photo #1296276

On this day, June 7, in 1967, Israel expelled over 2,000 Palestinians from the village of Imwas in the West Bank. In contemporary parlance, we would call this ethnic cleansing. The village was then destroyed and "reforested," turned into a popular picnicking park for Israelis, that very deliberately obscures any sign that people actually lived in this spot 52 years ago. The Jewish National Fund raised $5 million in Canada to build it, and so it is called Canada Park. The photo shows departing villagers from Imwas, some of whom took refuge with relatives in Jerusalem, others crossing the Jordan River and ending up in new camps created in Jordan for the 1967 refugees. Two other villages near Imwas were also ethnically cleansed in June 1967, Yalu and Beit Nuba. Never forget!