Mnamo mwaka wa 1948, miji na vijiji vya kusini mwa Palestina, ikiwa ni pamoja na miji ya Bir al-Sabi (Beersheba) na al-Majdal, viliachwa kabisa bila watu.

In 1948 the towns and villages of southern Palestine, including the towns of Bir al-Sabi (Beersheba) and al-Majdal, were completely depopulated.

Al-Majdal ilianzishwa katika karne ya 16 karibu na jiji la Waislamu la zama za kati la ‘Asqalan, jiji lenye historia ndefu na utambulisho wa tabaka nyingi lililoanzia enzi za kale za Wafilisti. Jina lake la Kiarabu la zama za kati, ‘Asqalan, lilihifadhi jina lake la kale la Kipalestina, Ascalon. Likiwa mojawapo ya bandari kongwe na kubwa zaidi za Palestina ya kale, lilikuwa mojawapo ya miji mitano maarufu ya Wafilisti: Gaza, Gath, Ascalon, Ashdod (jina la kisasa la Kiarabu: Isdud), na Ekron (‘Aqir). Al-Majdal/‘Asqalan, katika usiku wa vita vya 1948, ilikuwa na watu 10,000

Al-Majdal was established in the 16th century near the medieval Muslim city of ‘Asqalan, a city that had a long history and a multi-layered identity dating back to the ancient Philistines.Its medieval Arab name, ‘Asqalan, preserved its ancient Palestinian name, Ascalon. With one of the oldest and largest seaport in ancient Palestine, it was one of the five famous cities of the Philistines: Gaza, Gath, Ascalon, Ashdod (modern Arabic toponym: Isdud), Ekron (‘Aqir). Al-Majdal/‘Asqalan, on the eve of the 1948 war, had 10,000

(Waislamu na Wakristo) wakazi, na mnamo Oktoba 1948 maelfu ya wakimbizi zaidi kutoka vijiji vilivyo karibu walijiunga nao. Al-Majdal ilitekwa na jeshi la Israeli tarehe 4 Novemba 1948, na wakazi wengi wake pamoja na wakimbizi walikimbia, wakiwaacha nyuma takriban wakazi 2700, wengi wao wakiwa wanawake na wazee.

(Muslim and Christian) inhabitants, and in October 1948 thousands more refugees from nearby villages joined them. Al-Majdal was conquered by the Israeli army on 4 November 1948 and many of its residents and refugees fled, leaving some 2700 inhabitants, mostly women and the elderly, behind.

Amri zilibandikwa mitaani mwa mji, zikiwa zimeandikwa kwa Kiebrania na Kiyidi, zikiwaonya askari kuwa waangalifu dhidi ya tabia "zisizotakiwa" kwa upande wa wakazi wa mji huo. "Kama ilivyokuwa desturi katika matukio kama hayo", afisa wa upelelezi wa Israeli aliandika, "tabia ya wakazi ilikuwa ya kujipendekeza na ya kusifu sana" (Levy 2000). Mnamo Desemba 1948, askari wa Israeli "walipitia" mji huo na kuwafukuza takriban wakazi 500 waliosalia. Mnamo 1949, kamanda wa Amri ya Kusini, Yigal Allon, "alidai ...

Orders in Hebrew and Yiddish were posted in the streets of the town, warning the soldiers to be aware of ‘undesirable’ behaviour on the part of the town’s residents. ‘As was customary in such instances’, the Israeli intelligence officer wrote, ‘the behaviour of the population was obsequious and adulatory’ (Levy 2000). In December 1948, Israeli soldiers ‘swept through’ the town and deported some 500 of its remaining inhabitants. In 1949 the commanding officer of the Southern Command, Yigal Allon, ‘demanded ...

kwamba mji huo uwe mtupu wa Waarabu wake" (Masalha 1997: 9). Hili lilifuatiwa na uamuzi wa kamati ya mawaziri mbalimbali wa kupunguza idadi ya Wapalestina; kamati nyingine ya mawaziri, "kuhusu mali zilizoachwa", iliamua kuwapa Wayahudi makazi katika al-Majdal; mji ulikuwa unageuzwa kuwa wa Kiyahudi, na, pamoja na 2500

that the town be emptied of its Arabs’ (Masalha 1997: 9). This was followed by an inter-ministerial committee decision to thin out the Palestinian population; another ministerial committee, ‘on abandoned property’, decided to settle al-Majdal with Jews; the town was being Judaised, and, with 2500

wakazi wa Kiyahudi, lilipewa jina la ‘Migdal-Ad’. Mnamo Desemba 1949, Wapalestina zaidi walifukuzwa ili kuachia nyumba zaidi kwa walowezi Wayahudi, safari hii kwa wanajeshi wa Israeli waliostaafishwa. Wakati huo huo, jeshi la Israeli liliifanya maisha ya Wapalestina waliobaki kuwa ya taabu, likitumaini kwamba wataondoka.

