On May 15th each year, Palestinians and their allies around the world
mark the Nakba ( Catastrophe in Arabic) the time when more than 750,000
Palestinians, about half of the Arab population in Palestine at that
time, were forced out of their homes and lands and saw Palestinian
villages wiped off the map to establish the state of
Israel in 1948. Thousands of people were brutally massacred in Deir
Yassin, Lydda,
Tantura and many other areas, by gangs which later became the Israeli
Defence Force.
The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both
those outside the 1949 armistice lines and those
internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel
from their right to return to their homes or the reclaiming of their
property, and in doing so Israel violated international law. It is the
defining event that formed and solidified the Palestinian liberation
struggle.
To understand the Nakba is to first confront its sheer scale and totality. Before the Nakba
there was a large, deeply rooted, and essentially ancient Arab society
in most of what, within a few months, became the Jewish state of Israel.
In effect, one day it was there, as it had been for living memory, and
the next day it was gone. An entire society, with the exception of
relatively small groups in a few places, simply vanished.
After World War I, the League of
Nations broke the Ottoman Empire up into territories assigned to
different colonial powers. The lands that today constitute Israel and
the occupied Palestinian territories were placed under British rule, but
with two explicit and incompatible purposes: Britain was already committed to supporting the recently established Zionist movement that sought to
create “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.
Then in Britain came the notorious 1917 Balfour Declaration
and the Palestine mandate, in which the overwhelming Palestinian majority was
simply referred to as “existing non-Jewish communities,” with “civil and
religious rights,” but not political ones.
With the Balfour Declaration, the government of the time was
seeking Jewish support for its war efforts, and the Zionist push for a
homeland for Jews, which was becomming an emerging political force. In 1917, Jews
constituted 10% of the population, the rest were Arabs.
Yet Britain recognised the national rights of a tiny minority and denied
it to the majority This was a classic colonial document which totally
disregarded the
rights and aspirations of the indigenous population. In the words of
Jewish writer Arthur Koestler: “One nation solemnly promised to a second
nation the country of a third.”
It
was a shock to the Arab world, which had not been consulted and had
received promises of independence of its own in the post-war break up of
the defeated Ottoman Empire. The Palestinians have always condemned the
declaration, which they refer to as the "Balfour promise" saying Britain was giving away land it did not own.
The Balfour Declaration constituted a dangerous historical precedent and a blatant breach of all international
laws and norms, and this act of the British Empire to “give” the land of another
people for colonial settlement
created the conditions for countless atrocities against the
Palestinian people. Balfour, in a 1919 confidential memo, wrote:
“Zionism,
be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age old traditions, in
present needs, in future hopes, of far greater import than the desires
and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land”
The
discriminatory language used by Sir Arthur Balfour and seen in the
Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate reveal the prejudiced
rational behind British foreign policy in Palestine. A month after the
Balfour Declaration on 2 December 1917,
the British army occupied Jerusalem. In 1923, the British Mandate for
Palestine came into effect, and included the entire text of the Balfour
Declaration. Through the Mandate, Britain would go on to rule Palestine
for three decades.
As a result of all of this the Palestinian people were denied the right to independence and statehood, and were treated as refugees in their own land. The Nakba resulted in the destruction of much of Palestinian society and much of the Arab landscape was obliterated by the Zionist state. And in the post 1948 period the Palestinians became second class citizens, subject to a system of military occupation by a government that confiscated the bulk of their lands.
Even the word 'Nakba' was banned by the Israeli Minister of Education in
2009, and was removed from school textbooks. Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanayah said at the time that the word was tantamount to spreading
propoganda against Israel. But the word Nakba is the term that about a
fifth of Israel's population, the Palestinians use to describe this day.
This is the Palestines history, it is essential we should be allowed to talked about. It is it not wrong to question, when other regimes oppress, we question them too, we have a duty to criticise and condemn, when fundamental freedoms and rights are violated. Any state that acts aggressively is open to criticism. All human beings are entitled to human rights.
