 |
| Ruth Orkin's famous photo of Iraqi Jewish refugees arriving in Israel |
CAMERA Media Analyses..
First posted 12 May '09..
On May 15, many Palestinians and their supporters mark what they call "Nakba Day," a commemoration focusing on their view that the reconstitution of a Jewish state in Israel was a "catastrophe."
The commemoration is often accompanied by a flurry of opinion pieces and news stories conveying the Palestinian narrative of Israel’s independence, which frequently contain false charges.
In May 2008, for example, an Op-Ed in the New York Times claimed "a people had been expelled from their land in a comprehensive ethnic cleansing operation, given the name ‘Plan D’ by Israelis" (Elias Khoury, 5/18/08, "For Israelis, an Anniversary. For Palestinians, a Nakba"). In fact, notwithstanding a limited number of tactical expulsions, "a people" was certainly not expelled. And Plan D was not at all a "comprehensive ethnic cleansing operation" — you can read the text of that plan here.
A news story published in the Washington Post likewise passed along this false charge of mass expulsion. Reporter Sylvia Moreno relayed, from organizers of an anti-Israel rally, the accusation that every Palestinian that fled the war was actually "expelled." She wrote: "To make way for Israel, 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and more than 400 of their villages were destroyed, organizers of the event said" (5/18/08, "Palestinian Quilt Presents a Different Viewpoint; Creation of Israel Came At Great Cost, Some Say"). The reporter didn’t bother pointing out that this accusation has been debunked by prominent historians.
The piece below provides needed facts and context about the frequently distorted refugee issue.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
During and after the 1948 war, hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Jews fled, and in some cases were forced from, their homes in Mandate Palestine and beyond. The effects of this flight are still today a major issue, as politicians, diplomats and other concerned parties try to resolve the Palestinian "refugee problem" — the status of the original Arab refugees and millions of their descendants, many of whom still live in refugee camps. The vast majority of Jewish refugees went to Israel, where they were absorbed with great difficulty. Despite having found a country committed to taking them in, they still seek redress and acknowledgment of their largely ignored plight.
(Continue reading)
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.
.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment