May 15 is a sorrowful day in the history of Palestine. It is the day referred to as the Nakba, an event that started some 68 years ago. It was the forcible dispossession of Palestinian lands that resulted in a catastrophic cycle, leading to a relentless oppression of Palestinian people.
From the United Nations’ unwarranted partition of Palestine in 1947 until January 1, 1949, Zionist militant forces employing terrorist means destroyed or depopulated 531 Palestinian towns and villages, driving two-thirds of the indigenous population into exile.
May 15, 1948, was the official day of recognition of this tragic episode, which resulted in many Palestinians fleeing for their lives in the wake of the emergence of terror gangs comprising Zionist invaders, leaving behind all their earthly possessions. The unlucky ones never made it past their front doors as militants struck in the middle of the night and slaughtered all the occupants.
Today, more than 400 Palestinian children sit in Israeli prisons. The apartheid wall continues to snake its way through Palestinian territory, annexing ever more land and prohibiting Palestinians’ freedom of movement. The siege of Gaza will soon render that area uninhabitable and more than 50 discriminatory laws deprive Arabs in 1948 areas of their rights. Israeli occupation policies are choking Palestinians. The American Muslims for Palestine group recognises that the Nakba is still ongoing as “biased negotiations in the past 20 years had resulted in further [destruction] of Palestinian society on all levels”.
The American NGO, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), also claims that Palestinians are locked up and locked out, but why? For being Palestinian. Poets are under house arrest for reciting poems, children are in jail for dissenting with Facebook posts and scientists are imprisoned indefinitely under “administrative detention”. Internationally renowned nonviolent movement leaders are blocked from leaving the country. The organisation that consists of peace-loving activists — including Jewish artists, academics, NGO members and staff — has been organising round-the-clock vigils demanding justice for some of the movement leaders such as Dareen Tatour, Omar Barghouti and Imad Barghouti.
Massive machinery
On a broader term, JVP wants to help “dismantle the status quo of apartheid and occupation that daily visits such injustice on all Palestinians”.
JVP has a fight on its hand. Against the massive machinery upholding the Israeli occupation, they intend to build strength. Students and academics, artists and authors — people from coast to coast are coming together to build a movement strong, loud and unstoppable enough to take on the might of the Israeli lobby and win. This is their noble intent.
American Muslims for Palestine admits that things are bad for Palestinians today, bleak to say the least. But they still have reason to be hopeful. They contend that “the global movement for Palestinian justice and self-determination is robust and almost every country has condemned Israeli policies that violate international law and Palestinian human rights. In the United States, the movement is growing like never before. A new Pew Research poll shows that since 2006, support for Palestinians has tripled among those born after 1980, and even the general American population’s support has increased by 5 per cent — a modest increase to be sure, but one that represents millions of people”.
The role of the US in how Israel conducts its affairs can never be downplayed. The US bankrolls Israel. It arms it and protects it from censure at the UN. It argued long and hard against Iran’s development in the nuclear field, yet has remained hypocritically quiet on Israel’s arsenal of nuclear weapons. While demanding democratic principles in every other country, it looks the other way while Israel violates every norm of humane behaviour against Palestinians. This silence is the reason why the Israeli policies of aggression have remained unchecked for so long.
And yet, thanks to social media, the realities of Israeli policies have become increasingly evident to a previously uninformed public. Fortunately, there are more voices rising in support of Palestinian rights across the US — normal Americans who have come to know the facts past the smokescreens that the media has led them to believe up to now.
The Arabs too must come together and join hands with all those Jews who are standing for justice and equality for Palestinians and who stand in condemnation of the policies of apartheid followed by the Israelis. Shoulder to shoulder, they must carry out the message that they are united in the quest for Palestinian justice. Only when their efforts bear fruit shall the Palestinian horror come to an end.
Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@talmaeena.
