Dina Elmuti retells her grandmother’s story of fleeing the massacre by Israeli troops of well over 100 Palestinians in the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin in 1948.
Many Israeli historians insist that the massacre never happened.
Elmuti’s grandmother says otherwise. She is living testament to the inhumanity of war, whether it is a Jewish war against Arabs or an Arab war against Israelis.
Below is an excerpt from Elmuti’s article at the Electronic Intifada. It’s entitled “Deir Yassin Makes a Mockery of Israel’s ‘Never Again” Pledge.”
As Israeli security forces continue to ravage the people of the West Bank, now is a good time to remember what happened at Deir Yassin.
. . . Earlier that same morning, my great-grandmother, Aziza, and her oldest daughter, Rifka who was 13 at the time, went to the village bakery to bake bread. That was something they did each morning as their homes were not equipped with ovens.
My grandmother, nearly 10, and her five younger siblings remained at home.
Inside the bakery, my great-grandmother and great aunt witnessed a horrific scene that continues to haunt me. My grandmother often shared this story with us because she believed it was our responsibility to never forget.
While holding villagers in the bakery hostage, Zionist soldiers ordered the baker, Hussein al-Shareef from the town of Lydd, to throw his son Abdul Rauf into the burning oven. After refusing, the soldiers knocked Hussein to the ground and proceeded to throw Abdul Rauf into the oven while his father watched.
“Follow your son. He needs you there,” said one of the soldiers before throwing Hussein in next.
These are among scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history. Yet, this memory often remains too controversial to share.
Telling it challenges the myths that Israel has manufactured.
Following the gruesome scene, soldiers took the captive villagers and paraded them through the streets of Jerusalem. That is how Zionist forces celebrated their “victory” in Deir Yassin.
Upon returning to the village, the male villagers were lined up against the stone quarry wall and executed. Bodies riddled with bullets were then dumped into a mass grave and set aflame.
Approximately 110 villagers were massacred. Untold hours of human life, gone up in flames. . .
You can read the entire article here.
