20 may 2016
Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said Friday that the threats of the newly appointment Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, against the movement and the Gaza Strip, do not scare it, and that it will always remain steady.
Member of the Political Bureau of Hamas Fathi Hammad said during a massive procession marking the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, west of Gaza city, said that Hamas will not be intimidated into submission, and will respond to “any attack with a similar one, and any war with war.”
“We are not calling for war or escalation,” Hammad said, “But if it was forced on us, we will be ready to fight till the end.”
His statements came after Lieberman threatened to assassinate all the political leaders of the Hamas movement, should they “fail to return the bodies of soldiers,” who were killed during the 2014 Israeli aggression on the coastal region, that led to the death of more than 1600 Palestinians and dozens of thousands of injuries in 52 days, in addition to the complete or partial destruction of dozens of thousands of homes, public and private facilities, including hospitals and medical center.
Referring to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hammad said that “Abbas has no place in the leadership, and must step aside.”
At the end of the procession, many Hamas members tore and burnt pictures of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the newly appointed Defense Minister Lieberman, in addition to the sacked minister Moshe Ya’alon.
Member of the Political Bureau of Hamas Fathi Hammad said during a massive procession marking the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, west of Gaza city, said that Hamas will not be intimidated into submission, and will respond to “any attack with a similar one, and any war with war.”
“We are not calling for war or escalation,” Hammad said, “But if it was forced on us, we will be ready to fight till the end.”
His statements came after Lieberman threatened to assassinate all the political leaders of the Hamas movement, should they “fail to return the bodies of soldiers,” who were killed during the 2014 Israeli aggression on the coastal region, that led to the death of more than 1600 Palestinians and dozens of thousands of injuries in 52 days, in addition to the complete or partial destruction of dozens of thousands of homes, public and private facilities, including hospitals and medical center.
Referring to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hammad said that “Abbas has no place in the leadership, and must step aside.”
At the end of the procession, many Hamas members tore and burnt pictures of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the newly appointed Defense Minister Lieberman, in addition to the sacked minister Moshe Ya’alon.
19 may 2016
By Ramzy Baroud
On May 15th of every year, over the past 68 years, Palestinians have commemorated their collective exile from Palestine. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine to make room for a ‘Jewish homeland’ came at a price of unrelenting violence and perpetual suffering.
Palestinians refer to that enduring experience as ‘Nakba’, or ‘Catastrophe’. However, the ‘Nakba’ is not merely a Palestinian experience; it is also an Arab wound that never ceases from bleeding.
The Arab ‘Nakba’ was namely the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided much of the Arab world between competing Western powers.
A year later, Palestine was removed from the Arab equation altogether and ‘promised’ to the Zionist movement in Europe, creating one of the most protracted conflicts in modern human history.
Despite all attempts at separating the current conflict in Palestine from its larger Arab environs, the two realities can never be delinked since they both go back to the same historical roots.
How Did This Come about?
When British diplomat, Mark Sykes, succumbed to the Spanish flu pandemic at the age of 39, in 1919, another diplomat, Harold Nicolson, described his influence on the Middle East region as follows: “It was due to his endless push and perseverance, to his enthusiasm and faith, that Arab nationalism and Zionism became two of the most successful of our war causes.”
Retrospectively, we know that Nicolson spoke too soon. The breed of ‘Arab nationalism’ he was referencing in 1919 was fundamentally different from the nationalist movements that gripped several Arab countries in the 1950s and 60s.
The rallying cry for Arab nationalism in those later years was liberation and sovereignty from Western colonialism and their local allies. Sykes’ contribution to the rise of Zionism did not promote much stability, either.
The Zionist project transformed into the State of Israel, itself established on the ruins of Palestine in 1948.
Since then, Zionism and Arab nationalism have been in constant conflict, resulting in deplorable wars and seemingly perpetual blood-letting. However, Sykes’ lasting contribution to the Arab region was his major role in the signing of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, also known as the Asia Minor Agreement, one hundred years ago.
That infamous treaty between Britain and France, which was negotiated with the consent of Russia, has shaped the Middle East’s geopolitics for an entire century.
Throughout the years, challenges to the status quo imposed by Sykes-Picot failed to fundamentally alter its arbitrarily-sketched borders, which divided the Arabs into ‘spheres of influence’ to be administered and controlled by Western powers.
Yet, with the recent rise of ‘Daesh’ and the establishment of its own version of equally arbitrary borders encompassing large swathes of Syria and Iraq as of 2014, combined with the current discussion of dividing Syria into a federation, Sykes-Picot’s persisting legacy could possibly be dithering under the pressures of new, violent circumstances.
Why Sykes-Picot?
