This book is written partly in commemoration of al-Nakba (the catastrophe), the term that Palestinians use to describe the events of 1948 when Jewish forces used expulsion, terror and massacre to facilitate the creation of the State of Israel.

On 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the birth of Israel as an independent nation, so violating UN Security Council resolution 46 (17 April 1948) requiring all the political groups in Palestine ‘to refrain, pending further consideration of the future government of Palestine by the General Assembly, from any political activity which might prejudice the rights, claims, or position of either community [of Jews or Arabs]’.

On 11 May 1949, through the mechanism of GA resolution 273, Israel was admitted to the United Nations as a sovereign state, conditional upon Israel observing all UN requirements, including the right of return of Palestinian refugees. This confirmed what the Israeli leadership had hoped – that what had been won through terror and military conquest, and by ignoring inconvenient decisions of the United Nations, would be accepted by the international community. The pattern was set.

This book was published by the Palestinian Return Center in London: an independent academic/media consultancy founded and registered in the United Kingdom in 1996. It specializes in the research, analysis, and monitor of issues pertaining to the dispersed Palestinians and their right to return. It also serves as an information repository on other related aspects of the Palestine Question and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Geoff Simons. London: Palestinian Return Centre, 2006. 422 Seiten. € 22 zuzüglich Versand.

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