الفصل الأول نبذة من شخصيته الكريمة

- قال المفيد: وكان الإمام بعد أبي جعفر عليه السلام ابنه أبا الحسن علي بن محمد عليهم السلام لاجتماع خصال الإمامة فيه وتكامل فضله وأنه لا وارث لمقام أبيه سواه وثبوت النص عليه بالإمامة والإشارة إليه من أبيه بالخلافة

- قال ابن شهر آشوب: وكان أطيب الناس بهجة وأصدقهم لهجة، وأملحهم من قريب، وأكملهم من بعيد، إذا صمت علته هيبة الوقار، وإذا تكلم سماه البهاء، وهو من بيت الرسالة والإمامة، ومقر الوصية والخلافة، شعبة من دوحة النبوة، منتضاة مرتضاه، وثمرة من شجرة الرسالة مجتناه مجتباه

أمه وكنيته وألقابه عليه السلام
- وقال أيضا: وأمه أم ولد يقال لها: سمانة المغربية ويقال: أن أمه المعروفة بالسيدة أم الفضل. ويكنى: أبا الحسن لا غيرها… ويقال له: أبو الحسن الثالث

- وقال الطبري الإمامي: لقبه عليه السلام: المرتضى، والهادي، والعسكري، والعالم، والدليل، والموضح، والرشيد، والشهيد، والوفي، والنجيب، والمتقي، والمتوكل، والخالص

مولده عليه السلام
- قال الكليني: ولد عليه السلام للنصف من ذي الحجة سنة إثنتى عشرة ومائتين. وروى أنه ولد عليه السلام في رجب سنة أربع عشرة ومائتين
- قال المفيد: كان مولده بصريا بمدينة الرسول

- قال الطوسي: وذكر ابن عياش: إنه كان مولد أبي الحسن الثالث يوم الثاني من رجب وذكر أيضا: أنه كان يوم الخامس. والمختار بل المشهور: إنه ولد عليه السلام في نصف شهر ذي الحجة سنة إثنتى عشرة ومائتين كما قاله الكليني وغيره

تاريخ شهادته
- قال الكليني: مضى لأربع بقين من جمادى الآخرة سنة أربع وخمسين ومائتين. وروى أنه قبض في رجب سنة أربع وخمسين ومائتين. وروى أنه قبض يوم الاثنين. والمختار أنه استشهد في يوم الاثنين ثالث شهر رجب كما هو المشهور

مدة عمره وإمامته وطواغيت عصره
- قال المفيد: وله يومئذ – يوم وفاته – إحدى وأربعون سنة وأشهر… وكانت مدة إمامته ثلاثا

- قال ابن شهر آشوب: وكان في سنى إمامته بقية ملك المعتصم، ثم الواثق والمتوكل والمنتصر والمستعين والمعتز فأقام مع أبيه ست سنين وخمسة أشهر وبعده مدة إمامته ثلاثا وثلاثين سنة ويقال: وتسعة أشهر. وله يومئذ أربعون سنة

مأساته
- روى ابن حمزة: عن زرافة حاجب المتوكل، قال: وقع رجل مشعبذ من ناحية الهند إلى المتوكل يلعب لعب الحقة ولم ير مثله وكان المتوكل لعابا، فأراد أن يخجل على بن محمد بن الرضا عليهم السلام فقال لذلك الرجل: إن أخجلته أعطيتك ألف دينار. قال: تقدم بأن يخبز رقاقا خفافا وأجعلها على المائدة وأقعدني إلى جنبه، فقعدوا وأحضر على بن محمد عليهما السلام للطعام وجعل له مسورة عن يساره، وكان عليها صورة أسد، وجلس اللاعب إلى جنب المسورة، فمد على بن محمد عليه السلام يده إلى رقاقة، فطيرها ذلك الرجل في الهواء ومد يده إلى أخرى، فطيرها ذلك الرجل، ومد يده إلى أخرى فطيرها، فتضاحك الجميع. فضرب علي بن محمد عليهما السلام يده المباركة الشريفة على تلك الصورة التي في المسورة وقال: ” خذيه ” فابتلعت الرجل وعادت كما كانت إلى المسورة. فتحير الجميع ونهض أبو الحسن على بن محمد عليهما السلام فقال له المتوكل: سألتك إلا جلست ورددته، فقال: والله لا تراه بعدها، أتسلط أعداء الله على أولياء الله؟ وخرج من عنده، فلم يرى الرجل بعد ذلك

