The Palestine thread

[Gaaboardmod3]

No harm to the MOD's on here, but why is it that people are allowed to mock the deaths of Palestinians as if they are not humans? How long would any of us last if we were to poke fun at the deaths of others on another thread? The attitudes of some on this board is a reflection of why the world is so fcuked up.

GHD, I'm monitoring this thread as it is an emotive topic, and I'm trying to allow people to debate and argue as long as it is someway civil, albeit heated at times. I don't see any mocking of death, or calling them subhuman, except in the case of people involved in attacks from either side. That might be contentious, but I do not think it is deliberately mocking the death of innocent civilians either.

There are quite a few anti-Israel posters on this, and other threads, and if we allow them to post their opinions and articles, it is only fair to allow pro-Israeli posters the same courtesy. I am not adjudicating on who is 'in the right' here, I'm just trying to make sure that debate is kept as civil as possible.

I think yourself, Seafoid and BalldeBeaver are well able to argue without personalising the issue, so I'm happy for that to continue. However, if I feel someone is crossing the line, then we will act, as we have done before.

Cheers.

[seafoid]

I'm a fraud? How so? Have I come here and pretend to be something I'm not? I think you'll find that  it is others on here who are the blatant liars.
I have, and will continue, to show that no matter what you read from certain members of this board, that not everyone is taken in by their propoganda. What has been posted by me shows that the situation in the middle east is a hell of a lot different from that portrayed. It is a lot more complex than Israeli = bad, Palestinian = good. I will never accept that firing rockets into civilian areas indiscriminately is justifiable. Neither will I accept the indiscriminate shelling of civilians by Israel, both are just as abhorrent. Those who do these things deserve all the pain they receive.


There are two sides to the story. If anyone can show me where these latest 7 dead have been claimed to be civilian, I will gladly condemn their deaths. For too long this board has been fed half truths and blatant manipulation of the facts.

Firing homemade rockets at Israel is pointless. It isn't justified but Israel loves it and does its best to provoke it.
Zionism is an oppressive ideology that runs an apartheid system for Palestinians.
There is simply no justification for this.

Anyone who denies that the Dahiya doctine imposed on Gaza since 2008 is not a deliberate attempt to force the people of Gaza to accept Israel's terms of engagement is a fraud.

The 2279 calories policy is a stain on the face of Israel which is why it was kept hidden for so long.

[Ball DeBeaver]

No harm to the MOD's on here, but why is it that people are allowed to mock the deaths of Palestinians as if they are not humans? How long would any of us last if we were to poke fun at the deaths of others on another thread? The attitudes of some on this board is a reflection of why the world is so fcuked up.

GHD, I'm monitoring this thread as it is an emotive topic, and I'm trying to allow people to debate and argue as long as it is someway civil, albeit heated at times. I don't see any mocking of death, or calling them subhuman, except in the case of people involved in attacks from either side. That might be contentious, but I do not think it is deliberately mocking the death of innocent civilians either.

There are quite a few anti-Israel posters on this, and other threads, and if we allow them to post their opinions and articles, it is only fair to allow pro-Israeli posters the same courtesy. I am not adjudicating on who is 'in the right' here, I'm just trying to make sure that debate is kept as civil as possible.

I think yourself, Seafoid and BalldeBeaver are well able to argue without personalising the issue, so I'm happy for that to continue. However, if I feel someone is crossing the line, then we will act, as we have done before.

Cheers.

Thanks for clearing that up.

[Ball DeBeaver]

I'm a fraud? How so? Have I come here and pretend to be something I'm not? I think you'll find that  it is others on here who are the blatant liars.
I have, and will continue, to show that no matter what you read from certain members of this board, that not everyone is taken in by their propoganda. What has been posted by me shows that the situation in the middle east is a hell of a lot different from that portrayed. It is a lot more complex than Israeli = bad, Palestinian = good. I will never accept that firing rockets into civilian areas indiscriminately is justifiable. Neither will I accept the indiscriminate shelling of civilians by Israel, both are just as abhorrent. Those who do these things deserve all the pain they receive.


There are two sides to the story. If anyone can show me where these latest 7 dead have been claimed to be civilian, I will gladly condemn their deaths. For too long this board has been fed half truths and blatant manipulation of the facts.

