May 15th - Nakba Day

I've written about Nakba day before on my blog (see HERE). Nakba day is May 15th every year. It is the day that Palestinians mourn the loss of their homes and land during the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. It marks the year when at least 750,000 Palestinians became refugees. This day is used as a day to remember what happened in 1948, and also is used to mourn the fact that Palestinians do not have a homeland to this day and are currently living under Israeli occupation.

Nakba day is usually commemorated by demonstrations and also visits to people's former villages before 1948. This year, there were many demonstrations, in Gaza, the West Bank, and even on the borders of Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Many Palestinian refugees were marching to the borders of Israel to demand their right of return, with people crossing the borders in some places.

The Israeli government has termed these demonstrations "riots" and has focused on the fact that Israel's borders have been breached and claimed that the Palestinians on Sunday were not "clamoring for a Palestinian State, but for Israel's destruction." (New York Times article - Israel's Leader Outlines Points before U.S. Trip).

These demonstrations, instead remind of Martin Luther King, Jr. who encouraged non-violent direct action and civil disobedience. Luther said, "The willingness to accept the penalty for breaking the unjust law is what makes civil disobedience a moral act and not merely an act of lawbreaking." All of these demonstrations started out non-violently, with un-armed demonstrators marching towards borders that are illegal under international law. Their idea was to say that we should be allowed to go there, so we will try. As with most demonstrations, the Israel army's initial response is to shoot tear gas canisters and rubber bullets. Only after this violence were stones thrown on the part of some Palestinian youths. The Israel Defense Forces has now issued videos saying that their use of tear gas and rubber bullets was justified because of Palestinians throwing stones. There is an obvious imbalance in this view.

Many writers have mentioned the fact that the protests throughout the region have influenced the protests of this years Nakba Day, giving them a different tone than previous years. One writer noted that, "The overall makeup of the crowd, featuring older women and men as well as students, was a change from previous years." (TIME article - see below) I get the feeling as I live here, that these demonstrations show a different tone. The Palestinian Authority is building up to September, when they will issue a request to the UN Security Council for recognition of the Palestinian State, Fatah and Hamas have reconciled, and people are choosing non-violence as their main mode of demanding their rights. These people, men, women, young and old, gathered together to use non-violent direct action, and were willing to die (as some did) to show the world the injustices that they face daily. Their courage gives me hope that one day a Palestinian State will exist and that both Israelis and Palestinians will be equal.

Read more:
TIME article : Palestinian Border Protests: The Arab Spring Model for Confronting Israel

New York Times: Nakba Day Protest Videos

The first video on this link is good. It shows people from Syria marching toward the Israeli border. The border in this area, has separated people from families, leaving the same families split between two different countries, who can now not see each other. The video shows families hugging and kissing as they see each other for the first time in many years.