10 apr 2013
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Deir Yassin Massacre 65 Years Later, Perpetrators Still Enjoy Impunity
Even though 65 years have passed since the massacre of Palestinians at the Jerusalem area village of Deir Yassin, the perpetrators still enjoy full impunity, a statement by the Negotiations Affairs Department (NAD) of the Palestine Liberation Organization said Wednesday.
“On April 9, 1948, Zionist gangs entered the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin in the Jerusalem district, killing 254 Palestinian villagers, mainly women, children and the elderly. There were documented cases of rape, mutilation and humiliation; the victims being mainly Palestinian women,” it said. “Even before the withdrawal of British forces from Palestine in 1948, Palestinians |
throughout the country were subjected to widespread terror and horrific acts of violence at the hands of Zionist militias.
Massacres and expulsions of Palestinians created an atmosphere of fear and panic that forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
They left behind land and personal possessions that were subsequently stolen by the State of Israel, sometimes out rightly and sometimes through ‘clever’ legislation,” added the statement.
The Deir Yassin massacre was led by Menachem Begin in his capacity as head of the Irgun terrorist forces, which were also responsible for several acts of terror, including the blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Supporting the Irgun was the Haganah, a group that went on to form the basis for the Israeli army, and the Lehi, led by Yitzhak Shamir.
“The criminals responsible for this horrific and bloody massacre enjoyed full impunity,” said the NAD statement.
“In fact, a few weeks after this tragic event, the man politically responsible for the Haganah (future Israeli army), David Ben Gurion, became Israel’s first prime minister. Even more astonishing is the fact that the head of the ‘operation’ at Deir Yassin, Menachem Begin, and Yitzhak Shamir, the leader of the Lehi who participated in the massacre, would also go on to become Israeli prime ministers,” it added.
Massacres and expulsions of Palestinians created an atmosphere of fear and panic that forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
They left behind land and personal possessions that were subsequently stolen by the State of Israel, sometimes out rightly and sometimes through ‘clever’ legislation,” added the statement.
The Deir Yassin massacre was led by Menachem Begin in his capacity as head of the Irgun terrorist forces, which were also responsible for several acts of terror, including the blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Supporting the Irgun was the Haganah, a group that went on to form the basis for the Israeli army, and the Lehi, led by Yitzhak Shamir.
“The criminals responsible for this horrific and bloody massacre enjoyed full impunity,” said the NAD statement.
“In fact, a few weeks after this tragic event, the man politically responsible for the Haganah (future Israeli army), David Ben Gurion, became Israel’s first prime minister. Even more astonishing is the fact that the head of the ‘operation’ at Deir Yassin, Menachem Begin, and Yitzhak Shamir, the leader of the Lehi who participated in the massacre, would also go on to become Israeli prime ministers,” it added.
9 apr 2013
Resheq: Deir Yassin massacre will remain a witness to Israeli terrorism
Ezzat al-Resheq, a member of Hamas politburo, said that the massacre of Deir Yassin will remain a witness to the Israeli ongoing terrorism against the Palestinian land, people and holy sites.
Resheq said in a press statement on Tuesday that the Palestinian people will never forget the massacre of Deir Yassin, which took place 56 years ago, and called for prosecuting the Israeli leaders as war criminals at the international courts.
He stressed that the crimes of the Israelis and their heinous massacres cannot be subjected to statute of limitations.
The Hamas leader asserted that the occupation’s massacres, schemes and projects can never succeed in dissuading the Palestinians from defending their land, constants and sanctities, and can never break their will.
He called on the Palestinian people to continue to resist and confront the occupation, and urged all the Palestinian factions and forces to adopt a unified strategy based on adhering to the national constants and resistance as the only way to liberate the land and holy places.
Resheq has also demanded the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League to defend the Palestinian people and support it.
Resheq said in a press statement on Tuesday that the Palestinian people will never forget the massacre of Deir Yassin, which took place 56 years ago, and called for prosecuting the Israeli leaders as war criminals at the international courts.
He stressed that the crimes of the Israelis and their heinous massacres cannot be subjected to statute of limitations.