Sykes-Picot was signed as a result of violent circumstances that gripped much of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East at the time. It all started when World War I broke out in July 1914.
At the time, major European powers fell into two camps: the Allies – consisting mainly of Britain, France and Russia – vs. the Central Powers – Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Ottoman Empire soon joined the war, siding with Germany, partly because it was aware that the Allies’ ambitions sought to control all Ottoman territories, which included the Arab regions of Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Egypt and North Africa.
In March 1915 – Britain signed a secret agreement with Russia, which would allow the latter to annex the Ottoman capital and seize control of other strategic regions and waterways.
A few months later, in November 1915 – Britain and France began negotiations in earnest, aimed at dividing the territorial inheritance of the Ottoman Empire should the war conclude in their favor.
Russia was made aware of the agreement, and assented to its provisions. Thus, a map that was marked with straight lines with the use of a Chinagraph pencil largely determined the fate of the Arabs, dividing them in accordance with various haphazard assumptions of tribal and sectarian lines.
Dividing the Loot Negotiating on behalf of Britain was Mark Sykes, and representing France was François Georges-Picot. The diplomats resolved that, once the Ottomans were soundly defeated, France would receive areas marked (a), which include the region of south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq – including Mosel, most of Syria and Lebanon.
Area (b) was marked as British-controlled territories, which included Jordan, southern Iraq, Haifa and Acre in Palestine and the coastal strip between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan.
Russia, on the other hand, would be granted Istanbul, Armenia and the strategic Turkish Straits. The improvised map consisted not only of lines but also colors, along with language that attested to the fact that the two countries viewed the Arab region on purely materialistic terms, without paying the slightest attention to the possible repercussions of slicing up entire civilizations with a multifarious history of co-operation and conflict.
The Sykes-Picot negotiations concluded in March 1916 and was official, although it was secretly signed on May 19, 1916.
Legacy of Betrayal WWI concluded on November 11, 1918, after which the division of the Ottoman Empire began in earnest. British and French mandates were extended over divided Arab entities, while Palestine was granted to the Zionist movement over which a Jewish state was established, three decades later.
The agreement, which was thoroughly designed to meet Western colonial interests, left behind a legacy of division, turmoil and war. While the status quo it has created guaranteed the hegemony of Western countries over the fate of the Middle East, it failed to guarantee any degree of political stability or engender economic equality.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement took place in secret for a specific reason: it stood at complete odds with promises made to the Arabs during the Great War.
The Arab leadership, under the command of Sharif Hussein, was promised complete independence following the war, in exchange for supporting the Allies against the Ottomans.
It took many years and successive rebellions for Arab countries to gain their independence. Conflict between the Arabs and colonial powers resulted in the rise of Arab nationalism, which was born in the midst of extremely violent and hostile environments, or more accurately, as an outcome of them. Arab nationalism may have succeeded in maintaining a semblance of an Arab identity but failed to develop a sustainable and unified retort to Western colonialism.
When Palestine – which was promised by Britain as a national home for the Jews as early as November 1917 – became Israel, hosting mostly Europeans settlers, the fate of the Arab region east of the Mediterranean was sealed as the ground for perpetual conflict and antagonism.
It is here, in particular, that the terrible legacy of the Sykes-Picot Agreement is mostly felt, in all of its violence, shortsightedness and political unscrupulousness.
100 years after two British and French diplomats divided the Arabs into spheres of influence, the Sykes-Picot Agreement remains a pugnacious but dominant reality of the Middle East.
Five years after Syria descended into a violent civil war, the mark of Sykes-Picot are once more being felt as France, Britain, Russia – and now the United States – are considering what US Secretary of State, John Kerry, recently termed ‘Plan B’ – dividing Syria based on sectarian lines, likely in accordance with a new Western interpretation of ‘spheres of influence.’
The Sykes-Picot map might have been a crude vision drawn hastily during a global war but, since then, it has become the main frame of reference that the West uses to redraw the Arab world, and to “control (it) as they desire and as they may see fit.”
The Palestinian ‘Nakba’, therefore, must be understood as part and parcel of the larger western designs in the Middle East dating back a century, when the Arabs were (and remain) divided and Palestine was (and remains) conquered.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com.
On May 15th of every year, over the past 68 years, Palestinians have commemorated their collective exile from Palestine. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine to make room for a ‘Jewish homeland’ came at a price of unrelenting violence and perpetual suffering.
Palestinians refer to that enduring experience as ‘Nakba’, or ‘Catastrophe’. However, the ‘Nakba’ is not merely a Palestinian experience; it is also an Arab wound that never ceases from bleeding.
The Arab ‘Nakba’ was namely the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided much of the Arab world between competing Western powers.
