Monday 22 February 2010

Sderot or Najd?


We've all been serenaded by Israel's stories of hurt and suffering from Sderot. That's the tiny village right next to the border with Gaza. They have been pelted by Qassam rockets from Gaza that were the only thing to fly out of Gaza after Israel's crippling blockade (Egypt hasn't helped much either).



I even met the prick of a mayor, Mr Eli Moyal of Sderot during a propaganda tour (the picture above is mine) trying to convince us that Israel is peaceful and they are suffering big time because of the rockets. I suppose it's hard to understand that hungry, poor, and humiliated people will do almost anything to get noticed and get even.

That was a pig of a talk, we were harrassed by Israeli security goons, but we still managed to get to the talk and be heard. It was fun. I hope to be able to ask people like Netinyahu some proper questions soon, mind you, compared to the big cheese, Moyal is just a small sardine.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to shed the light on Sderot's history, which in fact was that it was called Najd, and was an Arab Palestinian town before the Israelis razed it to the ground and build Sderot on its ruins in 1951. How very convenient. I wonder what the Arab Mayor of Najd would say about this?

Hold that thought, and read what wiki has to say:

"Sderot was founded in 1951 (...) on the land of the former Palestinian village of Najd. Najd was a Palestinian Arab village, located 14 kilometers (9 mi) northeast of Gaza City. On 13 May 1948, Najd was occupied by Jewish soldiers from the Negev Brigade as part of Operation Barak. The inhabitants were expelled and fled to Gaza, and the village was then completely destroyed and leveled to the ground. In 1951, the town of Sderot was built over the village lands."

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

A typical shining example of brave Israeli history. The honour. The gallant bravery!

I'm a man of numbers, and I have been trying in vain to get some statistics on how many Sderot residents died because of these Gazan rockets, but I have found nothing. I found statistics however claiming that half of the village's residents are "casualties" of the attacks. Hmmm that means about 10,000 of 20,000 or so residents.

Ynet : Study: Over half of Sderot residents are Qassam casualties

So, 10,000 Israelis are casualties? What is the Israeli definition of a casualty? Ok.. let's look at nearby Gaza:

in 19 days of war, more than 1000 Gazans died, and 4800 were physically injured.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/14/gaza-city-fighiting-israel-un

That means physically hurt by an Israeli explosive device.

I still cannot find details of even one Sderot death from these painful rockets, even though there are 10,000 "casualties".

Amazing, that the propaganda machine managed to alert us to the plight of the modern Nadj residents (aka Sderot) while neglecting to mention the original resident's plight. The next step I guess is to find one of the original, pre 1948 residents of Sderot/Najd and capture their words on video.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know how anything can be spun into a tragedy Bujassem. I can claim that it's a tragedy for my poor ass to be subjected to this crappy IKEA chair I bought.

Israel are the kings of spinning and bullshit. I wouldnt be surprised if one day they claim a UFO made them attack so and so.

The Contentious Centrist said...

Like I said, cowardice is the staple of the bully mentality that can only maintain itself through fear and ignorance:

"New comments have been disabled for this post by a blog administrator."

I wonder, what makes you so afraid of my comments that you cannot even allow them to appear on this little read blog of yours?

Anonymous said...

He seems to get more readers and comments than yours.

Esoterica said...

BuJ, thanks for this! It's always a joy to read your great writing, though I mostly indulge selfishly without commenting.

It would be incredible to hear testimonials of Najd natives....

Unknown said...

You know that your blog is legitimate when you refer to Wikipedia as a source...

BuJ said...

oops.. thanks Jackie.. i'll remove the link at once.. the whole point of this blog is its illegitimate nature :)

BuJ said...

ABIT>> Indeed.. everything can be spun into a tragedy.. but the land of Canaan has seen a lot of those in the last few millennia...

CC>> I'll post another article soon about Iran acts as a bully towards its neighbours. I would appreciate the English lesson about grammar and vocabulary use when I do.

ESOTERICA>> Weinek min zamaaaaaaaan?!?!
My God.. I needed to write about a shitty Israeli village for you to comment?! Khalas.. I'll find out more about these hideouts and write so we can hear from you.. and yes, you know you've been selfish!

Nchalla kullu tamam ma3 al ahl wo al aqareb.. wo 2umoorkom tamam ya a7la jeeran.

The Contentious Centrist said...

Ach, Buj, you are so easy to manipulate...

BuJ said...

Ah, but since you're such a superior manipulator CC, then why do waste your time here?