Remembering Nakba (The Catastrophe) after 60 years

Nakba Day (Arabic: يوم النكبة yawm al-nakba — 15 May) meaning "Day of the the catastrophe" is a annual day of commemoration by the Palestinian people of the "anniversary of the creation of Israel" which marks the beginning of 1948 Palestinian exodus, and the resulting defeat in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the loss of land that followed from the war. While for Israelis, 1948 war gave them independance and this day represents the "fulfilment of a historic ideal of the Jewish people" to establish a homeland for the Jewish people, for Palestinians the day represents, "the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of their people who were made homeless as Israel was born."

Every year Palestinians commemorate the Nakba: the expulsion and dispossession of hundreds of thousands Palestinians from their homes and land in 1948. In 1948 more than 60 percent of the total Palestinian population was expelled. More than 530 Palestinian villages were depopulated and completely destroyed. To date, Israel has prevented the return of approximately six million Palestinian refugees, who have either been expelled or displaced. Approximately 250,000 internally displaced Palestinian second-class citizens of Israel are prevented from returning to their homes and villages.

Moshe Dayan, Address to the Technion, Haifa, 4 April 1969)

"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist, not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushu'a in the place of Tal al- Shuman. There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab Population."

In a few weeks, Palestinians the world over will commemorate their Nakba - the loss of their homelands, their identity, dignity and their life. Many countries and organizations that are interested in the Palestinian dilemma will help in this commemoration. The Nakba for them is to speak about the sufferings and loss of a nation, to tell stories from those who witnessed the real event and fled from their homeland with one hope - that one day they will return.

An Israeli soldier prevents a Palestinian Muslim worshipper from entering the Old City of Jerusalem, 9 February 2007.

Until today the "Nakba" never ended. The sad truth is that while the Palestinians commemorate the Nakba of 1948, the disaster is ongoing up until today. Now, however, the oppression is subtler than the forced marches of the citizens of Ramla, the forced exodus of hundreds of thousands, or those who fled from violence or from the fear and confusion about what the Jewish militias were threatening or the Arab governments promising. It is a slow, forced exodus that is not exciting enough to warrant any airtime or column space. We are witnessing the slow but sure strangulation of Palestinian culture and existence in their homeland through Israeli bureaucratic policies and strategies. Palestinians are a people being squeezed to death, not only by a wall that cuts off farmers from their ancestral lands and splits families in two, but also by a system of paper, permits, proof, and permissions.

Almost six decades of daily plight of the Palestinian refugees are an expression of the crimes and acts of humiliation perpetrated by the dominant powers by backing Israel's aggression and crimes; they reflect a lack of human compassion and disrespect of the standards of human rights and the United Nations applicable to the Palestinian people who are exposed to occupation and population transfer.

Israel's policy of aggression and permanent pressure against the Palestinian refugees in their camps, which are living witnesses of the historical injustice and the deprivation of fundamental human rights, is intended to push our Palestinian people into political projects which do not meet the basic standards of international law and resolutions, and into accepting a "preliminary state without borders", without sovereignty and without Jerusalem, while illegal Jewish colonies are debated as a possible trade off for the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

Palestinian families forced to leave the village of Faluja in 1948. The village was ethnically cleansed by Jewish forces. On its looted lands, Israeli settlers founded Qiryat Gat in 1954.

Most young Palestinians today live not under military occupation in the West Bank or Gaza, but in the immediate region outside of historic Palestine in the Arab world: stateless, ID-less, jobless, without the international legal protections of other refugees from other countries. Palestinians in the Arab world live in extremely difficult and complex circumstances.

The forced exodus of the Nakba continues, but at a pace that is too quiet for television cameras to capture, and too slow to provide even a catchy 20-second sound byte. When there are car bombs, mass exodus, and refugee camps being set up by the thousands, no one wants, or seems to know how, to cover a slow suffocation of a people and the elimination of their society and culture by means of paper, permits, proof, and permissions.

See further.

The Sabra and Shatila Massacre (16-18 Sept, 1982).

Deir Yassin (9 April 1948)
1967 War (5-10 June 1967)

Remember Palestine.