A year later, Palestine was removed from the Arab equation altogether and ‘promised’ to the Zionist movement in Europe, creating one of the most protracted conflicts in modern human history.
Despite all attempts at separating the current conflict in Palestine from its larger Arab environs, the two realities can never be delinked since they both go back to the same historical roots.
How Did This Come about?
When British diplomat, Mark Sykes, succumbed to the Spanish flu pandemic at the age of 39, in 1919, another diplomat, Harold Nicolson, described his influence on the Middle East region as follows: “It was due to his endless push and perseverance, to his enthusiasm and faith, that Arab nationalism and Zionism became two of the most successful of our war causes.”
Retrospectively, we know that Nicolson spoke too soon. The breed of ‘Arab nationalism’ he was referencing in 1919 was fundamentally different from the nationalist movements that gripped several Arab countries in the 1950s and 60s.
The rallying cry for Arab nationalism in those later years was liberation and sovereignty from Western colonialism and their local allies. Sykes’ contribution to the rise of Zionism did not promote much stability, either.
The Zionist project transformed into the State of Israel, itself established on the ruins of Palestine in 1948.
Since then, Zionism and Arab nationalism have been in constant conflict, resulting in deplorable wars and seemingly perpetual blood-letting. However, Sykes’ lasting contribution to the Arab region was his major role in the signing of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, also known as the Asia Minor Agreement, one hundred years ago.
That infamous treaty between Britain and France, which was negotiated with the consent of Russia, has shaped the Middle East’s geopolitics for an entire century.
Throughout the years, challenges to the status quo imposed by Sykes-Picot failed to fundamentally alter its arbitrarily-sketched borders, which divided the Arabs into ‘spheres of influence’ to be administered and controlled by Western powers.
Yet, with the recent rise of ‘Daesh’ and the establishment of its own version of equally arbitrary borders encompassing large swathes of Syria and Iraq as of 2014, combined with the current discussion of dividing Syria into a federation, Sykes-Picot’s persisting legacy could possibly be dithering under the pressures of new, violent circumstances.
Why Sykes-Picot?
Sykes-Picot was signed as a result of violent circumstances that gripped much of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East at the time. It all started when World War I broke out in July 1914.
At the time, major European powers fell into two camps: the Allies – consisting mainly of Britain, France and Russia – vs. the Central Powers – Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Ottoman Empire soon joined the war, siding with Germany, partly because it was aware that the Allies’ ambitions sought to control all Ottoman territories, which included the Arab regions of Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Egypt and North Africa.
In March 1915 – Britain signed a secret agreement with Russia, which would allow the latter to annex the Ottoman capital and seize control of other strategic regions and waterways.
A few months later, in November 1915 – Britain and France began negotiations in earnest, aimed at dividing the territorial inheritance of the Ottoman Empire should the war conclude in their favor.
Russia was made aware of the agreement, and assented to its provisions. Thus, a map that was marked with straight lines with the use of a Chinagraph pencil largely determined the fate of the Arabs, dividing them in accordance with various haphazard assumptions of tribal and sectarian lines.
Dividing the Loot Negotiating on behalf of Britain was Mark Sykes, and representing France was François Georges-Picot. The diplomats resolved that, once the Ottomans were soundly defeated, France would receive areas marked (a), which include the region of south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq – including Mosel, most of Syria and Lebanon.
Area (b) was marked as British-controlled territories, which included Jordan, southern Iraq, Haifa and Acre in Palestine and the coastal strip between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan.
Russia, on the other hand, would be granted Istanbul, Armenia and the strategic Turkish Straits. The improvised map consisted not only of lines but also colors, along with language that attested to the fact that the two countries viewed the Arab region on purely materialistic terms, without paying the slightest attention to the possible repercussions of slicing up entire civilizations with a multifarious history of co-operation and conflict.
The Sykes-Picot negotiations concluded in March 1916 and was official, although it was secretly signed on May 19, 1916.
Legacy of Betrayal WWI concluded on November 11, 1918, after which the division of the Ottoman Empire began in earnest. British and French mandates were extended over divided Arab entities, while Palestine was granted to the Zionist movement over which a Jewish state was established, three decades later.
The agreement, which was thoroughly designed to meet Western colonial interests, left behind a legacy of division, turmoil and war. While the status quo it has created guaranteed the hegemony of Western countries over the fate of the Middle East, it failed to guarantee any degree of political stability or engender economic equality.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement took place in secret for a specific reason: it stood at complete odds with promises made to the Arabs during the Great War.
The Arab leadership, under the command of Sharif Hussein, was promised complete independence following the war, in exchange for supporting the Allies against the Ottomans.
