Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 

Israel Racist Government Bans Mention of the Term "1948 Nakba" from Textbooks, Changes Arabic names of Cities to Hebrew

 

Arabic names of Palestinian cities inside Israeli borders and Jerusalem changed to Hebrew

Wednesday July 22, 2009 13:30 by IMEMC News - 1 of International Middle East Media Center Editorial Group

In a recent and bold move by the Netanyahu government, the Arabic names of cities within Israeli borders and Jerusalem are being changed to Hebrew.

The Israeli Minister of Transport has been charged with the task of erasing the Arabic names in Israel, in what has been condemned as a bigoted attempt to deconstruct the Palestinian legacy, especially in Jerusalem. The Arabic name of Al-Quds is also set to be changed, as is Nazareth, and other cities within Israel.

Palestinian Chief of Justice has responded by declaring this as a means of erasing the Arab idenity in Jerusalem and greater Israel. The Chief Justice and Chairman of the Comission in Support of Islamic and Christian Sanctities in Jerusalem has made similar statements, and calling it an act of racism.

In addition to these implications, it is against international law to make such changes to a city that is still constested territory.From the creation of the Israeli state, Jerusalem has been a heavily contested area, subjected to many changes, land confisaction, home demolitions, evacuations, and settlements to cut the city off from its Palestinian heritage. 

Israel bars using the "Nakba" term in textbooks

Wednesday July 22, 2009 23:57 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The racist Israeli occupation government of Netanyahu decided on Wednesday to remove the term ‘Nabka’ from school textbooks. Israel’s education Ministry said that using term Nakba or catastrophe to describe the creation of Israel is inconceivable.

Approximately 700.000 Palestinians (ancestor of about 10 million Palestinians now) were expelled and displaced by Jewish terrorist groups and hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed in 1948 and the racist state of Israel was declared on Palestinian lands.

Israeli occupation government Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed that using the word Nakba in Arab school is considered as spreading propaganda against Israel. The decision to bar using ‘Nakba’ in textbooks was made despite the fact that it is only used in Arab schools in Israel.

It was introduced into textbooks in Arab schools in 2007 when the Israeli Education Ministry was headed by Yuli Tamir, member of the Labor Party.  The textbooks that contains the term Nakba was intended to be studied by children aged eight and nine.

Yisrael Twito, spokesperson of the current Israel Education Minister, Gideon Sa'ar, said that the ministry studied the issue and decided that using the term Nakba to described ‘Israel’s independence’ should be removed.

The term Nakba was not used without presenting the Israeli side of it, the text reads ‘the Arabs described the war of 1948 as the Nakba – catastrophe, loss and humiliation,  and the Jews calls it the war of independence’, Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported. Arab member of Knesset, Jamal Zahalqa, stated that the Arabs will not accept to be gagged by laws that aims at controlling their feelings, beliefs and history.

‘We will not accept to be silenced, we will continue to shout out loud, their independence is our catastrophe’,   Zahalqa stated, ‘We will always oppose Zionism, and we will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state’.

The new law was approved by 38 members of Knesset, while 14 voted against it. It also bars any institution that receives government funding in Israel from commemorating the Nakba, or financing related activities.

 

Israel bans mention of 1948 Nakba from textbooks

Published yesterday (updated) 23/07/2009 14:06

 Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies –

The Israeli racist occupation government has decided to ban the use of the Arabic term Nakba (“Catastrophe”) to describe the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 at during the war that saw the creation of Israel.

Palestinians use the term to describe the mass ethnic cleansing of 1948, when, according to United Nations figures, more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in the areas on which Zionist Jews eventually declared the state of Israel.

The Israeli Education Ministry made the announcement on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The term is not used in textbooks in schools in predominantly Jewish areas, but is used in one text used in areas with high Arab-Palestinian populations.

The text was introduced in 2007 when the Education Ministry was run by Yuli Tamir of the more liberal Labor party. The book was aimed at children, aged 8 and 9, Reuters said.

Palestinians living inside Israel’s original 1948 borders make up about a fifth of the state’s population of seven million.

The racist Israeli occupation government prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said when he was opposition leader two years ago the word Nakba in Israeli schools was tantamount to incitement against Israel.

"After studying the matter with education experts it was decided that the term nakba should be removed. It is inconceivable that in Israel we would talk about the establishment of the state as a catastrophe," said Yisrael Twito, a spokesman for Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar, as quoted by Reuters.

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