For Palestinians, 1948 marks the Catastrophe, known in Arabic as Al Nakba, when more than 700 000 people were forced to leave their homes, many killed and many hundreds of villages were depopulated and destroyed. During 1947-49, around 80 percent of the Palestinian inhabitants of what became Israel fled or were expelled. The state of Israel was established on 78 percent of historic Palestine. Later, a series of laws passed by the first Israeli government prevented the refugees from returning to their homes, or claiming their property. They and many of their descendants remain refugees to this day, their right to return denied. Palestinian refugees are the largest remaining refugee population in the world.
May 15th is Nakba Day, Yom al Nakba, is a day of remembering and honouring experiences from Al Nakba. At The Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp, we will honour this year’s Yom al Nakba by getting together to share our families’ stories of the Nakba and screen a film about the events around 1948.
“It would be an offence against the principles of elementary justice if these innocent victims were denied the right to return to their homes, while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine, and, indeed, at least offer the threat of permanent replacement of the Arab refugees who have been rooted in the land for centuries.” Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte, UN Mediator in Palestine, September 1948