This week is the 52nd annual memorial of the disaster of our Palestinian people and the establishment of the state of Israel, a state established on the destruction of the Palestinians after the Israeli state destroyed our cities, villages and the total physical infrastructure; confiscated our people’s properties, and made the majority of the Palestinian people refugees. We are a people who have been suffering the consequences of this disaster on a daily basis for 52 years, especially the refugees.

These days, the Palestinian people confront some of the most difficult challenges since 1948. These are the challenges of the permanent status through which Israel is trying to force a solution based it on the balance of power, a balance that favors its position, instead of historical justice and ignores the historical dispossession of the Palestinian people, the Palestinians’ right of return, self determination and the right of the establishment of the Palestinian state.

The Palestinian minority that has remained in inside Israel continues to confront the mentality of a military regime that has dominated Israeli government policy and the structure of the Israeli state since 1948. This policy has meant discrimination and structural oppression, beginning with the military regime that lasted until 1965. Under this regime, the state confiscated the land of the refugees, who are now both present in Israel and refugees throughout the world, and Islamic Waqf land, a policy of confiscation that the state continues to this day. In addition to this, this policy has meant continual monitoring of our behavior and the lack of recognition by Israel of our collective rights as a national minority. Add to this the taking of our rights to development and
physical infrastructure, both for private and public development, which has been reflected in all fields of life, and Israel’s attempt to prevent us from formalizing our collective Palestinian identity through government policy. This policy is still one of the basic positions of the state in its relations to us as a part of the Palestinian people. 

Our attitude towards the independence of Israel is based on a principle of conscience both human and national and cannot be limited to our attitude towards this particular government. For us, the mirror of the establishment of the state of Israel is the Palestinian disaster. 

Based on this perspective, we are call for a boycott of the celebrations of Israeli independence. The boycott must be a common act by the Palestinian citizens of Israel, taken for granted. Our appeal is to the organized Palestinian NGO sector to support and participate in the activities which the Committee for the Defense of Rights of the Uprooted have organized on the 10th and 15th of May by visiting the demolished towns and participating in the memorial rallies for the Nakba. 

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