حيث يمكنك أن تجد سببا آخر لتقع في حب فلسطين - جمالها
where you can find another reason to fall in love with Palestine - it’s beauty !
A rally in Haifa , occupied northern Palestine May 30, in Support of Palestinian Prisoners who are Still on Hunger Strike including Mahmoud Sarsak - a 25 years old professional footballer and Akram Rikhawi who passed their 74 day without food . The youth called for a continuous support of the prisoners even after the end of the strike (x). Protests across Palestine took place this week after israel violated the terms of the agreement addressing the demands of approximately 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners .
Israel has already violated the terms of the agreement addressing the demands of approximately 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners just over one week since they ended their historic mass hunger strike .
25-year-old Mahmoud Sarsak is on his 70th consecutive day of hunger strike today .Akram Rikhawi remains on hunger strike as well, currently on his 46thday.
Our brother and son, Mahmoud Sarsak, is a 25 years old professional footballer from Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, today entering his 67th day of hunger strike. We ask you to support Mahmoud and his demand for fair treatment. Your voice can contribute to saving his life and to a little victory against injustice.
Mahmoud has been imprisoned by Israel for the past three years, after being arrested by the Israeli military on 22nd July 2009 at the Erez checkpoint in Gaza while on his way to join the Palestine National Football team for a match in Balata refugee camp in the West Bank.
After his arrest he was transferred to Ashkelon prison where he was interrogated for 30 days, before being given a detention order on 23rd August 2009 under Israel’s “Unlawful Combatants Law”. Addameer, the Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights group, state that “in practice, the Unlawful Combatants Law contains fewer protections for detainees than even the few that are granted under administrative detention orders in the West Bank”, and allows the Israeli state to hold Palestinians from Gaza for indefinite periods without charge or trial.
Mahmoud started a hunger strike on 19th March 2012 to protest being held without charge or trial, demanding to be informed of the reasons for his three year detention and to be allowed to defend himself, as is his most basic right under international law. After starting his hunger strike he was transferred to Naqab prison on 8th April and then moved to solitary confinement at Eshel prison. On 16th April he was transferred to Ramleh prison hospital as a result of his deteriorating health. He is now on his 67 day of hunger strike, an extremely dangerous milestone that could see his death at any moment.
He is one of over 4400 Palestinians held in Israeli jails in violation of Articles 49 and 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids the transfer of occupied peoples (Palestinians), to the territory of the occupier (Israel). Grave breaches of these Articles are considered war crimes in international law.
For us it is unbearable to see Israel has been awarded the hosting of the UEFA Under 21s football championship in 2013 and gears up to participate in the London Olympics, while it routinely arrests, tortures, imprisons and kills Palestinians, including football players, without consequence. This is not fair play. Sports should show solidarity.
As Mahmoud’s family, we call on all people of conscience to demand his immediate release, and to pressure governments and international organisations to force Israel’s compliance with the most basic standards of international law. In particular we ask fellow football players and athletes to speak out in support of Mahmoud – don’t be silent when Israeli cruelty and arbitrariness has destroyed the aspirations of a rising athlete and keeps thousands under inhumane conditions in their jails. We ask sports teams and anti-racist fan clubs to organize in support of Mahmoud and all the other Palestinian political prisoners. Your voice can contribute to saving his life and to a little victory against injustice.
It is time to end Israeli crimes carried out with impunity, and to demand the release of all Palestinians held illegally by Israel, including the other Palestinian prisoners who, along with our beloved Mahmoud, are hunger striking for their dignity and freedom.
The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, which represents Arab communities in “Israel”, called for a general strike and for Arabs to go to displaced Palestinian villages . Al-Lajjun is one of them which those pictures were taken from on May 15, 2012 .
When Palestinians tried to come home at the Occupied Palestinian border with South Lebanon on May 15, 2011.(Reuters/Ali Hashisho)
One of the greatest moments that I lived was when I saw this on TV , I wised that I’m one of the among people who crossed the borders despite the fact that I’m not a refugee ! I - We - kept thinking of the day when the real come back , how it will be ? ( see video : very emotinal )
During the clashes outside Ofer Prison marking 64 Years Of Nakba on May 15, 2012 : A young man beaten in a Brutal attempt to arrest him but he asked for help by the other youth which made the soldiers leave him !
These senses get you back memories from the Inifada , several soldiers attack a guy then run away when others come to help him . Its a prove that israels’ main aim is to damage Palestinians in any possible way .What a cowards !
An appreciation post for the Palestinian youth : From Clashes Outside Ofer Prison Marking 64 Years Of Nakba on May 15, 2012.
(photos by Ahmed Mesleh -Majdi Mohammed , ABBAS MOMANI/AFP - REUTERS/Darren Whiteside - REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman - Bernat Armangue )
Israeli occupation forces and undercover policemen arrest Palestinian protesters that you can see children among them and notice the mothers trying to prevent them from taking their children during clashes in the east Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Issawiya on May 15, 2012 as Palestinians marked Nakba day, which commemorates the exodus of hundreds of thousands of their kin after the establishment of Israel state in 1948.( AFP PHOTO/AHMAD GHARABLI 2012 AFP)
These words are not to list the consequences ofAl-Nakba, the numbers of refugees and villages destroyed, the amount of land taken, etc., but more to shed light on the Palestinian spirit following 1948. This article addresses howAl-Nakbahas influenced the lives of Palestinians, positively and otherwise, and also sends a message to the Israelis, and those who doubt our cause, that we are not just physically present on this land; rather, we define the character of this land. We are here to stay, and we will prevail.