It took many years and successive rebellions for Arab countries to gain their independence. Conflict between the Arabs and colonial powers resulted in the rise of Arab nationalism, which was born in the midst of extremely violent and hostile environments, or more accurately, as an outcome of them. Arab nationalism may have succeeded in maintaining a semblance of an Arab identity but failed to develop a sustainable and unified retort to Western colonialism.
When Palestine – which was promised by Britain as a national home for the Jews as early as November 1917 – became Israel, hosting mostly Europeans settlers, the fate of the Arab region east of the Mediterranean was sealed as the ground for perpetual conflict and antagonism.
It is here, in particular, that the terrible legacy of the Sykes-Picot Agreement is mostly felt, in all of its violence, shortsightedness and political unscrupulousness.
100 years after two British and French diplomats divided the Arabs into spheres of influence, the Sykes-Picot Agreement remains a pugnacious but dominant reality of the Middle East.
Five years after Syria descended into a violent civil war, the mark of Sykes-Picot are once more being felt as France, Britain, Russia – and now the United States – are considering what US Secretary of State, John Kerry, recently termed ‘Plan B’ – dividing Syria based on sectarian lines, likely in accordance with a new Western interpretation of ‘spheres of influence.’
The Sykes-Picot map might have been a crude vision drawn hastily during a global war but, since then, it has become the main frame of reference that the West uses to redraw the Arab world, and to “control (it) as they desire and as they may see fit.”
The Palestinian ‘Nakba’, therefore, must be understood as part and parcel of the larger western designs in the Middle East dating back a century, when the Arabs were (and remain) divided and Palestine was (and remains) conquered.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com.
17 may 2016
The attacks organized by the Jewish militia on 15 May, 1948, expelled more than 800,000 Palestinians from their lands and homes in 14 governorates in historical Palestine.
The event was later known as “Nakba”, the catastrophe.
The Palestinian statistics show that the Jewish gangs, supported by the authorities of the British Mandate, destroyed more than 548 Palestinian cities and villages either partially or completely.
The Jewish militias committed brutal attacks against the Palestinian indigenous residents, as the Haganah, Irgun and Stern groups destroyed houses on the heads of their residents and killed farmers in their farms.
The Jewish bulldozers demolished a number of Palestinian villages and implanted bushes on the ruins to hide the crimes.
Nonetheless, some Palestinian homes are still standing until today, and marching towards them is one aspect of the Palestinian commemoration of the Nakba Day.
The Palestinian villages that the Israeli gangs destroyed and expelled their residents from are geographically distributed as follows:
• District of Hebron: 18 villages.
• District of Ramla: 65 villages.
• District of Jerusalem: 41 villages.
• District of Nazareth: 5 villages.
• District of Beersheba: 92 villages.
• District of Baysan: 32 villages.
• District of Jenin: 6 villages.
• District of Haifa: 55 villages.
• District of Safad: 79 villages.
• District of Tiberia: 28 villages.
• District of Tulkarem: 22 villages.
• District of Acre: 29 villages.
• District of Gaza: 47 villages.
• District of Jaffa: 29 villages.
548 depopulated Palestinian villages 548 Palestinian villages were depopulated during the Nakba, 1948, rendering more than 800,000 Palestinians homeless.
The event was later known as “Nakba”, the catastrophe.
The Palestinian statistics show that the Jewish gangs, supported by the authorities of the British Mandate, destroyed more than 548 Palestinian cities and villages either partially or completely.
The Jewish militias committed brutal attacks against the Palestinian indigenous residents, as the Haganah, Irgun and Stern groups destroyed houses on the heads of their residents and killed farmers in their farms.
The Jewish bulldozers demolished a number of Palestinian villages and implanted bushes on the ruins to hide the crimes.
Nonetheless, some Palestinian homes are still standing until today, and marching towards them is one aspect of the Palestinian commemoration of the Nakba Day.
The Palestinian villages that the Israeli gangs destroyed and expelled their residents from are geographically distributed as follows:
• District of Hebron: 18 villages.
• District of Ramla: 65 villages.
• District of Jerusalem: 41 villages.
• District of Nazareth: 5 villages.
• District of Beersheba: 92 villages.
• District of Baysan: 32 villages.
• District of Jenin: 6 villages.
• District of Haifa: 55 villages.
• District of Safad: 79 villages.
• District of Tiberia: 28 villages.
• District of Tulkarem: 22 villages.
• District of Acre: 29 villages.
• District of Gaza: 47 villages.
• District of Jaffa: 29 villages.
548 depopulated Palestinian villages 548 Palestinian villages were depopulated during the Nakba, 1948, rendering more than 800,000 Palestinians homeless.
The Iranian foreign ministry has reiterated its support for the Palestinian cause and called upon the Muslim nation to be vigilant against Israel's conspiracies.