Jewish residents, it was named ‘Migdal-Ad’. In December 1949, more Palestinians were deported to vacate more houses for Jewish settlers, this time for discharged Israeli soldiers. In the meantime, the Israeli army made the life of those Palestinians who remained a misery, hoping they would leave.

Kamanda mpya wa Amri ya Kusini, Moshe Dayan, alirejea pendekezo la Yigal Allon: "Natumaini kwamba labda katika miaka ijayo, kutakuwa na fursa nyingine ya kuwahamisha Waarabu hawa [170,000

The new commanding officer of the Southern Command, Moshe Dayan, returned to the proposal of Yigal Allon: ‘I hope that perhaps in the coming years, there will be another opportunity to transfer these Arabs [170,000

...Waarabu wa Israeli] nje ya Ardhi ya Israeli", alisema Dayan katika mkutano wa chama tawala cha Mapai tarehe 18 Juni 1950. Dayan pia aliwasilisha pendekezo la kina la "kuwahamisha wakazi Waarabu wa mji wa Majdal". Wakuu wote wawili wa majeshi walikubaliana nalo, na Waziri Mkuu Ben-Gurion aliidhinisha mpango huo tarehe 19 Juni 1950 (Masalha 1997: 9).

Israeli Arabs] out of the Land of Israel’, Dayan said at a meeting of the ruling Mapai party on 18 June 1950. Dayan also submitted a detailed proposal for ‘the evacuation of the Arab inhabitants of the town of Majdal’. Both the army chiefs of staff agreed, and Prime Minister Ben-Gurion authorised the plan on 19 June 1950 (Masalha 1997: 9).

Katika majira ya joto ya mwaka 1950, karibu miaka miwili baada ya vita vya 1948, wakazi wa Kipalestina wa Majdal walipokea amri za kufukuzwa, na ndani ya kipindi cha wiki chache walisafirishwa hadi mipaka ya Gaza. Walipakiwa kwenye malori na kuachwa mpakani. Kundi la mwisho la 229

In the summer of 1950, almost two years after the 1948 war, the Palestinian inhabitants of Majdal received expulsion orders and, over a period of a few weeks, were transported to the borders of Gaza. They were loaded onto trucks and dropped off at the border. The last delivery of 229

watu waliondoka kuelekea Gaza tarehe 21 Oktoba 1950. Maafisa wa Israel waligawa nyumba zilizoitwa "zilizoachwa" kwa walowezi wapya wa Kiyahudi. Hadi leo hii wakazi wa Palestina wa al-Majdal wanaishi katika vibanda na makazi duni ya kambi za wakimbizi huko Gaza. Mwaka 1956, Migdal-Ad ilibadilisha jina lake na kuwa Ashkelon, jina linalosikika kama la Biblia (Levy 2000). Tangu hapo, mji huo umehifadhiwa kama mji wa Kiyahudi pekee. Akizungumzia sera za elimu za Israel, Ismael Abu-Sa'ad, wa Chuo Kikuu cha Ben-Gurion, anaandika:

people left for Gaza on 21 October 1950. The Israeli officials distributed the ‘abandoned’ houses among new Jewish settlers. To this very day the Palestinian inhabitants of al-Majdal live in the shacks and shanties of the refugee camps in Gaza. In 1956, Migdal-Ad changed its name to the biblical- sounding Ashkelon (Levy 2000). Since then it has been kept as a purely Jewish city. Commenting on Israeli educational policies, Ismael Abu-Sa’ad, of Ben-Gurion University, writes:

Mfumo wa elimu una jukumu muhimu katika kufanya uondoaji wa historia na uwepo wa wenyeji wa asili uonekane "rasmi". Hili linaonekana katika maandishi kama yale yaliyonukuliwa kutoka mtaala wa jiografia wa darasa la sita katika shule za Israeli, ambayo inawafundisha watoto wa Kipalestina kwamba historia ya Tambarare ya Pwani ilianza miaka mia moja tu iliyopita, kwa kuwasili kwa walowezi Wayahudi wa Ulaya na kubadilishwa kwao eneo hili lililokuwa "eneo lililoachwa" hapo awali.

