When I was a kid, I was sent to a Zionist Youth Group (as did most UK-Jewish kids of my era, there were lots of different groups appealing to different demographics). I can remember being told in all seriousness that the Nakba was a fiction. Made up by Arabists and antisemites as of course Zionists would be far too honourable to commit atrocities. Palestinians went of there own accord etc. etc. I am ashamed to admit that, at the time, I believed them. Now the same people who denied the Nakba are calling for a Second Nakba.
I wonder what other lies are being told to justify further atrocities.
When trying to construct any kind of moral or political response to these events, to recent events, to decades of events, I find them all rattling around within the reality of the Nakba. There are longer historical tragedies, of antisemitism, of pogroms, of so many other things, but this is the reality of decades of power and imposition. The 7th October was a true horror and, to be honest, me trying to come up with a 'position' on it is neither here nor there. But I'll condemn it, of course I will.
But, that word again, even the 7th October came out of
something. It wasn't some clockwork agency free unfolding of the Nakba, horrible choices were made, but the clearance of villages, withholding of resources, vastly unequal death ratios, limiting of lives, yes, apartheid has brought us to this point. At a human level, I feel just as much sympathy for victims on both sides, but can't say the same when it comes to the wider reality.
Sorry, that wasn't aimed at you, I just locked onto the Nakba point. And I can't claim to be saying anything significant, just trying to work out how to nest an obvious sense of horror and despair within the, for want of a better term, bigger picture.
