Remembering Deir Yassin in Jerusalem

60 Years Ago on April 9, 1948

by Daniel McGowan / April 5th, 2008

Deir Yassin was a Palestinian village on the west side of Jerusalem. On April 9, 1948 over 100 Palestinian men, women, and children were murdered there by Jewish terrorists from the Irgun and the Stern Gang. The massacre was a pivotal event in the history of the Nakba and the panic and ethnic cleansing it represents and which continues today.

The remaining buildings of Deir Yassin are used as a mental hospital. The site lies 1,400 meters to the north of Yad Vashem, the most famous Holocaust memorial, where the world is taught to “Never Forget.”

Deir Yassin Remembered and the Israeli organization Zochrot will commemorate the massacre in a procession with signs and in a ceremony where we shall read the names of those who were massacred.

The event will take place on Thursday, April 10th, 4:00 – 6:00PM.

The procession will leave from the gathering point at 22 Kanfei Nesharim Street (corner Azulay, in the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Jerusalem). From there we shall walk towards the hospital, known as Kfar Shaul. At the end of Kanfei Nesharim we shall turn left to Katsenelenbogen Street and from there we shall walk through Hafla’a Street behind the hospital. At the end of the street we will hold the ceremony.

A bus will leave Tel-Aviv from Arlozorov train station from the former El-Al terminal at 3 PM.

Daniel McGowan is a Professor Emeritus at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Because of admonishment by the administration, it is hereby stated that the above remarks are solely those of the author. Hobart and William Smith Colleges neither condone nor condemn these opinions. Furthermore, the author has been instructed to use his personal email address of mcgowandaniel@yahoo.com and not his college email at mcgowan@hws.edu for those wishing to contact him with comments or criticisms. Read other articles by Daniel, or visit Daniel's website.

This article was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 at 5:00am and is filed under Israel, Terrorism (state and retail).

5 comments on this article so far ...

Comments RSS feed

  1. mary said on April 6th, 2008 at 1:33am #

    I cannot be there with you in body but willbe in spirit. In solidarity for truth and justice for the Palestinians.

  2. DavidG. said on April 6th, 2008 at 10:43pm #

    This is a sad post but then the history of the Palestinians since Israel appeared is sad.

    But fear not, the Israelis will reap what they have sown in spades.

    We just have to stop them (and the idiot Americans) nuking Iran otherwise the whole world will reap the evil that the Israelis have sown.

    Saving America? Is it possible?

  3. eileen fleming said on April 7th, 2008 at 5:56am #

    “Saving America? Is it possible?”

    Yes! But, first America must learn what they do not know, and the systemic ethnic cleansing of Palestine that began in 1948 and accelerated in 1967, is what we the people need to know about, for we are culpable by virtue of paying American taxes.

    “What this country needs is a President who won’t just do what’s right when the politics are easy, but will stand up when the politics are hard.”-Senator Obama

    The policies the United States has pursued since the Six Day War have failed to achieve security for Israel, have been an injustice unto Palestinians, have cost USA TAXPAYERS over $100 BILLION and is at the very root of America’s unpopularity in the world today.

    All we the people hear from our politicians is the same failure to lead in the way of equal human rights and international law. All we the people hear is an increasingly fervent repetition of the status quo and bankrupt policies that have brought us to this point in time where ‘civilized’ people consider-some even relish-the thought of unleashing the terror of another nuclear bomb.

    On January 23, 2008, Senator Obama sent a letter to Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, about a proposed Security Council resolution on the situation in Gaza. Obama focused on condemning Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel, but made no mention of the ongoing Israeli bombardments and raids that have killed hundreds of innocent residents of Gaza, as well as the calculated Israeli policy of denying the necessities of life – food, clean drinking water, medicines, medical care, school supplies, and the energy needed to power sewage treatment plants and hospital operating rooms – to the 1.5 million open air prisoners, of whom more than half are children.

    Obama wrote that “Israel is forced to do this.” Obama denounced Hamas as a terrorist organization, but ignored its repeated offers of a long-term truce with Israel – offers the Israeli government has repeatedly immediately rejected, although polls show that more than 60 percent of Israel’s own population favors negotiations with Hamas.

    Not Bush, Rice, Obama, McCain of Clinton have offered even a word of criticism of Israel, or of sympathy for the people of Gaza.

    Saving America requires we the people get some answers and put pressure on the candidates to state where they are on Gaza, Jerusalem, the rights of refugees, The Wall, the continuing settlements, the over 500 checkpoints that deny the indigenous people of that land the right to access their land, jobs and holy sites in light of this year.

    2008, is the 60th anniversary of the establishment 0f Israel, Dier Yassin/Nakba and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights- upon which Israel’s statehood was contingent upon upholding.

    We the people in the land of the free and home of the brave, actually have some power -right now-before we elect another president who will maintain the status quo.

    Yeah, we can. We can do that, we can elect a politician beholden to the Military Industrial Complex, AIPAC, the religious right and corporate interests, or we can say, no, not this time.

    Might this time we the people REMEMBER HISTORY as it really happened and see it through the eyes of dissidents, rebels and revolutionaries who founded these United States.

    Might this time we know that the world is our country and that all men and women are our sisters and brothers. Might this time our leaders seek to do good and be merciful and just. Might this time our media ask the questions too many of we the people, do not even know must be asked. Might this time our politicians be beholden to we the people and not to any foreign power.

    Might this time we all “be the change we want to see in the world.”-Gandhi

    e

  4. hp said on April 7th, 2008 at 12:37pm #

    Gandhi also said, when asked what he thought of western civilization; ‘it would be a good idea.’

    This giant slaughterhouse called America was built on flesh and blood and runs on flesh and blood. Even most atheists believe in some form of Karma, do they not?

  5. Carlos G. said on February 24th, 2009 at 6:58pm #

    It is hard to understand how strongly independent thought and analysis of the issues surrounding Israel are suppressed in our country. People will speak their minds and differ on absolutely everything, but when it comes to Israel it seems that any dissention from the politically correct position that Israel is good and Arabs are bad is scorned and, worse yet, labled as anti-semitic, as some sort of hate crime. Well, the truth is that there are quite a few legitimate issues to be explored regarding the origins of Israel, their legal and moral right to take land from the Philistines, the justification, legality and mechanics of Western support for Israeli action, the real and historical implications of Western intervention in the Middle East. Since history will eventually unveil it all, why not open the case now so that we can act with our eyes open.