The Palestinian Nakba: 65 years, and counting
65 years - day by day -
have passed since Palestinians were forcibly evicted out of their homes towards
unknown destinations. In no time, they found themselves living under temporary
tents which became their permanent shelter for many many years ahead. They
became to be known as Palestine refugees, to live in the most inhuman and
miserable conditions.
Nakba, known also as the
1st Arab-Israeli War, stands for the 1948 catastrophe surrounding
the establishment of the State of Israel, resulting in the dispersion of
Palestinians worldwide.
The United Nations
General Assembly Partition Plan of 1947 - UNGA Resolution 181 - caused
the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, in the wake of the exodus of British
Mandate forces from Palestine on May 14, 1948. The Plan granted the
Jews in Palestine just over 56% of the area at a time when they owned less than
7% of the land and constituted approximately one-third of the population. By
the end of the War, Israel controlled 77.4% of the land. Palestine was fragmented,
occupied and its society dismantled and rendered a nation of displaced
refugees. When the State of Israel was proclaimed on May 15, 1948, in Tel-Aviv,
there was significantly no mention of borders - the “Jewish State” has never
publicly defined the extent of its limits.
After the 1948 War, and
by the time of the 1949 cease-fire agreement, Arab areas had shrunk to 23% of
Palestine (Gaza Strip and West Bank). 418 Palestinian villages had been
depopulated and erased from the map as a result of Israeli military activities,
expulsion orders, and the exodus of Palestinian civilians. Only about 120 Arab
villages remained within the 1949 cease-fire lines, and these now have no more
than 7% of the land, as a result of large-scale seizure and confiscation of
Arab land and property. By September 1949, according to United Nations
estimates, there were 726,000 Palestinian refugees located outside the
armistice lines and 32,0000 inside.
On December 11, 1948,
the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 194 (III) affirming the right of
Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. However, this Resolution has
never been implemented.
Following the 1948 War,
separate armistice agreements with the Egyptians, Lebanese,
Jordanians, Syrians were signed in Rhodes in the course of 1949,
which did not pave the way before any settlement to the conflict. Furthermore,
the Gaza Strip was controlled by Egypt and came under the administration of an
Egyptian governor. Meanwhile, the West Bank was controlled by Jordan which
annexed it in 1950 declaring the two banks of the Jordan River as the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip remained
under Jordanian and Egyptian rule, respectively, until June 1967 War when
Israel conquered the areas, imposing Israeli military hegemony over
Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Subsequently, a UN
agency was established under the name of UNRWA - UN Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. It was meant to give
emergency assistance to Palestinians displaced by the war of 1948 and began to
operate in May 1950. Its mandate, to provide essential education, health and
relief services to Palestine refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria,
as well as in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
As a result of the
ongoing process of the Nakba, Palestinians have become indeed the world's
oldest and largest refugee population, and now make up more than 1/4 of the
world's total refugees.
Many of the Palestinians
fleeing their homes in 1948 left with minimum of luggage in the belief that
they would be returning to their homes within days, weeks, as soon as the
violence passed their villages. Now living in overcrowded and underprivileged
camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the West Bank and Gaza Strip, they and
their descendants - now entering a 4th generation - are still
waiting. Many of them still hold the keys of their pre-1948 homes ..
May 15, 1948, will
always be remembered as a black day in the history of Humanity and of the
United Nations, unless the continuous Palestinian suffering is brought to an
end. No injustice can or should be permanent.
NOW,
65 years later,
In the name of Humanity,
human dignity and rights,
And in conformity with
international law,
We, Palestinians, appeal
to world conscience to find an equitable solution, and put an end, to the
prolonged human suffering of the Palestinian people. The counting should end.
"Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King, Jr.
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