The Hamas leader asserted that the occupation’s massacres, schemes and projects can never succeed in dissuading the Palestinians from defending their land, constants and sanctities, and can never break their will.
He called on the Palestinian people to continue to resist and confront the occupation, and urged all the Palestinian factions and forces to adopt a unified strategy based on adhering to the national constants and resistance as the only way to liberate the land and holy places.
Resheq has also demanded the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League to defend the Palestinian people and support it.
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Remembering the Deir Yassin Massacre
On April 9, 1948, members of Zionist paramilitary groups, the Irgun (led by Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang (led by Yitzhak Shamir), entered the Arab village of Deir Yassin and massacred over 100 men, women and children. Deir Yassin had a population of about 600-750 people, and had a reputation for being a peaceful village. There were also reports of rapes and mutilations.
Excerpt from The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé:
Irgun and Stern Gang, the Jewish forces, stormed into the village of Deir Yassin on this day 63 years ago, they sprayed the houses with machine gun fire, killing many. They raped and killed some of the women, they gathered the remaning villagers in one place and shot them all in cold blood.
Fahim Zaydan was 12 at the time;
“They took us out one after the other; shot an old man and when one of his daughters cried, she was shot too. Then they called my brother Muhammad, and shot him infront of us, and when my mother yelled, bending over him- carrying my little sister Hudra in her hands, still breastfeeding her- they shot her too.”
Zaydan was shot too (he survived) when the troops lined up children against a wall and sprayed them with bullets “just for the fun of it”.
Research suggests that between 93-170 people were massacred, although this list doesn’t include the number of people killed during the fighting.
Excerpt from The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé:
Irgun and Stern Gang, the Jewish forces, stormed into the village of Deir Yassin on this day 63 years ago, they sprayed the houses with machine gun fire, killing many. They raped and killed some of the women, they gathered the remaning villagers in one place and shot them all in cold blood.
Fahim Zaydan was 12 at the time;
“They took us out one after the other; shot an old man and when one of his daughters cried, she was shot too. Then they called my brother Muhammad, and shot him infront of us, and when my mother yelled, bending over him- carrying my little sister Hudra in her hands, still breastfeeding her- they shot her too.”
Zaydan was shot too (he survived) when the troops lined up children against a wall and sprayed them with bullets “just for the fun of it”.
Research suggests that between 93-170 people were massacred, although this list doesn’t include the number of people killed during the fighting.
8 apr 2013
The author’s grandmother, Fatima Radwan (right) and her younger sister Sakeena at the Dar al-Tifl school four years after the Deir Yassin massacre
By Dina Elmuti
Transcribing the vivid details of the account engraved into the fabric of her memory, I am transfixed by all that she’s held onto for 65 years. From paper to pulse, I write the story buried deep in her consciousness to affirm her truth. Without her, it never would be written at all.
I study the lines on my grandmother’s face knowing behind every one there is a timeless story of unmitigated pain, survival and hope. This story, where the continued dispossession, suffering and oppression of the Palestinian people began, is one that refuses to be silenced or forgotten. It is the story of Deir Yassin.
Remember the date: Friday, 9 April 1948, a day of infamy in Palestinian history. My grandmother was nine years old at the time of the Deir Yassin massacre and every day since she has lived with a steadfast commitment to never forget.
Premonition Thursday, 8 April, ended like any other in the small, quiet village. My grandmother and her younger sister returned home from school to complete their composition assignment entitled Asri’ (meaning “to hurry” in Arabic). She recounts that detail animatedly. Like other children their age, she wanted to complete the assignment in order to enjoy the next day off.
The excitement, however, was short-lived. I can’t help but think of the irony in the assignment’s title. Asri’ — it’s almost as though it were a premonition of sorts.
The following day, entire families ran hurriedly in sheer terror, fleeing the only homes they had ever known to escape a bloodbath. By dawn on that Friday morning, life as they had known it would never be the same again. Deir Yassin would never be the same again.
Fathers, grandfathers, brothers and sons were lined up against a wall and sprayed with bullets, execution style. Beloved teachers were savagely mutilated with knives. Mothers and sisters were taken hostage and those who survived returned to find pools of blood filling the streets of the village and children stripped of their childhoods overnight.
