As Palestinians mark the Nakba, Occupation places the West Bank under siege

Saturday May 16, 2009 03:18 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Israeli Authorities imposed a strict siege on the Palestinian territories as the Palestinians are marking their 61 anniversary of Diaspora, disposition and Nakba, as they were displaced and force out of their homeland during the creation of Israel on historic Palestinian land.

The siege would continue for 48 hours and is set to be lifted after midnight on Saturday.

Palestinians in different parts of the country and in dozens of refugee camps in Palestine and in exile marked the Nakba day and expressed determination to their internationally guaranteed right of return.

Political and public figures issued statements confirming the Palestinian determination to remain steadfast and resist the occupation until achieving all of their rights.

Over 531 Palestinian villages were attacked and displaced during the Nakba and over 800.000 Palestinians became refugees.

Palestinian refugees were forced out of their villages on different stages, Researcher Dr. Salman Abu Sitta said in a report, published several years ago, that there were three stages of Palestinian disposition;

1-      During the last stages of the British Mandate, and before the creation of Israel, Israeli armed groups displaced 213 villages, 413.794 (%52) refugees.

2-      During the war in 1948, 264 villages 339.272 (%42) Palestinians were displaced.

3-      After the truce, and in different dates, 54 villages, 52.001 (6%) Palestinians were displaced.

A total of 531 villages, 805.067 refugees were displaced in total. Right now the number of refugees is over 5 million.

The refugees were hosted in refugee camps in Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Libya and in a number of other Arab countries, North and South America, and the rest of the world.

Thousands of Palestinians mark the Nakba in Gaza

Saturday May 16, 2009 01:09 by IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip reported Friday that thousands of Palestinians participated on Friday after noon prayers in a procession, called for by Hamas, to mark 61st anniversary of the Nakba.

Gaza Nakba Protest - Image by Palestine Information Center

Dozens of protests were carried out starting from different mosques in Gaza, and the protesters chanted for the Right of Return.

Speakers at the protests said that the Right of Return passes from one generation to the other, and that no Palestinian will ever give up this internationally guaranteed right.

They also said that resistance would continue and would defend the rights of the Palestinians who are steadfast and determined to achieve their rights of independence and liberation.

Dozens of protestors carried Palestinians flags, symbolic keys resembling the keys to their homes destroyed during Israel’s creation, maps of historic Palestine, and official documents that prove their right to their homes and lands they were forced to evacuate during the Nakba.

Hamas spokesperson in northern Gaza, Abdul-Latif Al Qanoa’, stated that the six million Palestinian refugees in Palestine and in different parts of the world are determined to achieve their Right of Return to their towns and homeland.

He also said that Hamas will never accept to give up this right, and will remain steadfast to protect the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

Jews, Palestinians and Americans mark the Nakba in New York

Saturday May 16, 2009 06:03 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

As the Palestinian nation marks the Nakba day, hundreds of protesters, including Jews, Palestinians and Americans, led by a young Jewish Rabbi, marked the Nakba day on Thursday at night at the Union Square in New York.

The young Rabbi, Alissa Wise, led the observance of the Palestinian catastrophe and said that the Nakba cannot be ignored, wished away of denied.

Wise, who will soon graduate from the rabbinical school, addressed other Jews who participated in the protest and said that they “have made a courageous choice”, and that they chose to face the truth that the founding of the Jewish State “is inextricably bound up with the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians”, The MondoWeiss reported.

She also said that four other Jewish Rabbis are leading similar protests marking the Nakba day in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and the Bay area.

Rabbi Wise also led a group of 60 persons in a ceremony echoing the Jewish Passover Seder, known as liberation festival of Jewish tradition. The event included ritual reading of the names of Arab villages that were destroyed and removed by Israel during the beginning of the Nakba, in the period between May 9 and May 16 of 1948.

 She said that the violence started in 1948, but it is still ongoing, and added that in the 531 Palestinian villages were destroyed during the Nakba.

 The names of the villages were read aloud to the bang of a drum, while Jews, Arabs and American were reading the names of the villages.

 A Palestinian American woman and her Jerusalem-born Palestinian father were among the protestors, and her father said that he saw American-made napalm bombs in the streets following the 1967 Six Day war.

He, and his two brothers, immigrated to the United States, but he avoided political activities, mainly due to fear, and after the latest war on Gaza, he started seeking out progressive Jews, he calls them “my cousins”, the Philip Wiess website reported.

