Edit: Updating this post to add some more history of the conflict. The ongoing genocide is revealing the Zionist lies used to oppress Palestinians and 'justify' the ongoing ethnic cleansing, disproving decades long accepted hasbara.
Basically the information war in this older video is getting more and more exposed:
Genocide in Gaza – the information war
Israel’s war on Gaza has been a turning point for the world order and its media ecosystem. The extent of the brutality – a genocide unfolding in plain sight – and the sheer volume of disinformation designed to defend the indefensible. Also the complicity of so many Western news outlets – repeatedly exposed for failing to question Israeli propaganda, then spreading it.
And nothing has changed from the calls for ethnic cleansing at the start. This was from the end of 2023, yet plans were there since October 7th and likely before.
US must repudiate Israeli minister’s calls for ‘ethnic cleansing of Gaza’: CAIR
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has said the Biden administration must repudiate remarks made by Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on the removal of Palestinians from Gaza.
Earlier we reported that Smotrich told Israeli Army Radio “let’s make the desert bloom” as he discussed two million Palestinians “emigrating” from Gaza. “If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not two million Arabs, the entire discussion on the day after will be totally different,” Smotrich said.
The US-based advocacy organisation CAIR described Smotrich’s remarks as the “latest open call for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. It has always been the Israeli government’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza. Smotrich just made it official,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad in a statement. “The Biden’s administration failure to explicitly condemn such genocidal rhetoric has emboldened Israeli leaders to escalate their genocidal words into genocidal actions,” Awad added.
The history of the conflict:
Palestine 1896
First film footage taken in Palestine (Lumier Bros.) Extracted from "Palestine: Story of a Land", by Simone Bitton
Falastin (1911-1947): A Written Record that Destroys Zionism’s Biggest Lie
Since its founding in 1911, the newspaper Falastin gave voice to Palestinian nationalism and identity. It documented the struggle for a homeland as it unfolded—exposing, page by page, the falsehood of Zionist claims denying Palestinian peoplehood.
It mentions this doc from the BBC, a year before Oct 7
The forgotten atrocities: Britain’s history of abuse in Palestine - BBC Newsnight
The UK government is being urged to make a formal apology for alleged war crimes by British troops in historical Palestine nearly a century ago.
The petition, along with 300 pages of evidence, is being brought by an elderly Palestinian - a former politician - who was shot and wounded by UK forces as a boy; in a case set to reopen debate over the UK’s colonial past.
Britain in Palestine 1917-1948
Britain in Palestine 1917-1948 investigates the contradictory promises and actions which defined British Mandatory rule in Palestine and laid the groundwork for the Nakba (the catastrophe) and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. The roots of the contemporary social, political, economic, and environmental landscape of Palestine and Israel can be traced back to this period, making it essential viewing for understanding Britain’s legacy in the region and the situation on the ground today.
To access English, Arabic and Hebrew subtitles click on the CC link on the video. For further analysis of the events outlined in the film see the Companion Guide to Britain in Palestine 1917-1948.
Reviews
“A very useful explanation of how we got to where we are today. Fascinating photos I had not seen before. A great resource to show in any classroom or forum to people who want to learn more about this region, and specifically, Britain’s involvement. Afif Safieh, Former Palestinian Ambassador
“…This film brilliantly puts into perspective the role the United Kingdom played in Mandate Palestine from 1917-1948.” Rabbi Howard Finkelstein, Ontario, Canada
“This is an excellent short 18-min video from @BalfourProject explaining briefly but super-clearly how British colonialism has caused a century of war in Palestine.” Matthew Teller, Journalist and author of Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City (2022)
“Britain in Palestine 1917 – 1948 is a clear, precise and factual explanation of the historical origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict. For anyone who wants to develop a real understanding of the issue but is intimidated by it’s complexity, this film is the place to start.” Judah Passow, Photojournalist
Recap of the Nakba, which is now being repeated in full view.
Ilan Pappé: The Untold Truths of the 1948 Palestinian Nakba
In this statement, delivered at the UN Forum on the Question of Palestine in 2017, Ilan Pappé delves into the events of 1948 that led to the Palestinian Catastrophe. He begins by recounting the role of the United Nations, which appointed the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) in 1947. This committee, comprising members who were largely unfamiliar with the region, "totally misunderstood either the Palestinian position or the general Arab League position on the Palestine question."
