Letters II: Complex origins of Palestinian refugee issue in Middle East

Pappe (Letters, The National, October 19).

Their work, which is based on extensive research into declassified documents held in the Israeli State Archives and the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem, demonstrates conclusively that significant numbers of Palestinians were forcibly expelled prior to the outbreak of war in May 1948.

While the letters page of the The National is not an appropriate forum for discussing complex issues of historiography, I would, however, draw Mr Eddie’s attention to Professor Morris’ research on the origins of the Palestinian refugee problem.

In an article published in the academic journal Middle Eastern Studies, (Vol. 22, No. 1, January 1986), Morris cites an IDF Intelligence Service report dated June 30, 1948, which examined the causes of “The Emigration of the Arabs of Palestine in the period 1/12/1947-1/6/1948.” The report, which was produced during the First Truce of the 1948 war, concludes that “at least 55 per cent of the total of the [Palestinian] exodus was caused by our [Haganah/IDF] operations and their influence”. In addition, the Intelligence branch notes the that effects of the operations of the dissident Jewish organizations the Irgun Z’va’i Leumi and Lohamei Herut Yisrael “directly [caused] some 15 percent ... of the emigration”.

In Morris’ judgment, the report “thoroughly undermines the traditional official Israeli “explanation” of a mass flight ordered or “invited by the Arab leadership for political-strategic reasons.” Morris adds that the report “makes no mention of any blanket order issued over Arab radio stations or through other means, to the Palestinians to evacuate their homes and villages. Had such an order been issued, it would without doubt have been mentioned or cited in this document; the Haganah Intelligence Service and its successor, the IDF Intelligence Service closely monitored Arab radio transmissions and the Arabic press.” Moreover, he notes that the report “goes out of its way to stress that the exodus was contrary to the political-strategic desires of both the Arab Higher Committee and the governments of the neighbouring Arab states.”

Until Israel acknowledges its moral and legal responsibility for the forced displacement and dispossession of the Palestinians, there will never be a just resolution of the conflict.

Jeremy Stein
Chair, Glasgow Jewish Educational Forum

RAHIQ Shaji Birawi, 23, from the village of Asira al-Shamaliya died on Wednesday.

As she approached Israeli border guards stationed at the Tappuah junction they fired warning shots into the air. After she ignored their directives and their calls for her to stop, she allegedly pulled out a knife, and Israeli forces opened fire and killed her. This slightly built young woman was a threat to a bunch of heavily armed men unwilling to arrest her or detain her.

She is the 234th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since a wave of violence started in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel in October 2015. Rights groups have disputed Israel’s version of events in many cases, denouncing what they have termed as a “shoot-to-kill” policy against Palestinians who did not constitute a threat or who could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner, amid a backdrop of impunity for Israeli forces who have committed the killings.

Such is life under brutal occupation.

B McKenna
Address supplied

U-turn by the Tories on pensions is most welcome 

THE Conservative government’s flagship policy and manifesto commitment to “Pension Freedoms” has just seen a U-turn, a U-turn announced to the press prior to any announcement to parliament, begging the question, who is the government answerable to?

Yet this U-turn, welcome as it may be, affects hundreds of thousands of future and current pensioners. This U-turn involves one’s right to sell on annuity arrangements and should not have been on the agenda in the first place.

In making this U-turn the Government now claims there is a shortage of buyers for sellers of annuities! Not quite the revelation it sounds as SNP MP Ian Blackford pointed out and asked why the Government had taken no cognisance of findings by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) only six months ago revealing such information.

Mr Blackford also asked the Government if there was no consultation on the matter before legislation was put in place, and called for a full review of “pension freedom” legislation. This is real people’s incomes the Government are legislating on, our older and sometimes vulnerable generation, who have given much to the country over their working lives.

Now the government, not satisfied with the shambles they are making of state pension reform, especially to women born in the early 1950s, have had to conduct a U-turn on people’s work/private pension legislation.

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

JUST listen to the Tories squealing at the thought that their propaganda machine might be threatened.

After all the denials from the BBC about not being impartial and their refusal to accept a pile of evidence of bias, along comes Conservative MP Alberto Costa to confirm what we knew all along – that the BBC is indeed the voice of Westminster and no-one should be chipping away at it.

He also tells us that Scots “want to know what’s going across the UK and see the good work of the Conservatives”.

How does he know that: did he ask someone up here?

Alan Anderson
Portlethen

IS there a case for delaying Indyref 2 for a few years, by which time many of the older, predominantly Unionist Scots (Unscots?) will have shuffled off their mortal coil, giving way to younger voters with hope and ideals?

At 74 I’m keeping myself as fit as possible, with the intention of witnessing a new dawn (assuming there’s still something left to salvage from the looming shipwreck of HMS GB).

James Stevenson
Auchterarder

YOUR article regarding the reduction in the number of MP’s elected from Scotland from 59 to 53 was informative and worrying for some MPs and highlighted that the SNP, with most elected representatives, have most to lose.

But on reading this article I kept asking myself a question: how many peers are there in the House of Lords and should there numbers be subject to the same overhaul/reductions?

The aim of the boundary changes, in reducing the number of MPs, is to make savings to the public purse and the proposed reduction in the UK MP numbers, from 650 to 600, would produce a projected saving to the public purse, over a five-year period, of approximately £65 million.

Currently there are over 800 members in the House of Lords, with over 750 of those members’ eligible to vote in the Lords and eligible to claim between £150 and £300 per day if they are not in receipt of a salary or allowance from another source.

Perhaps it is worth pointing out this daily allowance is tax-free! The House of Lords is the second-largest parliamentary assembly in the world after China’s national people’s congress and is costing the public purse breath-taking amounts annually!

At this time when our democratically elected representatives are being reduced in the interest of the public purse, surely the time is right for a complete overhaul of the non-elected and undemocratic House of Lords and there future worth to the country should definitely be on the agenda.

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk