Remembering Al Nakba in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

15 May, 2008

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Al Nakba, the catastrophe, which saw the destruction of Palestinian society and the ethnic cleansing of more than 700,000 indigenous Palestinians from their historic homeland.

It has now been more than 21,915 days since the Palestinian people were expelled by force by Zionist gangs and militia and forced to become refugees in their own land or in foreign lands. In Palestine today, the Nakba continues. Millions of Palestinians have been denied the right to return to their homes or to live in freedom. Israel continues to carry out its illegal and brutal occupation of the Palestinian people, while also carrying out mass illegal collective punishment (which is a war crime under international law) in the Gaza Strip.

On May 15, throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Palestinians remember their dead, their imprisoned, their loved ones in refugee camps throughout the Middle East and their family and friends who make up the 7 million strong Palestinian Diaspora around the world.


Al Awada (return) key place on Gate of Return in Aida Refugee Camp, Occupied Bethlehem (with the aparthied wall in background)

A week earlier on May 8, Palestinians began a week of commemoration with more than 1000 Palestinians from Dheisha, Al Azaz and Aida refugee camps in Occupied Bethlehem marching on May 8 (Israeli Independence Day) to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Al Nakba. The march began at Dheisha refugee camp, marched to Azza camp and then onto Aida camp. Hundreds of Palestinian school children joined the rally, as did Palestinian refugees who experience the events of 1948 first hand. The world’s largest key also accompanied the march and was later erected on top of a specially built “gate of return” in Aida camp, which was erected next to the apartheid wall. As the Al Awada (return) key was lifted up to the sky to be placed on the gate of return, Israeli warplanes performing a flight show to mark the Israeli Independence celebrations flew overhead. Through out the crowd, people began to call out as this very telling clash of Palestinian Nakba commemorations and Israeli independence celebrations in the sky over Aida refugee camp.


Al Nakba Rally in Occupied Bethlehem, May 8, 2008

On May 14, in the occupied Palestinian cities of Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem on the eve of Al Naka events, Palestinians, internationals and Israeli anti-occupation activists gathered to begin the mammoth task of blowing up 21.915 black balloons – one for each day of the Palestinian dispossession – which would be released the next day.

In Occupied Ramallah, around hundred Palestinians and internationals gathered at the football field located in Qalandia refugee camp on the outskirts of Ramallah city at 10pm to begin the task.







Ten large tanks of helium were stationed around the field.and around each tank gathered 6 or 7 volunteers, taking turns to blow up balloons, tie them and attach string. Dozens of other volunteers carried completed bunches of helium filled balloons across the field and tied them to the rows of string stretched from one end of the field to the other or were busy measuring and cutting the string, while others brought tea to the volunteers many of whom worked until 3.30 am in the morning to fill the balloons. More volunteers continued to arrive through the night.

The atmosphere through out the night was one filled with solidarity and energy. Many of us ran into old friends and new acquaintances. We discussed the events of the week both in the OPT and internationally as we blew up the balloons. And we made new friends as the night wore on.


Al Awda camel, Al Nakba rally, Occupied Ramallah 2008


Al Nakba rally, Occupied Ramallah 2008


The next day, prior to the balloon release, a rally was held at Al Manara – the central square in Ramallah city. By the time, myself and my team mate from the International Women’s Peace Service, along with other internationals from the International Solidarity Movement arrived at Al Manara, hundreds of people had already gathered. Soon, hundreds and hundreds more joined them as they marched up from the Al Awda (Return) camp about 15 minutes away near the Moqata (the PA headquarters). The march from the camp was lead by riders on three camels. The camels and their riders signified the return of the refugees to the cities they had been expelled from. Students and young people joined the march, chanting and carrying flags. Some young women marched in silence, their mouth taped and with signs remembering the Nakba. Many young women were also dressed in traditional Palestinian dress and black balloons were attached to the stage and around the Manara. Soon the official speeches started and the crowd began to swell even more.


Balloons with children's messages attached


Reproduction of the Banksy mural "Balloon Girl" which is on the Qalanda section of the aparthied wall


At 1pm, my team mate and I and the other internationals made our way back to Qalandia to finish blowing up the balloons for the 2 pm launch. When we arrived, we discovered that the remaining balloons had already been blown up but volunteers were busily attaching thousands of notes written by Palestinian children. The notes outlined their hopes and dreams and were a message to the world, that despite 60 years of ongoing Nakba and 40 years of illegal and brutal occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian people were still strong in their resolve to be a free people once more.