"Since the foundation of the Zionist entity, we have been seeing every day the suffering and plight of the oppressed Palestinian people and the peoples of the region exacerbating," the foreign ministry stated in a press release issued on the 68th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe).
"The usurping entity, which has worked for 68 years on committing crimes against humanity and the innocent Palestinian people, is the main source of regional crises and the real threat to the global security and peace," it added.
It called on the Muslim Nation and its governments to guard against all Israeli plots aimed at dividing it and making it forget the Palestinian cause.
"Since the foundation of the Zionist entity, we have been seeing every day the suffering and plight of the oppressed Palestinian people and the peoples of the region exacerbating," the foreign ministry stated in a press release issued on the 68th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe).
"The usurping entity, which has worked for 68 years on committing crimes against humanity and the innocent Palestinian people, is the main source of regional crises and the real threat to the global security and peace," it added.
It called on the Muslim Nation and its governments to guard against all Israeli plots aimed at dividing it and making it forget the Palestinian cause.
Portugal's parliament on Monday voted by majority in favor of a motion supporting the Palestinian people and condemning Israel's violations against them.
The motion, which was tabled by the Left Bloc, was endorsed overwhelmingly by most of the parties in the parliament.
The proposal expresses the solidarity of the parliament and its members with the Palestinian people from all spectra and its rejection of any violation against their basic rights, including their right to an independent state.
It states that "the status of the Palestinian refugees that was considered temporary in 1948 is still standing to this day, where their number is estimated at more than five million and yet they are unable to return to their homes and lands despite all UN resolutions, starting with resolution 194."
The solidarity motion also considers that the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) did not only happen in 1948, but it has been ongoing for more than half a century.
The motion, which was tabled by the Left Bloc, was endorsed overwhelmingly by most of the parties in the parliament.
The proposal expresses the solidarity of the parliament and its members with the Palestinian people from all spectra and its rejection of any violation against their basic rights, including their right to an independent state.
It states that "the status of the Palestinian refugees that was considered temporary in 1948 is still standing to this day, where their number is estimated at more than five million and yet they are unable to return to their homes and lands despite all UN resolutions, starting with resolution 194."
The solidarity motion also considers that the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) did not only happen in 1948, but it has been ongoing for more than half a century.
16 may 2016
By Mahmoud N. Zidan
On the 11th and 12th May, many Israelis marked the 68th anniversary of their so-called ‘Independence Day’, Yom Haatzmaut, according to the Hebrew Calendar.
That day laid the groundwork for implementing the myth of a ‘greater’ Israel – a colonial state par excellence. Israeli media sources covered the festivities, which included Israeli Air Force flybys, barbecues, picnics, dramatic increase in military presence, excessive television coverage along with a racist rhetoric, and so on.
Even Google displayed to its users in the State of Israel, some of whom are Palestinian, a doodle that marked the day.
For Palestinians, however, these were not festive days but rather days of remembrance. Many Palestinians who live in Israel, where Palestinian schools were forced to take the day off and who were ordered to avoid any mention of the Nakba, took to the streets in memory of the losses of Palestinian lives, land, and homes, which was an immediate consequence of the establishment of the State of Israel.
Their aim was primarily to keep alive the hope that many Palestinian refugees will return to their homeland.
By virtue of their very presence, they wanted people to be reminded that the Israeli festivities took place on land that was taken by force, land that stands upon the graves of large numbers of Palestinians.
The message was loud and clear: The Israeli commemoration is a distortion of history and is predicated on the suffering of other human beings.
But most Palestinians remember their collective loss and express their downright rejection of that distorted version of history on a different day, namely the 15th of May, the notorious day of the partitioning of Palestine. That day had an indelible impact on Palestinians, primarily because it legitimized expelling Palestinian into neighboring states and rendering them refugees.
The so-called legitimacy of the creation of the State of Israel was reinforced by the circulation of the official Israeli narrative, which runs contrary to any reality: Israel did not terrorize or force Palestinians into exile; Palestinians left of their own volition, abandoning their homes and country; and, if that had been really their country, they would have stayed.
Even when some Israelis acknowledge that what happened was an expulsion, they claim that refugees are a natural consequence of any war.
Benny Morris, the right-leaning Israeli historian who is also known as a new historian, preposterously suggests that the refugee problem was inevitable and born of war, not by design. But even the camp in which Morris is typically classified, the new historians, belies this narrative.
Palestinians did not become refugees; they were rendered refugees. That creation was part of a systematic plan, termed Plan Dalet by Israeli generals, as Walid Al-Khalidi reminds us. Israeli state archives confirm the existence of such a plan, as they include statements made by influential Israeli generals and statesmen such as Ben Gurion, Chaim Weizmann, Yitzhak Modai, Yigael Yadin, Moshe Carmel, and many others, all of whose statements show that there was a premeditated plan of transfer.
