RE-EDUCATION: MINISTER MAKES HISTORY ERASING PALESTINIAN NAKBA
by Hanna Kawas

Pacific Free Press
re-education-minister-makes-history-erasing-palest inian-nakba.html
Thursday, 02 July 2009 18:13

Open Letter to Margaret MacDiarmid, B.C. Minister of Education

Dear Minister: I am a survivor of the Nakba (the Palestinian
Catastrophe). My parents were forced out of Jaffa, Palestine in 1948
by Zionist terrorist gangs while my mother was still pregnant with me.

Margaret MacDiarmid: Should we dare request a meeting with you to
clarify the facts or is that only reserved for the pro-Israel lobby?

My parents and many others were part of the one third of the
Palestinian people who became refugees before the establishment of
the state of Israel. This happened under the watch of the British
mandate and its troops who were in Palestine to "civilize" the
Palestinian people.

I was shocked, hurt and outraged by your action of removing an exam
question relating to the dispossession of my people. It is clear
that your action came as a result of pressure from the "Canadian
Jewish Congress" that claimed, "all three sentences are misleading
and historically inaccurate" without specifying or attempting to
clarify why.

Let us look at the exam question: "They have been fighting to regain
a homeland since they were driven out in 1948. Some have lived their
entire lives in refugee camps. Forty years later, Israel still refuses
to recognize their right to exist as a nation."

The following letter was sent to the B.C. Minister of Education
Margaret MacDiarmid.

If you also find her position outrageous, please email her at
margaret.macdiarmid.mla@leg.bc.ca

In Solidarity, Hanna June 28, 2009

Now, the first sentence: "They have been fighting to regain a homeland
since they were driven out in 1948." Is Romy Ritter, the director of
the Congress’s Pacific region saying that the Palestinians have not
been fighting for the past sixty one years to regain their homeland or
is she disputing the fact that "they were driven out in 1948"? If she
is disputing that they were driven out, please consult with Israel
historians like Benny Morris ("The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee
problem, 1947-1949" & "Righteous Victims"), Simha Flapan (The Birth
of Israel) and Ilan Pappe (The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
1947-1951).

The facts speak for themselves. In 1948, Zionist forces wiped out
over four hundred Palestinian towns and villages from the map of the
world (see: "All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied
and Depopulated by Israel in 1948" by Palestinian historian Walid
Khalidi. And two-thirds of the Palestinian people were ethnically
cleansed from their homeland and have never been allowed to return
to their homes (see: The ethnic cleansing of Palestine By Ilan Pappe).

The second sentence states: "Some have lived their entire lives
in refugee camps". What is misleading and inaccurate about this
sentence? If anything, it minimizes the numbers of refugees by saying
"some". There are around seven million Palestinian refugees world
wide and according to the UNRWA, there are 1,350,000 Palestinians
still living in refugee camps throughout the Arab countries. There
are many Palestinian Canadians here in BC who have families living in
refugee camps and you have traumatized the students of our community
with your arbitrary action.

Let us look at the third sentence: "Forty years later, Israel still
refuses to recognize their right to exist as a nation." It seems
this question was written 21 years ago because it is now 61 years
and counting. The statement that Israel refuses to recognize the
Palestinians as a nation is, to say the least, mildly put. Israel
was built not only on the denial of Palestinian nationhood, but
also on the denial of the very existence of the Palestinians as
a people. Many early Zionists (Jewish and Christian) adopted the
slogan "A land without a people for a people without a land". Also,
the late Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir stated: "There is no such
thing as a Palestinian people… It is not as if we came and threw
them out and took their country. They didn’t exist." Golda Meir,
statement to The Sunday Times, 15 June, 1969.

As you can see from the above details (and there are many more), the
exam question does jive with historic facts. For you to interfere
and remove it from the test is an outrageous act that amounts to
censorship. It also shows that you are susceptible to bullying and
dictates from the pro-Israel lobby. You don’t want to be remembered
as such and you do not want to be remembered as complicit in crimes
against humanity, so please reinstate the question and apologize to
the Palestinian people. You do not want to be known as the Minister
who not only distressed and alienated students of Palestinian, Arab
and Moslem descent in our province, but also rewrote history and
undermined all those working so hard for genuine peace in the region.

And finally, if you believe you are the sole "decider" on what should
appear on provincial and practice exams for BC students, we insist
that you add the question below:

What do you call the acts of denial of all of the following: the Jewish
Holocaust, the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians, the reparations for
black slavery, the Aboriginal and the Armenian genocides?

A. Acts of cowardice.

B. Acts of distorting facts and history (Revisionism).

C. Acts of complicity in crimes against humanity.

D. All of the above.

Should we dare request a meeting with you to clarify the facts or is
that only reserved for the pro-Israel lobby? Or would you be interested
to debate the issue publicly on Voice of Palestine, Vancouver?

Yours Truly, Hanna Kawas Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association,
Vancouver Co-host, Voice of Palestine, Vancouver
Cc: Canadian Arab Federation/Local and
National; Independent Jewish Voices/Local and National; Jews for a
Just Peace, Vancouver; Canada Palestine Support Network, Vancouver;
Canadian Jewish Outlook Magazine; BCTF committees and organizations;
Adala, Vancouver – Canadian Arab Justice Committee; Masjid Alsalaam,
Burnaby Mosque and Education Centre; Social Justice Committee of the
Unitarian Church of Vancouver; Solidarity with Palestinian Human
Rights-UBC; Vancouver Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of
Friends (Quakers); B.C. Moslem Association; Arab Canadian Lawyers
Association