[[{"content_id":"125362","domain_id":"0","lang_id":"en","portal_id":"2","owner_id":"29","user_id":"1","view_accesslevel_id":"0","edit_accesslevel_id":"0","delete_accesslevel_id":"0","editor_id":"0","content_title":"Israeli ethnic cleansing by pines","content_number":"0","content_date_event":"2014-10-18 17:29:25","content_summary":"The pine trees was brought to Palestine as of 1948 by the Zionist settlers for two main reasons.","content_summary_fill":"0","content_body":"Ilan Pappé and Samer Jaber (Mondoweiss):\r\n\r\n\tThe pine trees in Palestine appeared with the establishment of the state of Israel.\r\n\r\n\tThe pine is generally a European species which before the 20th century was not seen in the Middle East.\r\n\r\n\tIt was brought to Palestine by the Zionist settlers for two main reasons.\r\n\r\n\tFirst, it gave the new Jewish settlers the feeling that the place they had migrated to was somehow part of Europe.\r\n\r\n\tAnd if Palestine were to be ‘Europeanized’ in such a manner it would also be ‘civilized’ — the inferior local population would be replaced by a superior one.\r\n\r\n\tThus Zionism was not just a redemption of an ancient land, it was also the revitalization of what in their eyes was an Arabian desert both ecologically and culturally.\r\n\r\n\tThe second reason for their import was more practical; they were brought to cover up the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that took place in 1947-48 and produced the Palestinian Catastrophe, the Nakba.\r\n\r\n\tThe fast-growing pine was widely used to create Israeli national and recreational parks to hide the ruins of destroyed Palestinian villages and neighborhoods which had been evicted by force in 1948.\r\n\r\n\tThese forests were presented later on as Israel’s ‘green lungs’ forming together an ecological carpet covering a once barren land.\r\n\r\n\tThe largest of these ‘lungs’ is the Mount Carmel National Park near Haifa; one of the early projects which attempted to erase the Palestinian life and society that existed there for centuries.\r\n\r\n\tThis forest stretches over notable villages such as Ijzim, Umm al-Zinat and Khubbaza which have disappeared and are no longer to be found on any map.\r\n\r\n\tThis method did not stop in 1948.\r\n\r\n\tWhen Israel occupied the West Bank and Jerusalem in 1967 pine trees again were planted to cover the new wave of destroyed villages; Imwas, Yalo and Beit Nouba, in the Latrun Valley near Jerusalem.\r\n\r\n\tIn their stead the ‘green lung’ of Canada Park appeared as a recreational ground hiding the inhumanity of the villages’ depopulation.\r\n\r\n\tCovering ethnic cleansing with pine trees is probably the most cynical method employed by Israel in its quest to take over as much of Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians in it as possible.\r\n\r\n\tLike all the other means, which will be described here, they can be found at every historical juncture since Zionism appeared on the land of Palestine.\r\n\r\n\tAnother means used in 1948 and in 1967 was renaming Palestinian villages as Jewish settlements – more often than not by appropriating the Arabic name of a destroyed Palestine community for the new settlement.\r\n\r\n\tIn 1949 a naming committee facilitated transforming the destroyed villages of 1948 by Hebrewizing their Arabic names and thus the Palestinian village of Lubya became Kibbutz Lavi and the Palestinian city of Asqalan became the Israeli city of Ashkelon.\r\n\r\n\tAfter the 1967 occupation, the settlement of Tekoa was built next to the West Bank village of Tuqu’ and on its land.\r\n\r\n\tThe principal means however were not trees or renaming – it was, and still is, colonization.\r\n\r\n\tFor this effort to succeed the illegal 19th century method has to perpetually be accepted and approved by Israeli Jewish society, even in 2014.\r\n\r\n\tIsraeli colonialist expansion into the West Bank is viewed by mainstream Israelis as normal and necessary.\r\n\r\n\tFor most it is a historical right and for the rest it is justified as accommodating a natural population growth in the existing Jewish settlements.\r\n\r\n\tIn effect the colonization of the West Bank has annexed large parts of the territory to Israel (regardless of any prospective peace settlement in the future).\r\n\r\n\tPalestinians in the vicinity of settlements are subjected to other means of ethnic cleansing and the further expropriation of their land, including besiegement with wires, fences, walls, gates and imprisonment within their own localities.\r\n\r\n\tThis policy of ethnic cleansing, by different means since 1948, is a consensual issue in Israel and thus leaves very little hope for peace and reconciliation.\r\n\r\n\tThe worst method of ethnic cleansing was imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2006.\r\n\r\n\tPalestinians there were placed out of sight and beyond the demographic count by imposing a siege on the 1.8 million people living there.It was rationalized by Israel as a security measure but in truth it is part of their ethnic cleansing strategy that, in this case, can easily turn into a genocidal policy.\r\n\r\n\tNo wonder Palestinians there resist ethnic cleansing with all they have.","content_html":"

\r\n\tIlan Pappé and Samer Jaber (Mondoweiss):<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThe pine trees in Palestine appeared with the establishment of the state of Israel.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThe pine is generally a European species which before the 20th century was not seen in the Middle East.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tIt was brought to Palestine by the Zionist settlers for two main reasons.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tFirst, it gave the new Jewish settlers the feeling that the place they had migrated to was somehow part of Europe.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tAnd if Palestine were to be ‘Europeanized’ in such a manner it would also be ‘civilized’ — the inferior local population would be replaced by a superior one.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThus Zionism was not just a redemption of an ancient land, it was also the revitalization of what in their eyes was an Arabian desert both ecologically and culturally.