Very well put. Let us now hear a response from David Singer.

David

Neve really does stretch things, doesn't he?

He concedes that Israel has committed wrongs but then concludes that the Palestinians have as well so that makes both of them equal.

Since when is fighting against occupation a wrong? Were the people of Europe wrong to fight against German occupation in WW2? Were the European Resistance fighters in WW2 merely a group of criminals?

The reality is that Israel has committed a litany of wrongs, of war crimes, of brutality, the bombing of Gaza, etc. Palestine has done nothing else but resist the occupation which is their right.

It is Israel which has to right the wrongs it has committed, the genocide, the land-stealing, the collective punishment, the demolition of Palestinian homes and orchards, etc.

dangerouscreation.com

Excellent post that clarifies the meaning of nakba and recognizes the imperative of two wrongs not making a right. The post illustrates the necessity of recourse to the law. In Israel there is always that recourse and In the long run legality, justice and truth will prevail.
Without the law there is no hope and, within the Israeli legal system is the path to justice for Palistinian people. The primacy of law, argued by both sides of a dispute, is the very argument I believe that Singer advocates.

"In Israel there is always that recourse and In the long run legality, justice and truth will prevail."

There must be another Israel in the world. In the one I'm familiar with, none of these things prevail. Where is this other Israel?

Thank you Neve for this excellent and balanced article.

The law says "...commemorates Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning... "
-I wonder what's the legal status of an Israeli educational-institute that commemorates Independence Day as BOTH:

"Today we are happy that we have a state, where we as Jews can survive in relative safety, but today we also remember and feel sorry for the pain of the losers, those Arabs who lost their homes and became refugees in the process. While some cases of people losing their homes were unavoidable, and some others we managed to avoid, we regret that a significant portion of the losses were caused by the cruelty and insensitivity of some of our leaders and commanders. While we rejoice for what we have, we also feel shame for those whom our grandparents made to have not."?

Which brings me to the second question:

So one of your grandparents, Neve, caused someone to become a refugee.
OK, no doubt this is bad and indeed you should feel sorry and beat your chest.

But who is responsible for KEEPING that refugee a refugee till now, along with his children, grandchildren, grand-grand-children and grand-grand-grand-children?
It is unheard of - never before and never after were refugees kept being refugees for 64 years! All over the world, resettlement usually takes 2-3 years, perhaps 5-10: this is unprecedented!

It is the Arab countries which made every possible effort to keep those refugees as refugees, to lock them in camps, to forbid them to come out and resettle, in some cases even forbidding them to emigrate to other countries where they can start a new life. They enforced a system where those refugees are not allowed to work or leave their camps, but must rely on UNWRA food handouts for ever.

-All that for the purpose of propaganda, for vilifying Israel way beyond the wrongs it did.

I wonder whether anyone genuinely cares for those refugees -certainly not the other Arabs and certainly not the Left, who are too busy hating Israel.

David G.
Are you serious? "Were the European resistance just a bunch of criminals?" Well if you consider murder, torture, rape and terrorism criminal behaviour then yes, they were.
The "resistance" groups in Europe carried out terrible atrocities both during and after the war, including the murder of Jews.
Read up on the Antifa, the Chetniks, the awful crimes of the Latvian, Czech and Polish resistance.
http://www.freewebs.com/index44/chetnikhorrorsphotos.htm
http://www.revblog.codoh.com/2012/04/the-suppressed-history-of-crimes-committed-on-german-soldiers-in-wwii-part-iv/

That's a small sample, nobody from the allied side has ever been made to account for their war crimes against Europeans, none of the combatants are innocent and if anything in terms of sheer brutality (which is the only standard ever applied) the Axis forces come out looking rather better than the allies.