On January 22, 2023, the National Post published a letter to the editor by CJPME’s VP Michael Bueckert about the Nakba, e.g. the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians during the creation of Israel from 1947-49. This followed a complaint from CJPME about a recent op-ed on the creation of Israel which had omitted any mention of the Nakba.
The letter as published is as follows:
Allan Levine fails to mention that 1948 not only commemorates the creation of Israel, which is the focus of the “Israel at 75” series, but that for Palestinians it also marks 75 years since the Nakba: the forced expulsion of at least 700,000 Palestinians by Zionist military forces. This process of ethnic cleansing and its associated atrocities (including the Deir Yassin massacre) had begun in the months prior to Israel’s declaration of Independence in May 1948, and it was followed by the expropriation of refugees’ property and land, the destruction of over 500 villages, and the imposition of military rule over those Palestinians who remained.