إشخاصه إلى سر من رأى
- قال المفيد: كان المتوكل قد أشخصه مع يحيى بن هرثمة بن أعين من المدينة إلى سر من رأى، فأقام بها حتى مضى سبيله

- قال الحسين بن عبد الوهاب: روى إن بريحة العباسي صلى الصلاة بالحرمين وكتب إلى المتوكل إن كان لك في الحرمين حاجة فأخرج على بن محمد منهما، فإنه قد دعا الناس إلى نفسه واتبعه خلق كثير وتابع إليه. ثم كتب إليه بهذا المعنى فوجه المتوكل بيحيى بن هرثمة وكتب معه إلى أبي الحسن عليه السلام كتابا جميلا يعرفه أنه قد إشتاقه وسأله القدوم عليه، وأمر يحيى بالمسير إليه وكتب إلى بريحة يعرفه ذلك، فقدم يحيى بن هرثمة المدينة وبدأ ببريحة وأوصل الكتاب إليه، ثم ركبا جميعا إلى أبي الحسن عليه السلام وأوصلا إليه كتاب المتوكل فاستأجلهما ثلاثة أيام، فلما كان بعد ثلاث عادا إلى داره فوجدا الدواب مسرجة والأثقال مشدودة قد فرغ منها، فخرج عليه السلام متوجها نحو العراق ومعه يحيى ابن هرثمة

- قال المفيد: وكان سبب شخوص أبي الحسن عليه السلام من المدينة إلى سر من رأى: أن عبد الله بن محمد كان يتولى الحرب والصلاة بمدينة الرسول صلى الله عليه وآله فسعى بأبي الحسن عليه السلام إلى المتوكل وكان يقصده بالأذى وبلغ أبا الحسن عليه السلام سعايته به. فكتب إلى المتوكل يذكر تحامل عبد الله بن محمد عليه كذبه فيما سعى به فتقدم المتوكل بإجابته عن كتابه ودعائه فيه إلى حضور العسكر على جميل من الفعل والقول فخرجت نسخة الكتاب وهى: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم أما بعد: فإن أمير المؤمنين عارف بقدرك، راع لقرابتك، موجب لحقك، مقدر من الأمور فيك وفي أهل بيتك ما يصلح الله به حالك وحالهم، ويثبت به عزك وعزهم، ويدخل الأمن عليك وعليهم، يبتغى بذلك رضى ربه وأداء ما افترض عليه فيك وفيهم. وقد رأى أمير المؤمنين صرف عبد الله بن محمد عما كان يتولاه من الحرب والصلاة بمدينة الرسول صلى الله عليه وآله إذ كان على ما ذكرت من جهالته بحقك واستخفافه بقدرك وعندما قرفك به، ونسبك إليه من الأمر الذي قد علم أمير المؤمنين برائتك منه وصدق نيتك في برك وقولك، وإنك لم تؤهل نفسك لما قرفت بطلبه. وقد ولى أمير المؤمنين ما كان يلي من ذلك محمد بن الفضل، وأمره بإكرامك وتبجيلك، والانتهاء إلى أمرك ورأيك، والتقرب إلى الله وإلى أمير المؤمنين بذلك، وأمير المؤمنين مشتاق إليك يحب إحداث العهد بك، والنظر إليك. فإن نشطت لزيارته والمقام قبله ما أحببت شخصت، ومن اخترت من أهل بيتك ومواليك وحشمك على مهلة وطمأنينة ترحل إذا شئت، وتنزل إذا شئت وتسير كيف شئت، وإن أحببت أن يكون يحيى بن هرثمة مولى أمير المؤمنين ومن معه من الجند يرحلون برحلك ويسيرون بسيرك فالأمر في ذلك إليك، وقد تقدمنا إليه بطاعتك. فاستخر الله حتى توافى أمير المؤمنين فما أحد من إخوانه وولده وأهل بيته وخاصته ألطف منه منزلة ولا أحمد لهم أثرة ولا هو لهم أنظر، ولا عليهم أشفق، وبهم أبر، وإليهم أسكن منه إليك، والسلام عليك ورحمة الله وبركاته. وكتب إبراهيم بن العباس في شهر جمادي الآخرة من سنة ثلاث وأربعين ومائتين. فلما وصل الكتاب إلى أبي الحسن عليه السلام تجهز للرحيل وخرج معه يحيى بن هرثمة حتى وصل إلى سر من رأى فلما وصل إليها تقدم المتوكل بأن يحجب عنه في يومه فنزل في خان يعرف بخان الصعاليك وأقام فيه يومه ثم تقدم المتوكل بإفراد دار له فانتقل إليها

