60 Years of Nakba

  • The San Diego Union Tribune

    ISRAEL AT 60
    Remembering the Palestinian Nakba

    http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080507/news_lz1e7darwish.html

    By Nasser Barghouti and Bassemah Darwish

    May 7, 2008

    Nearly 30 years since she had seen her Northern Galilee home in what she called “48 Palestine,” Rasmiya Barghouti was finally given a permit by the Israeli military authorities to visit. She decided to take two of her daughters and four of her grandchildren with her.

    It took less than three hours to reach Safad, renamed Tsvat by Israel after 1948. The van stopped in front of the white stone home that held her childhood memories. She proceeded to the familiar metal door, where she knocked. A large eastern European woman opened the door; the two argued. Rasmiya returned to the van, her hardened face wet with tears. Her only words were: “She wouldn't let me in! She still has the same curtains I made with my mother.”

    entire article: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080507/news_lz1e7darwish.html

  • 18 hour radio broadcast on 60 years of Palestinian dispossession

    FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 60 YEARS


    THURSDAY, MAY 15th, from Midnight until 6pm (EST) - Join us for this historic international radio reflection of the Palestinian Nakba or catastrophe. Content will be hosted by the International Middle East Media Center in Bethlehem (Palestine), in collaboration with CKUT 90.3fm in Montreal (Quebec, Canada), CHRY 105.5fm in Toronto (Ontario, Canada), and KBOO 90.7fm in Portland (Oregon, USA). Including contributions from Pacifica Radio and Democracy Now!

    Tune-in and remember!


    Thursday, May 15th, 2008, commemorates 60 years of the Palestinian Nakba. In 1948 eighty-five percent of the Palestinians living in the areas that became the state of Israel became refugees. More than 500 Palestinian villages were depopulated and later destroyed to prevent the return of the refugees. Today there are a total of 7 million Palestinian refugees, dispersed throughout the world - the largest and longest running refugee problem yet unresolved.

    60-years later, Israel continues to occupy and colonize Palestinian land through the construction of Jewish only settlements and the Wall in the West Bank. The Gaza Strip has been turned into one large prison. Israel violates international law and commits ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity. And Palestinians abroad are the world's oldest refugee population, making-up more than one fourth of all refugees.

    On Thursday, May 15th, we will broadcast throughout the day on these and many other topics.

    A complete schedule will be available soon, email news[at]ckut.ca for details.

    Download MP3 Promo for participating radio stations

    Poster for promotion (PDF)

    from The Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People (PCR)


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  • Links to background on Al-Nakba:

    http://www.iremember1948.org (Excellent Testimonial)
    http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General/Story2129.html (Short video done immediately after the expulsion of Palestinian Refugees)
    http://www.acrossborders.ps/portal/Reflecting.cfm (Reflections)
    http://www.theunrecognized.org/ (on the continuing tragedy of Unrecognized Villages)
    http://www.qumsiyeh.org/chapter4/ (Background Chapter on refugees)
    http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?id=582 (Israeli statement on Nakba and ROR)
    http://www.jewishsolidarity.info/ (Jews in Solidarity)
    http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/index.php?id=228 (Video of Arab Women testimonies on Nakba)
    http://www.qumsiyeh.org/henrylowi/ (Excellent article on Partition emailed 13 October 2007)

    AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE WEBSITES ON THE ISSUES
    http://www.palestineremembered.com

    From: Mazin Qumsiyeh
    http://justicewheels.org
    http://qumsiyeh.org

  • We Will Not Be Celebrating

    In May, Jewish organizations will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. This is understandable in the context of centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, we are Jews who will not be celebrating. Surely it is now time to acknowledge the narrative of the other, the price paid by another people for European anti-Semitism and Hitler's genocidal policies. As Edward Said emphasized, what the Holocaust is to the Jews, the Nakba is to the Palestinians.

      In April 1948, the same month as the infamous massacre at Deir Yassin and the mortar attack on Palestinian civilians in Haifa's market square, Plan Dalet was put into operation. This authorized the destruction of Palestinian villages and the expulsion of the indigenous population outside the borders of the state. We will not be celebrating.[. . .]

    Complete, endorsable statement: http://www.thestruggle.org/not_celebrating.htm

    This statement was first crafted by first Harold Pinter and other British Jews. It appeared April 30 2008 in The Guardian.