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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231018-from-deir-yassin-to-al-ahli-hospital-israels-legacy-of-killing-palestinians/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">From Deir Yassin to Al-Ahli Hospital: Israel's legacy of killing Palestinians</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Middle East Monitor</div>
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<p>Israel’s propaganda machine has begun to work overtime to convince
the world of the occupation state’s innocence in the bombing of <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231017-live-updates-genocide-in-gaza-civilians-children-medical-crews-are-the-targets/">Al-Ahli Arab Hospital</a>
yesterday. Complicit in the destruction of Gaza, Western leaders aided
by the media have also started to work round the clock to dutifully
parrot the lies, amplifying the fog of war. US President Joe Biden, who
was the first Western leader to repeat the gruesome Israeli lie about 40
beheaded babies, dutifully trumpeted the Israeli narrative that a
misfired Hamas rocket killed 500 people.</p>
<p>The playbook is all too familiar. First blanket denial. Then blame
militants. As the truth emerges, Israelis cry “mistake”, “just an
accident”. When that fails to quell public outrage and people demand
accountability, Israel shouts anti-Semitism. And when all else fails,
critics are denounced as Nazis and fascists in their twisted narrative.
This course has been charted before. The same smokescreens used to
obscure the <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230513-israel-military-apologises-for-killing-of-shireen-abu-akleh-a-year-after-shooting/">killing of Shireen Abu Akleh</a> are being deployed once again.</p>
<p>We don’t require <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220925-video-proof-that-shireen-abu-akleh-was-targeted-by-israel-researchers-say/">a forensic investigation</a>
– though one should be carried out by an independent body – to hold
Israel responsible for the bombing of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital. Israel has
been openly pre-justifying hospital bombing and school bombing before
launching its military campaign. It’s been pre-justifying war crimes,
declaring with no fear of accountability that it will impose collective
punishment by denying Gazans electricity, water and food.</p>
<p>Israel’s denial is not credible, because the occupation state has a
long history of committing atrocities and massacres against
Palestinians. For decades, the brutal realities of massacres were
suppressed, details buried. But slowly they came to light – stories of
indiscriminate slaughter, rape, torture and exile, of defenceless
civilians. The brutal details of these killings have been revealed over
the course of time. Fortunately, in the world of social media, lies and
propaganda are harder to conceal. While Israel still tries desperately
to control the narrative, Palestinian voices now ring out louder. Their
stories and images expose Israeli lies in real-time.</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231018-endorsement-is-complicity/">Endorsement is complicity</a></strong></p>
<p>A cursory glance at history shows how mass killing of Palestinians
was a strategy employed by Zionist military groups to ethnically cleanse
Palestinians. Israel’s potential ground offensive in Gaza raises a
chilling prospect – mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing, repeating the
dark tactics of the past.</p>
<p>One of the earliest and most notorious was the <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180409-remembering-the-massacre-at-deir-yassin/">massacre at the Palestinian village Deir Yassin</a>
in 1948. As many as 250 people including men, women, children and the
elderly are said to have been killed. The aim of the atrocity was to sow
terror and fear to force Palestinians to flee. Some <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170515-remembering-the-nakba/">750,000 Palestinian</a>, three-quarters of the population, fled because of the terror campaign unleashed by the Israelis.</p>
<p>A month after Deir Yassin, Israeli forces slaughtered up to 200
Palestinians in the coastal village of Tantura. It was part of a
ruthless ethnic cleansing campaign – Plan Dalet – to seize territory for
a future Jewish state. <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230522-remembering-the-tantura-massacre/">Tantura</a>
was one of 64 Palestinian villages lining the road between Tel Aviv and
Haifa. Once thriving coastal communities, all were wiped off the map –
except two. The inhabitants were expelled en masse, joining the hundreds
of thousands of <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170515-remembering-the-nakba/">Palestinians ethnically cleansed</a> from their ancestral lands in 1948.</p>
<p>Israel’s seemingly never-ending drive to uproot Palestinians from
