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On
Nakba Day, Palestinians Adamant On Right Of Return
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Palestinians
vowed more resistance, never to ceded right of return
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By
Mohammad Yassin, Ahmad Abu Eklen, IOL Staff
GAZA
CITY, May 15 (IslamOnline.net) - Commemorating the 55th
anniversary of al-Nakba (the loss of Palestine and creation of Israel)
on Thursday, May 15, Palestinians vowed continued resistance against the
Israeli occupation forces and reiterated commitment to the right of
return.
Carrying
flags of all resistance movements, thousands of Palestinians huddled
together in the compound of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
With
nostalgia for the Palestinian territories usurped by Jewish gangsters in
1948, the Palestinians exhorted the United Nations and world community
to bring to an end the suffering of millions of Palestinian refugees
worldwide.
Some
of the demonstrators were carrying wood-made keys, in reference to their
adherence to the right of return -- a reference to Palestinian demands
that any peace deal with Israel included the right of those who left
their homes in 1948 be able to return -- and rejection to settling
Palestinians in other countries.
Dressed
in military uniforms, dozens of armed Palestinians took part in the
rally long with a myriad of Muslim and national figures.
The
marchers observed three-minute silence as “Allah Is Greatest” calls
from mosques mixed with the sound of churches bells.
The
largest rally was in Gaza City, where 10,000 people, including hundreds
of women and children, turned out.
‘Conspiracy’
In
a speech to mark al-Nakba, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat,
meanwhile, lashed out at the “conspiracy” against Palestinian peace
efforts.
The
Palestinian leader, in a televised address from his West Bank
headquarters, spoke as thousands of people demonstrated to lament the
1948 creation of the Jewish state on occupied Arab lands.
“We
have clearly announced our strategic choice of peace to obtain an
independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital,
but there is a conspiracy against us,” the veteran leader underlined.
“No
peace is possible without a complete Israel withdrawal from the
Palestinian and Arab land occupied on June 4, 1967 and the removal of
all Jewish settlements,” Arafat stressed, referring to the Middle East
war of that year.
“The
biggest Zionist conspiracy on our Arab nation and Palestine started in
the Zionist conference held in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897 and climaxed
on May 15, 1948,” he recalled.
The
First Zionist Congress was called by Theodor Herzl. He had planned to
hold the gathering in Munich, Germany, but due to local Jewish
opposition he relocated the gathering to Basel, Switzerland.
The
congress was opened on August 29th, 1897 and was attended by some 204
participants from seventeen countries. Following a festive opening, the
congress got down to the business at hand.
The
main items on the agenda were the presentation of Herzl's plans, the
establishment of the World Zionist Organization and the declaration of
Zionist plans as formulated in the Basel Program. Herzl was elected
President of the Organization.
After
the Second World War, the Congress meets intermittently, approximately
every four years until the present time.
On
April 18, 1948, Palestinian Tiberius was captured by Menachem Begin's
terrorist Irgun group, putting its 5,500 Palestinian residents in
flight.
On
April 22, Haifa fell to the Jewish gangsters and 70,000 Palestinians
fled.
Irgun
began bombarding civilian sectors of the Palestinian city of Jaffa --
the largest city in Palestine at that time -- on April 25, terrifying
the 750,000 inhabitants into panicky flight.
On
May 14, the day before the creation of the Jewish state on the rubble of
Palestine and bodies of the Palestinians, the city of Jaffa completely
surrendered to the gangsters and only about 4,500 of its population
remained.
Days
before the 12,000 Palestinians of Safed were routed and Beisan, with
6,000 Palestinians, fell.
Although
Arab armies from neighboring countries did not enter Palestine until May
15, Jewish forces had been active in a campaign of ethnic cleansing
since passage of the U.N. partition plan the previous November 29.
Preceding
these aggressions had been the massacre at Deir Yassin on April 9, where
254 innocent Palestinian men, women and children were slaughtered by a
combined force drawn from Irgun and from Lehi, another Jewish terrorist
group known to the British as the "Stern Gang" and headed by a
triumvirate that included Yitzhak Shamir.
‘Sacred’
For
his part, Ismail Abu Shanab, the senior leader at the Islamic resistance
movement Hamas, said: “We mark al-Nakba not to shed tears and renew
sadness, but to underline our steadfastness to carry on with resistance
and Jihad.”
“We
recall today the Zionist project based on the occupation of Palestine
and forcing the Palestinian people to flee their homes. But the
Palestinians are determined to put an end to this project, since
Palestine is the motherland of its indigenous people and all Muslims and
Arabs,” said Ismail Hania, another Hamas leader.
In
Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood asserted that Britain stabbed Arabs in the
back by promising Jews to establish their state on Arab territories.
On
November 1917, the British government, represented in British Foreign
Secretary Arthur James Balfour, decided to endorse the creation
of a Jewish state in Palestine.
After
discussions within the cabinet and consultations with Jewish leaders,
the decision was made public in a letter from Balfour to Lord
Rothschild, a British prominent Jew. The contents of this letter became
known as the Balfour Declaration.
Al-Nakba
In Colors
On
Wednesday, May 14, a number of Palestinian plastic artists drew a mural
of 55 meters length on the walls of Gaza City and Jabalia refugee camp.
“The
Palestinian (plastic) artists are to draw three murals to mark al-Nakba.
The first one will be in north of the Gaza Strip, the second in Gaza
City and the third in the south of the Strip,” Nidal Abu Oun, a
Palestinian plastic artist, told IslamOnline.net.
“I
draw a clear blue sky, hoping that peace would prevail our land…Enough
with the bloodshed,” he added.
Putting
his final touches, Kaloub said his mural is all about the “symbol,”
in reference to the famous key, which signifies the long-awaited dream
held by Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
“The
mural consists of the old woody door, the wreckage which refers to our
homes, a Palestinian dress signifying our culture and civilization in
addition to the sun, which gives us hope,” he said.
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