'We were left without any possibility of resistance and help'

Dubai: Taysir Nabulsi can still recall exactly where he was on the day in June 1967 when his life, along with millions of other Palestinians, changed irrevocably.

He was then a young lawyer in the Palestinian town of Nablus, when what he describes as a "cheap war" was launched against a people who were unprepared and unsupported.

"We were left without any real possibility of resistance and without any support," recalled the Dubai-based lawyer.

"Between 1948 and 1967, the government [the Jordanian government, which had jurisdiction over the West Bank] never prepared the people. We knew that something was coming and were willing to fight."

In the lead-up to the war, a few kilometres north of Nablus near Jenin, former Jordanian soldier Monther Deeb was stationed with his troops from the Khalid Ibn Al Walid Brigade.

'Not a conquest'

"The Israeli forces were aggressive towards us long before the outbreak of war, but the atmosphere was very tense leading up to June 5," Deeb said.

According to Nabulsi, 73, the hilly geography of the West Bank made it theoretically easy to defend. Yet, a day before the Israelis captured Nablus, those who wanted to defend their town did not even have a single working firearm.

"The people found some useless guns left over from Ottoman times, went to the hills to defend Nablus and were killed."

Around 8am on June 5, Deeb says he recalls his soldiers shouting at him to turn on the radio.

"We heard Ahmad Said [a well-known Egyptian radio announcer] announce that the Israelis had launched an attack ... I will never forget those days," said Deeb, 64, who now works for the UAE Red Crescent Authority. "They didn't conquer us; we just didn't have a chance because we didn't have the right weapons. But, 40 years on, justice has to be done and the world must realise who the aggressor is and who the victim is."

Like Deeb, Nabulsi says since 1967, the international community has failed to adequately address the Israeli-Palestinian problem.

Born in Nablus, Nabulsi's family moved to Jaffa, but were expelled in 1948 and forced back to Nablus. After the 1967 war, he started a civil disobedience campaign against the occupation and was deported to Jordan.