Rallies Were Held to Remember the Palestinian Al Nakba (Catastrophe in Arabic)

On May 17the the Al Nakba was remembered. Rallies all around the world including one in New York city were held. Nakba means catastrophe in Arabic and the event they are remembering was a tragedy for them that many are still living through 61 years later. This is to remember the Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that happened in 1948 when approximately 711,000 Palestinians were brutally expelled from their homes. The Zionist military brigades violently forced them to flee to refugee camps in the neighboring countries where they and their offspring in many cases still live. They were not allowed to return even though under international law refugees are allowed to return to their homes when the fighting has ended.

Some were marched to the boarder at gun point without being given any food or water. Some fled in fear before the military brigades arrived. Those that were allowed to stay were in many cases required to leave their homes and go to cramped ghetto-like areas that had been designated for the non-Jewish population. At this point only a small minority was left and they were given very little land to live on. Still, there were attempts to confiscate portions of that land. Some of these attempts were successful. It is worth noting that the “Arabs” as they are referred to in Israel make up 20% of the Israeli population within the 1967 boarders and live on between 2 and 3 percents of the land.