The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Dr. Ilan Pappe - Part 4

http://www.ilanpappe.org

The present dismal reality unfolding in the Middle East has clear historical roots and a journey into the past may help to illuminate what lies behind the destructive policies of Israel in both Palestine and Lebanon.

Zionism arrived in Palestine in the late 19th as a colonialist movement motivated by national impulses.

The colonisation of Palestine fitted well the interests and policies of the British Empire on the eve of the First World War.

With the backing of Britain, the colonisation project expanded, and became a solid presence on the land after the war and with the establishment of the British mandate in Palestine (which lasted between 1918 and 1948).

While this consolidation took place, the indigenous society underwent, like other societies in the rest of the Arab world, a steady process of establishing a national identity.

But with one difference. While the rest of the Arab world was shaping its political identity through the struggle against European colonialism, in Palestine nationalism meant asserting your collective identity against both an exploitative British colonialism and expansionist Zionism.

Thus, the conflict with Zionism was an additional burden. The pro-Zionist policy of the British mandate there naturally strained the relationship between Britain and the local Palestinian society.

This climaxed in a revolt in 1936 against both London and the expanding Zionist colonisation project.

At the end of November 1947, the UN offered to divide Palestine into two states almost equal in their territorial space. The Jews were only one third of the population by 1947 and most of them had arrived in Palestine only a few years earlier.

The categorical Palestinian refusal to go along with this deal, backed by the Arab League, allowed the Zionist leadership to plan carefully the next step. Between February 1947 and March 1948, a final plan for ethnic cleansing was prepared.

The Zionist leadership defined 80 percent of Palestine (Israel today without the West Bank) as the space for the future state.

This was an area in which one million Palestinians lived next to 600,000 Jews.

The idea was to uproot as many Palestinians as possible. From March 1948 until the end of that year the plan was implemented despite the attempt by some Arab states to oppose it, which failed. Some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled, 531 villages were destroyed and 11 urban neighbourhoods demolished.

Half of Palestine's population was uprooted and half of its villages destroyed. The state of Israel was established in over 80 percent of Palestine, turning Palestinian villages into Jewish settlements and recreation parks, but allowing a small number of Palestinian to remain citizens in it.

The June 1967 war allowed Israel to take the remaining 20 percent of Palestine.

This seizure defeated in a way the ethnic ideology of the Zionist movement. Israel encompassed 100 percent of Palestine, but the state incorporated a large number of Palestinians, the people who Zionists made such an effort to expel in 1948.

The fact that Israel was let off easily in 1948, and not condemned for the ethnic cleansing it committed, encouraged it to ethnically cleanse a further 300,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza strip.

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[arturohd]

Mr. Pappe: I´m sure at some point you will read this. Although you will encounter tons of radical, ignorant, fanatics who will attack you, always remember that you are not alone in your views and that you are speaking for millions and millions of decent, educated people around the world who know what is going on. We admire you for your bravery and intellect. I wish you the all the best.

[raedcanada2004]

I am a Palestinian and I am willing to find a way to live in peace with people who thinks like this writer. Good video where can we find the book?

[fartybraindeath]

@PrInCeSsuk8 I think that's actually not true, otherwise they would have opened the blockade to allow people to leave. They are certainly ethnically cleansing the West Bank. I think they think of the tiny Gaza strip as a human garbage bin and I'm sure they would pile the entire Palestinian population of the West Bank on top of the existing Gaza inmates if they could.

[Scray1]

We need more voices like this, the guy speaks the truth.

[jereuter01]

Anyone without a dog in the fight desirious of learning more about Zionism in the face of Zionist apologist kreplacy3 or 2 or 1's smartass comments below should find the following reading illuminating - Google or go to B & N or Amazon and read excerpts or purchase "At What Price Israel?" authored by Alfred M. Lilienthal, published 1953. It's an eye opener.

[Canada1953]

WOW........this is amazing.

[HE006]

He is saying what we Muslims have been saying for 60 years. The Truth will set you free.......

[PrInCeSsuk8]

what did the israel government do with Pappe?

[PrInCeSsuk8]

they are now ethinicly clensing gaza.... but israel does not admit it

[samer721]

This was in the year 2006, Its the year 2008 now, Over 2140 East Jerusalem Citizens Cleansed, Dozens of Bedouins and Falahin Inside Israel Cleansed, hundreds of Palestinian in the West Bank Cleansed, Gaza is training (hamas) preparing.. Israel Plans to reoccupy Gaza. hundreds of Israeli Jewish Citizens participate in peace protest in Nil'in and Bil'in and every where inside and outside Israel.

850-2000 dead arabs, 5,000+ injured, less than 100-30 dead Israelis.

[samer721]

Arabs infants in Israel have Death rates at 8.3 and they are a minority, Jewish Infant Deaths is 2.3-3.2 and they are a majority.

Not a real health care. Most of the Arabs in Israel that live long, mainly live in villages no pollution not much health risks, and those villages pre-date Israel, even before Israel they used to live long, so we conclude the health of Palestinians in Israel is not Dependant on Israel nor Israel contributes to help them. They help them selves.