I just flicked through the messages when I saw the words "Pogrom" "Christian" "Muslim" and "Palestinian". Just some quick notes here. If similar points have already been made then apologies.

There were no Christians ethnically cleansed by Muslims in Palestine in 1948. Around 800,000 Palestinians (Muslims and Christians) were ethnically cleansed from Palestine by zionist forces (from May 1948 the State of Israel) from Nov 1947 to mid 1949. During the ethnic cleansing of Arabs the zionists herded the men of two Christian villages into their churches and burned them down. The reason the Christian population has declined relative to Muslims is because Christians can afford to move away, have better international connections and their birth rate is lower.   The PLO has many Christian activists and their man in London for many years was a Christian - Afif Safieh. I know of one Palestinian Christian zionist who is feted wherever he goes (in the west that is). Where are the rest speaking out against Muslims?

Honestreporting.com is a zionist organisation. You might just as well ask Ariel Sharon is he's a war criminal and then believe him when he says no. He has been denounced as a war criminal by a former Israeli Prime Minister (Moshe Sharett)and the Israeli Supreme Court and he lost a libel action against the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz when they called him a war criminal.

Running with reports from the Jerusalem Post is also risky for truth seekers. It is just about the most right wing newspaper in Israel and used to be owned by the owners of the Telegraph here (maybe it still is).

Shatila and Sabra were not simply the culmination of an escalation between Palestinians and Lebanese Phalangists. The Israeli army let the Phalangists into the camps and lit up the sky with flares so that they could see what they were doing while they massacred the refugees. No-one knows for sure how many died. Estimates vary from 900 to 2,000. I do know from the Jewish Chronicle that 9 Jewish women were killed. They fled Palestine in 1948 with their Arab husbands. Shatila and Sabra is by no means the worst of Israel's crimes. In fact to highlight individual crimes misses the point that Israel is a colonial settler state based on segregationist laws and ethnic cleansing. Having that structure in the 21st century makes Israel unique as no other state exists on the same racist basis that Israel does.

I like to write about Israel on my blog and I welcome comments that are not deliberate lies, racism, insults or time wasting.

Shalom

Mark Elf
Jews sans frontieres