A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Vandals Desecrate Arab Graves at Deir Yassin on Eve of Anniversary

The Arab-Israeli conflict has seen plenty of blood and atrocity on both sides; one of the most notorious took place 66 years ago today at the Arab village of Deir Yassin, when the two extremist militias the Irgun and Lehi (the so-called Stern Gang) massacred 100-200 civilian villagers.  Though known to all Palestinians and found shocking by most Israelis,  I note this anniversary of the atrocity, not to resurrect an ugly past, but to note an ugly present: yesterday, according to Israeli reports,  someone scrawled "Death to Arabs" on two Arab graves at Deir Yassin (a village long since obliterated and absorbed into the western suburbs of Jewish Jerusalem).

And this comes as the peace process has failed yet again. It has been said that those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it, but in our part of the world too many people remember the past far too clearly, I fear, and choose to repeat it.

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