On Being Honest

On Radio National's Correspondents Report (24/2/08) the ABC's Europe correspondent, Rafael Epstein, reflected thus on the declaration of Kosovo's independence: " I know from my own heritage that these moments are powerful. They sear themselves into the collective consciousness of a people. I grew up being told about the mythical, almost magical moment, when Israel declared itself independent in 1948. Then, as now, the Prime Minister of the new nation is [sic] idolised by his own people and to be honest, despised by those who feel they've been displaced."

Does Epstein honestly believe that the 750,000 odd Palestinians driven from their homes in 1948 into an exile that lasts till this day were not, in fact, displaced, but only felt displaced?

I'd hate to think so. However, Epstein and many of his fellow foreign correspondents have yet "to be honest" about that "mythical...magical moment when Israel declared independence."

An excellent starting point would be Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe's brilliant book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006): "This book is written with the deep conviction that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine must become rooted in our memory and consciousness as a crime against humanity and that it should be excluded from the list of alleged crimes. The perpetrators here are not obscure - they are a very specific group of people: the heroes of the Jewish war of independence, whose names will be quite familiar to most readers. The list begins with the indisputable leader of the Zionist movement, David Ben-Gurion, in whose private home all early and later chapters in the ethnic cleansing story were discussed and finalised. He was aided by a small group of people I refer to in this book as the 'Consultancy', an ad hoc cabal assembled solely for the purpose of plotting and designing the dispossession of the Palestinians." (p 5)

Or, if that's a bridge too far for Epstein & Co, perhaps they could at least read John V Whitbeck's essay, If Kosovo, Why Not Palestine? at http://www.counterpunch.org/ (20/2/08).