Occupation authorities refuse to protect Tantura mass graves, insist on tourism project on their ruins

The Planning and Building Committee of the Israeli Regional Council 'Hof HaCarmel' rejected a legal request aimed at protecting the mass and historical graves in the evacuated village of Tantura. This rejection came in response to a joint appeal from the 'Adalah' Legal Center and the 'Bimkom' Association, who demanded refraining from issuing building permits for tourist facilities that could lead to the desecration of the remains of martyrs and victims in the village.

The legal bodies based their request on new data and evidence revealed by an extensive professional investigation conducted by the British institution 'Forensic Architecture', in addition to documents from the Israeli army archives. This evidence confirms the existence of four mass graves and four historical graves belonging to the Palestinian village that was subjected to a massacre and displacement during the 1948 Nakba, which was not previously known to planning authorities.

Maps and technical documents indicate that three of these mass graves are located directly within the scope of the proposed tourism project on the beach of the 'Dor' settlement. The Israeli plan includes converting these sensitive sites into parking lots and areas for recreational activities and tourist facilities, which constitutes a blatant violation of the sanctity of the dead and the privacy of the victims' families.

For its part, the Israeli Planning Committee justified its rejection with procedural claims, considering that the plan was finally approved in 2013. The committee claimed that the legal period allocated for submitting objections had expired years ago, ignoring the emergence of new scientific and historical facts that necessitate reconsidering the project and amending it to protect archaeological and religious sites.

The human rights organizations criticized the committee's disregard for the request to form a specialized professional team to identify the grave sites, fence them, and protect them from bulldozing and construction. They considered that the authorities' evasion of their responsibility reflects a systematic policy aimed at undermining the dignity of the dead and the rights of their families to preserve their historical and human heritage in their evacuated land.

The occupation authorities also refused to provide information related to ongoing building permit applications, referring human rights centers to complex bureaucratic procedures under the Freedom of Information Law. Observers believe that this behavior lacks the transparency required in dealing with an issue that affects the feelings of thousands of displaced persons and relates to historically documented war crimes.

In a legal comment, Dr. Suhad Bishara from the 'Adalah' Center affirmed that the committee's response reflects a blatant disregard for new evidence that was not available at the time of the original plan's approval. She explained that the authorities chose to hide behind flimsy excuses despite the fact that actual building permits have not yet been granted, which legally allows for a change of course if there was a will to protect the sites.

Lawyer Sari Cornish from the 'Bimkom' Association stressed that dealing with these graves as if they do not exist threatens their continued desecration and obliteration under the guise of administrative procedures. She considered that this approach aims to impose a new reality on the ground that erases any material trace of the Palestinian village that existed before 1948.

For its part, the Tantura Displaced Persons Committee described the tourism plan as a direct continuation of the 'memory erasure' policy pursued by the Israeli establishment. The committee affirmed that the attempt to build recreational facilities over the bodies of the victims is a desperate attempt to silence the silent witnesses to the massacres and forced displacements that the village witnessed.

Sami Al-Ali, spokesman for the people of Tantura, explained that this decision constitutes a blatant assault on the human, religious, and historical rights of the displaced. He added that these practices contradict the simplest ethical values and international conventions that oblige states to respect mass burial sites and commemorate the victims instead of turning them into picnic areas.

Al-Ali accused the Regional Council and its planning arms of continuing the historical denial approach despite the living oral testimonies and documented research that prove the crime. He pointed out that hiding behind technical pretexts will not succeed in undermining the natural rights of the village's residents to preserve the sanctity of their dead and protect their historical narrative from extinction.

The people of Tantura concluded their statement by affirming their continued legal, popular, and moral struggle to protect the mass graves and reclaim their right to commemorate them. They stressed that the historical truth of Tantura is deeply rooted in the conscience of the Palestinian people, and bulldozers or tourism projects will not succeed in obliterating the features of the Palestinian identity rooted in the land.

Attempts to silence memory or remove evidence will not change historical truth, nor will they erase Tantura from the conscience of its people and nation.