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThe second reason for their import was more practical; they were brought to cover up the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that took place in 1947-48 and produced the Palestinian Catastrophe, the Nakba.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThe fast-growing pine was widely used to create Israeli national and recreational parks to hide the ruins of destroyed Palestinian villages and neighborhoods which had been evicted by force in 1948.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThese forests were presented later on as Israel’s ‘green lungs’ forming together an ecological carpet covering a once barren land.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThe largest of these ‘lungs’ is the Mount Carmel National Park near Haifa; one of the early projects which attempted to erase the Palestinian life and society that existed there for centuries.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThis forest stretches over notable villages such as Ijzim, Umm al-Zinat and Khubbaza which have disappeared and are no longer to be found on any map.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThis method did not stop in 1948.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tWhen Israel occupied the West Bank and Jerusalem in 1967 pine trees again were planted to cover the new wave of destroyed villages; Imwas, Yalo and Beit Nouba, in the Latrun Valley near Jerusalem.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tIn their stead the ‘green lung’ of Canada Park appeared as a recreational ground hiding the inhumanity of the villages’ depopulation.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tCovering ethnic cleansing with pine trees is probably the most cynical method employed by Israel in its quest to take over as much of Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians in it as possible.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tLike all the other means, which will be described here, they can be found at every historical juncture since Zionism appeared on the land of Palestine.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tAnother means used in 1948 and in 1967 was renaming Palestinian villages as Jewish settlements – more often than not by appropriating the Arabic name of a destroyed Palestine community for the new settlement.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tIn 1949 a naming committee facilitated transforming the destroyed villages of 1948 by Hebrewizing their Arabic names and thus the Palestinian village of Lubya became Kibbutz Lavi and the Palestinian city of Asqalan became the Israeli city of Ashkelon.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tAfter the 1967 occupation, the settlement of Tekoa was built next to the West Bank village of Tuqu’ and on its land.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThe principal means however were not trees or renaming – it was, and still is, colonization.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tFor this effort to succeed the illegal 19th century method has to perpetually be accepted and approved by Israeli Jewish society, even in 2014.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tIsraeli colonialist expansion into the West Bank is viewed by mainstream Israelis as normal and necessary.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tFor most it is a historical right and for the rest it is justified as accommodating a natural population growth in the existing Jewish settlements.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tIn effect the colonization of the West Bank has annexed large parts of the territory to Israel (regardless of any prospective peace settlement in the future).<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tPalestinians in the vicinity of settlements are subjected to other means of ethnic cleansing and the further expropriation of their land, including besiegement with wires, fences, walls, gates and imprisonment within their own localities.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThis policy of ethnic cleansing, by different means since 1948, is a consensual issue in Israel and thus leaves very little hope for peace and reconciliation.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThe worst method of ethnic cleansing was imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2006.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tPalestinians there were placed out of sight and beyond the demographic count by imposing a siege on the 1.8 million people living there.It was rationalized by Israel as a security measure but in truth it is part of their ethnic cleansing strategy that, in this case, can easily turn into a genocidal policy.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tNo wonder Palestinians there resist ethnic cleansing with all they have.<\/p>","content_source":null,"content_url":null,"content_columns":"0","content_date_start":"2014-10-18 17:29:25","content_date_finish":"2014-10-18 17:29:25","content_date_register":"2014-10-18 17:29:25","content_date_last_edit":"0000-00-00 00:00:00","content_show_img":"1","content_show_details":"1","content_show_related_img":"1","content_show_slider":"1","content_show_title_slider":"1","content_comment":"0","content_score":"0","content_recorded":"0","content_confirmed":"1","content_status":"1","content_kind":"0","old_id":"123617","tag_id":null,"tag_word":null,"tag_service":null,"tag_total":null,"tag_soundex":null,"attach_token":"1137770398","attach_date_register":"2014-10-18 17:29:29","attach_id":"123568","attach_file_ext":"jpg","attach_file_header":"image\/jpeg","attach_img_type":"2","attach_img_width":"390","attach_img_height":"250","attach_file_media":"1","attach_show_watermark":"0","score_average":null,"score_count":null,"score_date_last":null,"visit_count":"137","visit_date_last":"2025-05-10 06:56:49","attach_title":"Israeli ethnic cleansing by pines","node_title":"Commentaries","ot_node_left_right":"[{\"node_id\":134, \"left\":25, \"right\":26}]"}]]