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Home , Bayt Nuba, Canada Park, Imwas, Latrun, Neve Shalom

Restless Park: On the villages and

By Eitan Bronstein Translated by Charles Kamen

One day in March, 2007, while waiting blue. It looked like a plate. My friend, for a group whose members wanted Umar Ighbarieh, confirmed my guess. to hear the story of , I “I myself ate from such plates,” he told wandered through the ruins of ‘, me. And I even had thought to bring it near the cemetery of the village. to a lab for testing… This discovery, of Remnants of walls still stand there. I a plate from which - apparently - the was surprised to find on the ground a residents of ‘Imwas had eaten, made round metal object, its edges painted clear to me that even today, seven years

 after I first became acquainted with the a number of postponements the tour area, and after hundreds of visits, its never took place. They also seem to earth continues to reveal new secrets. find it hard to see what has been done I like using the name ‘Canada Park’ in their name. as a starting point for telling the story The Canadian money, which could of this place. It’s a story of one name have been used to establish schools that hides other names that have been and pave roads in Canada, was used erased here. Not only the names of instead to create a magnificent park on ‘Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba were erased territory captured in 1967, on the ruins by the Keren Hakayemet Leyisrael (KKL; of three villages. A KKL representative in English, the ‘’ told a reporter for Channel 5 in Canada or JNF) when it established the park. that the funds weren’t invested beyond Ironically, the Canadians themselves the Green Line, but “in another part weren’t happy at what had been done of the park.” She sat with him beside a in their name. Maybe that’s the reason large wooden sign, in the center of the the visitor discovers that the place is park, honoring the Tannenbaum family also called “Ayalon Park” and “Canada- from Toronto for their contribution to Ayalon Park.” This schizophrenic its creation. “So let me understand,” she dual nomenclature was due to the said to him: “This sign here, beyond the embarrassment which followed the Green Line, is in honor of a Toronto announcement that the park had been family because of money it donated established with the financial support and invested somewhere else?” “Yes,” of Jews from Toronto. Fifteen million he replied, unabashed. The reporter’s Canadian dollars were donated in thorough investigation demonstrated order to plant, beyond the Green that almost the entire area of the park Line, thousands of pines and cypresses is located beyond the Green Line, to make bloom the wilderness on and it’s clear that those millions were which remained the ruins of these invested in violation of Canadian law. three villages. The KKL was forced to When I tell Israeli visitors to Canada apologize in Canada, and to reduce Park that we are now in territory the embarrassment it had to change captured in 1967 - not 1948 - many have the park’s name. But the Canadians difficulty believing it, and rightly so. The don’t forget. In 2003, someone from area of the park has been completely the Canadian Embassy in asked “Israelised.” Not a single roadblock or me to give a tour of the area. He said sign warns that the traveler is crossing he’d also bring their representative the Green Line, ’s internationally from . We set a date, but after recognized border. At least one driver,

 The section of Road 1 ( - Tel Aviv) that crosses over the Green Line (Source: Salman H. Abu-Sitta, The Return Journe: A Guide to the Depopulated and Present Palestinian Towns and Villages and Holy Sites. London: Land Society, 2007) who was caught speeding on the part 1968, which regulates the confiscation of intercity Route 1 than runs past of these lands (“Area Yod”), “persons Canada Park, escaped punishment by using the road will not delay their arguing before the judge that the place travel nor will they leave the road.” where he was stopped was outside the This order was issued to prevent the judge’s jurisdiction. return of refugees from those villages to the lands they occupied until June, Political signage 1967. For the same reason, the order also details the hours that a curfew is But thousands of visitors to the park in effect - a curfew which, of course, is apparently are unaware that not only not imposed on visitors to KKL parks. were villages located there until 1967, Or perhaps the KKL is not bound by but that they themselves are forbidden military regulations? Is that possible? to get off the road running between It is, however, certain that the JNF Ramallah and Latrun - because, according is above Israeli politics. For when to the Military Order dated April,  Adv. Zvi Freizler (Ed.), n.d. Legislation in and Samaria (Chapter A, p. 23). Jerusalem: Ktuvim Publishing Co. [Hebrew]

