Ethnic cleansing after the guns fell silent, March 1949: The eviction of the residents of the village of Iraq al-Manshiyya, population 2,000, which had been within the borders of the Arab state defined by the 1947 UN Partition Plan of Palestine. This action took place weeks after Israel and Egypt signed their armistice agreement in Rhodes, Greece, under the auspices of the UN, setting the armistice line such that Iraq al-Manshiyya was on the Israeli side. The residents of the village were transferred to what would become known as the Gaza Strip. In 1954, Israel founded the development town of Kiryat Gat that included the site and adjacent agricultural fields of the erased Arab village, totaling some 1,350 hectares of land.

Haaretz: Israel Systematically Hiding Evidence of the Nakba

In an article published in its weekend magazine section on Friday, July 5, the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz revealed that since the start of the last decade, Defense Ministry teams have been scouring archives throughout Israel and removing “sensitive” historic documents. However, among the documents being transferred to secret vaults are not just papers relating…

The municipal building of Upper Nazareth, now known as Nof Hagalil, which overlooks Arab Nazareth, in the background.

Upper Nazareth Changes Its Name

Jewish and Arab residents of Upper Nazareth (“Nazareth Illit,” in Hebrew) last week voted to change the name of the northern city, in a move the mayor said was designed to put an end to widespread confusion with the neighboring Arab city of Nazareth. The deputy mayor of Upper Nazareth, Dr. Shawki Awauda (Hadash), said…