Palestinians, to quote Norman Finkelstein in his informative book Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict did not take flight at the behest of Arab orders. The expulsion of Palestinians was and continues to be a strategic goal of the Israeli colonial machine.
A cursory look at the increasing numbers of Palestinian refugees corroborates the existence of such a goal. In 1948, more than 750,000 Palestinians became refugees; and in 1967, Israel made more than 350,000 Palestinians refugees.
In between those two pivotal years in Palestinian history and after 1967, many Palestinians were unobtrusively forced to leave. More and more Palestinians have had to undergo internal displacement and extradition. The numbers and facts are consistent with the stance of the Israeli States stance against Syrian refugees: Netanyahu recently refused to grant asylum to Syrian refugees.
Moreover, the State of Israel discriminates against and deports African refugees. Israel, to state the obvious, is consistent in its colonial, discriminatory, and racist policies. In fact, it is not even consistent when it comes to even its own slogans.
The Jewish Defense League, one of the strongest supporters of Israel, popularized the phrase ‘Never Again’ to make people remember that Jews should never be discriminated against in human history. Nevertheless, that slogan is selectively applied, as it ignores the sufferings of other groups of human beings.
The grandchildren and children of Palestinian refugees, and the refugees themselves are determined to re-imagine this slogan and make it inclusive of all human beings. For them, there will never be more Palestinian refugees or another Palestinian Nakba, and their return to their homeland is a legitimate right.
More importantly, their suffering, they believe, should not be repeated. Is the Israeli state willing to come to grips with these facts? Absolutely not! This unwillingness, the supporters of the Israeli colonial machine should remember, is the real threat to the State of Israel.
Mahmoud N. Zidan is a Fulbright scholar. He contributed this article to the Palestine Chronicle.
On the 11th and 12th May, many Israelis marked the 68th anniversary of their so-called ‘Independence Day’, Yom Haatzmaut, according to the Hebrew Calendar.
That day laid the groundwork for implementing the myth of a ‘greater’ Israel – a colonial state par excellence. Israeli media sources covered the festivities, which included Israeli Air Force flybys, barbecues, picnics, dramatic increase in military presence, excessive television coverage along with a racist rhetoric, and so on.
Even Google displayed to its users in the State of Israel, some of whom are Palestinian, a doodle that marked the day.
For Palestinians, however, these were not festive days but rather days of remembrance. Many Palestinians who live in Israel, where Palestinian schools were forced to take the day off and who were ordered to avoid any mention of the Nakba, took to the streets in memory of the losses of Palestinian lives, land, and homes, which was an immediate consequence of the establishment of the State of Israel.
Their aim was primarily to keep alive the hope that many Palestinian refugees will return to their homeland.
By virtue of their very presence, they wanted people to be reminded that the Israeli festivities took place on land that was taken by force, land that stands upon the graves of large numbers of Palestinians.
The message was loud and clear: The Israeli commemoration is a distortion of history and is predicated on the suffering of other human beings.
But most Palestinians remember their collective loss and express their downright rejection of that distorted version of history on a different day, namely the 15th of May, the notorious day of the partitioning of Palestine. That day had an indelible impact on Palestinians, primarily because it legitimized expelling Palestinian into neighboring states and rendering them refugees.
The so-called legitimacy of the creation of the State of Israel was reinforced by the circulation of the official Israeli narrative, which runs contrary to any reality: Israel did not terrorize or force Palestinians into exile; Palestinians left of their own volition, abandoning their homes and country; and, if that had been really their country, they would have stayed.
Even when some Israelis acknowledge that what happened was an expulsion, they claim that refugees are a natural consequence of any war.
Benny Morris, the right-leaning Israeli historian who is also known as a new historian, preposterously suggests that the refugee problem was inevitable and born of war, not by design. But even the camp in which Morris is typically classified, the new historians, belies this narrative.
Palestinians did not become refugees; they were rendered refugees. That creation was part of a systematic plan, termed Plan Dalet by Israeli generals, as Walid Al-Khalidi reminds us. Israeli state archives confirm the existence of such a plan, as they include statements made by influential Israeli generals and statesmen such as Ben Gurion, Chaim Weizmann, Yitzhak Modai, Yigael Yadin, Moshe Carmel, and many others, all of whose statements show that there was a premeditated plan of transfer.
Palestinians, to quote Norman Finkelstein in his informative book Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict did not take flight at the behest of Arab orders. The expulsion of Palestinians was and continues to be a strategic goal of the Israeli colonial machine.
