Afrasianet - 77 years after the Nakba, the same scene of systematic displacement and destruction continues in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The chapters of the tragedy are no different from what happened in 1948, as the Israeli occupation reproduces the Nakba with more sophisticated tools, and with the same goals of obliterating identity, crushing memory and forcing Palestinians to forcibly leave their land.

With these words, academic and expert in Israeli affairs Ibrahim Abu Jaber began his speech to Al Jazeera Net, recalling what his village experienced during the Nakba, where a bloody massacre occurred in which 14 people from the village were killed at once, followed by sporadic massacres that killed dozens of relatives and neighbors.

Abu Jaber is a refugee from the village of al-Araqib in the Negev, of which only the cemetery remains after the occupation demolished it more than 200 times, but he still longs for it, visiting it, sitting under its trees and eating from his ancestral land.

It also tells a tragic story that took place in the village of Mansi in northern Palestine, when 28 elderly and disabled people were gathered and set on fire while they were alive, to be burned in cold blood without mercy.

In the village of al-Kofkha, located in the Fallujah area known today as Kiryat Gat, civilians were burned as they slept in the fields, repeating the image of mass death that has become inherent in memories of the Nakba. 

On one of his visits, he found a stone on which his mother was baking before the displacement, so he carried it with him to his house, and said, "This is our land, this is our memory, we live on memory, it is the only thing left for us."

These stories are among hundreds of accounts collected by Abu Jaber during his work on the Wound of the Nakba, a 12-volume encyclopedia of living testimonies documenting mass atrocities committed against Palestinians, from burning and burying them alive to beheading and kicking them like soccer balls, as happened in the village of Eilaboun in the Upper  Galilee.

Palestinian Camps

While the scenes of displacement and destruction continue from the Nakba to the present day, Palestinian researchers warn that what is happening is not limited to the humanitarian or security dimensions, but reflects a systematic policy of the Israeli occupation that targets the essence of the Palestinian presence by striking the camps as an incubator of national identity and a memory of the Nakba.

Writer and expert on Israeli affairs Suleiman Bisharat believes that what is happening in the Palestinian camps cannot be separated from the broader conflict over national identity, stressing that the occupation deals with the matter from two angles:

•    The first is about trying to obliterate everything that links Palestinians to their historical roots.

•    Second, this creates a deeper attachment to the right of return and belonging to the land.

Bisharat said – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – that the Palestinian camps are not just residential communities, but are living evidence of the Nakba and setback, and represent national symbols rooted in the Palestinian conscience.

He added that what is happening in the camps in the northern West Bank now is part of an organized process to reshape Palestinian awareness and environment, in an attempt to create a new reality that separates man from his history and land.

Targeting UNRWA

The importance of  the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)  goes beyond being a relief agency, as it represents international recognition of the tragedy of Palestinian refugees and their right of return, and together with reconstruction efforts, constitutes the first line of defense against attempts to obliterate national identity.

Bisharat links these measures to the campaign against UNRWA, arguing that the targeting of UNRWA is not only administrative or funding, but also political and aims to obliterate any physical evidence that supports the Palestinian narrative.

He also pointed out that the widespread destruction of infrastructure and public facilities in Gaza falls within the same context, and aims to uproot the Palestinian from his land and transfer him to a new living environment separate from his historical and emotional context.

Bisharat spoke about US President Donald Trump's proposal  for the "Oliveira Gaza" project, considering that this initiative is not just a reconstruction plan, but an attempt to produce a new Palestinian identity separated from land and national belonging.

He believes that the aim of the project is to create a Palestinian generation that does not have the same deep attachment to the cause of return, which in his view facilitates pressure later to give up these historical rights.

Bisharat stressed that what is happening today is an existential conflict, in which Israel is trying to  redefine the relationship of the Palestinian with his land and identity, at a time when the Palestinian is fighting the battle to defend the narrative and the right of return in the face of attempts to obliterate and distort.

Nakba Anniversary

The anniversary of the Nakba returns this year in light of the ongoing war of extermination on the Gaza Strip, to repeat the scenes of displacement and cleansing experienced by Palestinians in 1948, as it is a Nakba that did not end, but was reproduced with new tools and one goal to uproot the Palestinian from his land.

The Acting Secretary-General of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, Hisham Abu Mahfouz, said that the 77th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba comes in light of the Israeli war of extermination waged by the occupation army against  the Gaza Strip, and the worsening of the humanitarian situation due to the continuation of the policy of siege, starvation and war crimes.

In press statements, he added that the anniversary of the Nakba this year came at a new stage in the struggle of the Palestinian people, entitled the demise of the Israeli project, the liberation of land and the extraction of rights. 

He pointed out that the issue has regained its position on the list of priorities  of the international community, amid the escalation of global voices in support of the Palestinians and rejection of the war of extermination, calling for the continuation of the global movement and holding the occupation accountable for its crimes and stopping the aggression on Gaza.

Source : Al Jazeera