As 2pm approached, volunteers began to bring out the thousands of thousands of balloons that been stored overnight in the football club hall. The 2pm release coincided with the time that American President George W Bush would address the Knesset to congratulate Israel on its 60th birthday. At a few minutes before 2pm, volunteers began to release the balloons. The wind which had been steadily increasing quickly picked up the balloons and carried the skyward. Over the next 20 minutes, thousands upon thousands of black balloons marking the Palestinian al Nakba filled the sky.


Bringing out the balloons - Qalandia refugee camp, Occupied Ramallah,Al Nakba 2008


Release of balloons - Qalandia refugee camp, Occupied Ramallah,Al Nakba 2008


After the release of the balloons, a group of internationals decided to make our way towards the Qalandia checkpoint, which is the main checkpoint leading into Occupied East Jerusalem. I had been wanting to document on film for over 12 months that section of the apartheid wall. As we made our way towards the checkpoint, we could hear gun shots and sound grenades being fired off. It quickly became clear that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) were firing on groups of young Palestinian boys. The closer we got to the wall and the checkpoint, we could see the IOF firing on the shaabab (boys) who were hurling stones back at the Israeli military.


IOF firing on Palestinian youth along the busy road into Occupied Ramallah


IOF at Qalanda checkpoint taking aima at Palestinian youth

As more boys gathered and began to throw stones, the IOF retreated into their armed vehicle and left, only to return 10 minutes later. The soldiers immediately began firing live ammunition, as well as rubber coated steel bullets, along with teargas and sound grenades. It soon became clear that to stand out in the open was to put yourself in danger as the soldiers began firing teargas, sound grenades and ammunition in the direction of anyone in the open. We quickly retreated to a side alley where we could still film and document what was happening.


As the shaabab (boys) continued to throw stones in defiance of the IOF, the soldiers once again retreated to their armoured vehicle. As they moved back to the checkpoint, the boys and young man made their way up toward the apartheid wall. Some began to barricade the road with boulders and rocks to prevent the IOF vehicles returning. The other boys began to gather at the base of the wall and began to help one of their number up the wall where he planted a Palestinian flag.


IOF firing on Palestinian youth, Qalandia checkpoint, Al Nakba 2008


IOF firing on Palestinian youth, Qalandia checkpoint, Al Nakba 2008


On the day, G W Bush congratulated Israel on advancing “the cause of hope, freedom and liberty, as the great alternative to tyranny and terror”, their military continued to fire on young boys gathered at the base of the wall [1]. Despite the boys being at least 400 or 500 metres away from the checkpoint and there was no danger to any Israeli military soldier gathered there, IOF continued its fire both towards the boys and into the oncoming civilian traffic, where hundreds of cars, buses and trucks were passing down the busy main road. At one stage, the IOF soldiers came out from behind the small cement pillars near the checkpoint running into the traffic stream and firing reckless into it, endangering many innocent civilian lives.
Israel’s advance of “hope, freedom and liberty” had also been on display the week before when its military police force attacked with teargas and batons, thousands of unarmed Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and other Israeli citizens who participated in a peaceful and non-violent march to one of the Palestinian cities razed by Zionist gangs in 1948 to commemorate Al Nakba, north of Nazareth. Prior to the march, the chairman of World Likud, Danny Dannon, demanded that the Israeli security minister ban the Al Nakba procession. He also demanded that any Palestinian-Israeli leaders be arrested who criticised the Israeli state, as well as anyone seen carrying a Palestinian flag [2]. Since the rally, the Israeli police have been arresting young Palestinian-Israeli youth, many of who participated in and lead the rally, including a number of them who are youth leaders in the Young Communist League.


Israeli armed police attacking peaceful Al Nakba rally in Nazareth, norther Israel. Footage filmed by local Alarz.Tv

Israel’s support for “hope, freedom and liberty” was also on display on Thursday (15 May) when Israeli foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni told the world media that Palestinians would only “be able to celebrate their independence day on the same day that the word ‘nakba’ or catastrophe was erased from their lexicon”. The same demand was made of the UN and its General Secretary by Danny Carmon, Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UN. Carmon demand that any reference to ‘nakba’ be erased from the UN’s lexicon.