 “Why?” “So that people would know what used to be there.” “But that’s illegal.” “There are thousands of illegal signs in Israel, even inside the park - for example, those advertising all kinds of things for sale.” “But your signs are political.” Zochrot asked KKL’s directors to “And yours - those that describe place signs in the park indicating that the Romans, the Hasmoneans, the Palestinian villages used to exist within Byzantines, the Ottomans, but don’t say its boundaries, they replied as follows: a word about centuries of Palestinian “Unfortunately, the KKL does not deal settlement - they aren’t political?” with topics having political significance, “But they’re legal….” and therefore we suggest you address The park’s maintenance your request to the appropriate official superintendent made sure to remove bodies.” Zochrot’s letter to the KKL arrived following an event to commemorate 36 years since the uprooting of the Latrun villages. Together with residents of the nearby locality of and representatives of the villages themselves, Zochrot erected signs indicating that villages had once been located on the land where the park was established. Zochrot brochures which the signs and the KKL doesn’t deal we left next to one of the signs gave my with political issues, so we contacted telephone number. Two days later the the “Civil Administration” (a strange phone rang. name for this organization, considering “Hello, is that Eitan?” that it is responsible for various “Yes.” matters affecting non-citizens under “This is Cohen speaking, Canada occupation). This is what we wrote Park’s maintenance superintendent. Did them in June, 2003: you put up those signs?” “…Visitors to Canada Park can learn “Yes.” a great deal about the history of the

 area by reading the dozens of signs “…The decision to conceal selected situated throughout the park that portions of the area’s history is present many and varied histories, but unreasonable in the extreme, one that not the history of the local . undermines those values mentioned The KKL hopes to educate the public above, and the very justification about the country we live in. We believe for erecting historical markers, one it is appropriate that the information accepted by every planning body provided in Canada Park, as well as that throughout the world. Since we were provided everywhere else, should not given no reason for rejecting our selectively ignore the Palestinians who request, let us say, with all due respect, have lived here for hundreds of years. that we suspect the rejection was “Therefore, we would be grateful based on political motives, whose goal if you would add signs which include is to prevent visitors to the site from such information. If doing so requires learning about its history of Arab approval by the local planning authority, settlement which, until the 1967 war, Zochrot is willing to make the necessary contained a vibrant and vital Palestinian application, and requests that you agree population.” to erecting the signs.” In its response of July, 2005, the KKL The Civil Administration did not reply made its first commitment in writing: promptly. Our sources reported that “(KKL) did not oppose including its legal advisors determined there was relevant information about the villages no legal way to refuse our request. On of Yalu and ‘Imwas on the signs erected the other hand, it was hard for them to in the park, and in fact proposed a text grant it explicitly, so they transferred that would describe the history of it to the headquarters of Central those villages, which would be added Command, which in turn examined to the existing signs. This proposal it and sent it on to the Ministry of was based solely on professional Justice for further consultation. When considerations, taking into account the we understood that the procedure characteristics of the place and the was likely to be endless, we petitioned view that an overabundance of signs the High Court of Justice against the in the park would damage its aesthetic Military Commander of Judea and character, and on a desire to maintain Samaria, the Civil Administration and it as a location for rest and recreation.” the KKL, represented by Adv. Michael Not a word about politics. Just Sfarad. The complete text of the professional considerations, aesthetics petition is available on Zochrot’s web and recreation… site. It stated, in part:

 The State Attorney’s office responded It was now necessary to agree on as follows to the High Court of Justice on the wording of the signs. Michael Sfarad behalf of the Military Commander and explained to Zochrot that there was the Civil Administration of the Occupied no chance that the text would refer to Territories: “The respondents state that “occupation,” “expulsion,” “destruction in the wake of previous discussions of the villages” or “refugees,” but held in the Civil Administration and in contain only a laconic reference to the office of the State Attorney during what had existed prior to the 1967 war. 2003-2004, and following an additional The members of Zochrot greeted this discussion in the office of the head of news with dismay. On the one hand, the Civil Administration, instructions the decision to erect signs in Israel were issued on June 27, 2005, by the commemorating destroyed Palestinian head of the Civil Administration that, as villages was a substantial achievement, requested, signs be erected stating that and would set a precedent. On the the villages of Yalu and ‘Imwas existed in other hand, the “acceptable” language the area until 1967.” was so euphemistic that it could create All the respondents requested that the impression that the disappearance the petition be voided since their of the villages was the result of some agreement to erect signs rendered it, natural evolutionary process rather in their judgment, superfluous. Attorney than of the Zionist project of conquest. Michael Sfarad demanded that the The sides agreed to the following petition be heard before the High wording: “The villages of ‘Imwas and Court of Justice; if, prior to the hearing, Yalu existed in the area of the park until the signs would be erected, we would 1967. ‘Imwas had 2,000 inhabitants, who withdraw the petition. now live in and in Ramallah. A The KKL and the Civil Administration cemetery is located next to the ruins agreed, therefore, to erect new signs in of the village. Yalu had 1,700 inhabitants, the park, noting the existence of the who now live in Jordan and Ramallah. villages of Yalu and ‘Imwas. The village A well and a number of cisterns can be of Beit Nuba was not actually located found there.” within the park’s boundaries, and only Imagine the reaction in Israel if a a portion of its lands were included in similar text were inscribed on a sign in the park’s area. The settlement of Mevo Warsaw memorializing the local Jewish Horon was erected on the ruins of Beit community… Nuba. A hearing before the High Court The signs were not actually erected was set for April 4, 2006. until a few days before the scheduled hearing. Two laborers, two supervisors

 removed. I spoke with Osnat, who was happy to help. “Yes, there were signs there that were erected by the Muslim Brotherhood or something, and on them was written how many people lived in the villages, and how many schools were there. We removed them. There aren’t any KKL signs anywhere in the park that mention the villages because we only want to help people and one photographer appeared on site. find their way around the park. Not The laborers mixed cement and dug a that we want to cover up what was hole. The supervisors gave instructions, here.” I told her about the sign for the and the photographer immortalized Roman bathhouse that had been placed the event in order to show the court in ‘Imwas’ cemetery, but she replied that the deed had been done. Umar that the area wasn’t their responsibility, from Zochrot was also there, and took photographs as well. The KKL personnel explained to him how open they are to presenting various histories. The new sign, white on brown, was erected on the site of Yalu, adjacent to the old sign referring only to Tel Ayalon from the Hasmonean period. The sign on ‘Imwas’ lands was erected a few meters from where Zochrot had placed its “illegal” sign three years earlier. This time the nor were the signs theirs. I insisted that sign was erected by the sovereign power there were signs in the park directing and included its official title, “The Civil visitors to the bathhouse. She obtained Administration - Judea and Samaria.” confirmation from Michal, a senior Even the unit’s colorful insignia appears, staffer, that a sign of their’s pointed the as a “stamp of approval.” way to the bathhouse. She explained A few months earlier I spoke with that “we don’t refer specifically to Arab the KKL office in . They have a villages that were destroyed in 1948, “signage” department, no less. I tried like everywhere in Israel.” She’s right. I to find out what happened to the signs asked whether these particular villages that we had erected, and that had been hadn’t been destroyed in 1967, and she

