A few days ago the Palestinian National Council commemorated the 85th anniversary of the Al-Nakba, the Zionist eviction of Arabs from Palestine, under the chairmanship of Saleem Al-Zaanoun in Amman, Jordan.
Interestingly the Arab media failed to cover the event. In comparison the anniversary of the Holocaust, the Nazi persecution of European Jews in Europe, is celebrated worldwide with such solemnity that even the slightest suggestion of doubt about certain aspects of the Holocaust is portrayed as a crime against humanity. Noticeably countries that are considered to be responsible for the Holocaust have also paid huge sums of money to Jewish victims and the state of Israel.
This year the Palestinian Council’s memorial meeting rightfully focused on the “right to return” of the six million Palestinian refugees, who have been condemned to languish in unhygienic refugee camps or wander around in the distant corners of the globe since 1948 for no fault of their own. The meeting also highlighted the crucial role played by Britain in allowing this enormous disaster to occur by paving the way for the founding of the state of Israel, a fact forgotten or unknown to the present generation.
During its thirty-year mandate over Palestine, Britain helped the Zionists in every possible way to lay the foundations of a Jewish state. The mandate authorities would turn the other way as Jews organized armed militias with the help of the International Jewish Agency, in order to prepare the ground for a political state in the region. And as Arabs were displaced, Britain permitted European Jews to migrate to the Holy Land in huge numbers.
The Jews were further encouraged in their colonial efforts when the British Mandate granted the Hebrew language official status in Palestine, putting it on par with Arabic and English. Jewish officials were appointed over Arab regions with the aim of training them to facilitate a Jewish take over.
The mandate also helped the Jews to establish the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet LeYisrael), in compliance with the recommendations of the Fifth Jewish Congress at Basel. Its purpose was to buy and develop land in Palestine for Jewish settlement. It is quite apparent that the statutes of the fund were formulated with a design to execute a colonial settlement plan. For example, the statutes stipulated that land bought by the fund became eternal endowments for the Jewish nation, ownership of which could not be transferred and nor leased to Gentiles. The aim of the fund was simply to encourage Jewish workers to settle in Palestine in huge numbers with the guarantee of employment.
The statement issued at the Amman meeting said that the Palestinians at the time were aware of Jewish conspiracies and so clung to their land and on several occasions rose up against Jewish moves despite the unequal balance between the two sides. The first uprising took place in 1921, followed by the uprising of 1929 and 1936, the last of which lasted for three years and was recorded as one of the longest civil disobedience movements in history. In spite of Arab protests, the Al-Nakba of 1948 still took place, an event within which thousands of Palestinians were driven out of their lands and hundreds of towns and cities were left demolished.
I do not deny that there are people who believe that there is no point in holding the countries, which contributed to the Palestinian Nakba, responsible for the huge loss of life and land in the Arab world. These people take the view that it is pointless to demand suitable compensation from such countries for the pain suffered as a result of the establishment of Israel.
Even worse is the fact that these people are calling for the abandonment of the legitimate right to return of Palestinian refugees. These people argue that political pragmatism demands that the Arabs shelve the refugee issue and as a token of acceptance Israel should only accept a couple of thousand refugees. The scheme these people propose specifies that the few refugees who might be allowed to return should not demand their original homes and properties occupied by Jews in 1948 or after. Instead they should be housed elsewhere in the West Bank, (only 30 percent of which will be left to the Palestinians). To make matters worse such a scheme would only be implemented if found to be acceptable to Israel.
It is a sad fact that very few people care to commemorate the Palestinian Al-Nakba, an event that only attracts slight media coverage. In stark contrast, Israel annually celebrates the dispossession and eviction of Arabs, proclaiming it as a great victory to the Jewish freedom struggle. The fact that Europe, the United States and the United Nations willingly join Israel in its commemoration of the Holocaust is clear evidence that we increasingly and significantly need to keep alive the memory of the theft of Palestinian lands, an event in which over six million people were driven away.