Firing homemade rockets at Israel is pointless. It isn't justified but Israel loves it and does its best to provoke it.
Zionism is an oppressive ideology that runs an apartheid system for Palestinians.
There is simply no justification for this.

Anyone who denies that the Dahiya doctine imposed on Gaza since 2008 is not a deliberate attempt to force the people of Gaza to accept Israel's terms of engagement is a fraud.

The 2279 calories policy is a stain on the face of Israel which is why it was kept hidden for so long.

So you think Israel WANTS these rockets fired at their population? I don't agree with you but I can see where you're coming from, but that would be one hell of a risky/dangerous strategy on behalf of the Israeli gov. All it would take is for even one of these things to get a direct hit and you could have dozens of innocent Israeli kids blow to pieces. That would surely result in the IDF going buck mad in Gaza. Do you not think that Hamas are the ones with the death wish? After all, They would be responsible for the ensuing Israeli onslaught that would surely happen.

[seafoid]

I'm a fraud? How so? Have I come here and pretend to be something I'm not? I think you'll find that  it is others on here who are the blatant liars.
I have, and will continue, to show that no matter what you read from certain members of this board, that not everyone is taken in by their propoganda. What has been posted by me shows that the situation in the middle east is a hell of a lot different from that portrayed. It is a lot more complex than Israeli = bad, Palestinian = good. I will never accept that firing rockets into civilian areas indiscriminately is justifiable. Neither will I accept the indiscriminate shelling of civilians by Israel, both are just as abhorrent. Those who do these things deserve all the pain they receive.


There are two sides to the story. If anyone can show me where these latest 7 dead have been claimed to be civilian, I will gladly condemn their deaths. For too long this board has been fed half truths and blatant manipulation of the facts.

Firing homemade rockets at Israel is pointless. It isn't justified but Israel loves it and does its best to provoke it.
Zionism is an oppressive ideology that runs an apartheid system for Palestinians.
There is simply no justification for this.

Anyone who denies that the Dahiya doctine imposed on Gaza since 2008 is not a deliberate attempt to force the people of Gaza to accept Israel's terms of engagement is a fraud.

The 2279 calories policy is a stain on the face of Israel which is why it was kept hidden for so long.

So you think Israel WANTS these rockets fired at their population? I don't agree with you but I can see where you're coming from, but that would be one hell of a risky/dangerous strategy on behalf of the Israeli gov. All it would take is for even one of these things to get a direct hit and you could have dozens of innocent Israeli kids blow to pieces. That would surely result in the IDF going buck mad in Gaza. Do you not think that Hamas are the ones with the death wish? After all, They would be responsible for the ensuing Israeli onslaught that would surely happen.

I have been watching it for over a decade. Without the occupation there would be no need for half of the IDF. It's like the RUC was. Jobs.
The IDF trashes Gaza every so often to test its new materiel, to stretch international law and to give a run out to products which Israeli companies then sell abroad. 

The rockets give it the excuse to start bombing. It's not complicated.

Hamas and the IDF need each other. The losers are the civilians of Gaza and the people of Israel.

[Ball DeBeaver]

I'm a fraud? How so? Have I come here and pretend to be something I'm not? I think you'll find that  it is others on here who are the blatant liars.
I have, and will continue, to show that no matter what you read from certain members of this board, that not everyone is taken in by their propoganda. What has been posted by me shows that the situation in the middle east is a hell of a lot different from that portrayed. It is a lot more complex than Israeli = bad, Palestinian = good. I will never accept that firing rockets into civilian areas indiscriminately is justifiable. Neither will I accept the indiscriminate shelling of civilians by Israel, both are just as abhorrent. Those who do these things deserve all the pain they receive.


There are two sides to the story. If anyone can show me where these latest 7 dead have been claimed to be civilian, I will gladly condemn their deaths. For too long this board has been fed half truths and blatant manipulation of the facts.

Firing homemade rockets at Israel is pointless. It isn't justified but Israel loves it and does its best to provoke it.
Zionism is an oppressive ideology that runs an apartheid system for Palestinians.
There is simply no justification for this.

Anyone who denies that the Dahiya doctine imposed on Gaza since 2008 is not a deliberate attempt to force the people of Gaza to accept Israel's terms of engagement is a fraud.

The 2279 calories policy is a stain on the face of Israel which is why it was kept hidden for so long.