 replied immediately that the area was parents who by their presence confirm a no-man’s-land and the villages had the accuracy of what the children been abandoned since 1948. I expressed are told. The guide takes us back to surprise, and she said that she wasn’t the mythological period of Jewish sure. Michal confirmed that the villages history - the wars of the Maccabees, the best known of which is the battle of . She begins the tour from the Yalu overlook: “Here, where we’re standing, above the Ayalon riverbed, were famous battles. These are the Judean Hills, there the hills of Samaria, and there the coastal plain. The city of “Entrance to the site of the bath-house from the Modi’in to the left, lower Beit Horon area of the park only” opposite us, and upper Beit Horon were found abandoned in 1967, and above it - you hear about it on Galgalatz had been abandoned since 1948. They [a popular radio station]. Mavo Horon referred me to Amikam, who sounded is down in the valley. Next to Modi’in, like the local commander. He himself Re’ut and Maccabim.” The view in front had removed the yellow “Muslim of us is filled mostly with Arab villages: Brotherhood” signs. He explained that , Beit Liqiya, Beit Ur-a-Tahta, “the guys from Neve Shalom erected Beit Ur-a-Fuqa, Beit Inam. But the guide signs there about a year and a half directs our attention to the Jewish ago, stating how many people lived in settlements. The landscape has been each village.” He also confirmed that made Jewish, and even the location no reference to the Palestinian villages from which we’re viewing it has been appears anywhere in the park. cleansed of its Palestinian identity. Yalu, a lively village for hundreds of years, until Judaizing the landscape its inhabitants were expelled in 1967, is not mentioned at all on this tour. What Nor were the Palestinian villages we see expressed here is the effort mentioned in a Hannukah, 2002, tour to transform consciousness to such in Canada Park - “The Wars of the an extent that even the capture and Maccabees” - run by the Society for the occupation of the villages among whose Protection of Nature. I took that tour ruins we are walking has vanished from with my son Gal, who was ten years sight and from our minds. old. A high-quality family tour - that is, As the tour continues, the guide very a tour for children, accompanied by dramatically relates the Jewish Hannukah

 story, with the eight battles fought lived here, something repressed that by the Maccabees, which is why the erupts occasionally in a way that seems Hannukah menorah has eight candles. uncontrollable. No one asked the guide The story is told to listeners seated on what lives she meant, and whose “lots the ruins of buildings, in the shade of a of remains” they were. Because it’s hard huge carob tree. These are the ruins of to ask, and even harder to reply and ‘Imwas, also destroyed in 1967. But they provide an accounting. remain transparent even unto invisibility, and the story continues: “During the This is what transfer looks like battles something important occurred. In the year 187 they find the jug of oil A little tale, marginal to the 1967 and declare Jewish independence in war, provides an opportunity to begin the land. Great joy, because the Greeks such an accounting of the war’s results formerly ruled. Just like the joy which in the Latrun area. Yosef Hochman, a greeted the independence of the state professional photographer, was at the of Israel. What happiness when Ben time a member of Har’el. He Gurion established the state! It’s the reports that a few days prior to the same as Jewish independence in the Israeli attack a number of sheep were Hasmonean state, just fifty years ago.” stolen from his kibbutz. Suspicion fell These five sentences carry a heavy on villagers from ‘Imwas, who were burden. Jewish mythology serves the apparently able to cross the border Israeli mythology, and paves the road fairly easily. After the region fell, and to continuing the conflict with the “our forces” rushed to the outskirts Palestinians. Just as we were victorious then - we, the Maccabees - so will we vanquish our enemies today. Toward the end of the tour, the guide makes a strange comment: “There are lots of remains here of habitation that precede the Hasmonean period, and also of those that came after it.” There are in fact many remains of “post- Hasmonean” life, but not a word about of Ramallah in six hours without them. But the comment is important, encountering any resistance in the perhaps exactly because the guide didn’t Latrun area, members of Kibbutz elaborate. It symbolizes the Palestinian Har’el decided that they had a golden Nakba, the destruction of the life opportunity to get back the stolen

 sheep. Driving a jeep, armed with rifles the same bulldozers that during the they owned, Hochman carrying his same period were busy destroying camera, all of them dressed in work hundreds of Palestinian villages whose clothes, the kibbutzniks joined the soldiers in ‘Imwas, Yalu and . At the beginning they took part in patrols searching for Egyptian commandos who were in the area. The Egyptians were captured, and one of them was killed. An Israeli soldier who caught one of the commandos was photographed

