Avi Dichter, Israel's Minister for Agriculture and former head of Shin Bet. Photo: The Electronic Intifada/File photo.
By Ali Abunimah – Nov 12, 2023
Denying the Nakba is normally a central tenet of Zionism. Israel even has laws penalizing the commemoration of the pre-planned expulsion and flight of 800,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias in 1948.
But when speaking to each other – or to Palestinians – Israelis habitually celebrate the Nakba or threaten to repeat it.
Avi Dichter, a government minister, just went a step further.
"We are now actually rolling out the Gaza Nakba," says Avi Dichter, Israel's Minister for Agriculture and former head of Shin Bet.
— Hanno Hauenstein (@hahauenstein) November 11, 2023
“We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba. From an operational point of view, there is no way to wage a war – as the IDF [Israeli army] seeks to do in Gaza – with masses between the tanks and the soldiers,” Dichter told Israeli television.
Nominally Israel’s agriculture minister, Dichter is a member of its war cabinet and was previously head of its Shin Bet secret police.
When asked again whether this was the “Gaza Nakba,” Dichter replied “Gaza Nakba 2023. That’s how it’ll end.”
The atrocities, expulsions, and mass killing Israel is perpetrating now in Gaza appear to be a dream come true for Dichter.
“Whoever cries of the Nakba year after year, shouldn’t be surprised if they actually have a Nakba eventually,” Dichter – then public security minister – said in 2007.
That was an apparent threat to Palestinian citizens of Israel who refused to celebrate Israel’s so-called independence on the ruins of their homeland.
2007
Israeli minister Avi Dichter:
“Those that year after year sit and cry about the Nakba, don’t be surprised that in the end, they go through a Nakba”
World: [crickets]2023
Israel: [commits another Nakba]
Israeli minister Avi Dicther: “This is Gaza’s Nakba”
World: [crickets] pic.twitter.com/dnfPEYe9QT— David Sheen (@davidsheen) November 11, 2023
In 2018, Dichter again warned Palestinians in Gaza that the Great March of Return – an unarmed mass movement to end the siege – “will turn into the Nakba.” Israel responded to the 2018 nonviolent protests by sending snipers to murder and maim thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.
In recent years, it has become increasingly common for Israeli ministers to threaten Palestinians with a “second Nakba” – even while Israel officially denies the first one.
Settlers gunning for second Nakba in the West Bank https://t.co/EO0pDNpZfJ
— Electronic Intifada (@intifada) November 3, 2023
Dichter’s assertion that Israel is now implementing the “Gaza Nakba” lines up with leaked Israeli intelligence documents showing that Tel Aviv harbors plans for the permanent expulsion of the Palestinian population from large parts of Gaza under the cover of a wartime “humanitarian” evacuation.
On Saturday, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant warned Lebanon’s Hizballah resistance movement, “What we’re doing in Gaza, we can also do in Beirut.”
That’s another admission – to add to a growing list – by top Israeli leaders that the mass death and destruction in Gaza is not incidental or “collateral” to a military campaign, but Israel’s purpose and goal.
“If it [Hizballah] makes this kind of mistake here, the ones who will pay the price will be first and foremost Lebanese citizens,” Gallant said, confirming that revenge against civilians is how Tel Aviv responds to armed action by resistance groups defending their people and land.
Whereas Israel long tried to deny that the 1948 Nakba was systematic and preplanned, it is not being as coy this time around – apparently emboldened by the total impunity it continues to enjoy from the so-called official international community.
During the 1948 Nakba, Zionist militias – often by the admission of their own veterans – used atrocities including wanton murder and rape in order to terrorize Palestinians into leaving their land.
In 1948, these 𝗜𝗗𝗙 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 in order to give birth to a new nation:
Israel pic.twitter.com/gTeBMomw3N
— Propaganda and co (@propandco) October 25, 2023
This soldier is from the Alexandroni Brigade. He lived for a long time and is over ninety years old. He spoke with the utmost disdain about the crime he committed against dozens of the people of the village of Tantura in 1948. This is absolutely unfair.#Gazagenocide #nakba pic.twitter.com/2ttRVDzcbp
— Safwat Safi𓂆🧉 (@Safwat_Safi) November 7, 2023
Israel:
1: Claims "moral clarity" in its fight vs "terrorism"
2: Will not even acknowledge the dozens of massacres by Israeli forces in 1948 (Nakba)But what "moral clarity" is there in demands that Oct 7 be condemned as terrorism BUT NOT Deir Yassin, Tantura, Dawayima…?
— Remi Brulin (@RBrulin) November 8, 2023
There's a mass Palestinian grave under a popular Israeli beach, 1948 war veterans confesshttps://t.co/sYY828JQfa pic.twitter.com/U5zPp4YHrV
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) January 21, 2022
“They silenced it,” former combat soldier Moshe Diamant says, trying to be spare with his words. “It mustn’t be told, it could cause a whole scandal. I don’t want to talk about it, but it happened. What can you do? It happened”https://t.co/sYY828JQfa
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) January 21, 2022
The martyrs of the Tantura massacre, who were killed by soldiers of the Alexandroni Brigade in the Israeli occupation army in 1948, were buried in a mass grave that is now located under a parking lot.#nakba #gaza
Do not let criminals escape justice. Don't let them repeat the… pic.twitter.com/mFh3CF908R— Safwat Safi𓂆🧉 (@Safwat_Safi) November 10, 2023
(The Electronic Intifada)
BLA