A cursory look at the increasing numbers of Palestinian refugees corroborates the existence of such a goal. In 1948, more than 750,000 Palestinians became refugees; and in 1967, Israel made more than 350,000 Palestinians refugees.
In between those two pivotal years in Palestinian history and after 1967, many Palestinians were unobtrusively forced to leave. More and more Palestinians have had to undergo internal displacement and extradition. The numbers and facts are consistent with the stance of the Israeli States stance against Syrian refugees: Netanyahu recently refused to grant asylum to Syrian refugees.
Moreover, the State of Israel discriminates against and deports African refugees. Israel, to state the obvious, is consistent in its colonial, discriminatory, and racist policies. In fact, it is not even consistent when it comes to even its own slogans.
The Jewish Defense League, one of the strongest supporters of Israel, popularized the phrase ‘Never Again’ to make people remember that Jews should never be discriminated against in human history. Nevertheless, that slogan is selectively applied, as it ignores the sufferings of other groups of human beings.
The grandchildren and children of Palestinian refugees, and the refugees themselves are determined to re-imagine this slogan and make it inclusive of all human beings. For them, there will never be more Palestinian refugees or another Palestinian Nakba, and their return to their homeland is a legitimate right.
More importantly, their suffering, they believe, should not be repeated. Is the Israeli state willing to come to grips with these facts? Absolutely not! This unwillingness, the supporters of the Israeli colonial machine should remember, is the real threat to the State of Israel.
Mahmoud N. Zidan is a Fulbright scholar. He contributed this article to the Palestine Chronicle.
Palestinians started on Sunday the commemoration activities of the 68th anniversary of Nakba in the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the 1948 occupied territories, and in the diaspora.
Today marks the anniversary of the displacement of the Palestinian people from their original towns and villages in historical Palestine, where the Jews settled in Palestine since then, and set up their usurper entity, through dozens of massacres that claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians over the years of conflict.
Sirens were sounded for 68 seconds on 12 pm. on Sunday, in various Palestinian cities, to usher in the activities of the 68th anniversary of Nakba.
"March of Return" in Nablus
Hundreds of Palestinians in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank participated on Sunday in the March of Return, to commemorate the Sixty-eighth anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba.
The march began from Faisal Street headed by the Return Ship, a symbolic ship pulled by a horse, boarded by Palestinian children in the Palestinian traditional dress, to show their attachment to the right of return to their ancestral homeland. Participants in the march raised the Palestinian flag, symbolic keys of their original houses they left forcibly and the names of Palestinian towns and villages from which their grandfathers were forcibly expelled in 1948.
They also chanted slogans expressing their attachment to the right of return and refusal of resettlement. The march ended with a rally in Shuhada (Martyrs) Square, organized by the Supreme National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba Day. The festival included a number of events, including chanting the oath of return, refusal of resettlement and alternative projects. In a speech of the National Committee and factions and institutions, Jihad Ramadan said that the Nakba will remain a blot on the conscience of humanity. He said that the massacres that happened during the Nakba exceeded the Nazi war crimes.
The Israeli entity and the criminal Zionist gangs should be held responsible of every drop of blood spilled since the Nakba, he elaborated. Ramadan stressed that the right of return and compensation according to international Resolution no. 194 is not a favor from anyone, but it is a right that will never be expired. He warned of UNRWA policies aimed at ending its services to millions of refugees to evade its legal, political, and moral obligations, saying that this violates the rights of the Palestinian people and targets the Palestinian cause.
A massive march in Gaza
All the national and Islamic forces in Gaza participated on Sunday in a mass march to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, stressing the right of return, which cannot be forsaken. The march kicked off from the Unknown Soldier Square in downtown Gaza, to the United Nations office, calling on the world to provide justice for the Palestinian people and give them their rights guaranteed by all international norms and laws.
In his speech in which he represented the national factions, head of the Department of Refugee Affairs in the PLO and member of the Central Committee of Fatah, Zakaria al-Agha, confirmed that the right of return is an important constant of the Palestinian people's constants, "a constant that all Palestinian factions, without exception, agree on and that cannot be waived".
Agha pointed that the broad participation of all spectrums of the Palestinian people in the commemoration of the Nakba confirms that the Palestinian people are steadfast and strongly attached to their land, despite the continuing occupation schemes against them and their cause. He added, "The Zionist occupation is wrong if it thinks that when adults who lived the Nakba die, the young will forget the Palestinian cause".
He went on to say, "All of Palestine is for the Palestinian people, and they will never accept any substitute for their homeland," stressing that the Palestinian people will remain steadfast and resisting occupation until they get their land and all their rights back. The Fatah leader stressed that the Palestinian unity is the basis of the nation's unity in the face of the Israeli intransigence and the growing settlement activity. "It is the only way to meet the challenges and keep our legitimate goals of return and self-determination", he said.
