Turning the 'right of return' into reality

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But it is the exposure of a third myth that is the most explosive: that a literal return is unfeasible. In the words of the excellent arenaofspeculation.org, engaging "in new ways with the spatial, political and social landscapes of Israel-Palestine" means that instead of asking "can we return?" or "when will we return?" Palestinians are suddenly allowed to ask "what kind of return do we want to create for ourselves?"

A discussion on what implementing the right of the return would look like is taking place. There is the long-standing work of Salman Abu Sitta and the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), as well as studies by Badil and Decolonising Architecture Art Residency. Recently, the Israeli group Zochrot published in their journal Sedek a fascinating collection of articles on realising the return.

Many people are familiar with the words of Israeli military chief of staff Moshe Dayan at a funeral in 1956, when he reminded those present that Palestinian refugees in Gaza had been watching the transformation of "the lands and the villages, where they and their fathers dwelt, into our estate."

Less well known are the thoughts of his father, member of Knesset Shmuel Dayan, who in 1950 admitted: "Maybe is not right and not moral, but if we become just and moral, I do not know where we will end up."

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/2011527131738517819.html

This claim was undermined - almost despite himself - by Israeli historian Benny Morris, who though joining the attack on Abbas' op-ed, noted that 300,000 Palestinians had lost their homes before 15 May 1948.

It would still be disgusting to try and claim that war justifies ethnic cleansing

Who better to sort out the myths and realities between the Palestinians and Israelis than Ben White?

Who could have better insight into the quotes of various Israeli political figures in the 1950's than someone born three decades later?

And what better spokesman could there be for perspective of the Palestinian people than a white European man who lives in the UK?

In any case, I think Ben White ought to be taken very, very seriously.

After all, he notes on his website that he has been "regularly visiting the Middle East since 2003 for periods of between two weeks and three months at a time."

If that's not credibility, I don't know what is!

the current lines based on a book that was written well over a thousand years before they were born.\

My point is that the guy writing this article is neither Palestinian, nor Israeli, does not live in the region, only recently got his BA in Comparative Literature. He just writes with a sense of authority that I do not feel is earned.

Those who thought that Israel had, and has, a right to exist as a Jewish state are against it. The war has always been about Israel's existence and the Jews right to a state. Nothing has changed in over 60 years. Sad.

Especially if that "right" was to be exercised at the expense of the Arabs that already lived there?

Odd given that you claim to be a "scholar". The Zionists never claimed to want an ethnicaly pure state. They always understood that there would be an Arab minority. They did want a state where Jews were the majority. So why do the French have the right to a state where the majority of the people are French? How about the Germans, Japanese, Russians, and everybody else? Why didn't the Jews already living in Palestine have a right to their own state in the parts of Palestine where they were already the majority? Why did the Arabs have the exclusive right to all of Palestine for themselves?

Thanks for proving my major point, however.

He cites no source for it in the article. I'd like to know where it comes from. If anybody can find a citation for that quote that doesn't link back to Ben's article, I'd appreciate it.

"Let us not cast the blame on the murderers today. Why should we deplore their burning hatred for us? For eight years they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we have been transforming the lands and the villages, where they and their fathers dwelt, into our estate," declared Dayan.

Doomed to fight
Though delivered 55 years ago, Moshe Dayan's eulogy for Roi Rotberg continues to articulate Israel's situation in its dispute with the Arabs
By Aluf Benn

http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/doomed-to-fight-1.360698


on edit to add: Moshe Dayan's Eulogy for Roi Rutenberg
(April 19, 1956)

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http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Quote/dayan1.html

That is a quote from Moshe Dayan that is very widely known.

I am calling BS on the alleged quote from Shmuel Dayan that I have never seen in my life.

If you can provide a source to that quote, I would greatly appreciate it.

Since you've been asking for sources on quotes in more than one thread, I imagined you
were looking for verification in general...my mistake.

A source for Shmuel Dayan's quote, I e-mailed Ben White through Al Jazeera. Not all quotes
can be found through the internet.

I was only calling BS on that Shmuel Dayan quote - and I do not do so lightly.

I would mention that I've searched non-internet sources as well for the particular quote in question with no luck.

Please let me know if you get a response from Ben White.

That one tugged at my "how do you know that" reflexes too. I'd never heard that one before, and I've heard quite a lot by now.

So far my attempts have come up empty (and I am usually good at that sort of thing).