The Heart of the Problem With Israel: The Mass Expulsion of the Palestinian People

[ellenrr]

/snip/
The bottom line: Israel was created based on the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians from their land and from their homes (what Palestinians call the Nakba, the catastrophe). This is the heart of the problem.In some circles, particularly among “progressive” Zionists, the terrible injustice done to the Palestinians is acknowledged, but as awful as the Nakba was, they say, it was what had to be done to create and ensure the security of the Jewish state. (The most recent proponent of this position is Israeli writer Avi Shavit.) It was a terrible price that had to be paid, he and others concede. To be clear, the price was paid by the Palestinians – that is, the killing and expulsion of Palestinians for the sake of Jewish safety. And quite simply, the only way you can think that – that you can excuse the Nakba- is to believe that Jewish lives matter more than Palestinian lives.

And isn’t that what we are seeing today? If Jewish lives matter more than Palestinian lives – if, as the argument goes, the Nakba had to happen so that Jews could be “safe” – doesn’t the brutal violence we see so casually inflicted on the people of Gaza by the Israeli government follow from, in fact, isn’t it embedded in, that history? (And it’s ironic to note that large numbers of the Palestinians in Gaza are from families that fled there during the Nakba in 1948 as refugees from cities and villages in what became Israel.)

http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2014/07/21/the-heart-of-the-problem-with-israel-the-mass-expulsion-of-the-palestinian-people/

[enough]

1. k&r (nt)

[aranthus]

2. Complete bull.

Israel was not created based on the expulsion of any Palestinians. None needed to be expelled to create the state. The only reason that there are any Palestinian refugees (intentionally expelled or otherwise) is because they started a war to deny the Jews their state. No war, no refugees. The Palestinians started the war. Does that mean that they deserved to be made refugees? No it does not. It does mean, however, that they bear a large part of the responsibility for causing the refugees. The reason there is no Nakba is not that Palestinian lives are worth less than Jewish lives (what a revolting lie). It is that the Palestinians made it necessary by attacking the Jews. Are Jewish lives worth less that Palestinian lives? Do they have no right to defend themselves if they are attacked? No one's safety would have been endangered but for the Palestinians choosing war.