Press Releases

Nakba Commemoration - 13 May, 2008

For Immediate Release

No. (E/017/08)

13 May 2008


 

Popular Festival: Palestine, 60 Years of Exile cultural heritage celebrated in Bethlehem and Ramallah

Palestinian protest during Nakba Commemoration attacked while demonstrations all over the world fill the streets


Events in Palestine

  • Al-‘Awda Camp, Ramallah. Activities: The May 13th ‘Awda Camp activities will include: Art activities for children, photo and heritage exhibits (all day); Eyewitness accounts of the ethnic cleansing of Al-Lydd by Haj Mahmoud Al-Attal (3:30pm); Forum on Internecine Palestinian Fighting and its Effect on the Right of Return Struggle, by Dr. Adel Samara (5:30pm); Dabka performances (7pm); and a film screening (8pm). Contact [email protected]
  • “Have We Not Suffered Enough?”: Nakba-60 Commemoration Festival. 1-3pm at the Bethlehem University Auditorium. Events will include music, dance poster and photo exhibit, and talks by three generations of Palestinian refugees. More information at http://www.bethlehem.edu, contact: [email protected]

Events internationally

  • Popular Festival: Palestine, 60 Years of Exile; Iraq, 5 Years of War. 12-14 May, Madrid, Spain. Musical, theatrical, cultural, and educational events featuring Rene Aquarone, Azmi Bishara, Leila Khaled, Jaber Suleiman, Teresa Aranguren, Rafael Escudero, Hana Al-Bayati, and many more. For more information, visit www.culturaypaz.org.
  • Screening of Ilan Pappe talk 'The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine'. 7pm, BCGEU hall v5h2l9, Victoria (BC), Canada. Organized by CAIA-Victoria. [Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid], contact: George Mc Fetridge, [email protected]

 

Report on previous events

  • Nakba demonstration attacked in Shufa: Ten Palestinians were injured on 10 May in Shufa village, south of Tulkarem, when Israeli forces attacked a demonstration on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba. The protestors attempted to dismantle the roadblock that has effectively closed the entrance to the village for the last four years and were fired on. For more information, see: http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1648.shtml;  http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/05/10/9-activists-injured-as-israeli-army-attacks-demonstration-in-shufa-tulkarem/
  • Thousands Mark the Nakba and call for refugee return in London on 10 May. Notable participants in the demonstration included Tony Ben and Mustafa Barghouti, in addition to recorded messages by the elected Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Hanieh and Palestinian Legislative Council member from Gaza Dr Jamal Al-Khudairy. The Demonstration was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK (www.palestinecampaign.org).
  • Toronto Demonstration to Commemorate the Nakba, and calling for the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees draws over 1000 people. Many of those who participated in the 10 May demonstration were among those who witnessed and survived the Nakba. The demonstration was organized by Palestine House (www.palestinehouse.com) and the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (www.caiaweb.org). Pictures of the demonstration can be found at: http://johnb.smugmug.com/gallery/4911220_SJ4Wx#293286484_iarT7
  • Over 4000 people demonstrated against the Turin book-fair's “celebration” of Israeli writers. The fair has come under a great deal of pressure from progressive authors around the world who have publically boycotted the book-fair, while others have come under pressure from their readers to cancel their participation. One of the media reports on the 10 May demonstration can be found at:

Video can be watched at: http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=5MYYd3Fe3pkhttp://it.youtube.com/watch?v=xSnSTTb1RjA

Pictures can be seen at: http://www.corriere.it/gallery/Cronache/vuoto.shtml?2008/05_Maggio/torino/1&1

English language media article at: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/05/10/turin-fair-protest.html

  • Dozens of Palestinians forcibly expelled from their homes in Jerusalem, took to the streets in a silent vigil in Jerusalem on 12 May, commemorating the 60th year since they were uprooted. The vigil took participants on a tour of 1948 occupied Jerusalem, where manty of the Nakba survivors pointed out their homes and described their memories living in them, and being forced out of them. Jerusalem's Nakba survivors can be contacted at: [email protected]

The Reuters report on the vigil can be found at: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1122227920080511?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true;

The Palestinian Nakba on the ground

On this day, 1948

  • In Gaza, the people of Beit Daras, Sawafir as-Samaliah, Betanyah, Bashit, and Nebi Rubin were expelled with around 7,000 people fleeing the villages. Only a few remained behind.

  • Zionist forces also carried out attacks in al-Ramla district. In Abu Shusha, the 870 villagers fled from mortar attacks. The village was subsequently occupied and its buildings dynamited.  

 

Nakba Today

Jaffa (The Bride of the Sea) was Palestine's largest and most vibrant metropolis. Its centrality to the Arab Palestinian society and economy forced the UN to include it in the proposed Arab state in the 1947 partition plan. This, however, did not stop 5,000 Zionist troops from besieging the city for three months leading up to Israel's declaration of statehood. The poorly armed and untrained defenders of Jaffa included tens of international volunteers who came to defend Palestine, notably from Yugoslavia. The majority of Jaffa's inhabitants were pushed into the sea, forced to flee using boats and ending up in other Palestinian coastal cities like Gaza, or further in Egypt and Lebanon. Soon after its occupation on this day (13 May) in 1948, Zionist forces blew up and bulldozed three-quarters of Jaffa's Arab section.

The remaining Arab areas were officially confiscated by Israel, and the property was transferred to Israel's public housing organization, Amidar. Since then, these areas (the poorest in the Jaffa-Tel-Aviv municipality) have experienced soaring property prices. Amidar now hopes to reap in the profits of the high prices by evicting the remaining rightful Palestinian owners of the homes. Through Amidar, Israel also threatens to sell off most of the land of the historic Tasso cemetery in Jaffa. The result is an escalation of the ongoing Israeli practice of Judaizing and de-Arabizing Jaffa, Palestine's economic and cultural capital just sixty years ago.

For more information, see the Arab Association for Human Rights report at: http://www.arabhra.org/Hra/SecondaryArticles/SecondaryArticlePage.aspx?Language=2&SecondaryArticle=1670

Listen to an audio documentary about the Land Day 2008 demonstration highlighting the struggle of Jaffa's Palestinians to stay in their city: http://www.imemc.org/attachments/apr2008/the_land_day_feature_ready.mp3

Visit the official website of the Popular Committee to Defend the Right to Housing and Land in Jaffa: http://yaffastruggle.wordpress.com

Background Resources:

  • For resources on the history of the Nakba, information about Palestinian refugees, and their right of return under international law, see the Nakba-60 Resources Info-Packet at: http://www.badil.org/Publications/badil-nakba-60-info-packet/index.html
  • For information about selected cases of ongoing diaplacement, please visit: http://www.stopthewall.org/activistresources/1583.shtml
  • For information, resources and links to organizations working on the growing campaign for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions on Israel until it dismantles its military occupation's colonial apartheid system in the West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights; ends systematic discrimination against its Palestinian citizens; and implements the Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homes and properties, please visit the website of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions Campaign National Committee (BNC)http://www.bdsmovement.net

For more information, please contact:

Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
Email: 
[email protected], Tel.: +972-2-297-1505

Badil Centre for Palestinian Refugee & Residency Rights:
Email: 
[email protected], Tel.: +972-2-277-7086


*The week’s events coordinated by the National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba. The National Committee represents national movements and networks, including the Council of National and Islamic forces, the Global Palestine Right-of-Return Coalition, the Popular Committees and youth centers of the refugee camps all over Palestine, the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, Badil Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), the Civic Coalition for the Defense of Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem and the PLO Department for Refugee Affairs (DORA).