The Guardian newspaper (July 24th) reports in a long piece that Israel is now banning all mention of the Nakba – the forced removal of Arabs from their homelands during the establishment of the Israeli State – from Palestinian Arab school textbooks.
One can imagine, without making other comparisons, the justifiable outrage there would be were the word ‘shoah’ to be treated in the same way in any European country. Israel is clearly attempting to remove Palestinian history as well as Palestinian culture, thus moving further towards relegating Palestinian Arabs to the level of a non-people. This has appalling historical resonances. Yet European politicians stand aside from condemning it – Irish politicians, one feels, will similarly do absolutely nothing.
We are witnessing the slow obliteration of an entire people; by the gun, the bomb, intellectually and now even by educators. For this reason it is legitimate to call upon our teachers’ organisations as well as our writers and politicians immediately to condemn this latest move, and to do so in letters to national newspapers the better to alert Irish people to what is going on. Perhaps too an Irish politician will stand up.
The Guardian newspaper (July 24th) reports in a long piece that Israel is now banning all mention of the Nakba – the forced removal of Arabs from their homelands during the establishment of the Israeli State – from Palestinian Arab school textbooks.
One can imagine, without making other comparisons, the justifiable outrage there would be were the word ‘shoah’ to be treated in the same way in any European country. Israel is clearly attempting to remove Palestinian history as well as Palestinian culture, thus moving further towards relegating Palestinian Arabs to the level of a non-people. This has appalling historical resonances. Yet European politicians stand aside from condemning it – Irish politicians, one feels, will similarly do absolutely nothing.
We are witnessing the slow obliteration of an entire people; by the gun, the bomb, intellectually and now even by educators. For this reason it is legitimate to call upon our teachers’ organisations as well as our writers and politicians immediately to condemn this latest move, and to do so in letters to national newspapers the better to alert Irish people to what is going on. Perhaps too an Irish politician will stand up.