The walls of homes, which once stood witness to warmth, laughter and joy, were splattered with the blood and imprints of traumatic memories. My grandmother lost 37 members of her family that day. These are not stories you will read about in most history books.
Bitter symbol The Deir Yassin massacre was not the largest-scale massacre, nor was it the most gruesome. The atrocities committed, the scale of violence and the complexity of the methods and insidious weaponry used by Israel against civilians in the recent decade have been far more sadistic and pernicious. But Deir Yassin marks one of the most critical turning points in Palestinian history.
A bitter symbol carved in the fiber of the Palestinian being and narrative, it resonates sharply as the event that catalyzed our ongoing Nakba (catastrophe), marked by the forced exile of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, creating the largest refugee population worldwide with more than half living in the diaspora.
Deir Yassin is a caustic reminder of the ongoing suffering, struggle and systematic genocide of the Palestinian people, 65 years and counting. When the village was terrorized into fleeing, tumultuous shockwaves of terror ran through Palestine, laying the blueprint for the architecture of today’s apartheid Israel.
Sacred ground
By Dina Elmuti
Transcribing the vivid details of the account engraved into the fabric of her memory, I am transfixed by all that she’s held onto for 65 years. From paper to pulse, I write the story buried deep in her consciousness to affirm her truth. Without her, it never would be written at all.
I study the lines on my grandmother’s face knowing behind every one there is a timeless story of unmitigated pain, survival and hope. This story, where the continued dispossession, suffering and oppression of the Palestinian people began, is one that refuses to be silenced or forgotten. It is the story of Deir Yassin.
Remember the date: Friday, 9 April 1948, a day of infamy in Palestinian history. My grandmother was nine years old at the time of the Deir Yassin massacre and every day since she has lived with a steadfast commitment to never forget.
Premonition Thursday, 8 April, ended like any other in the small, quiet village. My grandmother and her younger sister returned home from school to complete their composition assignment entitled Asri’ (meaning “to hurry” in Arabic). She recounts that detail animatedly. Like other children their age, she wanted to complete the assignment in order to enjoy the next day off.
The excitement, however, was short-lived. I can’t help but think of the irony in the assignment’s title. Asri’ — it’s almost as though it were a premonition of sorts.
The following day, entire families ran hurriedly in sheer terror, fleeing the only homes they had ever known to escape a bloodbath. By dawn on that Friday morning, life as they had known it would never be the same again. Deir Yassin would never be the same again.
Fathers, grandfathers, brothers and sons were lined up against a wall and sprayed with bullets, execution style. Beloved teachers were savagely mutilated with knives. Mothers and sisters were taken hostage and those who survived returned to find pools of blood filling the streets of the village and children stripped of their childhoods overnight.
The walls of homes, which once stood witness to warmth, laughter and joy, were splattered with the blood and imprints of traumatic memories. My grandmother lost 37 members of her family that day. These are not stories you will read about in most history books.
Bitter symbol The Deir Yassin massacre was not the largest-scale massacre, nor was it the most gruesome. The atrocities committed, the scale of violence and the complexity of the methods and insidious weaponry used by Israel against civilians in the recent decade have been far more sadistic and pernicious. But Deir Yassin marks one of the most critical turning points in Palestinian history.
A bitter symbol carved in the fiber of the Palestinian being and narrative, it resonates sharply as the event that catalyzed our ongoing Nakba (catastrophe), marked by the forced exile of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, creating the largest refugee population worldwide with more than half living in the diaspora.
Deir Yassin is a caustic reminder of the ongoing suffering, struggle and systematic genocide of the Palestinian people, 65 years and counting. When the village was terrorized into fleeing, tumultuous shockwaves of terror ran through Palestine, laying the blueprint for the architecture of today’s apartheid Israel.
Sacred ground
The authors great-uncle, Muhammad Radwan, outside of the family home in Deir Yassin
I have been fortunate enough to see Deir Yassin and step foot on its sacred ground. Deir Yassin remains a permanently cemented and rigorous reminder of the spirit that has never permitted defeat. Despite the illegal settlements, pillaging, plundering and human suffering that took place, my grandmother’s home stands with resolve just as she does today.