And while the Israeli foreign minister and its deputy ambassador to the UN, were displaying their adherence to the principles of freedom and liberty and demanding that Palestinians and everyone else deny and forget the tragedy that had befallen the Palestinian people, the Israel Defense Minister, Ehud Barak told Israeli citizens “there is no future for a nation that doesn’t know its past” and urged them to remember and not forget the tragedy of the holocaust and the history of the Jewish people[3]

As Israel celebrates its “independence day” and world leaders gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Israel’s 60th birthday, the Palestinian Nakba and the stories of murder, destruction and exile which paved the way for Israel’s independence were not recalled and neither were the millions of Palestinian refugees who have been waiting for six decades to return home.

However, while Israel and many other world leaders engage in what can only be called “Nakba denial”, the Palestinian people did remember, as did many of us, the ordinary people of the world. And we will continue to remember, as the Palestinian people continue their struggle for freedom and justice. Just as we will continue to stand in solidarity with them in their struggle to be free because in the words of late Edward Said, it is “a moral quest for equality and [for] human rights”

[1] Miller, S., Bush: We must be firm in face of those who murder the innocent, Haaretz, 15 May 2008 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983451.html

[2] Stern, Y., World Likud chief calls for cancellation of Nakba Day procession, Haaretz, 6 May, 2008 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/981354.html

[3] Rotem, Sela, Israel protests UN chief Ban Ki-Moon's use of term 'nakba', Haaretz, 16 May, 2008 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/984009.html

Falling from Heaven: the ethnic cleansing of Palestine

8 May, 2008

Abu Zureyk, Al Abbasiyya, Abu Shusha, Ayan az Zaytun, Awlam, Azz Zema, AHaiqia, Balad ash Sheikh, Bayt Daras, Beer Sheba, Bi'ne, Burayr, al Dawayima, Dayr el Asad, Deir Yassin, Eilbourn, Haifa, Hawwassa, Husayniyya, Ilut, Ijzim, Isdud, Jish, al Kabri, al Khisas, Khibbyza, Lydda, Majd al Kurum, Mansura al Khayt, Nasir ad Din Khribet, Qazaza, Qisarya, Sa'sa, Safsaf, Saliha, Sha'b, Al Samiyya, al Tantoura, al Tira, Tel, Geze, Umm al, Shauf, al Wa’ra al-Sawda, Wadi ‘Ara.

Like the names of the dead, the names of these villages bring heartbreak to all Palestinians. Sixty years ago, last month, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine began.

Sixty years ago, up to six weeks before the British mandate of Palestine was terminated and the state of Israeli was even declared, Zionist terror gangs began their forcible expulsion of more than 122 Palestinian villages and began carrying out military assaults on more than 270 other villages [1].

Sixty years ago on April 9, 1948, 254 unarmed Palestinian men, women and children were murdered in the village of Dier Yassin by Zionist terror gangs - the Irgun (aka as Etzel) lead by Menachin Begin (who was to become a later Prime Minister of Israel) and the Stern Gang (aka as the Lehi). More than 40 other Palestinian villages and towns were to suffer the same fate as Dier Yassin.

The massacre that took place at Dier Yassin was just one of many carried out, as part of a co-ordinated effort between the Zionist terror gangs, the Irgun and the Stern Gang and the Haganah (which was the main Jewish underground organisation which later became the present day Israeli Defence Force) to ethnically cleanse indigenous Palestinians from historic Palestine prior to the UN partition in May 1948. “Plan Dalet” as the operation was known, was carried out under the authority and leadership of David Ben Gurion, the future first Prime Minister of Israel. Its aim was to strike fear and terror into the indigenous Palestinian population in order to ethnically cleanse them from the new state of Israel and to gain even more land for the Zionist state than had been designated under the UN partition plan.


Al Nakba 1948 (Video - 10 mins)

According to the operational orders listed under Plan Dalet, Zionist forces were to carry out the “destruction of [Palestinian] villages (setting fire to, blowing up, and planting mines in the debris), especially those populations centres which are difficult to control continuously”. The operational orders went on to state that the Zionist terror forces should mount “search and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the village and conducting a search inside it. In the event of resistance, the armed forces must be destroyed and the population expelled outside the borders of the state. The villages which are emptied in the manner described above must be included in the fixed defensive system and must be fortified as necessary” [2]

The plan stated “in the absence of resistance, garrison troops will enter the village and take up positions in it or in locations which enable complete tactical control. The officer in command of the unit will confiscate all weapons, wireless devices, and motor vehicles in the village. In addition, he will detain all politically suspect individuals. After consultation with the [Jewish] political authorities, bodies will be appointed consisting of people from the village to administer the internal affairs of the village. In every region, a Jewish] person will be appointed to be responsible for arranging the political and administrative affairs of all [Palestinian Arab] villages and population centers which are occupied within that region”.

