Israel: The Orwellian State of Oppression

On this delegation we’ve learned so much that’s reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984.

The most Orwellian expression is: “Present Absentees” that refers to Palestinians who fled from their homes during the peak hostilities in late 1947 and 1948 but moved only a short distance to a safer Palestinian village or town.

Israel counted them as absentees who could not return to their homes, even though they remained within the border of the new state of Israel. Their property was confiscated by the state and eventually most of it passed on to create Israeli towns.

A similar situation now afflicts Palestinians who became temporarily displaced from their homes during the 1967 war.