Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
14 April
ZIONIST MILITIA ATTACKED JEWISH MARCH FOR PEACE
On this day in 1948, a procession of several thousand Orthodox Jews marched through the streets of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem with banners demanding peace and a 'cease fire'. The Orthodox Jews issued a statement subsequently that Haganah troops tore down their banners and beat the demonstrators. Later a larger Haganah force, which arrived in buses, fired their guns in the air and "also beat the demonstrators without mercy, using their rifle butts." The Scotsman 16 April 1948
الميليشيات الصهيونية تهاجم مسيرة اليهود من أجل السلام
14 أبريل
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 1948 ، "سار موكب من عدة آلاف من اليهود الأرثوذكس في شوارع الحي اليهودي في القدس رافعين لافتات تطالب بالسلام و" وقف إطلاق النار ". وأصدر اليهود الأرثوذكس بيانًا بعد ذلك بأن قوات الهاغاناه مزقوا لافتاتهم وضربوا المحنجين. فيما بعد ، وصلت قوة أكبر من الهاغاناه محمولة في حافلات وقامت ، بإطلاق نيران أسلحتها في الهواء و "ضربت المتظاهرين دون رحمة مستخدمة أعقاب بنادقهم".
The Scotsman report is taken from Countdown To Catastrophe Palestine 1948: A Daily Chronology, by Hugh Humphries, Published in 2000 by Scottish Friends of Palestine"
Palestinian Jewish opposition to Zionism
From the earliest days of Zionism, many rabbis had warned of the physical threat it posed. The members of the Old Yishuv feared that the nationalist ambitions of the new settlers would create tensions with Arabs, with whom their devoutly religious communities had always coexisted in peace. For these rabbis it was essential to protect themselves from the Zionists, whom they called "destroyers of the city." They grounded their arguments on a passage from the Talmud that was later to give its name to Neturei Karta, one of the most active groups in the anti-Zionist movement...During the first decades of Zionism, the leaders of the Old Yishuv saw the Jewish settlers, and not the Arab population, as the looming threat. The Jews were the first to reject the newly arrived Zionist settlers in Palestine; only later did the Arabs follow suit...
"To his followers who wished to establish themselves in the Holy Land, the [anti-Zionist] Gur Rebbe wrote that the Arabs were a friendly, hospitable people. Recent works of history dealing with Palestinian society before the proclamation of the State of Israel also point to the relative harmony that prevailed at the time. The memory of cordial relations between Jews and Arabs continues to motivate the anti-Zionists, who question the strong-arm approach they attribute to the Zionist concept of the state."
The very first Zionist political murder targeted the spokesman for the indigenous Jewish Orthodox community of Palestine, Jacob de Haan. The Haganah killed de Haan for his opposition to the Balfour Declaration, his denunciations of the tyranny of the official Zionist movement and of the Zionist refusal to try to reach an accommodation with the native Palestinians. Haaretz had earlier called de Haan “anti-Semitic scum” and Ben Gurion had set him up for assassination by labelling him “a traitor”.
Jewish opposition to Zionism is long-standing
"The haredim...rejection of Zionism is not so surprising when one remembers that prior to the Holocaust, Zionism was a very small movement in the worldwide Jewish community. Orthodox Jews rejected Zionism because they defined Jewish identity in religious terms; Reformed and secular Jews rejected it because they were assimilated as loyal citizens of their country; and socialist Jews rejected it because they felt called to wrestle for a just society transcending the capitalist order. It was only after the Holocaust that the majority of Jews came to support the Zionist project.
Testimony to the United Nations Special Committee in Palestine on July 16, 1947 by the Chief Rabbis of the Ashkenasic Jewish Community, Rav Yosef Zvi Dushinsky and Rav Zelig Ruven Bengis: "Good neighbourly relations with other sections of the population.
"During no period of the immigration of such orthodox European Jews was any opposition offered by the Arab population. On the contrary, these Jews were welcomed on account of economic benefits and general progress that accrued to the local inhabitants who had no fear whatsoever of being subjugated. It was common knowledge that these Jews came but for the purpose of fulfilling certain religious requirements and they had no difficulty in establishing a mutual trust, and real friendship developed with all sections of the community. That was the time when good neighbourly relations existed between Jews and Arabs and in particular Rabbis and eminent scholars who then lead the Jewish Community were greatly esteemed and honoured by all inhabitants.
"With the...Balfour Declaration of 1917 a new era opened in the history of the Holy Land. We Orthodox Jews whose forefathers promoted the development of the Jewish Yishuv throughout the generations, who for many centuries constituted the most important element of the Yishuv in the Holy Land, were always on the very best of terms with all sections of the Community. We had hoped that the real purpose of the Mandate would be the promotion of a "Home" to which Jews who lived in the Diaspora might be able to return as their Home Land in order to live here in accordance with the Commandments of the Almighty. It was upon the first appearance of the Zionist organization as a political entity...that the idea of the foundation of a Jewish state in the Holy Land was first advanced.
"Much trouble and endless bloodshed might have been avoided if the Mandate were to have been applied in the manner hoped for by Orthodox Jewry.
"...a serious blunder was committed at the time by recognising first the leaders of Zionism and then the Jewish Agency as official representation of the Jewish population...They have thus succeeded in strengthening their position by bringing in elements of the population who were faithful to their aims and ideals and have founded Jewish Communities throughout the country whose very spirit is contrary to the requirements of Jewish Law and have thereby furthered their hold in the country, by insisting on the creation of a Jewish state therein. This aroused the fear of our Arab neighbors in connection with further Jewish immigration and thus started the determined opposition on the part of the Arabs against Jewish immigration.. . . .and it is contrary to the wishes of G-d to create a Jewish State. . ."Orthodox Jewry has not the slightest intention of subjugating any section of the population of the Holy Land...We furthermore wish to express our definite opposition to a Jewish state in any part of Palestine."
10 -minute video: Orthodox Jews condemning the crimes of the State of Israel
https://www.youtube.com/embed/lqMqtvOY9CY