In 1948, Intisar Muhana’s family fled the village of al-Masmiyya, northeast of Gaza, during the war that accompanied the creation of Israel. Last week, she lost her home again when it was destroyed during Israeli airstrikes.
Muhana’s family was among an estimated 750,000 Palestinians who were forced out of or fled their homes around the 1948 war. Every year on May 15, Palestinians mourn the Nakba, or catastrophe, that resulted in their forced exodus.
For those who ended up in Gaza, the anniversary is particularly bitter after five days of Israeli airstrikes against the militant Islamic Jihad group in the enclave, destroying dozens of homes and leaving hundreds homeless. Hundreds of rockets were fired at Israel by Palestinian militants.
“They destroyed al-Masmiyya’s and we came here. Now they’ve done it again and we end up with nothing,” said Muhana. “We have nothing there and now we have nothing here.”
Some 5.6 million Palestinian refugees – mostly descendants of those who were forced to flee – currently live in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. About half of registered refugees remain stateless, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, many living in crowded camps.
This year, the United Nations (UN) will remember Nakba for the first time. In the West Bank, where Palestinians exercise limited self-rule under Israeli military rule, a siren will sound for 75 seconds to mark 75 years since the Nakba.
Negotiations on ending the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled for years, leaving no prospect of any deal that would establish a line to which all sides can agree. Meanwhile, the memories live on.
“Those who said the old will die and the young will forget are wrong,” said Yacoub Odeh, who was 8 in the 1948 war when he fled under fire from his village of Lifta in the hills outside Jerusalem. “I am 83 years old, I have not forgotten and I will not forget.”
Odeh, now a resident of Shu’afat, about 7 km away, frequently visits Lifta. He still calls the village home and looks forward to returning with his children and grandchildren.
One spring day, he walked through the village, greeting the abandoned domes as if they were alive: “Good morning, home. Good morning, arches and pillars.”
Lifta’s houses are still standing, but uninhabited.
vivid memories
For those of generations born since 1948, like Muhana’s son Mohammad, 56, memories are kept alive in family histories.
He said his mother kept telling the family about the houses and fields they owned in al-Masmiyya, a story they are now telling their children so they can keep hope alive.
“Of course I have hope. My 97-year-old mother asks me every day to take her to al-Masmiyya, and she still has hope,” said Mohammad. “Whatever happens and no matter how many times they bomb, we will continue to live here,” he added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Israeli diplomats worked to dissuade other countries from attending the UN event.
“We will fight the falsehood that is the ‘Nakba’ with all our might and we will not allow the Palestinians to continue spreading lies and distorting history,” he said, indicating that Israel does not agree with the Palestinians’ view of what happened in 1948.
(Edited by Angus MacSwan)
Source: CNN Brasil
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