Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan

A courageous, principled Israeli-Canadian journalist has undertaken the daunting task of unveiling to Israelis, and the Western world, the truth about ethnic cleansing in Israel-Palestine.



For decades Israelis have propagated the myth that when the United Nations voted to create Israel, the Arab countries attacked the new state and that, at their urging, the Palestinians fled from their homelands to make it easier for the invaders to kill the Jews.



This narrative was challenged by Israeli scholar Ilan Pappe in his book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, in 2006 and by other writers who studied Zionist archives when they were opened. Pappe faced death threats in Israel and now teaches in England.



Israeli-Canadian journalist Lia Tarachansky has taken the bold step of bringing the story to the people of Israel and the West - it was Jewish gangs who attacked, killed and threatened peaceful, unarmed Palestinians, ousting them from their homes. They remain homeless because the Israeli government refuses to let them return. Tarachansky’s documentary, On the Side of the Road, was screened at Ottawa’s 25th One World Festival, an annual film festival that focuses on social justice, human rights and environmental subjects. She completed the film in 2013 after working on it for five years. It premiered in Tel Aviv, then was shown in Ramallah in the West Bank, at the Franco-German Cultural Center, and at film festivals in Belgium and Australia. In June this year it received Honorable Mention at the International Independent Film Awards in California.



On the Side of the Road is one of many documentaries that are reveal to people a side of history that has so far been kept hidden. At the Toronto Palestine Film Festival this fall, two other documentaries made waves. Kathy Wazana, a Canadian of Moroccan Jewish origin, made the film They Were Promised the Sea to challenge the rhetoric that Jews were expelled from Arab countries and had to seek shelter in Israel.  The other, The Village Under the Forest, is narrated by a South African Jew who discovered that the “South Africa Park” in Israel, built by money collected by the Jewish National Fund, is founded on a Palestinian village that was destroyed in 1948.



On the Side of the Road deals with the gruesome expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their lands in 1948. It is an eye-opener for Israelis also, who had believed the story that it was the Arabs who attacked Jews but lost. Tarachansky tells the story through Jewish leaders who were instrumental in the ethnic cleansing - Eitan Bronstein, founder of Zochrot, and Palma veterans Tivka Hong-Parnass and Amon Noiman. They told their story reluctantly, having believed earlier that they were doing the right thing in expelling Arabs and taking over their land.



Tarachansky was born in the Ukraine but her parents migrated to Israel. She lived in Israel’s largest illegal settlement, Ariel. Her family moved to Canada in 2000. She now lives in Jaffa as a correspondent for the Real News network. It was after coming to Canada that she met Palestinians and learned of their story. Like other Israelis, she had no contact with Palestinians. Many Israelis have racist attitudes and regard Arabs as inferior. This is clear in On the Side of the Road where average Israelis show contempt for Arabs and reveal their racism and intolerance. Israeli parliamentarian Ayelet Shaked argued that screening the movie violated the 2011 Nakba Law that prohibits the truthful discussion of the ethnic cleansing in 1948 and the plight and sorrow of the Arabs.



The screening in Ottawa was done under the cosponsorship of Independent Jewish Voices. IJV spokesperson Tyler Levitan introduced the movie and his own organization saying that IJV is a human rights organization with 10 chapters in Canada. Its goal is to promote a just peace in Israel and Palestine based on the application of international law and respect for the human rights of all parties.



While many Jewish organizations in Canada support Israel totally, some oppose its policy of building illegal settlements and its occupation of the West Bank. IJV goes farther, asserting that Israelis and Palestinians must both be allowed to enjoy full rights, including the right of Palestinians to return to their former homes. IJV also demands that Palestinians living in Israel proper must be given equal rights.



IJV has demanded that the Canada Revenue Agency revoke the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund of Canada because it is the fundraising arm of the Jewish National Fund, based in Israel, which discriminates against Palestinians and facilitates the takeover of Arab land. JNF Canada raised funds to build Canada Park in Israel, which sits over three Palestinian villages - Yalu, Imwas and Beit Nuba, that were destroyed and their inhabitants ousted. Under international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the villagers have the right to return to their homes but Israel prohibits them from doing so. Levitan contended that Canadian tax dollars are being used to deprive Arabs of their land and to build illegal settlements over their villages.



Levitan told the audience that his organization promotes justice and security for both Israelis and Palestinians and is cosponsoring the movie so that people get both sides of the story.



Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, civil servant and refugee judge.