Pappé explains how the Jewish community in Palestine initiated a process of ethnic cleansing in early 1948, even before the end of the British Mandate on May 15. By April, over 150,000 Palestinians had been expelled from urban areas, with the massacre at Deir Yassin on April 9 exemplifying the brutality of these expulsions. By the time Arab nations intervened on May 15, 250,000 Palestinians were already refugees. Pappé highlights the systematic destruction of Palestinian villages, stating that "half of Palestine's population was expelled, half of Palestine's villages were demolished, and most of the Palestinian towns were wiped out."
He concludes by emphasizing the need for acknowledgment, accountability, and acceptance in any peace process. Pappé asserts that the international community must recognize the "catastrophe of 1948" and hold Israel accountable for the ethnic cleansing that occurred. Only through this acknowledgment can there be hope for a just resolution and acceptance of Israel as part of the Middle East. "The Israelis can ask both the Palestinians and the Arab world to accept them as an organic part of Palestine," he states, envisioning a future where past wrongs are addressed and true peace can be achieved.
To mark the anniversary of the 1948 War and subsequent uprooting and mass displacement of Palestinians, known in Arabic as Al-Nakba (the Catastrophe), the Committee convened the UN Forum on the Question of Palestine "70 Years after 1948 – Lessons to Achieve a Sustainable Peace" on 17-18 May 2018.
How Palestinians were expelled from their homes
Around the time that Israelis celebrate Independence Day, Palestinians commemorate “The Nakba,” or “The Catastrophe.” The Nakba was a series of events, centered around 1948, that expelled hundreds of thousands Palestinians from their homeland and killed thousands. The Nakba isn’t the beginning of the story, but it’s a key part of Palestinian history — and the root of Israel’s creation.
Prior to the Nakba, Palestine had a thriving population — largely made up of Arabs — that had lived and worked the land for centuries. But with the founding of Zionism, years of British meddling, and a British pledge to help create a Jewish state in Palestine — things began to change drastically. By 1947, with increasing tensions between Jewish settlers and Palestinian Arabs — the British left Palestine, and the UN stepped in with a plan to partition the land into two states. What followed was known as Plan Dalet: operations by Israeli paramilitary groups that violently uprooted Palestinians. An estimated 15,000 Palestinians were killed, more than 500 villages were decimated, and roughly 750,000 Palestinians displaced.
Most who were expelled from their homes couldn’t return to historic Palestine. And today, millions of their descendants live in refugee camps in Gaza, the West Bank and surrounding countries. The history of the Nakba has been deliberately concealed and often ignored in western narratives around the creation of Israel. In this episode of Missing Chapter, we break down how the Nakba happened — and how it defined the future of Palestine.
A historical timeline of Israel's brutality towards Palestinians
The narrative around October 7 often overlooks the deep-rooted history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. This timeline reveals key events dating back to 1897, when the First Zionist Congress was held, through the Nakba in 1948, and decades of subsequent violence. The focus on a single day obscures a much longer story of displacement and systemic injustice that continues to affect Palestinians today.
Perhaps this all explains why the UK is still supporting the genocide / ethnic cleansing. Too many skeletons in the closet to come out when a Palestinian state is created.
The UK played a central role at the origin of the ongoing 'conflict', which really has been a genocide from the start, trying to erase the Palestinian identity, trying to erase the people from their land. Genocide is not just about killing members of the group, it's about extinguishing the group as a whole. Cultural genocide or ethocide in particular.
In 1944, in Lemkin’s book, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, “genocide” appeared in print for the first time, and “ethnocide” appeared in the footnotes as an equivalent substitute. Lemkin envisioned that genocide and ethnocide would be interchangeable because the targets for this previously undefined murder (cide) and terror were both a people (genos) with a specific culture, nation, and ethnicity (ethnos). Within the international legal community, however, the concept of ethnocide became subsumed into genocide because when a people are exterminated or forcefully removed from their home, their culture also dies with them. For the rest of his life, Lemkin worked to make genocide an integral concept within international law, yet his second word remained essentially dormant until a new definition emerged.
Zionists began Massacring Palestinians 6 Months before the Arabs intervened
Between November 1947 and May 1948, months before any Arab state intervened, Zionist militias launched a campaign of terror, massacres, and expulsions across Palestine. Using declassified Israeli archives and eyewitness testimony, this video traces the six months of systematic ethnic cleansing that forced 200,000 Palestinians from their homes and left entire cities and villages destroyed BEFORE any Arab state intervened.