So you think Israel WANTS these rockets fired at their population? I don't agree with you but I can see where you're coming from, but that would be one hell of a risky/dangerous strategy on behalf of the Israeli gov. All it would take is for even one of these things to get a direct hit and you could have dozens of innocent Israeli kids blow to pieces. That would surely result in the IDF going buck mad in Gaza. Do you not think that Hamas are the ones with the death wish? After all, They would be responsible for the ensuing Israeli onslaught that would surely happen.

I have been watching it for over a decade. Without the occupation there would be no need for half of the IDF. It's like the RUC was. Jobs.
The IDF trashes Gaza every so often to test its new materiel, to stretch international law and to give a run out to products which Israeli companies then sell abroad. 

The rockets give it the excuse to start bombing. It's not complicated.

Hamas and the IDF need each other. The losers are the civilians of Gaza and the people of Israel.

Amen brother. THAT we can agree on.
As I see it, Hamas is doing the Palestinian cause no good by firing these rockets in Israel. They would give their cause more kudos if they were to take the moral high ground and fought Israel on humanitarian issues alone. Maybe then people like myself might have a bit more sympathy for their cause, as Israel would have no moral right to impose any restrictions on them.
As it stands, they just look like bloodthirsty savages, who use their own people as cannon fodder. Any resulting peace would (hopefully) be reflected in future elections in Israel, with the hard liners being pushed out. Both sets of civilians deserve peace.

[seafoid]

I don't think it would make a difference TBH.  Gaza is unsustainable. All the Palestinians of southern Palestine herded into a concentration camp.

Pauperised since 1967. Bombed numerous time. No industry, very little agricultural capacity.
No political rights. No economic rights. Israel wants the people to leave but no country will take them and most wouldn't leave anyway.

It is a total mess.    That was the price of the Jewish state.
The whole story is desperate. Israelis are not in a great place either if they are honest with themselves. Militarism has cost their society so much in lost potential. 

[Ball DeBeaver]

Apart from the concentration camp part, I would agree with most of that.

Israel doesnt want the people to leave, it wants the headers who attack Israel to leave. But their military is a two edged sword. Without such a strong military, Israel would have been wiped out years ago. With it, they are overly militarised. As long as they feel threatened by their arab neighbours, they will maintain their military might. Catch 22.

[seafoid]

Apart from the concentration camp part, I would agree with most of that.

Israel doesnt want the people to leave, it wants the headers who attack Israel to leave. But their military is a two edged sword. Without such a strong military, Israel would have been wiped out years ago. With it, they are overly militarised. As long as they feel threatened by their arab neighbours, they will maintain their military might. Catch 22.

Militarism is a dead end. Either they are there on their own merit as a people and they integrate into the region or are they are not and they conscript everyone. 
The Arabs offered them 2 states and full recognition but they want all of the land.
they went badly wrong in 1967 and they didn't ever have the balls to stand up to the settlers. 

It didn't have to turn out like this.
And none of their Arab neighbours threaten them either.

[give her dixie]

Truths and lies behind Israel's attacks on Gaza and its whining about rockets
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Wed, 10/24/2012 - 16:03

Israel's hasbara – propaganda – organs are cranked up to the maximum right now complaining that Israel is once again the innocent victim of barrages of rockets from Gaza, and justifiying Israel's latest killings of Palestinians in Gaza as a necessary and legitimate response.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed today, "We neither chose nor initiated this escalation but if it continues we are prepared for much more extensive and deeper action" in Gaza.

Don't believe the lies. Israel has been conducting a systematic campaign of "preemptive" extrajudicial executions in Gaza, knowing full well that this would bring on rocket fire. But Israel thinks the price is worth it.

On 14 October, Ynet published an interview with a senior military officer, under the headline, "Surgical strikes are worth risk of rocket fire":

Israel's southern communities are bracing for what may prove further escalation in rocket fire, following Saturday and Sunday's surgical IAF strikes, which left three terrorists dead; but Colonel Tal Hermoni, the IDF's outgoing Gaza Division commander, is convinced that the benefits of the IDF's operations outweigh the danger.

"If we wouldn't be taking them out, the same terrorists would have infiltrated the border and killed 20 kids at a holiday party," he said Sunday.

Isn't this is the sort of "preemptive" logic that led so many to accept the US invasion of Iraq?

Israel's version of "calm," it would seem, is that it should be allowed to kill whoever it pleases, but Palestinians can never respond.

