The graves of those they exterminated were swept away in "Arab al-Sawalmeh" 74 years ago

Israel repeats the catastrophe of the displacement of the Palestinians... but from inside their graves

  • Israeli buildings and a tennis court on the abandoned village lands.

    Emirates today

  • Palestinian historian Mustafa Kabha.

    Emirates today

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In 1948, in the midst of the bloody events of the Palestinian displacement catastrophe, the Israeli occupation displaced the residents of the village of “Arab al-Sawalmeh”, the district of the occupied city of Jaffa, and exterminated all the remaining residents, so that their blood became clouded in the soil of their usurped homeland.

After 74 years of these tragic scenes, the occupation repeated the same scene again, this time against the remains of those who were exterminated and displaced in 1948.

In the dark, on Saturday, May 28, the Israeli forces invaded the cemetery of the village of "Arab al-Sawalmeh", razing the graves of the displaced from above their land to its interior.

swimming and scraping

This desecration is the second time that Israel has violated the sanctity of the dead and the Islamic cemetery of "Arab al-Sawalma". The Palestinian population at the time, according to the Palestinian historian Professor Mustafa Kabha.

Kabha told "Emirates Today", a resident of the occupied city of Jaffa, "What happened in the Arab al-Sawalmeh cemetery at the end of May is a flagrant violation of international norms and covenants. The Israeli occupation forces demolished the graves of the displaced and completely swept them away, in addition to destroying what remained of the foundations of some buildings in the occupied village.”

He added, "A few days before the occupation leveled the village cemetery, the Palestinians participated in the implementation of a voluntary day in Arab al-Sawalmeh, in commemoration of the 74th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, and carried out cleaning, restoration and pruning of the village trees."

The Palestinian historian points out that the village of Arab al-Sawalmeh is located to the northeast of the village of Sheikh Munis in Jaffa, and the occupation established a tennis court on its land in the Israeli city of Ramat Hasharon, which is located on the lands of the displaced in the coastal city of Jaffa.

memory annihilation

The occupation forces’ desecration of the abandoned cemetery is an extermination of the memory of Palestinian alienation, as Israel aims behind this to obliterate the existence of the village from the history of the Palestinians, so that they do not remember that those who lived before them owned the land of “Arab al-Sawalmeh.”

The Palestinian historian points out that the village is now empty of any Palestinian teacher, indicating the presence of the village’s residents in it before 1948. There is no trace of the homes of the displaced people, while the remains of one room from the building of the village’s only school are evident.

Kabha narrates the history of the village of Arab al-Sawalma, rooted in the land of Palestine over time and eras, saying, “(Arab al-Sawalma) was built on an area of ​​6000 dunums, which is a relatively flat land with a slight slope from north to south, and its lands were bordered by the northern bank of the Al-Auja River, and in On March 30, 1948, Israel occupied the village, expelled its residents, and killed those who remained attached to their land.

It shows that the inhabitants of Arab al-Sawalmeh are nomadic Bedouins, whose history in Palestine dates back to before the Ottoman rule. .

The occupation forces’ desecration of the abandoned cemetery is an extermination of the memory of Palestinian alienation, as Israel aims to obliterate the existence of the village from the history of the Palestinians, so that they do not remember that those who lived before them owned the land of “Arab al-Sawalmeh.”

Arab al-Sawalmeh was built on an area of ​​6000 dunums, which is a relatively flat land with a slight slope from north to south, and its lands bordered the northern bank of the Auja River, and on March 30, 1948, Israel occupied the village, expelled its residents, and killed those who remained attached with his land.

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