The absence of resistance, however, did not save Dier Yassin, just as it did not save dozens of other Palestinian villages and towns. According to Israeli Zionist historian, Benny Morris, the Zionist terror forces carried out at least 24 massacres against Palestinians between April and May 1948 before the declaration of the state of Israel. Palestinians, however, put the number of massacres as being as high as 40.

Morris notes in a 2004 interview with Ha’aretz reporter, Ari Shavit, that “In the months of April-May 1948, units of the Haganah given operational orders that stated explicitly that they were to uproot the villagers, expel them and destroy the villages themselves”. Morris goes onto note, that the action took place as a direct result of orders given by David Ben Gurion. According to Morris, “various officers who took part in the operation understood that the expulsion order they received permitted them to do these deeds in order to encourage the population to take to the roads. The fact is that no one was punished for these acts of murder. Ben-Gurion silenced the matter. He covered up for the officers who did the massacres” [3]

Upon hearing of the massacre, which took place at Dier Yassin and other villages, thousands of Palestinians in more than 85 other villages and towns fled their homes in fear of their lives [4]. The Zionist terror forces then wiped Dier Yassin off the map, as it did with hundreds of other Palestinian villages and built new Zionists towns and cities in their place. On the ground where Dier Yassin, once stood, now stands the Israel town of Givat Shul and the settlement of Har Nof.




Palestinian children remember the villages ethnically cleansed in 1948
60th Al Nakba Commemoration, Dheisha, Al Azaz and Aida refugee camps, Occupied Bethlehem 2008


The Zionist reign of terror against the indigenous Palestinian population in 1948, however, did not end with Dier Yassin. On April 18, Zionist gangs stormed the Palestinian city of Tiberias in the Galilee, ethnically expelling more than 5,500 Palestinians from their homes. Four days later, 70,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes in the port city of Haifa [5]. In the months prior to the assault, the Zionist terror gangs had carried out a series of bombings against Haifa’s Palestinian residents [6]. On December 30, the previous year, a Zionist bomb planted in a Palestinian residential neighbourhood killed 6 and injured 41 others. The Zionist bombing sparked riots amongst Palestinian workers at a nearby oil refinery and resulted in the killing of 41 Jewish workers. The Haganah and the Irgun (Etzel) planted a second bomb the following evening resulting what became known as the New Years Massacre at Balad al Shayk, killing more than 60 people. Two months later in February 1948, the Irgun (Etzel) rolled barrels packed with gasoline and explosives down Haifa’s hills into the Palestinian al’ Abasayah Arab neighbourhood. The barrels exploded in an inferno of flames, destroying most of the residential area, causing its residents to flee in terror. One month later on March 22, ten weeks before the state of Israel was declared, the Zionist terror gangs disguised as British officers planted a car bomb, killing 36 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children. The bomb blast was so intense it destroyed several public buildings.

Not satisfied with only ethnically cleansing indigenous Palestinians from the land designated as part of a new Jewish state under the UN Partition plan, the Zionist forces moved to begin ethnically cleansing Palestinians from towns and cities which UN had deemed part of a Palestinian state under partition. On April 25, the Irgun (Etzel) began a three week bombing campaign of the “Bride of Palestine”, the port city of Jaffa, which was supposed to be part of a UN sanctioned Palestinian state. Jaffa, which was often referred to as the “centre of heaven” by its residents because of its beauty and location half way between Haifa and Gaza, was the most populous centre in British Mandate Palestine: home to 90,000 Palestinians. With the advent of the Zionist terror campaign, however, the city was to fall from heaven. The assault was so fierce that in the Manshiyyeh quarter, every single building except one was obliterated (the one building left partly standing has since been turned into a museum to glorify the military prowess of the Irgun/Etzel). As the bombing continued, more than 55,000 people fled in terror.


Al Manshiyya district after the Irgun terror - bombing campaign


Grand Saraya district of Jaffa after Irgun terror-bombing campaign

Over the next weeks, more and more villages and towns were to “fall from heaven”. In addition to Dier Yassin, Tiberas, Haifa and Jaffa, more than 400 other Palestinian villages and townships were ethnically cleansed during Plan Dalet and the subsequent war which took place. More than 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes, never allowed to return.

