In Memoriam

Pieces of April…

Deir Yassin Massacre (April 9th, 1948)

On 9 April 1948, militants of the Irgun and Stern Gang attacked the Palestinian village Deir Yassin. In all over 100 Palestinian men, women and children were systematically murdered. This massacre is often cited as sparking the panic that led Palestinians being driven from their homes. Deir Yassin stands as the starkest early warning of a calculated depopulation of over 400 Palestinian villages and cities and the expulsion of 70 percent of the Palestinian population.

Jenin Massacre (April 3-17, 2002)

The following letter by the women and children of the Jenin refugee camp to US Secretary of State Colin Powell was published on the first page of al-Quds newspaper in Jerusalem, April 12th. They said it best:

Dear Mr. Powell,

We, the children and women of the Jenin refugee camp, survivors of the massacre perpetrated here between 1 April 2002 and until this day by the Israeli occupation army with the help of weapons made in the United States of America, invite you to visit our camp, in order to witness with your own eyes the atrocities committed against us: killing, murder, destruction, dispossession, siege and starvation – committed against innocent civilians, residents of our camp.

We would like to assure you, at the same time, that all that has been done to us – and will be done to us in the future – will neither make us kneel nor diminish our determination to demand our right to return to our homes and lands in our villages and towns which were forcefully taken from us in 1948.

Thanking you and awaiting your visit,
The children and women of Jenin refugee camp
12 April 2002

(Nas Side-Note #1: Powell never came, but Assistant Secretary of State William Burns was sent instead, and Powell said (of him): “He saw no evidence of a mass grave. He saw no huge cache of bodies. Clearly, people died in Jenin, people who were terrorists died in Jenin, and in the prosecution of that battle, innocent lives may well have been lost.”)

(Nas Side-Note #2: Powell was in Israel at the time of the massacres. At a press conference on the 17th he said: “Let me begin by extending my congratulations to the state of Israel on the 54th anniversary of its independence. The United States has stood by Israel since its creation, and will continue to do so with an unshakable commitment to Israel’s security and well-being…” you get the drift.)

Posted In: Palestine