Shortly after midnight on Saturday, April 10th, 1948, a total of 250 children, women, and men were brutally and savagely murdered at the hands of Jewish terrorists.

Members of the Irgun (headed by the would-be Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang attacked the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin and systematically murdered its inhabitants.

Deir Yassin, which lay along the western outskirts of Jerusalem, was located outside the area designated by the United Nations to the future Jewish state. It had a reputation of being ‘peaceful’.

Today, as we painfully mark the 53rd anniversary of this horrific chapter in our history, we are reminded of the inhuman atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, and, at the same time, of the urgency in ending the ongoing massacre, which has claimed 429 Palestinian lives since September 2000, including 138 children.

Yet most importantly, we are reminded of the unquestionable obligation of the state of Israel to come to terms with its own history and acknowledge the suffering it has inflicted upon the Palestinian people. Any attempt by Israel to undermine this obligation cannot be accepted by the Palestinians; "historical reconciliation" cannot be achieved without "historical confession."

Deir Yassin constitutes the initial episode of the ‘untold holocaust’ of the Palestinian people; the massacres of Tantura, Sabra and Shatila, Qana, Hebron, and many others, have left thousands of Palestinians victims to brutality and injustice.

There is an urgent need for international protection to the Palestinian people; the dark chapter of Deir Yassin must not be repeated.