- قال المسعودي: حدثنا ابن الأزهر، قال: حدثني القاسم بن عباد، قال: حدثني يحيى بن هرثمة، قال: وجهني المتوكل إلى المدينة لإشخاص على بن محمد بن علي بن موسى بن جعفر لشئ بلغه عنه ، فلما صرت إليها ضج أهلها وعجوا ضجيجا وعجيجا ما سمعت مثله، فجعلت أسكنهم وأحلف لهم إني لم أومر فيه بمكروه، وفتشت بيته، فلم أجد فيه إلا مصحفا ودعاء وما أشبه ذلك، فأشخصته وتوليت خدمته وأحسنت عشرته. فبينا أنا نائم يوما من الأيام، والسماء صاحية، والشمس طالعة ، إذ ركب وعليه ممطر، وقد عقد ذنب دابته، فعجبت من فعله، فلم يكن بعد ذلك إلا هنيئة حتى جاءت سحابة فأرخت عزاليها، ونالنا من المطر أمر عظيم جدا، فالتفت إلي، وقال: أنا أعلم إنك أنكرت ما رأيت وتوهمت أنى علمت من الأمر ما لا تعلمه، وليس ذلك كما ظننت، ولكن نشأت بالبادية فأنا أعرف الرياح التي يكون في عقبها المطر، فلما أصبحت هبت ريح لا تخلف وشممت منها رائحة المطر، فتأهبت لذلك. فلما قدمت مدينة السلام بدأت بإسحاق بن أبي إبراهيم الطاهري – وكان على بغداد – فقال لي: يا يحيى، إن هذا الرجل قد ولده رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله والمتوكل من تعلم، وإن حرضته على قتله كان رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله خصمك، فقلت: والله ما وقفت له إلا على كل أمر جميل.

- روى الكليني: عن الحسين بن محمد، عن معلى بن محمد، عن أحمد بن محمد بن عبد الله، عن محمد بن يحيى، عن صالح بن سعيد قال: دخلت على أبي الحسن عليه السلام فقلت له: جعلت فداك في كل الأمور أرادوا إطفاء نورك والتقصير بك، حتى أنزلوك هذا الخان الأشنع، خان الصعاليك؟ فقال: هيهنا أنت يا ابن سعيد؟ ثم أومأ بيده وقال: أنظر فنظرت، فإذا أنا بروضات آنقات وروضات بأسرات، فيهن خيرات عطرات وولدان كأنهن اللؤلؤ المكنون وأطيار وظباء وأنهار تفور، فحار بصري وحسرت عيني، فقال: حيث كنا فهذا لنا عتيد، لسنا في خان الصعاليك.

* موسوعة شهادة المعصومين عليهم السلام- لجنة الحديث في معهد باقر العلوم عليه السلام

“Here, the behavior of these paid MeK shills is so blatantly illegal that even the Obama administration felt compelled to commence investigations to determine who was paying them and for what. As a strictly legal matter, removing MeK from the Terror list should have no effect on the criminality of their acts: it’s a felony to provide material support to a designated Terror group” Glenn Greenwald

As Ilan Pappe has said, most Israeli Jews have no idea of what they did to the Palestinians in 1948. (He also said that those who do know don’t think that what was done was wrong). But that’s only the tip of an iceberg of ignorance.