their homes by force of arms and threat of imminent slaughter resulted
in another massacre on 29 October 1956 in the <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211029-remembering-israels-massacre-of-palestinians-in-kafr-qasem/">village of Kafr Qasem</a>,
on the Israeli side of the 1949 Armistice (“Green”) Line. Soldiers went
door-to-door, spraying homes with gunfire. Forty-nine residents were
massacred in under an hour – men, women, children gunned down in cold
blood. The violence was calculated, intended to stoke terror, make
Palestinians flee for their lives.</p>
<p>According to Palestinian historians, the massacre at Kafr Qasem
mirrored the typical Israeli blueprint of terrorising Palestinians into
fleeing. In his book <i>Atlas of Palestine</i> (1917-1966), <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/6-author/dr-salman-abu-sitta/">Dr Salman Abu Sitta</a>
lists at least 232 places where atrocities, massacres, destruction,
plunder and looting were carried out by the Zionists between 1947 and
1956. Almost every one of 30 military operations were accompanied by one
or two massacres of civilians. There were at least 77 reported
massacres, half of which took place before any Arab regular soldier set
foot in Palestine during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war.</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231018-gaza-home-housing-40-civilians-bombed/">Gaza home housing 40 civilians bombed</a></strong></p>
<p>Decades of Israeli occupation birthed countless atrocities against
Palestinians, including horrors beyond their borders. In 1982, <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190916-remembering-the-sabra-and-shatila-massacre/">the Sabra and Shatila</a>
refugee camps in Lebanon became a brutal killing field. Christian
militia, unleashed into the camps under Israeli protection, went on a
38-hour rampage. They slaughtered over 3,000 Palestinian civilians in
cold blood. Rape, mutilation and torture preceded endless executions.
Parents saw their children die before facing the same fate.</p>
<p>Israel denied direct blame, but its fingerprints were everywhere.
They lit up the camps at night to aid the killers. They prevented
desperate victims from fleeing. UN resolutions declared Israel complicit
in an act of genocide. Then Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, found
personally responsible for enabling the bloodbath, faced no real
consequences. The victims saw no justice. It was one of countless
episodes of Israeli leaders incubating anti-Palestinian violence with
impunity.</p>
<p>Israel’s violence against Palestinians extends far beyond isolated
massacres. Thousands have been killed over decades to maintain Israel’s
illegal occupation.</p>
<p>Past Gaza assaults bear names now synonymous with death – Operation Cast Lead in <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181227-remembering-israels-2008-war-on-gaza/">2008-2009</a> left 1,400 Palestinians dead. Operation Protective Edge in <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180708-remembering-the-2014-israeli-offensive-against-gaza/">2014 killed</a> 2,251 more. These attacks came on <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171114-remembering-israels-operation-pillar-of-defence/">the heels of countless other operations</a>, each leaving hundreds dead and thousands more wounded.</p>
<p>The onslaught did not cease. During the 2019 <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190330-remembering-the-great-march-of-return/">Great March of Return</a>, Israeli snipers gunned down <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190330-israel-killed-267-palestinians-in-gaza-during-great-march-of-return/">267 unarmed protesters</a>. Over 30,000 more suffered critical injuries. Children and medics were not spared.</p>
<p>With the fog of war descending once more as Israel’s propaganda
machine lurches into motion, fabricating myths to shield the truth,
following the bombing of Al-Ahli Hospital, while Western leaders and
media obediently amplify Israel’s distortions, muddying reality, let’s
not forget that Israel’s legacy of killing and massacres.</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231018-us-weapons-expert-debunks-israels-denial-of-gaza-hospital-strike/">US weapons expert debunks Israel’s denial of Gaza hospital strike</a></strong></p>
<p>Just as in the past the truth will not be buried under this avalanche
of deception. People around the world see through the web of lies, and
recognise the regime’s brutality laid bare. The stories of those shelled
while seeking care at Al-Ahli cannot be erased.</p>
<p>Israel’s desperate myths may multiply, but the blood-drenched reality
remains. The propaganda will not whisk away the war crimes, nor
inoculate Israel from accountability.</p>
<p>The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
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