 Palestinian American Poet, Remi Kanazi, who performed alongside Wise, stated that it is honorable to be a Palestinian, because the Palestinians fight against oppression and injustice. He then chanted a poem.

 It is worth mentioning that the commemoration of the Nakba day was organized by Women In Black, Jews Say No, and Ad Hoc Rabbis’ Group “Rabbis Remembering the Nakba”.

Hundreds of protestors demonstrated outside the Waldorf-Astoria, NYC where a fund raising dinner ($1,000 per plate) was held for the Israeli Occupation Forces.

The demonstration was joined by anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews who oppose the existence of the so-called "state" of Israel as totally contrary to the teachings of the Torah and calling for the peaceful dismantlement of the Zionist state.

Bahar: Israel was established following bloody massacres

[ 16/05/2009 - 10:32 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the acting speaker of the PLC, said on Friday that Israel was established following "bloody massacres" in lines of the Palestinian people in Deir Yassin and Kafr Kassem, highlighting that resisting the occupation is a legitimate right guaranteed by divine religions and cannot be dropped by prescription.

In a speech delivered following a massive march organized by Hamas in northern Gaza, Dr. Bahar stressed the Palestinian people’s adherence to the right of return, saying that the grandchildren did not give up the house keys they inherited from their ancestors and still carry their messages.

The acting speaker warned that there is a calamity in occupied Jerusalem where its people are displaced and its lands are stolen for expanding settlement outposts and digging tunnels beneath the Aqsa Mosque, adding that after the Annapolis conference, 60,000 Jewish housing units were built on occupied Palestinian lands.     He called on the American administration not to turn a blind eye to the massacre that was committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli displacement of 6,000,000 Palestinians all over the world, warning that the Arab and Muslim nation would revolt if US president Barack Obama decided to follow the steps of his predecessor.   The Palestinian lawmaker deplored the Pope of the Vatican for visiting Israel and the family of Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit while ignoring the suffering of the Gaza people and the families of 11,000 prisoners in Israeli jails, inviting the Pope to visit Gaza to see the holocaust committed by the Jews there.   The lawmaker also held Britain fully responsible for the tragedy of the Palestinian people because it gave the Jews the right to occupy Palestine.

In another context, Maan Bashour, the secretary-general of the popular campaign to support Palestine and Iraq, said that the day of the Nakba is not for howling and wailing, but a day for determination and steadfastness in the face of the Israeli occupation and aggression on the Palestinian people, and for the restoration of the Palestinian national unity.

In a speech delivered at the cemetery of Palestinian martyrs in Chatila, south of Beirut, Bashour urged the Arab and Islamic Ummah (Nation) to assume its responsibilities fully and work on saving Jerusalem and its people from the Zionist threats.

On Nakba eve, Abbas calls for a Palestinian state, right of return for refugees

Friday May 15, 2009 07:10 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

As the Palestinians are marking the Nakba, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas stated that ending the Israeli occupation, establishing a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and resolving the refugee issue, are minimum conditions to begin to lift the injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people 61 years ago. 

In a televised speech marking the 61 anniversary of the Nakba, Abbas said that Israel tried all means to force the Palestinians to surrender and to bury their identity but they remained steadfast.

“We are here, we will stay here, we are rooted in this land”, Abbas said, “We will remain steadfast and will remain determined to end this atrocious occupation”.   

Abbas renewed his demands to Israel to be committed to international legitimacy, and to stop the polices of violence and occupation that only lead to violence and escalation.

“The time has come for Israel to adhere to a just and comprehensive peace”, Abbas said, “Israel must advance towards reconciliation between the two nations living is this tortured holy land”.

The president also said that no one can turn the clock back in time, and added that the blood of thousands of martyrs, the suffering of the wounded and the detainees will not end and will not be in vain.

“The occupation will be dissolved, freedom is coming, and a Palestinian state will be established”, Abbas stated, “A tomorrow will come where all refugees will achieve their rights, and the detainees will be free”.

He also said he seeks unity, and seeks to end the internal Palestinian rifts.

“Ending the division is the first thing we seek, through dialogue mediated by Egypt”, Abbas said, “Our national unity, our brotherhood with the Arab countries, and international legitimacy are irreplaceable national interests”.