Al Nakba: Sixty years of Displacement and Occupation of Palestine [Blog About Palestine Day]

May 16th, 2008 at 05:43am ibrahimo

  Today the 15th of May is the Nakba day, today is the 60th year of the Nakba, for those who do not know Nakba means “The Catastrophe”.  On the 15th of May 1948, 60 years ago, Israel which was a newly created state committed ethnic cleansing in Palestine, destroyed hundreds of villages and exiled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Now those refugees are in millions and Israel still deny them their right of return. They are the oldest and largest refugee population who are still waiting a resolution.

I didn’t live it, my father did not live it, we both heard of it, we both listened to thousands of stories, and saw many many documentaries but we could not describe how it was or what it felt like. Actually my father experienced another big event in Palestine, it happened in 1967 and it is called Al-Naksa which means “The Setback”, its the six days war, its when Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza strip.

Now, I am 32 years old and lived in Dubai all my life, but since I was young and still until today my father keeps reminding us of Palestine, keeps telling me how people used to be, how neighbors used to act, and how that everybody always found happiness in the middle of darkness, pain and suffering. How people helped each other and how people generally used to be nice and kind, he didn’t say that there were no bad people, we are still on earth but he always said that majority of people used to be nicer more caring and more respectful than now, people back then understood the real meaning of things, they understood the real meaning of friendships the real meaning of family, people will always help each other always.

He always tells me how things were simpler back then, how people’s needs were so basic, but he also tells me how his father used to work so hard, how all men had to work hard to bring food on the table, but the story that I guess is imprinted in his mind and he will never ever forget is his story on how when he was 16 years old he woke up on the summer of 1967 finding himself in a ghost neighborhood, all his neighbors are not in their homes, empty homes, empty village.

His father was on a business trip and was not in the house, so he took his six years old little brother and ran to find others running too, it was quickly understood what was happening, he kept running until he reached a farms area and there the Israeli planes started bombing, so he started seeing dead bodies on the way and people dying in front of his and his little brother’s eyes, he keeps telling me how lucky they were that they were between hits, while they were running the Israeli aircrafts would fly low and hit and fly up again and so on all the way until they reached a high fence, he quickly threw his brother, yes he physically threw him to the other side and then he climbed and went to the other side himself. Still they had to keep walking, not only them but a huge number of people they walked and walked seeing people crying, shouting, injured, and dead. He saw a father with his kids crying over the body of the mother, he heard people crying asking for help, he saw women mourning their husbands, sons, and daughters.

His little brother is tired, he carried him, and kept walking, carefully moving, until after hours they reached the Jordanian borders and after passing the border and on his way to Amman he suddenly saw his uncle driving a truck, so he drove them to Amman to meet with his father later that day.

I always have asked him to write his experience, he keeps telling me “There are no words to describe it, as much as you try, there are simply no words”.

So in the end I would like to say one thing more, Israel thinks that we will forget, that time will make us believe the lie that is Israel. We all say no, we will never forget, and those are not just words, those are facts, we never forgot, and we will never forget, Israel might fool mislead misinformed Americans and Europeans, but not us. We have the history, generation after generation we will talk and we will tell, our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, WE WILL TELL.

Palestine I never saw you, but my heart beats for you, you are the reason, you are the dream, and I will see you, this darkness will go and this sadness I feel will leave and I will see you LIBERATED soon.

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Entry Filed under: General, Politics

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