Bracing for a "Catastrophe" in the Middle East

Many Palestinians fear that the policy of “transfer” or forced expulsion of Palestinians may be the pinnacle of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s career.

“Transfer” has been anything but a fairy-tale idea, contemplated only by extremist Israeli politicians or religious leaders. It is a concept that has been implemented many times throughout history, going back as early as the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians and the destruction of their towns and villages (418 to be exact), during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, also known as the “Palestinian Catastrophe.” (...)

Brownfeld narrated an episode, described by Rehavam Ze'evi, the founder of the Israeli right-wing movement. Moledet, and former minister in the Israeli government.

Ze’evi, a young soldier in the Israeli army during “Israel's war of independence”, recalled the conquest of the once prominent Palestinian city of Lydda. “When officers of Ze’evi’s unit asked their assistant commander, Yitzhak Rabin, what to do with the Arab population of the town they had just conquered, Ze’evi reports that Rabin’s answer was: ‘expel them.’”

Expulsion was the norm. It was done “smoothly and simply”, Ze’evi said. Ze’evi remained a faithful believer in the practice, which he felt should not be stopped at the border of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. He once said: “We came to conquer the land and settle. If transfer is not ethical, then everything we have done here for 100 years is wrong.” [read more]

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Reform by Imprisonment

While the most brutal of measures are being taken against the Palestinian population, the world is being deceived into believing that political reforms can happen in the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. As the Bush Administration continues to call for regime change in the Palestinian Authority, Israel is silently pursuing a violent strategy of establishing internment camps that imprison Palestinians from all walks of life. With over 12,000 acts of detainment and over 5,000 Palestinian detainees now languishing in Israeli jails, the facade of reform unfolds in a political vacuum. [read more]