While Israel celebrates its 60th birthday, Palestinian refugees mourn the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe) when they lost their homeland.Perhaps the word "refused" would be more accurate than "lost"?
Often ignored in Middle East peace talks, they cling to a "right of return".Ignored? They have been held up as the major issue by Arab leaders for sixty years!
Alia Shabati was 12 when she fled Jewish attacks on her village of Kabri, captured a few days after Israel's creation....Notice that Reuters cannot say that any historians agree with the Israeli version of history. No, all historians in the Reuters universe agree with the "ethnic cleansing" slander - even "some Israeli scholars," and the only people who cling to a narrative where Israel is not completely evil is the Israeli government itself.
The fate of Kabri was part of what Palestinians -- and some Israeli scholars -- say was systematic ethnic cleansing ordered by Zionist leaders to clear the way for the Jewish state.
Israel rejects this, saying the refugee problem resulted from a war launched by Palestinians opposed to the U.N. partition plan adopted on November 29, 1947, and by Arab states which invaded as soon as the British Mandate expired on May 15, 1948.
The bias is stunning, if not unexpected.
Israel firmly opposes letting any refugees return to their original homes, on the grounds that this would effectively destroy the Jewish state by threatening its Jewish majority.And possibly because the Arabs who left are the ones who want to see a genocide of Jews in the Middle East.
In recent years, camp conditions have worsened everywhere as UNRWA, the cash-strapped agency that helps Palestinian refugees, becomes less able to provide adequate health and education.Any chance that Reuters will mention that the word "refugee" has a completely different meaning that is unique to Palestinian Arabs, that UNRWA created?
"Palestinian refugees now, more than at any time in the last 60 years, face a serious decline in services," said Sayigh.
Another day, another piece of garbage masking as "journalism" from Reuters.