The catastrophe. More than just a historical event

This month, Palestinians and their supporters around the world commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, an Arabic word for catastrophe, and for the first time since its occurrence, the United Nations is participating in commemorating this painful anniversary.

The Nakba is not a passing historical event, but a catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people, the events of which lasted for about two years, from mid-1947 to mid-1949, an era filled with terror, brutality and terrorism, in which a prosperous homeland was shattered, a people in exile and the diaspora was displaced, and a dream evaporated, and even turned into a nightmare perched on the chest of the Palestinians to date.

Historians, including Israelis, assert that all the horrors that our Palestinian people went through during that period were part of a deliberate plan by the high leadership of the Zionist movement, as a condition for preparing the ground for the proclamation of the establishment of the State of Israel.

During that period, more than 530 Palestinian villages were destroyed, more than 700 villages and cities were taken over, and more than 750,50 Palestinians (about <>% of the Palestinians who lived in historic Palestine) were displaced, with all kinds of brutality and organized terrorism, such as killing innocent people, cows the stomachs of pregnant women, burning houses, and destroying farms and water wells.

But before we proceed to answer the first question about the Nakba and its repercussions and consequences, we must pause for a moment on pre-Nakba Palestine, the Palestine of the people, life, art, civilization and heritage. Unfortunately, some accepted the Zionist narrative of Palestine before the Nakba without any scrutiny, including the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in her speech on the occasion of the establishment of the State of Israel, despite the fact that she is German in nationality, and is supposed to be highly sensitive to the oppression of one people by another, and not to hold others responsible for crimes committed by her country one day.

Since their occupation of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionists have promoted that Palestine was a desert, devoid of inhabitants, and that thanks to their efforts it turned into the paradise of the Middle East, and established a political system in it that adopts the values of freedom, democracy and the defense of human rights.

But this false narrative does not stand up to the most basic facts of history, which are known to many who lived in Palestine before the Nakba and are still alive, which confirms that Palestine before its occupation by the Zionists was a vibrant and prosperous country in all fields, education, health, agriculture, industry, tourism and sports.

• Haifa and Jaffa were two of the largest and most famous ports in the region, competing with international ports at the time in terms of civility and commercial traffic, and Haifa even had a huge oil refinery.
• Arab Bank was established in Jerusalem in 1930, and after 80 years the bank became the largest banking institution in the Arab world, and one of the largest banking institutions around the world.
• The number of researchers is between 45 and 50 Palestinian newspapers that were published before the Nakba, in addition to magazines specialized in agriculture, engineering, industry and others, in addition to the fact that the Palestinians operated the second radio station in the Arab world after the Egyptian radio, which was broadcast from Jerusalem.
• Palestinians have established many theaters and cinemas in various Palestinian cities, especially in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa, to host various cultural, literary and artistic activities, the most famous of which is the Al-Hamra Theater and Cinema in Jerusalem.
• In 1929, the Palestinian football team became a member of the International Federation of Association Football Association (FIFA), and was one of the first teams in the region, and the team participated in the World Cup finals in Italy in 1934.
• The first women's association in Palestine was founded in 1903, in Acre, and was headed by Mrs. Nabiha Al-Mansi. The first Palestinian Women's Union was established in 1921, with the support of Mrs. Emilia Sakakini and Zuleikha Shihabi, and the "Women's Renaissance Association" was established in 1924 in the city of Ramallah, where Palestinian women were active in all political, cultural and societal fields.
• Since the thirties of the last century, Palestinians have sent hundreds of teachers, doctors and nurses to emerging countries in the Gulf region and contributed to building these states in many fields. The first ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations, Mr. Ahmed Shugairi, was Palestinian, and they contributed to the establishment of many Arab newspapers and radio stations after their expulsion from their homeland.
• In agriculture, Palestine exported many crops such as wheat, olives, oranges, bananas and watermelons, and most of the agricultural land (95-99%) was managed by Palestinian farmers.

These are just some examples of the vitality and prosperity of life in Palestine before the Nakba, and for information only, the Jews took control by force in 1948 of about 78% of the territory of historic Palestine, and established their state on this area, and until the occupation of Palestine in 1967, the state's activity remained limited to the part where the historic Palestinian cities were, Haifa, Jaffa, Beersheba, Ramle, Lod, Ashdod, Majdal and Nazareth, and all the new cities they established after the establishment of the state were on the outskirts of the historic Palestinian cities or the expansion of some Its neighborhoods, such as in Tel Aviv, Netanya and others, and their presence is concentrated in the Sahel and central region, and these do not exceed 20% of the total area under their control, while the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Negev desert and the Galilee regions in the north, the Jewish presence and action in them remained weak and negligible until the moment, and for this the current far-right Israeli government has developed strategic plans for the reconstruction and revival of these areas in the Negev and the Galilee.

Perhaps the above is an objective scientific denial of facts and figures of what is promoted by the Zionist narratives about Palestine before and after the Nakba and their role in its reconstruction.

Back to the original question, what does the Nakba mean for Palestinians? Many believe that the Nakba is a short historical period experienced by the Palestinian people during the establishment of the State of Israel, full of pain, suffering, brutality and displacement. The truth is that the Nakba, with all its catastrophic and brutal meanings, suffering and racism, continues today, even more systematically and deeply.

Since the Nakba in 1948, the Zionist leadership has devised a plan to control and control the Palestinian people, thwart their ability to revolt and reject, and destroy any chance of dreaming of a better future based on freedom, independence, dignity and return to their homes from which they were forcibly displaced.

The first of these steps was the division of the remaining Palestinian people inside historic Palestine into ghettos completely separated from each other and subject to different laws, and completely different from the Jewish population in the same areas, which we ended up with today with the reality of the apartheid state, which was proven by many international human rights institutions such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, even the Israeli B'Tselem Foundation.

More than one million Palestinians have been arrested, tortured and deprived since the 1967 occupation, including thousands of children, women, the sick and the elderly. Thousands of homes and institutions were demolished outside the law, thousands of dunums were stolen from their original owners and given to settlers to build new outposts. Hundreds of thousands of trees, especially olives, have been cut down, destroyed or burned, and natural resources, especially water, already scarce, have been stolen.

Today, more than 76% of the West Bank is under full Israeli control, which means deprivation of freedom of movement and the danger of movement, the destruction of the local economy due to the difficulty of import and export, in addition to daily incursions into Palestinian cities and villages and the intimidation of the unsuspected.

The Gaza Strip, a narrow coastline (365 square kilometers), has been under a suffocating Israeli blockade for more than 17 years, turning the Strip with its 2.3 million people, 60 percent of whom are children, into the largest open-air prison or, as some call it, a new concentration camp.

Most seriously, 7 million Palestinians in the diaspora suffer from deprivation of the most basic basic rights and are repeatedly subjected to waves of persecution and persecution in various countries, deprived of their natural right to return to their homes from which they were forcibly displaced, as happened with many peoples who left their countries in times of war and crisis.

This situation is unsustainable, and without the Palestinians obtaining their political and civil rights, freedom, independence, self-determination and return, there will be no security or stability for anyone, here and in the region as well as at the international level, because the question of Palestine is the central issue for all Arab and Islamic peoples, as well as our Palestinian people.

The international community that created this problem must assume its full and effective responsibilities in resolving the conflict and, in the meantime, ensuring a dignified and secure life for the Palestinians. Some statements of solidarity are no longer sufficient without taking practical steps to stop the aggression, end the conflict and hold war criminals accountable.

The United Nations' decision, for the first time, to commemorate the Nakba is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough to put an end to this catastrophe and resolve the conflict in a way that achieves justice, peace and security for all.