inhabitants had been expelled during the Nakba. The most disturbing photographs show the refugees leaving their villages - long columns of refugees carrying all they could in their arms and on donkeys. Alongside them IDF soldiers and their vehicles stand facing in the direction opposite to that of smiling and pointing to the camera as if the refugees. Amos Keinan wrote an he wanted his picture taken. eyewitness report about these columns Hochman was amazed to discover the of refugees based on his reserve army beginning to destroy the buildings, military duty at one of the roadblocks and he documented everything. He told which prevented the refugees from me that two weeks after the war ended returning to their villages. His piercing Uzi Narkiss, GOC Central Command, report was distributed throughout the gave a talk at Kibbutz Har’el. Hochman world, causing an international scandal asked why the villages were destroyed. that forced Israel to stop Narkiss answered that it was revenge who had begun destroying . for what happened there in 1948. One photo in particular touched my The last photograph of ‘Imwas shows heart, as a father, even after I’ve looked a large, attractive village whose large at it and shown it to others hundreds buildings are surrounded by greenery. of times. It shows a Palestinian family Hochman photographed the bulldozers  Aharon Shai, 2002. “The fate of the abandoned Arab villages in demolishing the buildings - apparently Israel on the eve of the Six Day War and afterwards.” Qathedra, 105, pp. 151-170.

10 leaving its village. The mother carries on her head a large vessel and holds a baby in one arm. A child, who appears to be around twelve, carries on his back his sister, who’s about a year and a half old. Beyond them, an Israeli soldier looks at this scene with his arms crossed behind his back. The soldier is looking at the camera, at us viewing the photograph. It’s as if he’s returning our gaze, and demanding of us to watch what’s happening there. The youth carrying a white flag also looks to the camera. He also demands that we look. He moves on, into exile. We and the soldier remain, conquerors.  For further reading about the possibility of creating a ‘citizenry of photography’ see Ariela Azoulay, 2007, The Civil Contract of .Tel Aviv: Resling .[האמנה האזרחית של הצילום] Photography

11 We’ve already had one person in our The JNF covers its tracks history who went to look for donkeys and returned a king. In 1967 there was An earlier photo of ‘Imwas was taken one who went to look for sheep and in 1958. It shows people walking in the returned with chilling documentation of village streets, and in the lower part of ethnic cleansing. According to Hochman the picture you can see the holy site the sheep, if anyone cares, were found associated with Obeida Ibn Al-’Jarah, and returned to Kibbutz Har’el. a commander who participated in the A few years later the Latrun refugees Muslim conquest of Palestine in 632. To heard about those photographs from its left is a large almond tree that still members of Kibbutz Nachshon. They stands today. The structure is very low. located Hochman, received those which One side is raised slightly above ground showed them and their villages, and put level, and the other isn’t more than two them on the internet. Today anyone can, meters high. This photo is an important if they wish, see what that expulsion starting point, helping to understand the looked like. transformation of the Israeli landscape. I suggest seeing it as a part that testifies

1958 12 to the whole, the whole being the the entire landscape. As noted above, reconstruction of the entire Israeli the KKL began to create the park at landscape, carried out by destroying the start of the 1970’s. The almond tree the Palestinian villages emptied of their is still there. The structure on the holy inhabitants in the Nakba of 1948. site is still low. The obviously unnatural continuation A 1988 photograph shows the of this photo is one taken a decade later, KKL trees completely covering the one year after the 1967 war, from the wilderness, which has been transformed same location. The village has been razed into a blossoming, green park serving almost completely by the bulldozers thousands of visitors. The photo that Hochman photographed. The large doesn’t show the building associated almond tree and the holy site remain. with Obeida Ibn Al-’Jarah, but it’s still The building’s height is still fairly low. there among the trees. Because it isn’t In a 1978 photo, taken from almost visible in the photo, you can’t tell how the same location, you can already see high it is. As far as I know, in the 1980’s Canada Park’s trees covering practically the building got taller. Not, God forbid,