Because of the mainstream media’s complicity in Zionism’s suppression of the truth of history as it relates to the making and sustaining of the conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel, most Americans and Europeans of all faiths and none have no idea of the enormity of Zionism’s crimes.

The Arabic word for what happened in the months before and after Israel’s unilateral declaration of independence on 14 May 1948 is Nakba, meaning catastrophe. That’s a one word description of the fact that upwards of 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were dispossessed of their land, their homes and their rights, but complete understanding requires knowledge of something else. Nakba was not simply an event in history. It is a process of ethnic cleansing, a process that has been on-going for 64 years to date and is continuing.

A timely reminder of this fact was contained in an article for the web site This Week in Palestine by Ibrahim Matar, an economist writing from Jerusalem.

He opened his piece by quoting a statement made by Ra’anan Weitz, the director of the Jewish Agency’s Settlement Department in 1948. “I ploughed Palestine into earth by ordering the demolition of 300 abandoned Palestinian villages from the Negev to the Galilee.” (The quotation was from an interview Weitz gave to the Jerusalem Post published on 7 March 1997).

Matar ended his piece with these words of his own:

“The bottom line to the tragedy of the Palestinians is that the Catastrophe of 1948 is still going on, as Jewish colonisation of the West Bank continues to expand. The objectives of the Jews have not changed since the early part of the twentieth century. Their motto continues to be ‘dunum after dunum of land’ for the exclusive use of Jews.

The Jews claim that the Palestinians wish to destroy Israel. The fact is that the Jews have already literally destroyed Palestine, and in front of the watchful eyes of the world community represented by the Quartet, they continue with their policies and practices to complete the liquidation of the Palestinian presence in historical Palestine.”

Question: Is completion of the liquidation of the Palestinian presence in historical Palestine really Zionism’s mission?

I believe the answer is “Yes”, and that unless the major powers led by America summon up the will to call and hold Zionism’s monster child to account for its crimes, there will be a final ethnic cleansing of Palestine at some point in a foreseeable future.

Footnote

I also believe that Matar should be more precise with his language. His use of “the Jews” implies that all Jews everywhere are responsible for Zionism’s crimes. That is not so, but… If the rising global tide of anti-Israelism is not to be transformed into anti-Semitism, making another great turning against Jews everywhere inevitable at some point, the Jews of the world must play their necessary part in containing and confronting Zionism. As I never tire of pointing out, silence is not the way to refute and demolish a charge of complicity in Zionism’s crimes.

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Alan Hart, Subscribe to Alan Hart’s blog: http://www.alanhart.net/subscribe Follow him on Twitter:http://twitter.com/alanauthor

David Ben Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel, once prophesized that “the old (refugees) will die and the young will forget.” He spoke with the harshness of a conqueror. Ben Gurion carried out his war plans to the furthest extent possible. Every region in Palestine that was meant to be taken was captured, its people were expelled or massacred in their homes and villages. Ben Guiron ‘cleansed’ the land, but he failed to cleanse Israel’s past. Memory persists.

 Ben Gurion referenced my own family’s village – Beit Daras – which witnessed three battles and a massacre. In an entry in his diaries on May 12, 1948, he wrote: “Beit Daras was mortared. Fifty Arabs (were killed). The (villages of) Bashit and Sawafir were occupied. There is mass exodus from nearby areas (neighbors in Majdal). We sustained 5 dead and 15 wounded. ” (War Diaries, 1947-1949).

Chronology of the Nakba

Maps, Quotes and much much more. A must resource for all things Palestine – Palestine Remembered

Must Read – All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948 (IPS)

Interactive map of Palestine villages destroyed in Nakba

The Massacers

The adaptation of our foreign policy to the exigencies of the U.S and the powerful states of the EU endangers the country’s independence, peace and security.

We are in need of:

A multidimensional and peace-prone foreign policy

Disengagement from the NATO and shutdown of the foreign military bases.

Termination of the military cooperation with Israel.

Aiding the attempts of Cypriot people to reunite the island.

Furthermore on the basis of international law and on the principle of peaceful conflict resolution we will pursue a solution to the Greek-Turkish relations, a solution to the problem of FYROM’S official name and an identification of Greece’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

List of historic US regime change involvement around the world

Possible link between attack on Italian nuclear power CEO, and Iran war mongering?

