This text was received by us as a feedback on the website by a relative of an Israeli soldier who destroyed the village in May 1948.

"I am writing through tears. I wept when I saw the photo of the ruined village of al-Sanbariyya because it was my former brother-in-law who helped destroy the village and the lives of those who lived there. My now deceased brother-in-law was born in Los Angeles and after World War II decided he wanted to live in Palestine. He met his wife-to-be at a training camp somewhere in the midwest. While at the camp many of the people decided they wanted to build a kibbutz in then Palestine. I am not sure that they gave a thought to the fact that they would be taking the lands of others. But then, I don't know. I wasn't there.

My brother-in-law went to Palestine on a ship smuggling refugees into the country when the ship was stopped by the British. He jumped ship and swam to shore and soon he met up with the other Americans. They received weapons, probably from the Haganah, and went to the northern part of Palestine to begin the ethnic cleansing of the land so that they could build kibbutz Maayan Baruch.

It was a few years later that I met my brother-in-law when he and his wife came to Los Angeles for my marriage to his younger brother. I will never forget how he laughed as he described the frightened villagers fleeing their homes as they left their shoes by the door and their pots on the stove. Later, in an internet search, I found out that the village had been called al-Sanbariyya and had been home to 130 families. His story bothered me but I was young and caught up in the story of Israel. It was only after the 1967 war that I started having doubts and as I read more and more history of Israel/Palestine, not always easy to come by, I discovered the incredible injustices that had been done to the Palestinian people, injustices that continue to this day.

As a Jew who was raised to believe in justice for all peoples, I believe that it is my obligation to speak out about Israel and to try in whatever way possible to bring about a better life in Palestine for the people who belong there... The people who were so cruelly evicted from their lands.

Name of author withheld by the Sakakini."