1968 13 because of additional construction. Signa infirma Rather, its foundations were excavated, and two meters below the surface But, as I’ve reported, the story of the workers discovered the base of Canada Park’s signage took a turn as of a Roman bathhouse dating from the result of Zochrot’s struggle. The KKL in second century CE. The story goes fact erected two new signs which note that, until about 500 years ago, when the existence of Yalu and ‘Imwas, but a large earthquake struck the region, about two weeks after they were placed there were hot springs here and it one of them was uprooted, along with its wasn’t necessary to heat the water for concrete base. About three meters away the bathhouse. Since the 1980’s at least stood another metal sign, recounting three signs have been erected in the the story of biblical Tel Ayalon. “An old park referring to this structure. All three narrative,” you might call it. Cohen, the call it the “Roman bathhouse.” There’s maintenance superintendent, suggested no mention of the conquering Muslim that the vandalism was carried out by commander. “End the Occupation!” thieves stealing metal. But that couldn’t

1988 14 be true, since the metal sign describing know what happened, or prefers that Tel Ayalon remained in place (unless, of such knowledge not be exposed in a course, the metal thieves preferred a public space. The erased text can’t be sign containing a relatively progressive ignored, which an inattentive reader text…) of the original sign might have been The second sign, which stood in able to do before it was covered over. ‘Imwas’ cemetery, is still there. About Now, however, something has been a month after it was erected its lower erased. The repression of knowledge portion was painted black. The painter about what existed here before the took care to leave visible only the establishment of the Jewish state “older” text. The laconic description becomes overt. The very act of erasure of the villages which once stood leaves its traces, and makes the reader here was covered by paint. The black of the sign curious to know what was paint is incontrovertible evidence of deleted. the erasure of the villages, as well During one of the tours in 2007, while as erasing the fact of their erasure. I was telling the story of the struggle Someone either doesn’t want us to over the signs, one of the participants

1978 15 went over to the sign and with a coin began scraping off the black paint. It was again possible to see the words “Yalu” and “’Imwas.” Apparently this act of exposure was too much for someone. A few minutes after I had completed writing this article, I learned that the sign had been removed. A photographer from Ha’aretz, sent to take a picture of it to accompany a piece on the subject, reported from the site that only the posts and the metal frame remained. Zochrot demanded that the KKL repair the signs. They replied that when all the signs in the park would fixed, those would be as well. The KKL also replied recently to a letter it was sent more than a year ago, right after the new signs were erected, suggesting the erection of similar signs on all sites run by the KKL, commemorating villages destroyed after 1948. “We request that you provide us with a detailed list of these villages,” they answered. Noga Kadman did the research, and her study will soon appear as a book. The KKL received information about dozens of its sites and the villages on whose ruins they were established. We’ll see whether they’ll act differently now than they did in the past, this time willingly rather than under compulsion.

The names of the donors on the stones of the houses

Sometimes I wonder what the Canadian donors and their descendants would have said had they known the history of the site and the use that was made of their money. The names of hundreds of donors appear on the stone

16 walls of an area especially built for that Some of the refugees from the Latrun purpose inside the park. I haven’t yet villages also became fighters, “terrorists” written to them. The stones used for as they are called in the language of building those walls are suspiciously the Israel occupation. The Canadian similar to those the villagers used to television journalist reports that two build their homes. The idea that stones of the descendents of these refugees taken from the demolished homes of blew themselves up in Jerusalem. How much dynamite does this peaceful park contain?

The blackest hour of my life

It’s important for me, nevertheless, to end this text on a hopeful note. One of Hochman’s photos shows two soldiers standing in the doorway of one expelled Palestinians display the names of the houses, next to an Arab woman - of donors whose money was used to perhaps one of the occupants. Laundry establish a park on the ruins of their is still hanging outside on the line. Such villages can teach us something about a meeting was unusual at the time the the archaeology of our lives. (Tomer villages were demolished, for most of the Gardi, the editor of Sedek magazine, residents had already left. That’s what just published by Zochrot, includes a Zakaria Sunbati, who lived in nearby chapter about a similar story in its first Beit Laqiya, told us during one of our issue.) visits to the area in 2001. At the time I The walls with the donors’ names was still working in the School for Peace remind one of memorial plaques at Neve Shalom, and I had organized a for fallen Israeli soldiers. About one tour for high school students from the kilometer away as the crow flies are Brenner Regional School. One of their other walls, and on them are the teachers had taken part in the capture names of more than five thousand of the villages. He agreed to come and Israeli soldiers, generations of Armored tell his story. Zakaria began by telling Corps casualties. “The us that a few days before the war the memorial, highly recommended to inhabitants received word of plans to anyone who hasn’t been there,” said capture the villages, and warnings from the tour guide. the army that all residents of dozens of villages in the area should leave. At

