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Nakba Day

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Part of a series on the
Nakba
Precipitating events
  • Background
1948 expulsion and flight
Discourse
Notable writers
Symbols and memory
Ongoing
Lists

Nakba Day (Arabic: يوم النكبة Yawm an-Nakbah, meaning "day of the catastrophe") is an annual day of commemoration of the Palestinian people of the displacement that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948.[1]

Defining Nakba

Main article: 1948 Palestinian exodus

During the 1948 Palestine War, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled, and hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated and destroyed.[2][3] The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines at the war's conclusion and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from returning to their homes or reclaiming their property.[2][3]

These refugees and their descendants number several million people today, divided between Jordan (2 million), Lebanon (427,057), Syria (477,700), the West Bank (788,108) and the Gaza Strip (1.1 million), with another at least quarter of million internally displaced Palestinians in Israel.[4] The displacement, dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people is known to them as al-Nakba, meaning "the catastrophe," or "the disaster."[5][6][7]

Prior to its adoption by the Palestinian nationalist movement, the "Year of the Catastrophe" among Arabs referred to 1920, when European colonial powers partitioned the Ottoman Empire into a series of separate states along lines of their own choosing.[8] The term was first used to reference the events of 1948 in the summer of that same year by the Syrian writer Constantine Zureiq in his work Ma'na al-Nakba ("The Meaning of the Nakba"; published in English in 1956).[9]

Initially, use of the term Nakba among Palestinians was not universal. For example, many years after 1948, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon avoided and even actively resisted using the term, because it lent permanency to a situation they viewed as temporary, and they often insisted on being called "returnees."[10] In the 1950s and 1960s, terms they used to describe the events of 1948 were more eupheumistic and included al-ightisab ("the rape"), al-ahdath ("the events"), al-hijra ("the exodus"), and lamma sharna wa tla'na ("when we blackened our faces and left").[10] Nakba narratives were avoided by the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon in the 1970s, in favor of a narrative of revolution and renewal.[10] Interest in the Nakba by organizations representing refugees in Lebanon surged in the 1990s due to the perception that the refugees' right of return might be negotiated away in exchange for Palestinian statehood, and the desire was to send a clear message to the international community that this right was non-negotiable.[10]

Though the Nakba refers to the events of 1948, their continued salience due to the irresolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has prompted Palestinians like Mahmoud Darwish to describe the Nakba as, "an extended present that promises to continue in the future."[7]

Timing

Nakba Day is generally commemorated on May 15, the day after the Gregorian calendar date for Israel's Independence.

In Israel, Nakba Day events by Arab citizens have been held on Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israel's Independence Day), which is celebrated in Israel on the Hebrew calendar date (5 Iyar). Because of the differences between the Hebrew and the Gregorian calendars, Independence Day and the official May 15 date for Nakba Day usually only coincide every 19 years.[11]

Commemoration

Palestinian girl in a protest on Nakba Day 2010 in Hebron, West Bank. Her sign says "Surely we will return, Palestine." Most of the Palestinian refugees in the West Bank are descendants of people whose families hail from areas that were incorporated into Israel in 1948.[4]

Commemoration of the Nakba by Arab citizens of Israel who are internally displaced persons as a result of the 1948 war has been practiced for decades, but until the early 1990s was relatively weak. Initially, the memory of the catastrophe of 1948 was personal and communal in character and families or members of a given village would use the day to gather at the site of their former villages.[12] Small scale commemorations of the tenth anniversary in the form of silent vigils were held by Arab students at a few schools in Israel in 1958, despite attempts by the Israeli authorities to thwart them.[13] Visits to the sites of former villages became increasingly visible after the events of Land Day in 1976.[12] In the wake up of the failure of the 1991 Madrid Conference to broach the subject of refugees, the Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced in Israel was founded to organize a March of Return to the site of a different village every year on May 15, so as to place the issue on the Israeli public agenda.[14] By the early 1990s, annual commemorations of the day by Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel held a prominent place in the community's public discourse.[12][15]

Meron Benvenisti writes that it was "…Israeli Arabs who taught the residents of the territories to commemorate Nakba Day."[16] Palestinians in the occupied territories were called upon to commemorate May 15 as day of national mourning by the Palestine Liberation Organization's United National Command of the Uprising during the First Intifada in 1988.[17] The day was inaugurated by Yasser Arafat in 1998.[18]

The event is often marked by speeches and rallies by Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, in Palestinian refugee camps in Arab states, and in other places around the world.[19][20] Protests at times develop into clashes between Palestinians and the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[21][22][23] In 2003 and 2004, there were demonstrations in London[24] and New York City.[25]

In 2002, Zochrot was established to organize events raising the awareness of the Nakba in Hebrew so as to bring Palestinians and Israelis closer to a true reconciliation. The name is the Hebrew feminine plural form of "remember".[12]

2011 commemoration

On Nakba Day of 2011, Palestinians and other Arabs from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Syria, and Lebanon marched towards their respective borders with Israel to mark the event. At least 12 Palestinians and their supporters were killed as a result of the rioting. According to the BBC, the 2011 Nakba Day demonstrations were given impetus by the revolutions and uprisings taking place throughout the Arab world. Syria is a police state. Demonstrators do not randomly approach the border without the prior approval of the central government. [26]

