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Erasing history and memory


For a country such as Israel, peopled by many who survived the Holocaust, to try and erase history and memory is shameful. Israel already has been hard at it renaming previously named Arabian villages and sites with Israeli names. Now this.....

"A historic and architectural jewel "dressed in crafted Jerusalem stone," Lifta is the last intact, though empty, Palestinian village surviving the Israeli war of independence - and thus a potent symbol of Palestinian dispossession. In a battle of duelling narratives of past and future, Israel wants to build a luxury complex of mall, hotel, apartments there; Palestinians want to erect a museum to mark the nakba - catastrophe. Can you erase history? Israel is trying: More on their attempt to "exact forgetfulness" here.

"This isn't about stealing a house or land. It's about stealing a life and memories." - Yacoub Odeh, 71, whose parents lived in Lifta."

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