Looting strips Palestinians of home, history
Israeli historian Adam Raz’s 2024 book, “Loot: How Israel Stole Palestinian Property,” provides a carefully researched account of how ordinary Israelis and soldiers systematically looted Palestinian homes, shops, and farms during and after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Nakba, to prevent Palestinians from returning.
Looting encompassed everything from furniture, household items, and valuables to factory and farming equipment. Sometimes, even houses that were still partly occupied by Palestinians were entered and ransacked.
Importantly, Raz argues that the looting served a strategic goal: By stripping homes of their contents, Israelis aimed to crush Palestinian hopes of return and entrench the new demographic reality.
The book also documents how these actions were sometimes acknowledged and lamented by contemporary Israelis, with even Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, privately condemning the theft as widespread even as it continued.
Raz bases his work on extensive archival research, including newly opened records, eyewitness accounts, diaries, and newspapers, making the evidence particularly credible.
Raz’s book provides an explanation of how 58 Palestinian refugee camps developed in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. Meanwhile, several refugee camps in the West Bank have been demolished by the Israeli Defense Forces, and the Gaza Strip has been reduced to a de facto refugee camp for more than 2 million Palestinians.
Israel has stolen from Palestinians not only the foundation of their wealth, but also their sense of community, identity, and connection to their land.
How tragic that the United States is encouraging the further displacement and erasure of Palestinians. President Trump proposed building a Gaza “Riviera,” and his administration has actively searched for other countries to which Palestinians could relocate.
Furthermore, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has stated that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian,” and he flippantly calls for a Palestinian state to be established in France.
Americans must demand policies that prioritize providing humanitarian aid and rebuilding Palestinian communities and infrastructure, rather than those that treat Palestinians as disposable.
Milwaukee