During the week of 11-17 October, Israeli occupation forces killed five Palestinians in Gaza, two of them extrajudicial executions, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Five others, including two children were wounded. PCHR described the extrajudicial killings that Hermoni had overseen:

In the Gaza Strip, IOF extra-judicially executed 2 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip. On 13 October 2012, Israeli warplanes launched a missile on a motorcycle ridden by 2 Palestinians on Mas'oud Street in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip. As a result, one of them was killed immediately, while the other died 3 hours later. A child who was in the vicinity of the attack was wounded and the windows of 2 houses in the area were broken. The glass door of a nearby pharmacy was also smashed.

Praising Hamas

In the same Ynet interview, Hermoni praised Hamas, which rules the interior of Israeli-occupied Gaza, for doing its best to keep things calm despite the execution campaign he was promoting:

"Hamas is taking action to prevent an escalation and is turning from a terror group to a sovereign movement that is assuming governmental responsibility. They have to worry about feeding and educating people, and every act of terror costs them dearly.

"But they day the decision is made, we'll know how to bring it to its knees. There will be a (ground) operation in Gaza. The only question is when," he said.

Israel, it seems, cannot be satisfied unless there is war and violence along its frontiers.

Half the story

Israel's full-volume hasbara about how it is the passive victim of rocket attacks is, as Yousef Munayyer pointed out in February, only half (in fact much less than half) the story:

If a rocket from Gaza falls in the middle of the desert, does it make a sound?

It does if you are on Twitter. Regular updates on just about every projectile fired from Gaza is reported by the Israeli military's official twitter account @IDFSpokesperson as well as from the accounts of other Israeli military figures like that of spokesperson @AvitalLeibovich.

But what about projectiles fired by Israel into Gaza? You'd think that since this is actual Israeli military activity the spokespeople from the Israeli military would provide this information.

Munayyer provided the answer, based on UN data:

In 2011, the projectiles fired by the Israeli military into Gaza have been responsible for the death of 108 Palestinians, of which 15 where women or children and the injury of 468 Palestinians of which 143 where women or children. The methods by which these causalities were inflicted by Israeli projectiles breaks down as follows: 57% or 310, were caused by Israeli Aircraft Missile fire, 28% or 150 where from Israeli live ammunition, 11% or 59 were from Israeli tank shells while another 3% or 18 were from Israeli mortar fire.

In 2012, the story is no different. Beware of Israel manufacturing a "rocket crisis" as it did in the weeks before its 2008-2009 "Operation Cast Lead" massacre in Gaza.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/truths-and-lies-behind-israels-attacks-gaza-and-its-whining-about-rockets

[give her dixie]

I'm a fraud? How so? Have I come here and pretend to be something I'm not? I think you'll find that  it is others on here who are the blatant liars.
I have, and will continue, to show that no matter what you read from certain members of this board, that not everyone is taken in by their propoganda. What has been posted by me shows that the situation in the middle east is a hell of a lot different from that portrayed. It is a lot more complex than Israeli = bad, Palestinian = good. I will never accept that firing rockets into civilian areas indiscriminately is justifiable. Neither will I accept the indiscriminate shelling of civilians by Israel, both are just as abhorrent. Those who do these things deserve all the pain they receive.


There are two sides to the story. If anyone can show me where these latest 7 dead have been claimed to be civilian, I will gladly condemn their deaths. For too long this board has been fed half truths and blatant manipulation of the facts.

Firing homemade rockets at Israel is pointless. It isn't justified but Israel loves it and does its best to provoke it.
Zionism is an oppressive ideology that runs an apartheid system for Palestinians.
There is simply no justification for this.

Anyone who denies that the Dahiya doctine imposed on Gaza since 2008 is not a deliberate attempt to force the people of Gaza to accept Israel's terms of engagement is a fraud.

The 2279 calories policy is a stain on the face of Israel which is why it was kept hidden for so long.

So you think Israel WANTS these rockets fired at their population? I don't agree with you but I can see where you're coming from, but that would be one hell of a risky/dangerous strategy on behalf of the Israeli gov. All it would take is for even one of these things to get a direct hit and you could have dozens of innocent Israeli kids blow to pieces. That would surely result in the IDF going buck mad in Gaza. Do you not think that Hamas are the ones with the death wish? After all, They would be responsible for the ensuing Israeli onslaught that would surely happen.