17 the time Zakaria was nine years old. He removed them. It’s important for me to remembers that they fled from their tell you what happened here, because it village and took shelter in caves and was the blackest hour of my life. Things under the trees nearby. War broke out, were done here which should not have and the Israeli army stampeded toward been done, and I participated in an Ramallah. There were no Jordanian action that I shouldn’t have been a part forces to oppose the attack. On the of. I don’t come here to enjoy myself, second or third day of the war, Israel and in fact I haven’t been here since it soldiers had already begun demolishing was captured in 1967. Today is the first the buildings of Yalu, ‘Imwas and Beit time I’ve come, to tell you what I did. Nuba. Zakaria remembers seeing from I was part of a unit whose job was to a distance the buildings being blown insure that no people remained in the up. A few days later the villagers were buildings before they were demolished. permitted to return, except the ones We went from building to building, from these three villages. They were and occasionally found an elderly man razed to the ground. After the war or woman whom we removed, and Zakaria, the child, came to see what was the building was demolished. But then left. He saw the destruction, and recalls we came to a building with an old that he also saw bodies under some of man inside. He told us that for him the ruins. In other words, some of the to leave would be like dying, and he houses were demolished while people preferred to die inside his home. At were still inside. that moment the coin dropped. In that The teacher from Kibbutz Netiv second I realized the significance of HaLamed Heh told his story next: what I and the others were doing here. “Everything Zakaria said is correct, I knew that demolishing the buildings except for one thing. We didn’t demolish was intended to prevent the area from buildings with people inside. On the ever being returned to Jordan or to contrary - we took care to insure the Palestinians. I also knew that the that no one was in them, and when destruction was revenge for Israel’s we found people here and there we defeat here in 1948. But none of that was worth destroying the life of that  That the destruction began at such an early stage indicates old man and the lives of thousands that it was planned in advance, and establishes the capture and destruction of the Latrun villages as the link between the Nakba who were expelled. I demanded that and the occupation beginning in 1967, between the massive my commander stop the action. They destruction of villages in 1948 and the events of 1967 in which refused to listen to me, of course. We relatively many fewer villages were destroyed.  At the same time the remains of the village of Latrun, whose removed the old man and demolished residents had been expelled during the Nakba and settled in his home. I shouldn’t have done it.” ‘Imwas and Yalu, were also razed.

18 After that tour I knew that we had burden is ours, we who refuse to view to come here and begin erecting signs the world only through the slit in the telling what once had been here, but blue-and-white KKL donation box. was no more. That was how Zochrot The Israeli soldier’s gaze at us, as started. he is expelling a Palestinian woman The soldier in Hochman’s photo is from her home, invokes us to accept looking at us. He appeals us to take responsibility for him as an occupier, as responsibility for what was done here one who expels. He is there on behalf of in 1967. The expulsion of the Latrun the country, representing us, its citizens. villagers is the link between the Nakba The teacher told his students that and the Naksa, between the capture of for the rest of his life he will bear the 78% of the country’s territory in 1948, scar of the immoral behavior in which and the finishing of the job in 1967. he took part. These wounded soldiers The soldier’s gaze can be read as an demand our compassion, which may expectation that someone be called allow both them and us to make peace to account for the crimes that were with our past. Recognizing the right of committed. The photo doesn’t show that Palestinian woman to return home the expulsion merely as “something that is a major part of the reconciliation happened there,” but also as something process. which will always make demands on us, something we can see in the Israeli Thanks to Norma Musih, Tomer Gardi soldier’s eyes. He turns his gaze from and Amaya Galili for their excellent the Palestinian woman and looks at comments. us, as if to say that from now on the

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