Milena Rampoldi, ProMosaik, 27/11/2021
On 29 November 1947, the representatives of 33 countries at the UN voted Resolution 181 to divide Palestine into three entities: a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international administration for Jerusalem/Bethlehem. This resolution, supported by the two great powers, Truman's USA and Stalin's USSR, was never implemented and triggered the war, which was provoked by the unilateral proclamation of the Jewish State on 14 May 1948. To commemorate this sinister anniversary, I talked to the pro-Palestinian human rights activist based in London, William Hanna about his book “The broken promise of a promised land”, telling openly the truth on Judaism, Zionism, occupation, and violation of human rights of the Palestinians. A brave and true book.
Why did you choose the title THE BROKEN PROMISE OF A PROMISED LAND for your new book?
The Israeli Declaration of Independence, was proclaimed on 14 May 1948 by David Ben-Gurion, — the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine — with the pledge that Israel would “foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
Then without any compunction or delay, Zionist Israel began — and has continued to do so ever since — the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population: a “catastrophe” known as the Nakba, which involved the barbaric and traumatic dispossession of an estimated 750,000 refugees —with some 530 villages destroyed and approximately 13,000 Palestinians killed — and the uprooting of two-thirds of the Palestinian Arab population and their society. Yet despite this being a core Palestinian grievance, the Nakba continues to be whitewashed or denied outright by pundits, lobbyists, and even policymakers in so-called civilised and just societies allegedly committed to human rights for all.
