and those in the Galilee,292 while the major arterial road through the valley was considered tactically important for taking Jerusalem.293 This can be seen in a number of Zionist plans, and as early as in the Peel Commission’s plan in 1937.294 Contrary to what was outlined in the UN Partition Plan of 1947,295 Zionist leaders used negotiations for the 1949 Armistice Agreement to ensure Wadi ‘Ara would fall into the Israeli-controlled side of the Green Line, despite having been controlled by Iraqi and subsequently Jordanian forces.296 The past 73 years of Israeli colonization have left Umm al-Fahm marginalized, not only for being an undesired “Arab locality,” but also “a security and a demographic threat”297 in and of itself. A plethora of political statements have consistently declared that “they are not wanted here, they are not part of us [Israeli-Jews],”298 or that “there are Arab citizens in the State of Israel. This is our greatest sorrow.”299 As a result, present-day Umm 292 Zena Tahhan, “Israel’s Settlements: 50 Years of Land Theft Explained,” Aljazeera, 27 January 2020 (update), available at: https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2017/50-years-illegal-settlements/index. html [accessed 28 February 2020]. 293 In an Israeli staff session in 1948, David Ben Gurion affirmed: “military, the most effective way to liberate Jerusalem is by attacking the northern part of al-Muthalath, specifically Tubas from the East, Jenin and Umm al-Fahm from the north, and Tulkarm from the West.” Umm al-Fahm and Aljoon – A Journey Through Time,” in Wajdi Hassan Jabbarin, In “the State of Jews” 1949-2006 [Arabic] (Jerusalem: Al Resalh, 2017), 34. 294 Gideon Biger, The Boundaries of Modern Palestine, 1840-1947 (London & New York: Routledge Curzon, 2004), 203. 295 UNGA, Resolution 181 (II). Future Government of Palestine, A/RES/181(II), 29 November 1947, available at: https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/7F0AF2BD8976 89B785256C330061D253 [accessed 28 February 2020]. See also UNGA, Palestine Plan of Partition With Economic Union, Annex A to Resolution 181 (II) of the General Assembly, A/RES/181(II), available at: https://unispal.un.org/DPA/ DPR/unispal.nsf/5ba47a5c6cef541b802563e000493b8c/164333b501ca09e785256cc5005470c3 ?OpenDocument [accessed 28 February 2020]. 296 Israel and Jordan, Hashemite Jordan Kingdom-Israel: General Armistice Agreement, 42 UNTS 303, 3 April 1949, Art.VI(3)(b), available at: https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IL%20 JO_490403_Hashemite%20Jordan%20Kingdom-Israel%20General%20Armistice%20Agreement.pdf See also, “The entire Wadi Ara road is also in our hands, and the border will pass to the south of Wadi Ara so that the journey to the Jezreel Valley and Afula will be shorter, as it was in times of peace,” David Ben Gurion, cited in Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, “The Constituent Assembly First Knesset 1949-1951: Armistice Agreements with Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan”, webpage, available at: https://www.jcpa.org/art/knesset2.htm [accessed 28 February 2020]. 297 Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, cited in Gideon Alon and Aluf Benn, “Netanyahu: Israel’s Arabs Are the Real Demographic Threat,” Haaretz, 18 December 2003, available at: https://www.haaretz. com/1.4802179 [accessed 28 February 2020]; Cheryl Rubenberg (ed.), Encyclopedia of the IsraeliPalestinian Conflict, (Colo: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012), 322. 298 Israeli Defense Minister Avidgor Lieberman, cited in Jack Khoury, “Following Riots, Israeli Defense Minister Calls for Boycott of Arab Citizens: ‘They Don’t Belong Here,” Haaretz, 10 December 2017, available at: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israeli-defense-minister-calls-for-arab-boycottafter-protests-1.5628215 [accessed 28 February 2020]. 299 Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra, cited in Ben White, Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy (London: Pluto Press, 2012), 54. 76