Today, December 29, 2012, Israel declared a new national park. Interestingly enough, as with most of the
parks in Israel, this park is complete with “historical ruins,” including a
lovely old stone church. Where do they
get the land for national parks when Historical Palestine is about the size of
Massachusetts, and is home to two nations?
The simple answer is, the land came from the same source as all of
the land in Israel—it is land that belongs to Palestinians. The land for this park once hosted a thriving
village, called Biram. The residents of
the village were forced out by the Israeli army in 1949 and were not allowed
back, in spite of a 1951 Supreme Court decision upholding their right to
return. (http://www.facebook.com/welcometopalestine)
Unfortunately, this is just the
latest of the national parks that Israel has established at the expense of
prior residents. Canada Park, a
centerpiece of the national park system, was established at the expense of three
Palestinian villages.
The Wikipedia entry for Canada
Park reads as follows:
Canada Park (Hebrew: פארק
קנדה, Arabic:كندا حديقة) (also Ayalon Park)[1] is a national
park stretching over 7,000 dunams, mostly in the West Bank,
with a portion in the region that was a no
man's land before 1967 and incorporated into Israel in 1967.[2] It is
maintained by the Jewish National Fund of Canada. Canada Park
is located west of Jerusalem, to the north of Highway 1 (Tel Aviv - Jerusalem),
between the Latrun
intersection and Sha'ar HaGai.[3] The
park attracts some 300,000 visitors annually. Canada Park ... is filled with wooded areas,
walking trails, water features and archaeological sites. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Park)
Although Wikipedia says that the park is “mostly
in the West Bank,” it does not mention that before Israel captured that land
during the 1967 war, the land was the site of the Palestinian villages of
Imwas, Yalu, and Beit Nuba. The people who
lived on this land for generations are now refugees.
According to Eitan Bronstein, director of Zochrot
(Remembering), 86 Palestinian villages lie buried under Jewish National Fund parks. A further 400 destroyed villages had their lands passed on to exclusively Jewish communities. Zochrot is trying to educate people to the hidden history behind the establishment
of the national parks in Israel. http://electronicintifada.net/content/canada-park-and-israeli-memoricide/8126
This video shows rare footage of the villages
and interviews several people with first-hand knowledge of the destruction of the villages.
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