Summary
Palestinian town (today “Migdal-Ashkelon” in the book’s usage) whose remaining 2,000 residents were expelled to the Gaza Strip in 1950, in Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace’s central example of expulsions continuing after the 1949 ceasefire accords and of the official formula that the expelled “left of their own free will” (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.97).
Details
- On 17/8/50 the 2,000 residents of Majdal received expulsion orders and their “transfer” to the Gaza Strip was begun; food and employment were withheld from them, and in the army’s presence they were made to sign declarations of “departure if their own will” [as printed]; among the last expelled by force on 11 October, not even declarations were bothered with (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.97).
- When Egypt complained to the Security Council over the expulsion and the expulsion of Bedouin tribes, Israel counter-complained; Israel’s UN representative A. Eban stated the residents of Majdal “left of their own will”, relying on their signed declarations (PDF p.97).
- The book remarks: “Families who had lived in Majdal for hundreds of years” — and, of the claim that they left of their own free will: “Happy is he who believes that” (PDF p.97).
Related pages
Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, Gaza, Transfer, Right of Return