The education system is essential to making the displacement of indigenous history and presence ‘official’, through texts such as that quoted from the 6th grade geography curriculum in Israeli schools, which teaches Palestinian children that the history of the coastal plain began only a hundred years ago, with the advent of European Jewish settlement and their transformation of this previously ‘abandoned area’.

Katika maandishi, Tel Aviv ya kisasa (ya Kiyahudi) inachukua nafasi ya Yafa ya Kiarabu; Ashdod ya kisasa (ya Kiyahudi) inachukua nafasi ya Isdud (ya Kiarabu); Ashkelon ya kisasa (ya Kiyahudi) inachukua nafasi ya al-Majdal[-ʿAsqalan] (ya Kiarabu). Miji mipya ya Kiyahudi kama Rishon Litzion (‘Wa Kwanza katika Sayuni’) na Herzliya, pamoja na miji mingine mingi mipya, imejengwa juu ya mandhari isiyotambuliwa ya vijiji vya Kipalestina vilivyoachwa na kubomolewa mwaka 1948. Mandhari asilia inafutwa kutoka mtaala wa masomo, huku ikifutwa pia na mtaala wenyewe, kwa sababu haipo katika nyenzo rasmi za historia na jiografia zinazofundishwa kuhusu eneo hilo. (Abu-Sa’ad 2008: 24–25)

In the text, modern (Jewish) Tel Aviv overrides any mention of Arab Jaffa; modern (Jewish) Ashdod of (Arab) Isdud; modern (Jewish) Ashkelon of (Arab) al-Majdal[-ʿAsqalan]. Modern Jewish Rishon Litzion (‘First in Zion’) and Herzliya and numerous other new towns are superimposed upon an unacknowledged landscape of Palestinian villages emptied and demolished in 1948. The indigenous landscape is erased from the curriculum, while it is simultaneously being erased by the curriculum, because of its absence from the official historical and geographical materials being taught about the region. (Abu-Sa’ad 2008: 24–25)

Ufutaji wa urithi wa Palestina na Wapalestina, kimwili na kiutamaduni, ulifupishwa na mwanajiografia wa kisiasa wa Israel Oren Yiftachel mwaka 2008 kama ifuatavyo:

The erasure of the heritage of Palestine and the Palestinians, physically and culturally, was summarised by Israeli political geographer Oren Yiftachel in 2008 as follows:

Kitendo cha kufuta historia kwa miongo mingi kiliongozwa na vyombo vya dola ya Kiyahudi, vile vinavyolenga kufuta mabaki ya jamii ya Kiarabu-Kipalestina iliyoishi nchini hadi mwaka 1948, na kukana msiba ambao Uzayuni uliuletea taifa hili. Ufutaji uliofuata baada ya ghasia, kukimbia, kufukuzwa na kubomolewa kwa vijiji unaonekana katika mijadala yote: katika vitabu vya kiada, katika historia ambayo jamii ya Kizayuni inajisimulia yenyewe, katika mijadala ya kisiasa, katika vyombo vya habari, katika ramani, na sasa pia katika majina ya maeneo, barabara na makutano ya njia.

The act of erasure had been led, for many decades, by the Jewish state’s apparatuses, those that aim to erase the remnants of the Arab- Palestinian society that lived in the country until 1948, and to deny the catastrophe that Zionism inflicted on this nation. The erasure that came after the violence, the flight, the expulsion and the demolition of the villages is visible in all discourses – in textbooks, the history that Zionist society tells itself, in the political discourse, in the media, in maps and now also in the names of the sites, roads, and junctions.

Palestina, ambayo iko chini ya Israeli, inatoweka kutoka katika uhalisia wa kimwili wa Kiyahudi wa Kiisraeli na katika mazungumzo yao.31

Palestine, which lays under Israel, is disappearing from the Israeli- Jewish physical reality and discourse.31