As we prepare to join the global Palestinian diaspora in remembering the ethnic cleansing of 1948 (and 1867) a personal story illuminates Zionism in action.
Zionist forces launched the Nakba (Catastrophe) on Palestinians in mid-May 1948, and reports alarmed the world.
Then president of the International Red Cross, Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish aristocrat and Count of Wisborg, was asked by the United Nations to lead an on-the-ground mediation effort there, as the British left the UN mandate territory.
Bernadotte’s work for the Red Cross in Europe, as World War II ended, had been outstanding.
Many will know about the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin in Tel Aviv in November 1995, by a right-wing Jewish extremist and may also know of the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in July 1946, during the British mandate, by (Jewish) Irgun terrorists.
You may not know about Bernadotte’s assassination in September 1948, after just four month’s work as mediator.
On finding Bernadotte’s book, To Jeruslem, I was curious, having vaguely recalled hearing his unusual name on the radio back then.
He knew the risks: both sides were wary and suspicious. Snipers from Arab and Jewish armies and militia were active in many towns and cities. But Bernadotte took on the mediator job, aided by a limited number of international observers. He spent weeks shuttling —mainly by slow UN aircraft – between Palestine, regional capitals and the capitals of several UN “powers”.
Read the article by Ken Blackman in Green Left.