This is the Palestines history, it is essential we should be allowed to talked about. It is it not wrong to question, when other regimes oppress, we question them too, we have a duty to criticise and condemn, when fundamental freedoms and rights are violated. Any state that acts aggressively is open to criticism. All human beings are entitled to human rights.
This period of time is what we remember today, but also now marks the anniversary of those killed during the Great Return March in
Gaza in 2019. Thousands of Palestinians, stuck in the blockaded Gaza
strip, initiated protests that started in Gaza as a way to draw attention to the
living conditions in Gaza, where currently more than 1.3 million
Palestinian refugees live, but more importantly as a march for the right
of return. This Great March characterized the use of peaceful activism
by Palestinian citizens since the early 2000s. These mobilizations aim
to defend land rights, rights to resources, mobility through
non-violence and sometimes innovative actions to attract international
attention demanding their right to return to their homes
from which they were expelled in 1948. They were also
condemning the continued occupation and siege. Hundreds of people have
been killed during these marches, including children, disabled protesters,
journalists and paramedics.
There
is no peace in stolen lands, especially when people still cry for
liberation and the right to return to their lands.The fact is the Nakba
never ended. It continues every day as Palestinians are evicted from
their homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank to be replaced by
illegal Jewish-only settlements. It continues as Israel’s occupation
obstructs and
severely restricts Palestinians’ attainment of rights and fundamental
freedoms, including: the right to life, the right to liberty and
security of person, and their right to an adequate standard of
living,amongst others. Notably, Israel also violates Palestinians’ right
to freedom of movement within and from the Occupied Palestinian
Territories
through its closure policy made up of the Annexation Wall and its
associated permit-regime in the West Bank, and its prolonged
closure of the Gaza Strip, which has made Gaza uninhabitable for
Palestinians.
In the Gaza Strip, in particular,
Palestinians continue to be severely deprived of their liberty as a
result of Israel’s unlawful closure, amounting to collective punishment.
In Gaza, Palestinians are trapped in a humanitarian crisis without adequate water or
electricity as they are prevented from returning to their lands inside
what is now Israel.It continues with sniper attacks on Palestinians in
Gaza, encroachment of illegal settlements across the West Bank and
extreme limitations placed on Palestinians' movements within and between
towns, courtesy of IDF-staffed checkpoints and all in violation of international human rights law and in
denial of the fundamental aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which sought “the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy …
freedom from fear and want”.
Palestinians still have no
state and no equality, Refugee camps still exist all over the world and a
majority of Palestinians live in the diaspora. Palestine is occupied
in the most brutal way possible.
For the nearly six million Palestinians who live between the
Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the Nakba remains an ongoing
process, as Israel uses a range of tools to restrict their livelihoods.
They
remain vulnerable to expulsion, watching an ever-increasing
share of their land become off-limits. About half of the occupied West
Bank is already inaccessible to Palestinians, designated as military
zones or nature reserves, or set aside for future Israeli
settlements.The Israeli military control large parts of the West Bank
and Gaza is completely sealed and “monitored” by Israeli ships, fighter
planes and tanks.
Against their will, the Nakba has divided the
Palestinian people between Gaza and the West Bank. Still searching for
justice and dignity, rememberance acts as resistance to their occupiers
who still try to bury and hide their history. Despite the international attention that the Nakba has received over the
years, Israel has not yet recognized the Nakba, nor their
responsibility in 1948. The right of return for Palestine refugees is a
right guaranteed by international law and enshrined in UN General
Assembly resolution 194. Knowing that the displacement of Palestinians
is still being practiced by Israel today in the West Bank and Gaza, the
question of the ongoing Nakba needs to be addressed to achieve justice
and peace in the region. The right for Palestinian refugees to return to
their land must be the precondition for a dialogue for peaceful
coexistence between Israel and Palestine.