The silence of her home and the original stones laid by my great-grandfather’s hands remain haunting reminders of life that once existed behind the cold facade. Standing outside her home I studied the horizon intently and found solace, irrespective of the large wooden Star of David hanging on the window. This scathing and unholy reminder of the ethnic cleansing that took place there could never conceal the insult, injury and history it attempts to erase.
In fact, it is a reminder of the inflicted wounds that remain open and the memory that remains very much alive. All the flags, banners and stars in the world, all the inconvenient truths, dehumanizing myths of exceptionalism and litany of crimes, will never succeed in drowning out the truth or erasing the memories.
My grandmother is an intrepid survivor and living proof that neither the old nor the young will forget. She and survivors like her endure with a steadfastness that will live long after they’re gone. Their narratives may not be recorded in our history books but they have left indelible impressions that will remain inscribed in our hearts and minds.
The narratives of these survivors will continue to run through the veins of every Palestinian child who carries them in their blood. And so long as our hearts beat, the eloquent symbols of Palestinian life — resistance, resilience and hope — will continue to run strong. No amount of fear-mongering, lip service or pontificating will ever keep these narratives of resistance from circulating, because becoming comfortable with our own silence and anesthetizing our minds to all that has passed will never be options.
After all, we are the children of generations of strength. Our grandparents and parents are refugees and survivors, and the blood of Deir Yassin courses through our veins. We are like the olive tree with its tenacious roots in the ground, remaining unshakable and determined to stand its ground with patience and a deeply-rooted desire to remain.
We will see a free and just Palestine because we will have a hand in making it so. Deir Yassin may have catalyzed our catastrophe but 65 years later it also continues to catalyze our devotion and enduring love for a people, a cause and a home that will never be relinquished or forgotten.
All images courtesy of Dina Elmuti.
Dina Elmuti is a social worker researching the impacts of chronic traumatic stress and violence on the physical, mental and pyschosocial health of children in Chicago and Palestine.
I have been fortunate enough to see Deir Yassin and step foot on its sacred ground. Deir Yassin remains a permanently cemented and rigorous reminder of the spirit that has never permitted defeat. Despite the illegal settlements, pillaging, plundering and human suffering that took place, my grandmother’s home stands with resolve just as she does today.
The silence of her home and the original stones laid by my great-grandfather’s hands remain haunting reminders of life that once existed behind the cold facade. Standing outside her home I studied the horizon intently and found solace, irrespective of the large wooden Star of David hanging on the window. This scathing and unholy reminder of the ethnic cleansing that took place there could never conceal the insult, injury and history it attempts to erase.
In fact, it is a reminder of the inflicted wounds that remain open and the memory that remains very much alive. All the flags, banners and stars in the world, all the inconvenient truths, dehumanizing myths of exceptionalism and litany of crimes, will never succeed in drowning out the truth or erasing the memories.
My grandmother is an intrepid survivor and living proof that neither the old nor the young will forget. She and survivors like her endure with a steadfastness that will live long after they’re gone. Their narratives may not be recorded in our history books but they have left indelible impressions that will remain inscribed in our hearts and minds.
The narratives of these survivors will continue to run through the veins of every Palestinian child who carries them in their blood. And so long as our hearts beat, the eloquent symbols of Palestinian life — resistance, resilience and hope — will continue to run strong. No amount of fear-mongering, lip service or pontificating will ever keep these narratives of resistance from circulating, because becoming comfortable with our own silence and anesthetizing our minds to all that has passed will never be options.
After all, we are the children of generations of strength. Our grandparents and parents are refugees and survivors, and the blood of Deir Yassin courses through our veins. We are like the olive tree with its tenacious roots in the ground, remaining unshakable and determined to stand its ground with patience and a deeply-rooted desire to remain.
We will see a free and just Palestine because we will have a hand in making it so. Deir Yassin may have catalyzed our catastrophe but 65 years later it also continues to catalyze our devotion and enduring love for a people, a cause and a home that will never be relinquished or forgotten.
All images courtesy of Dina Elmuti.
Dina Elmuti is a social worker researching the impacts of chronic traumatic stress and violence on the physical, mental and pyschosocial health of children in Chicago and Palestine.
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