New study finds strong correlation between Gaza birth defects and exposure to white phosphorus

Greece left with mandate to create government says NO to bailout terms and illegal debt

Israel turns the page on 21 years of deception about alleged Iranian bomb

The main axes of the subject:

- The necessary existence of the jurisprudent (Faqih)
- Who is the jurisprudent during the times of the occultation
- The jurisprudent is the nation’s guardian

Purpose:

We will explain the significance or importance of Wilayat al Faqih coupled with its necessity and role in preserving the nation’s unity.

Exporting the Subject:

The prophet (s.a.a.w.) was quoted as saying: “What is more severe than the orphanhood of an orphan is his dissection from his Imam, unable to reach him…”

The necessity of the jurisprudent:

In a long speech, Imam Ali Bin Moussa al Ridha (a.s.) was quoted as saying: “… So why did He assign guardians and commanded their obedience? Someone said: for several reasons such as:

- When human beings were restricted to certain boundaries and were instructed not to trespass those limits, since they obtained causes for their corruption, foundations had to be installed by appointing a guardian who would rule them and prevent them from trespassing and entering those tabooed areas. Hence, he appointed a valuable guardian who would prevent them from corruption and enact the rules and verdicts amongst them.

- Another reason is that we cannot find one division among the divisions or a nation among the nations that could survive without a guardian or a president. And since this is a necessity regarding the issues of the world and religion, then, why should someone wise allow mankind to be left without one while he knows that this is a necessity and that they could never survive without this issue?

… So that they can fight with him their enemy, divide with him their booties, and he will establish for them their union and order as well as stop their unjust from oppressing their wronged.”¹ 

Who is the guardian during the times of occultation?

For an expert, it goes without saying that Imam al Ridha (a.s.) was not in a position to inform the nation about its need for a jurist guardian during the time of the rise of the inerrant Imam Mahdi (Allah expedite his reappearance) to take action in their midst. Therefore, this issue cannot be left under the guardianship of the looters and greedy during his absence.

In fact, Imam al Ridha (a.s.) did not want to prove that the absent Imam was the direct guardian during his absence, which meant the issue would be tied to a different situation, others assuming guardianship of the Islamic nation as long as they possessed qualities that could somehow resemble the qualities of the inerrant Imam, that is possessing the qualities of justice and expertise in legal issues as well as other characteristics such as: a scholar who can unify the divided nation regarding the world and religious issues; a wise cognizant who can lead the nation towards rightness and immunity.

This issue was corroborated by several speeches that were quoted from the inerrant imams such as:

1- The accounts narrate that Mufid quoted Imam Muhammad Bin Ali al Baqir (a.s.) who quoted his ancestors (a.s.) as saying: Allah’s messenger (s.a.a.w.) said: “The righteous ones are lords, the legal scholars are leaders, and seating with them is a service.”² 

2- In the noble signature of the cogent Imam that was accounted by the second emissary amidst the emissaries during the time of the minor occultation, Muhammad Bin Othman al Omari replies to the questions of Isaac Bin Jacob: “…Regarding the occurring events, you should refer to the narrators of our Hadiths because they are our cogency to you and I am the cogency of Allah.”³ 

There are many more narrations, which inform us that jurisprudents have a right towards the nation to help them lead society during the time of the absence of the Imam since with communicating with him is impossible.

Leadership according to the Hadith of the prophet (s.a.a.w.) does not merely mean the knowledgeable leadership, rather it also addresses the presidency of society with all its affairs, which would close the gap that was caused by the absence of the Imam (Allah expedite his reappearance) – as much as possible – and never leave it as a bounty for the high winds (looters) and a gain for the tyrants and pharaohs of the time. 

The occurring events which were included in the Hadith that was endorsed by the cogent Imam (Allah expedite his reappearance) do not confine to the partial and individual matters; rather, it addresses all the issues that the nation and society experience such as emergency and repeated issues that require an insightful politician or president who can unite them and defend them using wisdom, firmness, strength and solidity against enemies and predators.

