Recently released documents, including minutes of Israel’s provisional government meetings in 1948, throw fresh light on the Nakba (“Catastrophe”) of 1948-49, when around two-thirds of Palestinians living in what is now Israel were driven from their homes.
An investigation by Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, published in Ha’aretz, produces incontrovertible evidence that the conquest of Palestinian villages and the expulsion of their inhabitants during the Arab-Israeli war were achieved by criminal actions amounting to ethnic cleansing. Israel’s leaders knew this, with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion opposing demands for a full investigation with the power to subpoena witnesses and the crimes swept under the carpet.
The Akevot report reveals that testimonies about several massacres of Palestinians and war crimes committed by Israeli military forces during the 1948-49 war were presented to the cabinet in 1948.
The report refutes the government’s lying claims that the Palestinians fled of their own accord, or due to the incitement of their leaders. Its public relations machine worked long and hard to portray Israel as a country built on empty, neglected or uninhabited land. Censorship was used
— source wsws.org | Jean Shaoul | 20 Dec 2021