64 years fromAl-Nakba The termAl-Nakbawas coined by the Lebanese historian Constantine Zureiq who used it to describe the events that took place in Palestine in 1948. It is the name that the Palestinians came to use to depict what they went through in 1948; the attempt to dissolve their identity in this world, to abolish the very character that constitutes the structure of their existence - politically, economically, and culturally. Nonetheless, the Palestinians were driven from their homes, their land, and their country as the new state of Israel was established upon the remaining rubble of the Palestinian people. At least that was what the Israelis and the rest of the world thought! The tribulation of the year 1948 is infamously distinguished by the atrocity of occupation and the establishment of the Israeli state on 78 percent of Palestine and the expulsion of some 800,000 Palestinians to the diaspora. This followed dozens of massacres committed against Palestinian communities by Jewish gangs and the invasion of some 500 villages that were quickly turned into Jewish neighbourhoods in a desperate attempt to create an alternate new Jewish reality.
Al-Nakbais not something of the past, as Israel and many others think; its reminiscence will live in the hearts and minds of all Palestinians - refugees or not - because it signifies Palestinian steadfastness against Zionist philosophy, which proclaims “A land without a people for a people without a land.” Palestinians have emerged victorious fromAl-Nakba, in spite of all the massacres and attempts to depopulate the land: the 160,000 remaining Palestinians in Israel 64 years ago have become 1.57 million Palestinians - 20.5 percent of the population living in what is known as Israel today.
Even though 64 years have passed, the Palestinian refugees and the Palestinians in general still commemorateAl-Nakba, sending a clear and explicit message to Israel and the rest of the world that Palestine shall not be forgotten. The homes, the fields, the villages are not forgotten: in Akka, Bissan, Haifa, Yaffa, Ramla, Safad, Umm Rashrash, and others; and the robbed homes and properties will not slip the minds of Palestinians no matter how much time goes by. The generations will always remember and recall Al-Shajara, Kafr Bir’im, Al-Tina, Al-Qastal, Fajja, Al-Tantura, Umm ‘Ajra.
Despite all Israeli methods to terrorise and eradicate the Palestinians from their land between 1948 and 1967 - massacres, the transfer of 70 percent of the Palestinian population, the persecution and oppression - the Israelis failed to accomplish their goal. In fact, the bulk of the Palestinians driven out of their homes still live nearby. Records show that some 46 percent of all Palestinians still live within the 1948 borders of Palestine, 35 percent are in the surrounding countries, and the rest are dispersed throughout the world. This is an explicit indication to Israel that it is losing the demographic battle with the Palestinians; and it will be a matter of time until this Israeli apartheid regime understands that the minority cannot rule over the majority.
Al-Nakbawas never just about land, it was a battle of existence and identity, and this is why Israel went after Palestinian land as well as Palestinian identity. Acquisition of land was its short-term goal, and the obliteration of Palestinian identity the long-term goal. Palestinian identity, and in particular the innovative cultural aspect of Palestinian identity, was targeted by the occupation in the same way that land was targeted. The Israelis aimed to complement the invented lie, “A land without a people…” with “A people without a culture and an identity…”
Al-Nakbahit the Palestinians in more than the obvious circumstances; an entire body of literature was almost lost, but what remains is a rich representation of Palestinian innovation and culture. AlthoughAl-Nakbacaused a temporary halt to Palestinian creative literature, in its aftermath,Al-Nakbabecame the focus of literature - not only Palestinian literature but also, to a certain extent, that of the Arab world.
Indeed, 64 years have passed, but the Palestinians have been fighting colonists for much longer than that; more than 120 years ago, the Zionists started to orchestrate their plans to take over Palestine. Palestinians may have failed to prevent the Zionists from taking over much of their land, but they certainly succeeded in preserving their identity in spite of Zionist efforts to eradicate it and deny their very existence. The Israelis have physically conquered the geographic land, but they failed miserably in conquering the geographic memory, which still lives in the cities and the memories of the consecutive Palestinian generations.
Indeed, for Israel, the mere mention of Palestine and Palestinians undermines its very existence; it reminds them of the people and culture that they have attempted to wipe out and of the land that they have stolen. The Palestinians have also kept alive their memory ofAl-Nakbaand have reaffirmed their profound attachment to the land through their choice to commemorate Palestine and their stolen land on what has come to be known as Land Day, March 30. On that day in 1976, six Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded by the Israeli army and police as marches were held throughout the country to protest Israeli plans to expropriate thousands of dunums of land. The commemoration of Land Day has spread throughout the Arab world and beyond, alarming Israel and proving that the memory of Palestine will never fade away.