- The guardian jurist looks after the orphaned nation:

- The greatest prophet (s.a.a.w.) was quoted as saying: “O Ali, You and I are the fathers of this nation.”⁴ 

- The accounts narrate that Imam al Askari (a.s.) quoted the greatest prophet (s.a.a.w.) as saying: “What is worse than the orphanhood of an orphan is his disconnection from his Imam, unable to reach him.”⁵ 

Muslims nowadays are disconnected from their Imam and cannot reach him. Therefore, how can he leave the orphans without a guardian who should look after them, unite them, protect and embrace them like their Imam does? Therefore, if a guardian is a must – which is a fact – who should that guardian be?

- Imam al Askari (a.s.) was quoted as saying: “A jurisprudent will be told – on the Day of Judgment – : You are the guardian of the orphans of the household of Muhammad.”⁶ 

Therefore, the nation’s need for politics and presidency, organization and organizer, coupled with the cogent wise person is an issue that does not terminate or perish with days; rather its necessity increases during the time of the absence of the Imam, taking into consideration the nation’s division and dispersion in the shade of the howling predators and fear for the loss of its identity and the deviation of its generations as well as the plaguing despotism and foreign intervention that confiscates its decision and loots its fortunes.

- Some of the nation’s general needs are:

His exaltedness said: “Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of God and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom God doth know. Whatever ye shall spend in the cause of God, shall be repaid unto you, and ye shall not be treated unjustly.”⁷ 

Therefore, how can a provident person unite the nation under one flag and ready sufficient power in order to face and deter the enemy with its plots? How can he lead the army and gain capabilities knowing that there will be casualties and victims with the need for weaponry, exercises and other similar issues? How can he achieve all these issues without establishing “the state so that he can make daily preparations by finding a network of organizing and conducting agreements and alliances as well as finding a ground that is suitable for movement such as roads, transportations, ports, airports and mechanisms in order to steer all these issues? If all these issues are based on an obligatory matter, it becomes a legal and intellective duty.”⁸ 

Imam Abu Abdullah Al Sadiq (a.s.) was quoted as saying: “… Give regards to those who narrated our Hadith, experienced our Halal and Haraam, and learned our rules, accept the one of them as a judge for I appointed him as a judge; if he rules with our verdict and was not accepted, it would be belittling the verdict of Allah and rejecting us; and he who rejects us rejects Allah, which is equal to polytheism.”⁹ 

How can a referee, to whom millions of people refer regarding their disputes and causes with the presence of hundreds of thousands or rather millions of renewing disputes plus the human soul’s tendency to dominance, control and expanding possessions and influence – how can he establish justice without organizing justice affairs and creating executing apparatuses in order to give justice the ability to execute its verdicts? This issue surely necessitates a gigantic power of resources!

This task requires the existence of someone competent, just, cognizant, wise, strong, ascetic, and an acquirer of all the conditions. The events that happened and are happening nowadays in our world, like the rising and pioneering experience of the Islamic regime in Iran, the enablement of the resistance in Lebanon, and the igniting flame of revolution and tendency to liberation in this extorted Islamic world are nothing but a solid proof to the strength of the thesis of guardianship of the jurisprudent and the potency of its experience. In addition, his eminence the guardian of the affairs of Muslims Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei says: “Wilayat al Faqih trains the nation to be obedient to Imam al Mahdi at the time of his reappearance.”

1 Oyoun Akhbar al Ridha (a.s.), by scholar al Saddouq, Vol. 2, P. 108. Elal al Sharaei, P. 251. Al Wa’li Zaman al Ghaibah (The guardian during the times of occultation).
2- A’mali Al Sheikh al Tousi, P. 225, H. 392.
3- Book Kamal al Dean and Tamam al Neimah, by Scholar al Saddouq, P. 483, H. 4. Book Ghaibat al Na’mani, P. 290, and there are other sources.
4- Bihar al Anwar, by scholar al Majlisi, Vol. 23, P. 128, H. 59.
5- Tafsir Imam al Askari (a.s.), P. 339, P. 214.
6- Bihar al Anwar, Vol. 2, P. 6, H. 10.
7- Holy Quran, Surat al Anfal (Spoils of War), verse 60.
8- Martyr, Ayatollah Mustafa al Khomeini, in his book “Wilayat al Faqih”, P. 41.
9- Al Kafi, by Al Kulaini, Vol. 7, P. 412, H. 5.