Today, as Israel celebrates “60 years of independence”, the Al Nakba of the Palestinian people continues. On May 5, the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz published a report which noted that since the creation of the Israeli state 60 years ago, there have been 1,634 Israeli civilians killed and 14,000 injured by “acts of terror” [7]. What the article did not mention, however, was that in the much shorter period of 7.5 years (from September 2000 to March 2008 since the beginning of the Al Aqsa intifada) that more than 3615 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli state “acts of terror” and 25,650 Palestinian civilians had been wounded [8]


60th Al Nakba Commemoration, Dheisha, Al Azaz and Aida refugee camps, Occupied Bethlehem 2008

The Haaretz article, also failed to mention that since its creation 60 years ago, the Israeli state has continued the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people via a war of attrition and in the name of “security”. The illegal Israeli occupation which is now in its 40th year, along with all its manifestations – the checkpoints, the wall, the illegal settlements, the illegal confiscation of land, the restriction of freedom of movement, arbitary arrest and administrative detention, target assassinations, aerial bombing, the siege of Gaza – while all aimed at controlling the Palestinian population is also aimed at systematically driving the Palestinian people off their land.

Since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada, Israel has destroyed more than 13% of Gaza’s agricultural land alone. During the same period the Israeli state, via its occupation forces, has demolished completely more than 2932 Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip alone, while a further 2848 were partially demolished [9]. These acts of terror against a Palestinian civilian population were carried out as illegal and punitive collective punishment or in order to make way for the illegal expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and the infrastructure needed to serve these colonies.


60th Al Nakba Commemoration, Dheisha, Al Azaz and Aida refugee camps, Occupied Bethlehem 2008

According to B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights, house demolitions have resulted in more than 13,000 Palestinians being left homeless [10]. In addition, through out the Occupied West Bank, dozens of dozens of Palestinian villages remained “unrecognised” and deemed illegal by the Israeli occupier, although they have existed for decades and even hundreds of years prior to the establishment of the Israeli state. The Israeli state’s refusal to recognise these villages is designed to legitimise the ongoing, systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the traditional homes and lands by its occupation forces and its “civil administration” in the OPT.

Israel continues its policy of ethnic cleansing by also regularly restricting the freedom of movement of Palestinians. Israel’s policy while carried out in the name of “security” is designed to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population through “quiet transfer” by making life so difficult for Palestinians that they will “voluntarily” leave. According to B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the OPT, “the restrictions of movement that Israel has imposed on the Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories over the past five years are unprecedented in the history of the Israeli occupation in their scope, durations and in the severity of damage that they have caused to the three and half million Palestinians who reside there” [11].

Today, Israel will ‘celebrate’ its creation and as we hear the fire works the illegal settlements around us, the Palestinian people will remember their dead, their imprisoned and their loved ones in refugee camps through out the Middle East and their family and friends who make up the 7 million strong Palestinian Diaspora around the world. Today, as Israel baths itself in vulgar nationalism and the glorification of its military prowess, the Palestinian people will recall the Nakba and the ethnic cleansing of their home land. And today, as the Israel celebrates the ethnic cleansing of another people in order to create “a homeland for the Jews”, the Palestinian people will remain in a state of sumoud (steadfastness) in their determination to remain on what is left of their traditional land and to be a free people once again.


Notes:

[1] Palestine 1948: Map of towns and villages depopulated by Zionist Invasion
Prepared by Salman Abu-Sitta, 1998. Produced by Palestine Land Society.
[2] Sefer Toldot Hahaganah [History of the Haganah], vol. 3, ed, by Yehuda Slutsky (TelAviv: Zionist Library, 1972), Appendix 48, pp 1955-60.
[3] Survival of the Fittest? An Interview with Benny Morris by Ari Shavit, 16 January 2004
[4] Palestine 1948: Map of towns and villages depopulated by Zionist Invasion
Prepared by Salman Abu-Sitta, 1998. Produced by Palestine Land Society.
[5] Neff, D., (1994) Arab Jaffa Seized Before Israel's Creation in 1948 in Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
[6] Haifa Refinery Riots, Middle East Web
[7] Haaretz, 5 May, 2008, 16 Israeli civilians killed this year in terror acts, 1,634 since May, '48
[8] and [9] Palestinian Centre for Human Rights www.pchrgaza.org/PCHR/statistics.html
[10] and [11] B’Tselem: Israeli information centre for human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories www.btselem.org/English/