At the Qalandia checkpoint in the West Bank near East Jerusalem, a standoff between Israeli soldiers and around 100 Palestinian protesters ensued with Palestinians hurling stones at Israeli forces who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Dozens of Palestinians were injured in the clashes. Further clashes took place in various cities in the West Bank and neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. In East Jerusalem, Nakba Day commemorations began on May 13. Israeli authorities arrested 70 people throughout the city and clashes resulted in one Palestinian death in Silwan.[27] Roughly 1,000 Palestinians marched towards the Erez Crossing in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces intermittently fired at them with tanks and machine guns resulting in at least one death and the injury of around 80 demonstrators.[27][26] Hamas, which governs the territory, reportedly asked protesters to withdraw from the border.[27] Hundreds of Arabs as well as Jews held the first public commemoration of the Nakba in Jaffa to protest the "Nakba law" passed by the Israeli Knesset in March. Demonstrators chanted Palestinian and pan-Arab solidarity slogans [28]

Tens of thousands of demonstrators, mostly Palestinian refugees, in Lebanon marched to the Israeli border chanting "By our soul, our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Palestine" as the Lebanese Army fired warning shots in the air to scatter the crowds. Israeli forces then fired at demonstrators who they accused of attempting to breach the border into Israeli territory. The Lebanese military claimed at least ten protesters were killed while scores were injured. From Syria, thousands of Palestinian supporters managed to enter the Golan Heights, currently under Israeli occupation. The Israeli military stated it fired warning shots when several protesters attempted to breach a border fence and enter the Druze town of Majdal Shams.[26] The Syrian government said four Syrian citizens were killed and dozens injured as a result of Israeli fire.[27] Israel stated the demonstrators committed a "serious" incursion and that Israeli forces struggled to contain the crowds. Syria condemned Israel stating it "will have to bear full responsibility" for its actions which they described as "criminal." Israel responded by saying "Syria is a police state. Demonstrators do not randomly approach the border without the prior approval of the central government" and that the demonstrations were an "Iranian provocation, on both the Syrian and the Lebanese frontiers, to try to exploit the Nakba day commemorations."[26]

Nakba Day commemorations took place in other parts of the Arab world as well. At least 120 Egyptians were injured as Egyptian security forces forcibly prevented the storming of the Israeli embassy in Cairo by thousands of protesters who gathered outside. Around 20 protesters were arrested.[29] Although Egyptian forces largely blocked access to the Sinai Peninsula to prevent a Nakba Day march towards the Rafah crossing, about 80 activists managed to reach it.[30] In Jordan, 200 Palestinian students attempted to march towards the Israeli border, but were restrained by Jordanian security forces resulting in the injury of six people.[31]

Objections to commemoration of Nakba Day

Criticism of the observance of Nakba Day in the Israeli media involves claims that it is marked by Palestinians to celebrate their alleged wishes for the dismantling of the Israeli state and the Jewish majority population, and that the greater tragedy resides in the inability to solidify a stronger national movement for Palestinian citizens.[32][33] Arab citizens of Israel have also been admonished for observing Nakba Day in light of their relatively higher standards of living when compared to that of Palestinian residents living under Israeli military occupation.[34]

Israeli media also reports that displacement and loss of property during the 20th century is not unique to the Palestinians, and that in 1940 approximately 800,000 Jews lived in Arab states (mostly in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq and Egypt), who in the following years were banished and were disinherited from most of their property.[35]

In 2009, Mention of the word 'Nakba' in Israeli textbooks was banned by the Israeli Ministry of Education.[36]

On 23 March 2011, the Knesset approved, by a vote of 37 in favor to 25 against,[37] a change to the Government budget, giving the Israeli Finance Minister the discretion to reduce government funding to any non-governmental organization (NGO) that organizes Nakba commemoration events.[36][38]

On May 2011, Israeli group Im Tirtzu has launched a campaign, stating that "the Nakba is a myth and a scam, aimed at rewriting history and making the victim the aggressor".[39]

