Let me make it clear from the start: In this article there will be no reference to the coalition quarrels and the question of who was insulted by whom, why and when in the affair of Ikrit and Biram.
I want to exploit the opportunity, after MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi put the story of the never-ending injustice to the people of Ikrit and Biram back on the agenda, to discuss what has been repressed; I want to discuss the cynical, despicable behavior of the extreme right, from opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu to Religious Zionism MK Bezalel Smotrich, who were alarmed when they heard the request to return the uprooted population and claimed that this was an implementation of “the right of return.”
In 2000, I brought up for a vote in the Knesset a draft bill to return residents to Ikrit and Biram, two Christian villages near the Lebanese border. The villages were captured by the Israel Defense Forces without a battle at the end of 1948; a week later their residents were told to evacuate for two weeks, “until there are no security grounds” preventing their return, according to the IDF.
They have not returned since. In July 1951 the High Court of Justice ruled that the residents – now already Israeli citizens – should be returned to their homes. The government
— source Jews For Justice For Palestinians | Zehava Galon writes in Haaretz | Jun 13, 2022