Remembering Deir Yassin

While it may be just another day for most of us, today marks the 58th anniversary of the brutal massacre of more than 100 innocent Palestinian men, women and children from the village of Deir Yassin by members of the Zionist Irgun & Stern Gangs. This brutal oppression of Palestinians by the state of Israel continues today. Criminals who were members of such gangs became prominent Israeli politicians who were hailed as "peace makers" and "democrats" by the West. Not surprisingly, Zionists have tried to deny that this massacre even took place. How typically cowardly of them.

The story goes a little like this...

Early in the morning of April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. The village lay outside of the area to be assigned by the United Nations to the Jewish State; it had a peaceful reputation. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Deir Yassin was slated for occupation under Plan Dalet and the mainstream Jewish defense force, the Haganah, authorized the irregular terrorist forces of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to perform the takeover.

In all, over 100 men, women, and children were systematically murdered. Fifty-three orphaned children were literally dumped along the wall of the Old City, where they were found by Miss Hind Husseini and brought behind the American Colony Hotel to her home, which was to become the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi orphanage.

May they all rest in peace...Never again...

More on the Deir Yassin massacre: [via EI]

In Memoriam: Deir Yassin, Arjan El Fassed (9 April 2004)

Remembering Deir Yassin, Daniel McGowan (26 September 2003)

First U.S. Memorial to Deir Yassin Dedicated in New York State, WRMEA (November 2003)

Efforts to negate right of return have long, ignoble history, Issam Nashashibi (29 August 2003)

Remembering Deir Yassin, James Zogby (Al-Ahram Special)

Reinterpreting Deir Yassin, Sharif Kanaana, Birzeit University (24 November 1998)

Fifty years of dispossession, Jan de Jong Le Monde Diplomatique (September 1997)

The '48 Nakba and the Zionist quest for its completion, Illan Pappe (October 2002)

The 1948 Massacre at Deir Yassin Revisited, Matthew Hogan (2001)

Deir Yassin: Remembrance and Forgiveness, Daniel McGowan, The Link (April/May 1997)

Remember Deir Yassin: A Reflection on Memory and Justice, Marc H. Ellis, Birzeit University (April 1997)

Destroyed Palestinian Villages: A Reign of Terror & Systematic Expulsion, Birzeit University (March 1997)

[technorati tags: Israel, occupation, law, Palestine, tragedy]
*photo: [the tomb of the unknown at Deir Yassin]