See also

References

  1. ^ David W. Lesch, Benjamin Frankel (2004). History in Dispute: The Middle East since 1945 (Illustrated ed.). St. James Press. p. 102. ISBN 1558624724, 9781558624726. The Palestinian recalled their "Nakba Day", their "catastrophe" — the displacement that accompanied the creation of the State of Israel — in 1948. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  2. ^ a b Morris, Benny (2003). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7, p. 604.
  3. ^ a b Khalidi, Walid (Ed.) (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
  4. ^ a b Figures given here for the number of Palestinian refugees includes only those registered with UNRWA as June 2010. Internally displaced Palestinians were not registered, among others. Factbox: Palestinian refugee statistics
  5. ^ Mehran Kamrava (2005). The modern Middle East: a political history since the First World War (Illustrated ed.). University of California Press. p. 125. ISBN 0520241509, 9780520241503http://books.google.ca/books?id=SKSwpfLUYDEC&pg=PA125&dq=nakba+%22loss+of+palestine%22&hl=en&ei=x-DQTZjVEIX3sgbE5OjFCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=nakba%20%22loss%20of%20palestine%22&f=false. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); External link in |ISBN= (help)
  6. ^ Samih K. Farsoun (2004). Culture and customs of the Palestinians (Illustrated ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 14. ISBN 0313320519, 9780313320514. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  7. ^ a b Derek Gregory (2004). The colonial present: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq (Illustrated, reprint ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. p. 86. ISBN 1577180909, 9781577180906. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  8. ^ Antonius, George (1979) [1946], The Arab awakening: the story of the Arab national movement, Putnam, p. 312, The year 1920 has an evil name in Arab annals: it is referred to as the Year of the Catastrophe (Am al-Nakba). It saw the first armed risings that occurred in protest against the post-War settlement imposed by the Allies on the Arab countries. In that year, serious outbreaks took place in Syria, Palestine, and Iraq
  9. ^ Rochelle Davis (2010). Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced (Ilustrated ed.). Stanford University Press. p. 237. ISBN 0804773130, 9780804773133. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  10. ^ a b c d Ahmad H. Sa'di, Lila Abu-Lughod (2007). Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the claims of memory (Illustrated ed.). Columbia University Press. pp. 253–254. ISBN 0231135793, 9780231135795. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  11. ^ Hertz-Larowitz, Rachel (2003). Arab and Jewish Youth in Israel: Voicing National Injustice on Campus. Journal of Social Issues, 59(1), 51-66.
  12. ^ a b c d Nur Masalha (2005). Catastrophe remembered: Palestine, Israel and the internal refugees: essays in memory of Edward W. Said (1935–2003). Zed Books. p. 221. ISBN 1842776231, 9781842776230. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  13. ^ Hillel Cohen (2010). Good Arabs: the Israeli security agencies and the Israeli Arabs, 1948–1967 (Illustrated ed.). University of California Press. p. 142. ISBN 0520257677, 9780520257672. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  14. ^ Masalha, 2005, p. 216.
  15. ^ In 2006, for example, Azmi Bishara, an Arab member of the Knesset told the Israeli newspaper Maariv: "Independence Day is your holiday, not ours. We mark this as the day of our Nakba, the tragedy that befell the Palestinian nation in 1948." (Maariv article (in Hebrew))
  16. ^ Mêrôn Benveniśtî (2007). Son of the cypresses: memories, reflections, and regrets from a political life. University of California Press. p. 164. ISBN 0520238257, 9780520238251. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  17. ^ Speaking stones: communiqués from the Intifada underground. Syracuse University Press. 1994. p. 96. ISBN 081562607X, 9780815626077. May 15, which denotes the nakba, will be a day of national mourning and a general strike; public and private transportation will cease, and all will remain in their houses. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  18. ^ Rubin, Barry and Rubin, Judith Colp (2003). Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516689-2, p. 187.
  19. ^ "Anger over Palestinian Nakba ban proposal". BBC News. 2009-05-25. Retrieved 2010-05-19.
  20. ^ Bowker, Robert (2003). Palestinian Refugees: Mythology, Identity, and the Search for Peace. Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 1-58826-202-2, p. 96.
  21. ^ Analysis: Why Palestinians are angry, BBC News Online, 15 May 2000.
  22. ^ Violence erupts in West Bank, BBC News Online, 15 May 2000.
  23. ^ Israel - Palestinian Violence, National Public Radio, 15 May 2000.
  24. ^ Pro-Palestine rally in London, BBC News Online, 15 May 2003.
  25. ^ Al-Nakba Day Rally in Times Square, 2004.
  26. ^ a b c d Israeli forces open fire at Palestinian protesters. BBC News. 2011-05-15.
  27. ^ a b c d Palestinians killed in 'Nakba' clashes. Al-Jazeera English. 2011-05-15.
  28. ^ Hartman, Ben. Hundreds hold first-ever Nakba Day march in Jaffa. JPost. 2011-05-15.
  29. ^ Scores injured at Nakba rally in Cairo. Al-Jazeera English. 2011-05-15.
  30. ^ Egyptians rally at Rafah for Palestinian rights. Ma'an News Agency. 2011-05-15.
  31. ^ Muir, Jim. Palestinian protests: Arab spring or foreign manipulation?. BBC News. 2011-05-15.
  32. ^ The Palestine Nakba Controversy
  33. ^ The real Nakba, By Shlomo Avineri, 09/05/2008
  34. ^ Time to stop mourning, By Meron Benvenisti
  35. ^ The Other Nakba: How Arab-Jews' property was robbed, By Tani Goldstein, 14 May 2011
  36. ^ a b Elia Zureik (2011). Elia Zureik, David Lyon, Yasmeen Abu-Laban (ed.). Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory and Power (Illustrated ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 17. ISBN 0415588618, 9780415588614. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  37. ^ Knesset Approves Nakba Law, by Elad Benari, 23 March 2011
  38. ^ MK Zahalka: Racist laws target Arab sector, by Roni Sofer, 22 March 2011
  39. ^ Im Tirtzu new campaign: "Nakba Harta", by Amihay Ataeli, 13 May 2011
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