Wednesday, February 02, 2005

The One-sidedness of the NYT's History

Greg Myre writes in today's NYTimes that the issue of property rights has been contentious in Israel "since [its] founding in 1948. In the Israeli-Arab war that year, many Palestinian landowners fled or were driven from property that became part of Israel", (Israel Revokes Decision on East Jerusalem Land, February 2).

Myre fails, though, to mention the fact that Jews also fled or were driven from their property that eventually became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as well as Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip, as they were in previous hostilities initiated by Arabs, especially in 1929 from Hebron, Gaza City and Shchem (Nablus).

The communities of Neveh Yaakov, Atarot and Bet Ha'Aravah as well as the centuries-old Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem and the Gush Etzion Bloc of four kibbutzim were all overrun in 1948 and ethnically cleansed of Jews.

The community of Kfar Darom in Gaza suffered the same fate.

That war did not produce a singular victim, the so-called "Arab refuggee from Palestine", but created many victims.

Ignoring the integrity of the conflict and the Jewish losses can only complicate possible solutions.

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