Friday 29 March 2024 
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Eviction of Arab Jews by Israel evokes memories of Nakba

A decades-long standoff between the Israeli government and Mizrahi Jews ended with the eviction of dozens of families from Tel Aviv's Givat Amal Bet neighbourhood, sparking allegations of racism and "contempt" for the Arab Jewish community that migrated to the occupation state following its founding.

The final 32 families were evicted after 60 years of legal battles. During the tense standoff, where some of the residents had barricaded themselves in their homes, over 200 police officers and Border Police descended on the Mizrahi working-class neighbourhood to evict them from their homes in order to build luxury apartments.

 

The families were originally sent to Givat Amal in 1948 when more than 750,000 Palestinians were evicted from their homes. The land had previously been part of an Arab village. It's thought that the Israeli government had sent these Jewish families to the area to stop Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes.

 

Throughout the day, contractors removed the residents' belongings from their houses and demolished doors, windows and other structures in homes that had already been emptied of their occupants, making them uninhabitable and thus preventing anyone from returning to them.

 

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) described yesterday's standoff as "a microcosm" of Israel at large. "The founding displacement of Palestinian refugees, the racist use of Mizrahi Jews as disposable placeholders for them, the Ashkenazi elite's oppression and neglect of Mizrahim except for when politically or economically expedient, " tweeted the rights group.

 

In its series of tweets JVP highlighted the underlying racism of the occupation state and the connection of the Mizrahi family's eviction to the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe).

 

"To prevent the Mizrahi residents from returning to their homes of 7 decades — homes to which the Israeli government sent them to prevent Palestinian refugees' return — Israeli workers began to destroy their doors and windows," JVP added.

 

"The experiences of the Mizrahi Jewish residents of Givat Amal are not directly comparable with those of Palestinians facing ethnic cleansing in neighborhoods like Sheikh Jarrah. But the ongoing Nakba and the oppression of Mizrahim *are* connected" stressed JVP.

 

 

It claimed that "from 1948 to today, all forced displacement by the Israeli government is the result of Zionism, an Ashkenazi-led, settler-colonial movement that promotes ethnic hierarchy — not just Jews over Palestinians, but also European Jews over Jews from the Middle East and North Africa".

 

Mizrahi residents have also slammed the decision to evict them from their homes. "I am enraged that [the state] has betrayed us," Ronit Aldouby, a Givat Amal resident is reported saying. "Their contempt for Mizrahim is beyond words."

 

"All these years not a single tree has been planted here, they didn't provide any services, and it's all deliberate," added Yossi Cohen, another Givat Amal resident. "The [Labor-Zionist] Mapai governments started it, Likud continued it, and now the 'government of change' is continuing to betray us. It's a disgrace upon the state."




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