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The Nakba: Memory, Reality and Beyond
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by Florence Steichen, W A M M
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The 7th International Sabeel Conference in Nazareth and Jerusalem Nov. 12-19 was a rich experience. Sabeel is an ecumenical center in Jerusalem for Palestinian liberation theology. The Arabic word Sabeel means “the Way”; it also means spring.
Nakba is the Arabic word for catastrophe—the establishment of the state of Israel in Palestine. Rashid Khalidi, an American historian of Palestinian descent and professor of Arab studies at Columbia University, says that in the U.S. one can’t use the term Nakba because it seems to say that the establishment of Israel was a catastrophe.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said at Annapolis in 2007 that Israel would rejoice in the establishment of a Palestinian state provided that upon its establishment the word Nakba be deleted from the Arabic lexicon in referring to Israel. The Palestinian American literary theorist, cultural critic, and outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights Edward Said observed: “Permission to narrate is denied to Palestinians.”
This conference was about remembering the story of Nakba and passing it on. Since there were at least 200 participants, we were divided into groups for the field trips. We visited four Palestinian villages among the 531 that were depopulated and destroyed in 1948-49.
At Al-Ghabissya a survivor, speaking to us through an interpreter, had drawn a large poster of the village showing each building, walkway, and tree. He now lives within sight of his former house. As a child, he preferred to stay home and listen to the elders rather than play. He was ten when they were expelled from their homes. Since the village had a nonaggression agreement with the Zionist forces, when they saw the military appear, a villager approached, waving a white flag. He was shot. Subsequently they were allowed back, then expelled again.
A major theme of the conference was: The survivors want to tell their stories. The memory of what happened to them cannot be lost.
Another emphasis was the sobering reality that the Nakba continues. On November 18, author Jeff Halper began his talk on the ongoing Nakba by stating: “In East Jerusalem, homes were demolished today. In Silwan 50 homes have been taken over and 80 are to be demolished for an archaeological park in the City of David. In Gaza today, 3,000 were arrested.”
Halper (who is a Minnesotan, a Macalester graduate, a Jewish Israeli citizen, professor of anthropology at Ben Gurion University, Israel, and the founder and director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions) published a recent article: “A Bone in America’s Throat.” The piece summarizes at least five ways the conflict directly affects Americans:
It isolates the U.S. from major global markets, forcing it to embark on aggressive measures to secure markets rather than peaceful accommodations; it thereby diverts the American economy into production like tanks, not roads, making it dependent upon deficit spending, which only increases dependency upon foreign financing while diverting resources into the military rather than into education, health, and social investment.
Support for the Israeli military costs U.S. taxpayers more than $3 billion annually at a time of deepening recession and crumbling national infrastructure. It leads to an American involvement in the world that is mainly military, thus begetting hostility and resistance, which produce the threats to security Americans so greatly fear. Halper concludes: “Like a bone in the throat, the issue of Israel’s occupation can be neither ignored nor bypassed.”
On a contemporary Way of the Cross, our group visited the home of Fadia Abul-Hajj’s brother in Beit Hanina. (Abul-Hajj is a local Palestinian activist and board member of Middle East Peace Now.) The home had four stories plus a porch, built without a permit. It is almost impossible for Palestinians to receive a permit to build or add to a house. The family offered to pay the fine and even demolish the porch they had built, but that was not accepted, and the home, where 70 people lived, was demolished in July.
We made a condolence call to Fawzieh al-Kurd, a Palestinian refugee who lived in East Jerusalem with her family, including her disabled husband, five children, and their families, in a home given to the family by the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees. She was living in a tent, because settlers took over their home at about 4:30 a.m. Nov. 9. Like the others, she wanted to tell her story. Her husband has since died from injuries suffered during the violent eviction.
Interwoven with the grief of remembering the Nakba, there were many reasons for hope. Khalid Rashidi emphasized that the Palestinian narrative is one of steadfastness. Memory takes place in the family, the most important unit. Memory is the rock on which Palestinian society stands.
Political leaders are not the most important factor. The family, the neighborhood, shops, mosques, churches, and schools keep society together. The people perform better than their political leaders. The work of memory of the Nakba is the key reason the Palestinians still exist without unified leadership.
Rashid Khalidi emphasized that Palestinian unity needs an overhaul. Since most Palestinians live elsewhere, they cannot focus only on Gaza and the West Bank. Needed is a new focus on those within Israel and those outside Palestine. Several speakers stressed the importance of nonviolent action and a growing awareness of the power of nonviolence.
The Right of Return is never far from Palestinians’ minds. It is central to a just solution. UN General Assembly Resolution 194 states that those who wish are to be able to return to their homes as soon as possible. Two-thirds of Palestinians are refugees. Israel says the right does not apply to descendants. The Oslo Accord of 1993 postponed consideration of the Right of Return to final status negotiations.
Throughout the conference, there was a focus on hope. One of a number of hopeful workshops, “Neither Shall They Learn War Anymore: New Profile, the Movement for the Civilization of Israeli Society,” reminded me of WAMM.
New Profile is a group of Israeli feminists, women and men ranging in age from teenagers to a 76-year-old. Currently there are 60 members, all volunteers. Their work is to counter the militaristic mindset, in which each side labels the other the enemy, the aggressor. In Israel, the number one industry is arms.
In Israel, with compulsory military service, the last two years of high school are preparation for induction. New Profile provides information to people considering the option of not serving in the military. They facilitate youth groups, including summer camp. The refusal movement is growing.
New Profile creates discussion of the military, by means of a roving exhibit of monuments, textbooks, and ads. Soldiers at a checkpoint are told to leave their conscience at the door. Half the soldiers in the military cemetery committed suicide.
A final note would be: Don’t despair. If Palestinians have not despaired in 60 years, we cannot despair.
Although the official Israeli narrative has a stranglehold in the U.S., Rashid Khalidi said, they cannot keep up the lie indefinitely, and this opens up opportunities. Israel is not as strong as it appears, nor is the U.S. consensus as strong as it appears.
Mairead Maguire, Nobel laureate, reminded us that sooner or later all violent conflict ends. The truth must be spoken before reconciliation.
That’s what we must do—tell the truth. |
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Cost of War
According to the UN, most of Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinian refugees subsist near the edge of hunger. Seventy per cent of Palestinian children in Gaza suffer from severe malnutrition and psychological trauma. Medical facilities are critically short of doctors, personnel, equipment, and drugs. Gaza has quite literally become a human garbage dump for all the Arabs that Israel does not want. Gaza is one of the world’s most densely populated places, a vast outdoor prison camp filled with desperate people.
—Eric S. Margolis, 1/4/09
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© 2009 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete February 2009 Index - click here
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