I have been watching it for over a decade. Without the occupation there would be no need for half of the IDF. It's like the RUC was. Jobs.
The IDF trashes Gaza every so often to test its new materiel, to stretch international law and to give a run out to products which Israeli companies then sell abroad. 

The rockets give it the excuse to start bombing. It's not complicated.

Hamas and the IDF need each other. The losers are the civilians of Gaza and the people of Israel.

In the past 2 years, the US tax payers have given Israel over $900 million towards the Iron Dome project. The Iron Dome is a mobile all-weather air defense system in development by Rafael Advanced Defense System, designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 to 70 kilometers away whose trajectory would take them to a populated area.

The $900 million is in addition to the $3 billion they also receive annually from the US tax payers.

So, with such capabilities to intercept any rockets fired from Gaza, why is it that they don't? Will it harm their victim mentality?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Dome

[Ball DeBeaver]

Can you honestly not see the difference between firing rockets indiscriminately into civilian areas and laser guided, targetted rocket attacks? The vast majority of which have caused very few civilian casualties.

Israel are targetting the militants, not civilians. Whereas Hamas and it's allies are just firing at will, no matter who gets it. The world would have a lot more sympathy if Hamas were to target just military installations instead of civilians.


...

As for Iron Dome, it is ineffective against the smaller rockets with a short range. Try again.

[give her dixie]

A brief history of the ancient city of Majdal, which was ethnically cleansed by Israel and is now known as Ashkelon. As bad it is for the illegal occupying residents living there now having to deal with a few rockets, it is nothing compared to what the 11,000 or so Palestinians had to deal with in 1948.

During the 1948 war, the Egyptian army occupied a large part of Gaza including Majdal. Over the next few months, the town was subjected to Israeli air-raids and shelling. All but about 1,000 of the town's residents were forced to leave by the time it was captured by Israeli forces as a sequel to Operation Yoav on 4 November 1948.

General Yigal Allon ordered the expulsion of the remaining Arabs but the local commanders did not do so and the Arab population soon recovered to more than 2,500 due mostly to refugees slipping back and also due to the transfer of Arabs from nearby villages. Most of them were elderly, women, or children. During the next year or so, the Arabs were held in a confined area surrounded by barbed wire, which became commonly known as the "ghetto".

Moshe Dayan and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion were in favor of expulsion, while Mapam and the Israeli labor union Histadrut objected. The government offered the Arabs positive inducements to leave, including a favorable currency exchange, but also caused panic through night-time raids. The first group was deported to the Gaza Strip by truck on 17 August 1950 after an expulsion order had been served. The deportation was approved by Ben-Gurion and Dayan over the objections of Pinhas Lavon, secretary-general of the Histadrut, who envisioned the town as a productive example of equal opportunity.

By October 1950, 20 Arab families remained, most of whom later moved to Lydda or Gaza. According to Israeli records, in total 2,333 Arabs were transferred to the Gaza Strip, 60 to Jordan, 302 to other towns in Israel, and a small number remained in Ashkelon. Lavon argued that this operation dissipated "the last shred of trust the Arabs had in Israel, the sincerity of the State's declarations on democracy and civil equality, and the last remnant of confidence the Arab workers had in the Histadrut." Acting on an Egyptian complaint, the Egyptian-Israel Mixed Armistice Commission ruled that the Arabs transferred from Majdal should be returned to Israel, but this was not done.

Re-population of abandoned Arab dwellings by Jews became official policy by December 1948 but the process began slowly. The Israeli national plan of June 1949 designated Majdal as the site for a regional urban center of 20,000 people. From July 1949, new immigrants and demobilized soldiers moved to the new town, increasing the Jewish population to 2,500 within six months. The town was initially called Migdal Gaza, Migdal Gad and Migdal Ashkelon. In 1953, the nearby neighborhood of Afridar was incorporated and the name "Ashkelon" was adopted. By 1961, Ashkelon ranked 18th among Israeli urban centers with a population of 24,000

[give her dixie]

It's easy to see there is an election coming up in the US as Obama bends over backwards to provide a show of strength with Israel. Of course the US tax payers stump up $30 million to cover the costs....

US, Israel begin largest-ever joint military exercise


Israeli and US troops launched an expansive missile defence exercise known as Austere Challenge 12 on Sunday, in what is the largest-ever military operation between the two countries. The exercise is expected to last three weeks.

