Meretz MK Jida Rinawi Zoabi has led to a new and particularly uncomfortable storm for the Bennett-Lapid government. The Knesset member claimed last night in an interview with Radio Nas, a regional radio station broadcasting from Nazareth, that Foreign Minister Yair Lapid promised her an unprecedented move against the Arab sector: ‘Baram’ who were deported in 1948, “said Rinawi Zoabi.
This morning (Friday), Shadi Khalul, head of the Baron Maronit families’ committee, who was interviewed by the GLC, attacked her: “There was no talk or negotiation with us and no one asked us. “Our ancestors stayed away from any Arab MK just because of what happened yesterday,” said Khalul.
“We started working, but it was halted,” Rinawi Zoabi added yesterday. The Foreign Minister’s office denied the allegations: “For the avoidance of doubt, the story of Iqrit and Baram is a hallucination (particularly strange). It was not and was not created.”
The ruins of the village of Baram Photo: Hamad Almakt / FLASH90
The legal struggle of the displaced people of the two Arab villages has been going on for decades since the early 1950s and concerns the right of the villagers and their descendants to return to the homes they evacuated during the War of Independence after the State of Israel promised to return.
The village of Ikrit:
According to data from the Zochrot website, the number of residents of the village in 1948 was 570. The date of the occupation of the village was October 31, 1948. The one who conquered it was the 9th Brigade (Oded). Jewish localities on the village lands before 1948: None. Jewish localities on the village lands after 1948: Granot Hagalil, Goren.
The village of Baram:
The number of villagers in 1948 was 1,050. The date of the occupation of the village was October 30, 1948. Jewish settlements on the village lands before 1948: None. Jewish settlements on the village lands after 1948: Dovev, Baram.