AhlulBayt News Agency: Three potential sites of mass graves have been identified in a Palestinian village destroyed and ethnically cleansed by Israeli forces in 1948.
According to the British newspaper, The Guardian, historians have long believed that Tantura, near Haifa, was the site of an atrocity amid stories from survivors that up to 200 men may have been executed in the village after surrendering to Israeli soldiers from the Alexandroni Brigade.
Two mass grave sites are believed to be beneath car parks serving the Dor Beach resort, which was once Tantura village.
An investigation by Forensic Architecture — a research organization based at Goldsmiths, University of London — has identified the locations, creating a 3D map of the area using geographic data and photographs recorded and compiled by the British Mandate authorities in Palestine, as well as eyewitness testimonies, to assess changes in the landscape where bodies may have been buried or exhumed.
The third location, believed to have also been the site of mass executions, reportedly had human remains recovered from it several years ago.
The Forensic Architecture report, commissioned by Palestinian human rights group Adalah, has been used as evidence to petition Israeli authorities on behalf of families of the victims to demarcate the identified sites.
As many as 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes in 1948 by Israel, in an event known as the Nakba (catastrophe). At least 500 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed at the time.
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According to the British newspaper, The Guardian, historians have long believed that Tantura, near Haifa, was the site of an atrocity amid stories from survivors that up to 200 men may have been executed in the village after surrendering to Israeli soldiers from the Alexandroni Brigade.
Two mass grave sites are believed to be beneath car parks serving the Dor Beach resort, which was once Tantura village.
An investigation by Forensic Architecture — a research organization based at Goldsmiths, University of London — has identified the locations, creating a 3D map of the area using geographic data and photographs recorded and compiled by the British Mandate authorities in Palestine, as well as eyewitness testimonies, to assess changes in the landscape where bodies may have been buried or exhumed.
The third location, believed to have also been the site of mass executions, reportedly had human remains recovered from it several years ago.
The Forensic Architecture report, commissioned by Palestinian human rights group Adalah, has been used as evidence to petition Israeli authorities on behalf of families of the victims to demarcate the identified sites.
As many as 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes in 1948 by Israel, in an event known as the Nakba (catastrophe). At least 500 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed at the time.
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