Israel has tried to removeAl-Nakbafrom Palestinian memory and has denied the name “Palestinian” to those who stayed behind. The Palestinians, however, have countered Israel’s strategy by commemoratingAl-Nakbaand transforming its memory into a means of inspiration and encouragement in resisting the occupation, surmounting their tragedy, and taking their rightful place in the world by developing exceptional civil society movements and engaging media, research institutions, human rights organisations, and unions in order to help shape Palestinian society.
This society has been deeply marked byAl-Nakba. Some of the greatest minds in the Arab world and beyond have been influenced byAl-Nakba, for example, Mahmoud Darwish, Fadwa Touqan, Edward Said, and Ghassan Kanafani, to name a few. Indeed, the Palestinians have transformedAl-Nakbainto a positive force to channel their frustration, their anger, and their disappointments into the one true instrument that will save them: education. This is the one thing that the occupation could not appropriate from the Palestinians or force them to compromise. Palestinians, particularly those in the occupied territories and in the diaspora, have unprecedented levels of education when compared with others in the Arab world.
Al-Nakbamight be something of the past, but it is far from bygone. It is still very much alive in the memory of those who lived it and of those who shared it through the eyes and words of their elders. To think ofAl-Nakbaonly in the past tense is to surrender to the events of 1948, and this is certainly not the goal. The Palestinian people are very much alive afterAl-Nakba, in their ability to maintain their identity, culture, and traditions, and to resist injustice and pursue legitimacy. Although the rest of the world recognises Palestinian resistance as a legitimate endeavour to end the occupation or even to pursue their ethnic and political rights, only Israel and the Zionists consider the struggle illegitimate since it aims to negateAl-Nakba.
Five years fromAl-Nakba It is no secret that the Fatah-Hamas tension started to surface after the death of Yasser Arafat on November 11, 2004, and this tension climaxed when Hamas won the 2006 election. Since then there have been clashes between the two rivals and, in spite of mediations to end the struggle in June 2007, all efforts have failed. This has marked one of the worst turns in Palestinian history, causing a split whose far-reaching consequences are comparable only toAl-Nakba. Human Rights groups estimate the death toll from Palestinian fighting between January 2006 and May 2007 to be more than 600 Palestinians. During four days in June 2007, 116 Palestinians were killed. Such killings were and are to this day incomprehensible to the majority of Palestinians, who feel ashamed of such an episode and its aftermath. There is much to be said about this brotherly feuding, but I will not blame the Israeli occupation for it. We all know the famous saying attributed to Aesop (620-560 BC): “United we stand, divided we fall.”
In short, this article has intended to go beyond the usual demonstration of theNakbalegacy - ending the Palestinian dream of a state and creating the refugee problem - and to show how we as Palestinians have been able to rise aboveAl-Nakba, using it as an inspiration for our lives and our culture, enabling us to take our rightful place in the world. In some way, throughAl-Nakba, Palestinians have chosen rebirth in all aspects of their lives and have refused to concede to their 1948 reality. Current controversies among the Palestinians will not last forever. We shall overcome them and, rather than castigate and point fingers, let us remember June 2007 as something from the past, a stopping-point from which we can move forward united and undivided.
Commemorating the 64 anniversary of the Nakba .
Nakba means “Catastrophe” in Arabic. It refers to the destruction of Palestinian society in 1948 when more than 750,000 Palestinians were forced into exile by Israeli troops. Because the Palestinians were not Jewish, their presence and predominant ownership of the land were obstacles to the creation of a Jewish state. Nakba, was already nearly half-complete by May 1948, when Israel declared its independence and the Arab states entered the fray.
Many Zionist leaders in Palestine openly favored “transfer” of the indigenous Palestinian population. Zionist forces used clashes that erupted as the British Mandate of Palestine came to an end in 1947-48 to rid as much of the land of its Palestinian inhabitants as possible. By the end of 1948, more than 750,000 Palestinians - two-thirds of the Palestinian population - fled in panic or were forcibly expelled. It is estimated that more than 50 percent fled under direct military assault. Others fled in panic as news of massacres - more than 100 civilians in the village of Deir Yassinand 200 inTantura— spread.
Zionist forces depopulated more than 450 Palestinian towns and villages, most of which were demolished to prevent the return of the refugees. (Figures of the number of towns and villages destroyed and depopulated vary. The Israeli dailyHaaretzreports530 lost villages.) These comprised three-quarters of the Palestinian villages inside the areas held by Israeli forces after the end of the war. The newly established Israeli government confiscated refugees’ land and properties and turned them over to Jewish immigrants. Although Jews owned only aboutseven percentof the land in Palestine and constituted about33 percentof the population, Israel was established on 78 percent of Palestine.
Today, Israel uprooted anestimated 1.37 million Palestinians from their lands and homes in 1948, the Bureau says the population had increased eight times by the end of 2011 and they’re waiting for the day of the return as they keep their house keys that was taken from them .
Al Nakba, documentary (200 min) -produced by Al Jazeera- was broadcasted on the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian catastrophe , today on the 64 anniversary I recommend you to watch it .It’s one of the best documentaries about Nakba .