Armenians around the world commemorated the atrocities carried out by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. It is estimated that around 1 million civilians were killed in ruthless fashion, crimes that did not distinguish between the young and the old, or between women and men. 97 years on, the families of those who lost their lives still march in pursuit of recognition, arguing justice is not bound by time.

In Lebanon, the only Arab country to recognize the Genocide, the Armenian diaspora marched from Antelias to the Turkish embassy. Waving the Armenian and Lebanese flags, protesters held placards calling for recognition in three languages: Armenian, English and Arabic. (al Akhbar)

Armenians in Lebanon

‘Elkins reveals that the British detained not 80,000 Kikuyu, as the official histories maintain, but almost the entire population of one and a half million people, in camps and fortified villages. There, thousands were beaten to death or died from malnutrition, typhoid, tuberculosis and dysentery. In some camps almost all the children died.’

Many dreams have been rained on since peace was declared at the end of the Second World War, on 8th May 1945. Two veritable historic hurricanes were commemorated on 9th April, as was the burial of the man who dreamed: Martin Luther King.

The day Baghdad fell nine years ago, also marked the massacre in, and near destruction of, the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin by Jewish forces sixty four years before.

Ironically, in the month the State of Israel has arranged world-wide sixty fourth birthday celebrations (26th April) Palestine marked the sixty fourth anniversary of butchery and carnage, as almond , olive blossoms and spring flowers painted the surrounding slopes with fragrant life.

It also marked more than the day’s nightmare, it heralded the policy of the “cleansing” of Palestine’s villages. The displacement, destruction and still counting, the ever diminishing and fragmentation of what was Palestine.

Deir Yassin marked the first time Jewish forces had gone on the attack, setting a precedent, and an ongoing weeping wound through the collective Palestinian soul, as year after year, homes, farms, orchards, livelihoods even fishing is destroyed, disrupted – or separated by the Wall, “an iron curtain which has descended” across their land.

A graphic description of the attack on the village comes from the diaries of the Swiss representative of the International Red Cross, Jaques de Renier who was first to reach the site. He was let in by an “enormous German born member of the Irgun”, who told Renier he owed his life to the Red Cross.

The Irgun and Stern gang, had denied any involvement in the events at Deir Yassin and accused Ha Haganah (“The Defence”) the paramilitary organization under the British mandate of Palestine, who, subsequently became the core of the IDF (Israeli Defence Force.)

Sir Alan Cunningham, Britain’s High Commissioner, later firmly laid the blame with the Irgun and Stern gangs.

The spectacle on entry, made Reynier “gasp”, as did the youth of many attackers, men and women, some mere adolescents. “There were people rushing everywhere, in and out of houses, carrying Sten guns, rifles, pistols, long ornate knives. They seemed half mad. I saw a beautiful girl carrying a dagger still covered with blood. I heard screams.” The German remarked: “We’re still mopping up.”

“All that I could think of was the SS troops I’d seen in Athens”, Reynier wrote, witnessing: “A young woman stab and elderly man and woman, cowering on the doorstep of their hut.”

In the first house he reached: “Everything had been ripped apart, there were bodies strewn around … ‘’cleaning up’ was done with guns and grenades, their work finished with knives.” Seeing a movement, he discovered: “a little foot, still warm.” A ten year old girl “mutilated by a grenade”, was alive, who the German carried to an ambulance. Renier found an elderly woman hiding behind a woodpile: “paralyzed with fear”, and a dying man.

He estimated he saw two hundred bodies, one a woman, probably eight months pregnant, shot in the stomach. There were butchered infants. Schoolgirls and elderly women were raped then murdered. Ears had been severed to remove ear rings, bracelets were torn from arms and rings from fingers.

It subsequently transpired that the dead were taken to the rock quarry where the villagers had made their living from the expert stone cutting, for which they were renowned. The bodies were doused in petrol and set alight.

