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Monday 16 May 2011 - 08:56

Nakba: 63 years of incessant brutality

By Kourosh Ziabari
Story Code : 72272
Nakba: 63 years of incessant brutality
Nakba, also known as day of the catastrophe, is a date on which more than 725,000 of the indigenous and original inhabitants of Palestine were expelled from their homeland during the 1947 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, in an act to pave the ground for the establishment of the Israeli regime.

According to Palestinian-American historian and political analyst Rashid Khalidi, some 50 percent of the original inhabitants of the Palestine were forced to leave their home in 1948; Nur-eldeen Masalha, however, puts the percentage at 80.

The downfall of the Palestinian leadership and the fear of possible recurrence of a calamity such as the Deir Yassin massacre in which 107 Palestinian villagers were savagely killed by the soldiers of the Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary organizations contributed to the acceleration of the Palestinians' departure from their homeland.

Upon its establishment one day prior to the expiration of the British Mandate of Palestine, the Zionist regime passed a series of laws including the 'Absentees Property Law' which rendered illegitimate and unlawful return of the Palestinians to their villages and perpetuated their expulsion from their homeland. That's why a dozen of historians and Middle East experts have interpreted Israel's action and its occupation of the Palestinian territories as indefinite, continued ethnic cleansing.

Now, 63 years have passed since the Israeli Declaration of Independence and the Palestinian children, women and men are being killed and murdered on a daily basis, their lands are stolen and their properties are confiscated. Despite the brutality of the Israeli regime, the world including the dispassionate and neutral Arab states of the Persian Gulf, watch the agony and suffering of the Palestinian nation with apathy and indifference.

In a recent article, Khalid Amayreh, the Palestinian writer and journalist who resides in the occupied East Al-Quds has likened the 63-year-old brutality of the Israeli regime to the atrocities of the Nazi regime, describing the killing of the Palestinian citizens as a "slow-motion genocide."

"Sixty-three years ago the Zionists demolished 438 Palestinian villages and poisoned or destroyed wells to ensure that their rightful owners would not return. Today, Zionists keep on behaving more or less along the same traditions, demolishing homes, destroying farms, and narrowing people's horizons, all with the goal of making them emigrate," wrote Khalid Amayreh.

"Israel celebrates freedom while more than nine million Palestinians are treated like slaves or children of a lesser God, some languishing in refugee camps, also for 63 years, or subjected to horrible conditions such as mass detention, collective starvation, daily persecution, with no freedom and very little hope for a better tomorrow," he added.

Now, the Palestinian people along with the independent nations of the world are getting prepared to commemorate the 63rd Nakba. Several demonstrations are slated to be held around the world to bring into spotlight the oppression of the people of Palestine; a nation which has unjustifiably been subject to all forms of collective punishment and deprived of the most essential and basic forms of human rights.

According to Palestine News Network, Nakba demonstrations are expected to take place all over the West Bank, Al-Quds, Gaza and the countries across the world.

Fearing the possible massive gatherings of the Palestinian citizens in the occupied territories, the Israeli forces have adopted tough security measures ahead of the Nakba Day protests and arrested several Palestinians.

The Palestine News Network reported yesterday that Israeli troops "attacked a number of protests organized in several parts of east Al-Quds commemorating the 63 anniversary of the Nakba" on Friday. "Milad Ayiash, 16, was injured during Friday clashes, according to doctors at Makased hospital. The boy was shot in his abdomen and died on Saturday morning when two operations by doctors failed to save his life," the report added.

Now, the artificial state of Israel is celebrating the 63rd year of its establishment jovially while the besieged people of Gaza Strip are starving and suffering painfully, having no access to the outside world. The Palestinian residents of the occupied territories are also continuously subject to the most dreadful forms of torture and persecution.

Documents recently released by the CIA suggest that Israel cannot survive for more than 20 years. One should sit back and wait to see whether the regime which has occupied the homeland of a subjugated nation and suppressed them with the most horrendous apparatus can commemorate the 83rd year of its dishonorable life or not.
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