Vanunu attends Palestinian memorial
Group commemorates victims of 1948 attack on Palestinian village; ceremony modeled on Holocaust Day observances
TEL AVIV - Nuke whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu is again embroiled in controversy, after taking part in a Palestinian memorial service modeled after Holocaust Day ceremonies.
A Palestinian-Israeli group organized the unusual ceremony on Thursday afternoon in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood, built on the ruins of Deir Yassin.
The attendees recalled the deaths of Palestinian villagers at Deir Yassin, which was overrun by members of Lehi (Freedoms Fighters of Israel) and Etzel (National Military Organization) on April 9, 1948.
During the ceremony, Vanunu read the names of the Deir Yassin victims for the crowd.
London-based newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported on Saturday that the ceremony, which recalled the deaths of over 100 people, was designed to resemble a Holocaust Day service.
The Remembrance Organization of Deir Yassin and Zochrot, an Israeli organization committed to remembering the Nakba (“Disaster,” i.e., what Palestinians call their defeat in 1948) organized the event, which attracted over 100 participants.
The history of Deir Yassin
The capture of the Palestinian village in west Jerusalem took place the night of April 9, 1948, during the War of Independence.
Deir Yassin was targeted because its inhabitants attacked Jewish caravans going to Jerusalem, sniped at the neighborhoods of Beit Hakerem and Yafe Nof, and participated in the Battle of Kastel.
What exactly happened during the course of the conquest is a matter of dispute.
For the Palestinians, Deir Yassin is a massacre that symbolizes Jewish brutality during the 1948 war. Others, however, view it as a bloody battle between two warring sides.
In any case, the results were disastrous for the villagers and created a public outcry in Israel and the Arab world.