“It was a lovely spring day. The almond blossoms were in bloom, the flowers were out and everywhere there was the stench of the dead, the smell of blood and the terrible odour of the corpses burning in the quarry”, recalled a horrified Officer, Yeshurun Schiff, who in spite of the horrors he had witnessed could not bring himself to order revenge on the perpetrators because, he decided, Jewish history was: “too full of stories of fratricidal struggles”, to start another now in their new land.

A further tragic irony was the good relationship the village enjoyed with the neighbouring village of Orthodox Jewish settlers. The village arranged signals to warn them if Arab dissidents were approaching them and might attack, and the Jewish residents warned if their own dissidents were in the vicinity. The pre-dawn attack foiled that.

Jewish residents of Palestine overwhelmingly condemned and abhorred the attacks. In an extraordinary move, the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem excommunicated those responsible.

An appeal by the Arab Emergency Committee to the British to intervene to halt violence fell on the stone deaf ears of General Sir Gordon MacMillan, who said he would risk British lives only in the: “British interest.” Nothing changes.

The quiet hero that day, was the Red Cross’s Reynier, who rescued survivors, having been threatened by: “A dozen soldiers, their machine guns aimed at my body. I flew in to one of the most towering rages of my life, telling these criminals what I thought of them and threatening them with everything I could think of and then pushed them aside.”

On 10th April 1948, Albert Einstein wrote a searing, five line damnation to Shepard Rifkin, Executive Director of American Friends for the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel.

It read:

“When a real and final catastrophe should befall us in Palestine, the first responsible for it would be the British and the second responsible for it the Terrorist organizations built up from our own ranks (Jewish.)

“I am not willing to see anybody associated with those misled and criminal people.

Sincerely yours, Albert Einstein.” (Facsimile: 1)

A year later the settlement of Givat Shaul Beth was founded. In the 1980s the remains of Deir Yassin was bulldozed to make way for settlements, as was much of the cemetery, to make way for a highway. The streets of the new neighbourhoods were named after members of the Irgun and Hagannah.

The British shadow is long, over the remnants of Palestine. Their Mandate passed the right of house demolitions to the local military Commander, without limit or appeal in 1945. Although they stated it was repealed in 1948, they failed to follow the correct legal procedure ensure the rescinding had validity in law, thus demolitions are still carried out under the sixty seven year old British Directive119.

In 1947- 48, more than 700,000 Palestinians were forcefully removed or fled. Since 1967 to June 2011, 24,813 Palestinian homes have been destroyed with not one permit issued for Palestinians for any construction in the Occupied Territories, formerly their land.

According the Israeli Civil Administration, in the first five months of 2011, Israeli forces demolished more Palestinian homes than in the entire year of 2010, rendering homeless seven hundred and six Palestinians, of which three hundred and forty one were minors. (Imemc.org)

Further, the first draft of a law passed by a Committee of the Knesset (Parliament) last June requires, if it becomes full law, Palestinians who have their homes demolished by Israeli forces to carry the full costs of the destruction of their homes.

“Already, many Palestinian homeowners, mainly in Jerusalem, have been forced to pay for the forced demolition of their homes.”

It is perhaps apt that Deir Yassin, where this insanity arguably began is now also the site of the Kfaur Shaul Mental Health Centre, a large psychiatric hospital.

The demolitions are carried out using US-made D9 bulldozers, manufactured by the Caterpillar corporation, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Einstein would surely have wept.

In April 1963, in his Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King wrote: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

Heartening however, is whether in flotillas, last week’s “flytilla”, across the world, in actions globally too numerous to count, Jewish people from every walk of life, including doughty Holocaust survivors, are joining those from countless nations, as they are in Israel itself, demanding an end to the divide, the oppression, and, as Ilan Pappe has written so eloquently the collective paranoia of Israel’s : “… rollercoaster of mass hysteria.”

Notes:

(1) If Americans Knew.

- Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist with special knowledge of Iraq. Author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of Baghdad in the Great City series for World Almanac books, she has also been Senior Researcher for two Award winning documentaries on Iraq, John Pilger’s Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq and Denis Halliday Returns for RTE (Ireland.) She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.