Agha called for the immediate implementation of the reconciliation agreement to form a national unity government that includes all national forces and factions, calling on them to shoulder their responsibilities to work to restore cohesion to the Palestinian people and end the division.
"Train of Return" in Bethlehem
The national and Islamic factions in the city of Bethlehem, south of the occupied West Bank, also announced the kick off the commemoration activities of the sixty-eighth anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. "Nakba Train", which was made by Palestinian activists in cooperation with the global network of refugees and displaced persons, is scheduled to take off in a mass rally from the Doheisheh refugee camp, south of the city, to the Aida and Ezza refugee camps, north of the city.
The marchers will gather in the downtown area before proceeding to the flashpoint with the Israeli occupation on the southern entrance of Jerusalem.
Today marks the anniversary of the displacement of the Palestinian people from their original towns and villages in historical Palestine, where the Jews settled in Palestine since then, and set up their usurper entity, through dozens of massacres that claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians over the years of conflict.
Sirens were sounded for 68 seconds on 12 pm. on Sunday, in various Palestinian cities, to usher in the activities of the 68th anniversary of Nakba.
"March of Return" in Nablus
Hundreds of Palestinians in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank participated on Sunday in the March of Return, to commemorate the Sixty-eighth anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba.
The march began from Faisal Street headed by the Return Ship, a symbolic ship pulled by a horse, boarded by Palestinian children in the Palestinian traditional dress, to show their attachment to the right of return to their ancestral homeland. Participants in the march raised the Palestinian flag, symbolic keys of their original houses they left forcibly and the names of Palestinian towns and villages from which their grandfathers were forcibly expelled in 1948.
They also chanted slogans expressing their attachment to the right of return and refusal of resettlement. The march ended with a rally in Shuhada (Martyrs) Square, organized by the Supreme National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba Day. The festival included a number of events, including chanting the oath of return, refusal of resettlement and alternative projects. In a speech of the National Committee and factions and institutions, Jihad Ramadan said that the Nakba will remain a blot on the conscience of humanity. He said that the massacres that happened during the Nakba exceeded the Nazi war crimes.
The Israeli entity and the criminal Zionist gangs should be held responsible of every drop of blood spilled since the Nakba, he elaborated. Ramadan stressed that the right of return and compensation according to international Resolution no. 194 is not a favor from anyone, but it is a right that will never be expired. He warned of UNRWA policies aimed at ending its services to millions of refugees to evade its legal, political, and moral obligations, saying that this violates the rights of the Palestinian people and targets the Palestinian cause.
A massive march in Gaza
All the national and Islamic forces in Gaza participated on Sunday in a mass march to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, stressing the right of return, which cannot be forsaken. The march kicked off from the Unknown Soldier Square in downtown Gaza, to the United Nations office, calling on the world to provide justice for the Palestinian people and give them their rights guaranteed by all international norms and laws.
In his speech in which he represented the national factions, head of the Department of Refugee Affairs in the PLO and member of the Central Committee of Fatah, Zakaria al-Agha, confirmed that the right of return is an important constant of the Palestinian people's constants, "a constant that all Palestinian factions, without exception, agree on and that cannot be waived".
Agha pointed that the broad participation of all spectrums of the Palestinian people in the commemoration of the Nakba confirms that the Palestinian people are steadfast and strongly attached to their land, despite the continuing occupation schemes against them and their cause. He added, "The Zionist occupation is wrong if it thinks that when adults who lived the Nakba die, the young will forget the Palestinian cause".
He went on to say, "All of Palestine is for the Palestinian people, and they will never accept any substitute for their homeland," stressing that the Palestinian people will remain steadfast and resisting occupation until they get their land and all their rights back. The Fatah leader stressed that the Palestinian unity is the basis of the nation's unity in the face of the Israeli intransigence and the growing settlement activity. "It is the only way to meet the challenges and keep our legitimate goals of return and self-determination", he said.
Agha called for the immediate implementation of the reconciliation agreement to form a national unity government that includes all national forces and factions, calling on them to shoulder their responsibilities to work to restore cohesion to the Palestinian people and end the division.
"Train of Return" in Bethlehem
The national and Islamic factions in the city of Bethlehem, south of the occupied West Bank, also announced the kick off the commemoration activities of the sixty-eighth anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. "Nakba Train", which was made by Palestinian activists in cooperation with the global network of refugees and displaced persons, is scheduled to take off in a mass rally from the Doheisheh refugee camp, south of the city, to the Aida and Ezza refugee camps, north of the city.
The marchers will gather in the downtown area before proceeding to the flashpoint with the Israeli occupation on the southern entrance of Jerusalem.