Israeli and US troops were on Sunday beginning a vast missile defence exercise called Austere Challenge 12, in what was hailed as their largest-ever joint military operation, officials said.

The exercise, which involves 3,500 personnel from the US European Command (US EUCOM) and 1,000 Israeli troops and is expected to last three weeks, is likely to send a clear signal to Tehran over its disputed nuclear drive, which must of the West believes is a weapons drive.

"Austere Challenge 12 is the largest aerial defence exercise to take place between the two militaries," an Israeli military statement said.

The long-planned operation comes as the world grapples with the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme, and as a bloody civil war in Syria threatens to set the region alight, although Israel and US officials have said there is no connection.

"These exercises are part of a planned training schedule that seeks to increase cooperation interoperability between the militaries. Planning for the exercise began over two years ago and is not a response to specific events in the region," the statement said.

Of the 3,500 US personnel involved, around a thousand will be stationed in Israel, while the rest will operate in Europe and the Mediterranean, senior US air force officer Lieutenant General Craig Franklin told reporters last week.

Troops will train together on Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system, the latest version of the US Patriot and the Arrow anti-ballistic missile system, jointly developed by the two allies.

Command and control functions will be provided by US Navy Aegis cruiser.

Franklin said the operation, which would last "about three weeks," was a defensive exercise unrelated to Iran, or any other developments in the Middle East.

"While the scenario is driven by the overall situation in the Middle East, AC12 is not related to any specific current event... nor to any perceived tensions in the Middle East," he said.

The cost of the exercise is around $38 million, with Washington covering around $30 million of the total.

[seafoid]

A brief history of the ancient city of Majdal, which was ethnically cleansed by Israel and is now known as Ashkelon. As bad it is for the illegal occupying residents living there now having to deal with a few rockets, it is nothing compared to what the 11,000 or so Palestinians had to deal with in 1948.

During the 1948 war, the Egyptian army occupied a large part of Gaza including Majdal. Over the next few months, the town was subjected to Israeli air-raids and shelling. All but about 1,000 of the town's residents were forced to leave by the time it was captured by Israeli forces as a sequel to Operation Yoav on 4 November 1948.

General Yigal Allon ordered the expulsion of the remaining Arabs but the local commanders did not do so and the Arab population soon recovered to more than 2,500 due mostly to refugees slipping back and also due to the transfer of Arabs from nearby villages. Most of them were elderly, women, or children. During the next year or so, the Arabs were held in a confined area surrounded by barbed wire, which became commonly known as the "ghetto".

Moshe Dayan and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion were in favor of expulsion, while Mapam and the Israeli labor union Histadrut objected. The government offered the Arabs positive inducements to leave, including a favorable currency exchange, but also caused panic through night-time raids. The first group was deported to the Gaza Strip by truck on 17 August 1950 after an expulsion order had been served. The deportation was approved by Ben-Gurion and Dayan over the objections of Pinhas Lavon, secretary-general of the Histadrut, who envisioned the town as a productive example of equal opportunity.

By October 1950, 20 Arab families remained, most of whom later moved to Lydda or Gaza. According to Israeli records, in total 2,333 Arabs were transferred to the Gaza Strip, 60 to Jordan, 302 to other towns in Israel, and a small number remained in Ashkelon. Lavon argued that this operation dissipated "the last shred of trust the Arabs had in Israel, the sincerity of the State's declarations on democracy and civil equality, and the last remnant of confidence the Arab workers had in the Histadrut." Acting on an Egyptian complaint, the Egyptian-Israel Mixed Armistice Commission ruled that the Arabs transferred from Majdal should be returned to Israel, but this was not done.

Re-population of abandoned Arab dwellings by Jews became official policy by December 1948 but the process began slowly. The Israeli national plan of June 1949 designated Majdal as the site for a regional urban center of 20,000 people. From July 1949, new immigrants and demobilized soldiers moved to the new town, increasing the Jewish population to 2,500 within six months. The town was initially called Migdal Gaza, Migdal Gad and Migdal Ashkelon. In 1953, the nearby neighborhood of Afridar was incorporated and the name "Ashkelon" was adopted. By 1961, Ashkelon ranked 18th among Israeli urban centers with a population of 24,000

Zochrot visisted Majdal a few years ago.

Check out the bot reaction after 2:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwD62j9YOOg