by ABDUL RAHMAN
May 15 is Nakba Day, which marks the death of thousands of Palestinians and the forced exile of many more during the formation of Israeli in 1948. To this day, the Palestinians living under occupation continue to resist the apartheid policies of Israel
It is not to trivialize the gravity of the events before May 15, 1948 or what followed, to say that every day is a Nakba day for Palestinians. The Nakba day is a tragic reminder of the period when the residents of hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns were forced into exile by Zionist militia. Today, the Palestinians continue their resistance to bids to strip them of their land and their homes through the annexation of settlements and the ‘Deal of the Century.’
It has been 72 years since the massacre of thousands of Palestinians and the forced exile of many more. Those who left believed they would be back soon. They left their belongings and the crops standing on their land, and took only what was essential for survival. Little did they know that most of them would never see their homes again.
Nakba literally means catastrophe or disaster in Arabic. What happened in 1948 and on similar lines in 1967 is one of the gravest examples of ethnic cleansing in human history. However, those were not one-off events. Israeli occupation forces continue razing Palestinian houses to the ground, destroying crops, uprooting their orchards and plants, and installing illegal settlements all across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israeli occupation is “creating facts on the ground” in pursuit of its project to wipe out the history and memory of vibrant Palestinian life.
Ethnic cleaning in the Palestinian mandate
The Zionist project which started in late 19th century had the typical colonial characteristic of valuing land and seeing people as disposable. In a classic form of colonial propaganda, they gave the call to Jews across the globe to move to “a land without people.” Historical Palestine has a record of continuous human presence since the dawn of civilization. However, the Zionists who were brought to this territory portrayed the Palestinian inhabitants as intruders.
In the days preceding and following May 15, 1948, Israeli militia attacked several villages and towns in historic Palestine, massacring thousands and forcing hundreds of thousands into exile in what is now known as “Plan Dalet”. One estimate states that in March, April and May 1948, Israeli militia, primarily the Haganah, killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, and forced almost 800,000 into exile. According to some estimates, more than 400 Palestinian villages and towns were ethnically cleaned during this period. The Nakba, planned and organized by the founders of Israel, has caused one of the largest and perhaps the longest refugee crises in modern human history.
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