment was removed – this is a space for discussion. you can link to other articles, but don’t re-post them here.

By: max

max — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:46:10 +0000

DPL, seems like you haven’t read above what you don’t like. Alternatively, you haven’t understood.
I wouldn’t consider the possibility that you simply can’t cope with facts

By: DPL

DPL — Wed, 18 May 2011 19:19:34 +0000

Should be: “Zionists ETHNICALLY cleansed the land . . .”

By: DPL

DPL — Wed, 18 May 2011 18:21:32 +0000

The Grand Mufti is (or should be) irrelevant to this discussion. Zionists ethically cleansed the land (a process, by the way, which began over five months before May, 1948) in order to set up a state whose highest civic ideal was and is Jewish supremacy (I’m Jewish, just in case you’re wondering). The Zionist’s pursuit of that long-standing ideal had nothing to do with al-Husseini (nor was it in any way connected to what the Arab militias did or did not do in the ’48 war). Al-Husseini, disgusting as he was, was a response to Zionism, not the other way around.

The precedent that “Israel was created like many other countries the world over” (whether true or not) is likewise irrelevant. Something is either just or it is not; that fact that others have done it (or are doing it) has no place in the discussion (unless to prove it’s just). Or should should slaves accept their bondage on the basis that “many other countries” have had slaves, too?

The right of the Palestinian refugees to return is enshrined in international law. So is the right of Palestinians now living in what is now called Israel to full equality. That’s what matters—which is precisely why Zionists would rather talk about al-Husseini.

The good news is that once social movements perceive themselves—and are perceived by others—as a struggle for civil rights, they almost never lose in the long run (barring mass extermination, of course). As Gandhi said, first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

By: ytamara

ytamara — Wed, 18 May 2011 07:36:17 +0000

Abban Aziz has obviously not read, or if he has, he has failed to understand what this entire article is about

By: Borg

Borg — Wed, 18 May 2011 02:28:33 +0000

When I am in the restroom, I observe Qaqba

By: max

max — Tue, 17 May 2011 22:12:50 +0000

ben dukium, I can read your honesty and professional pride. That’s good. At least we seem to agree that the man was scum.
But – you position yourself as a scholar – you should read more carefully. In my comments the importance of the number of his moral followers is anecdotal, and I don’t really care what Said wrote or Arafat said about him – the first wasn’t a historian and the latter a terrorist; your claims were much wider, and I addressed them, including the notion of “fairness” – by and large they’re false.

By: ben dukium

ben dukium — Tue, 17 May 2011 21:33:24 +0000

MAX,
Zionist conspiracy? Are u using some “tools” in order to divert the point? No one spoke about a conspiracy. Next step: use the tool of “antisemitism” that works better.

The point is clear even if you try to avoid it: if there was not even 1 representative of the arab world in the league of nations and if these nations were among the most important colonialist powers of the time, with leaders that considered their mission using the concept of “white man’s burden”, how can you conceive the League of Nation as a fair/representative international body??

About Haj AMin I don’t have time to elaborate. Just two short point. The crucial moment was the creation of his charge, the invention of the supreme coucil of the sharia and the decision to appoint him as its leader. The Higher Arab Committee was created 15 years afterwards and IT (not Husseini) “represented the Palestinian Arab national consensus” just because the committee comprised the leaders of the different Palestinian Arab clans (nashashibi, Khalidi, husseini, hadi…ect…). If in 1836 Hajj Amin was elected as its chairman was only because at the moment he was able, thanks to the tools invented by the british, to wield his influence in many ways. Go to the Israeli State Archive and ask to Helena Vilensky to read the letter of protests that the british received from the PAlestinians when they decided to appoint that little man without any islamic education. Once again we are blaming the victims.

By: Zak Martin

Zak Martin — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:59:21 +0000

Well, I posted some comments here yesterday – critical of apartheid Israel – and they have been deleted. There isn’t much point in having a discussion forum, is there, if you are going to censor views you don’t agree with. It is all the more nonsensical when those views are in line with the views of the majority of people in the world. Two words come to mind: “ostrich” and “sand”.