Today Palestinians across the Middle East, including inside Israel, commemorated al Nakba. Arabic for “the catastrophe”, al Nakba refers to the ongoing displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people that began in 1948 with the founding of the state of Israel. Nakba Day is a time to remember Palestinian history and mark the ongoing struggle of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands. Because this is such an important time of national unity and resistance, it should come as no surprise that Israel wants to make it illegal.
From Reuters:
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s party wants to ban Israeli Arabs
from marking the anniversary of what they term “the Catastrophe” or
Nakba, when in 1948 some 700,000 Arabs lost their homes in the war that
led to the establishment of the state of Israel.The
ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party said it would propose
legislation next week for a ban on the practice and a jail term of up
to three years for violators.
This is reminiscent of the pre-Oslo Israeli policy of banning Palestinian flags. That was an effort to quash Palestinian national resolve. It failed, and this will too. Lieberman, and the Israeli leadership, need to understand that criminalizing al Nakba will not make it go away. They have no choice but to confront Israeli history; there won’t be peace until they do.