The development of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine is deemed a breach of international law, and thus by doing business in these settlements, many international companies are contributing to the economic viability of
settlements and are normalising Israeli annexation of Palestinian land,and aiding in promoting
discrimination, oppression and injustice.
The Nakba still reverberates today because Al Nakba is constant and
continuing, felt through all aspects of Palestininian life, whether in
Israel. the Occupied Territories, the refugees camps, or even in settled
Palestinian communities abroad.
2,400 Palestinians in Masafer Yatta face the largest expulsion from their land since 1967. This is yet further proof of the ongoing catastrophe Palestinians face under Israeli apartheid. Israeli violence and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians is escalating rapidly. Earlier this week the Israeli High Court, which includes a settler judge, ruled that Palestinians who lived on their land for generations are “illegally” residing in a military “firing zone.” Wednesday, Israeli military snipers killed Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while she was covering a military raid on a Palestinian refugee camp. Israeli forces then brutally beat and attacked Palestinian mourners at Shireen’s funeral. In the last two months alone, Israeli forces have killed 34 Palestinians, including six children. The ongoing displacement, theft, and murder by the Israeli regime marks a new brutal and devastating phase of the ongoing Nakba.
This May also marks the one year anniversary of Israel’s 11-day military assault on Gaza and the historic Palestinian Unity Uprising. In the year since, settler and military attacks and home demolitions have continued to escalate, while mainstream media outlets have largely ignored violence against Palestinians and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
From the home demolitions in Silwan to the imminent expulsions in Masafer Yatta, we know the Nakba is not a static event, but rather an ongoing reality for Palestinians.The Nakba is felt each time a Palestinian family is forcibly removed from their home. The Nakba is felt each time a Palestinian
family is forcibly removed from their home. The Nakba is felt each year
that the crushing siege on Gaza continues, and with each Israeli air
strike. And the Nakba is felt each time Israeli forces violently raid some of Islam's holiest sites, as was the case with the numerous attacks on the Al Aqsa compound during Ramadan last month.This daily violence cannot continue.
Today, as we observe the sad sombre
event of the Nakba and it's ongoing resonance, lets be stronger and more
determined than ever to stand up to Israeli policies of apartheid. It
is more important than ever that the international community keep
defending Palestinian human rights,
support Palestinian protests against forced housing demolitions and
land theft and put real pressure on Israel to end its
occupation and comply with international law. To take all measures
within international
law to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing strategy resulting in
ongoing human rights violations and international crimes committed
against the Palestinian People, including forcible transfer,
colonization and apartheid. Today therefore is an occasion to reaffirm
the inherent dignity and rights of
Palestinians and to assert the right of
the Palestinian people, as a whole, to self-determination, which
includes the right to permanent sovereignty over natural wealth and
resources and the right of return of Palestinian refugees, in order to
achieve justice and durable peace for the Palestinian
People.
The ongoing occupation of Palestinian land makes the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaigns all
the more urgent and necessary.However in the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday Prince Charles spoke of an “anti-BDS Bill” for public bodies.This means the government wants to make it illegal for public bodies (eg. councils) to boycott, divest and sanction.This is extremely concerning. In a free society, public bodies must retain the right to make ethical choices. Please sign this petition now to protect the right of public bodies to make ethical choices through BDS.
Palestinians are not going to give up and be content to mourn the ghost
of Palestine. Today we remember this. The Palestinian people still
belong to their land, where they still remain, in their hearts and
spirits, still holding and caring for the keys of their houses for the
people who left. Time drifts, but for many memory is never erased, still
belonging to the land of their ancestors, where hearts and minds can
never leave. It is time for the leaders of the world to understand that
there is no homeland for the Palestinians except Palestine.
Now is the time, for those of us who are able, to say with our bodies and voices that we will bring our all to the struggle for Palestinian liberation. The continuation of the Israeli occupation, it's system of apartheid, and further displacement of Palestinian families must come to an end. From the rivers to the sea, Palestine will be free.