The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé

For some, this pales in comparison to other genocides or ethnic cleansing’s however, as Pappe astutely notes the figure of 800,000 was 50% of the Palestinian population at the time. Most of the homes Israeli’s occupy are the former homes of Palestinians many of whom still retain the British mandate deeds to them. Once complete 800,000 Palestinians had been uprooted, 531 villages had been destroyed and eleven urban neighbourhoods emptied of their inhabitants. “The Zionist policy was first based on retaliation against Palestinian attacks in February 1947, and it transformed into an initiative to ethnically cleanse the country as a whole in March 1948…the plan decided upon March 10, and above all its systematic implementation in the following months, was a clear-cut case of an ethnic cleansing operation, regarded under International law today as a crime against humanity.” For those who like to argue that the land Zionist forces took from Palestinians was simply the spoils of war the Arabs instigated Pappe reminds them: He proves,for example, that the official Israeli narrative that emphasises a ‘voluntary transfer’ where a large number of Palestinians had decided to leave their homes temporarily and voluntary ‘so as to make way for the invading Arab armies bent on destroying the fledgling Jewish state’ is simply untrue.

In forensic detail, Pappe maps the trajectory of the ethnic cleansing village by village and in the process shatters many a myth. In many respects, it has never ended and explains why Israel refers to Palestinian Israeli’s as ‘Israeli Arabs’ or why it considers the refugee problem off-limits in negotiations. In other words, it was (and is) effectively an attempt to wipe the Palestinian identity of the face of the planet. Israel’s ‘war of independence’ wasn’t just limited to driving out 800,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 and taking their homes and land it has also included the destruction of their history, their religious sites, rape and even looting. It was no accident not by any stretch of the imagination, Its chief architect was none other than the founder of Israel David Ben Gurion and its principal executioners many of Israel’s most celebrated heroes. What I didn’t know and what Israeli historian Ilan Pappe’s fine work demonstrates is how systematic, planned and comprehensive the ethnic cleansing was. Yes, I had heard of the Nakba (literally catastrophe) the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948, and yes, I had a rough idea of its scale. Reading this book, however, made me realise how much I didn’t know. I have been following the Palestinian issue casually for over 20 years, and while claiming no expertise, I thought that I had a good understanding of it.

Having read Ilan Pappe’s ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,’ I felt compelled to write about it.

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé