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The Palestinian Nakba -Report and Photos from Oxford Vigil

Pam Parsons | 17.05.2006 16:12 | Anti-racism | Repression | Oxford

On Sunday May 14th Oxford residents gathered to commemorate the 58th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Arabic for Catastrophe)










The Nakba witnessed the destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages, the killing of 13,000 Palestinians, and the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands between 1947 and 1949.
During the vigil the names of all the destroyed villages were read out. A candle was lit for each village and placed on a large map of Palestine. Passersby stopped to participate in the vigil, to find out more about the Nakba and to light a candle. When all villages had been named and all 500 candles lit the vigil ended with the naming of the villages where massacres occurred and people stood in silence to remember the 13,000 who were killed.

The vigil was organized jointly by the Oxford Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the University of Oxford Arab Cultural Society and the University Palestine Society. It marked the start of Nakba Awareness Week.

Events for the remainder of the week are:

Wednesday May 17th, 8pm Wadham College, Old Refectory : Palestine then and Now, a lecture by Husam Zomlot ( Charge D’Affaires, Palestine General Delegation to the UK)

Thursday May 18th , 7.30pm Nakba Literature Readings, St Anthony’s College, Fellows Dining Room. Readings from the works of Palestinian and Israeli authors by Gabi Piterberg, Omar Shweiki and Abdel Razzaq Takriti

Friday May 19th, 8.15pm, Wadham College, old Refectory: Keynote Lecture: Commemorating the Nakba, a talk by Dr Ahmad Khalidi (Former Palestinian Negotiator and Senior Associate Member of St Anthony’s College).

Pam Parsons
- e-mail: oxfordpsc@yahoo.com
- Homepage: http://www.oxfordpsc.info

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

But do not forget

18.05.2006 13:20

1. Jews did not really have many other places to go in 1948

2. The stated Arab aim was absolute destruction and murder of Jews in Mandate Palestine

3. Jews accepted Partition, the Arabs did not and fighting started after this rejection

4. The Arab armies started the fighting

5. The majority of the land lived on by Jews was uninhabitable dessert and swamp land which the Jews turned into farmland

6. The massacre of Jews at Gush Etzion

7. The Palestinians were led by Haj Amin Al Husseini who wanted to set up death camps for Jews and consulted Hitler on this.

J&P


Response to #1

21.05.2006 12:20

1) So that makes it ok to kick a million people out of their homes??? Why should Palestinians pay the price for Nazi crimes?

2) Erm, no it wasnt.

3) No wonder the Jewish people accepted - it gave what had until recently been a tiny minority control over the majority of the country. Why on earth would Palestinians accept that they should live in a Jewish state when the majority of people are not Jews? What other nation would?

4) Very debatable. But for arguments sake lets say its true - because Palestinians were having their aspirations of a nation taken from them.

5) A land without people for a people without land - that was the old slogan... cant believe people still buy this crap! Strange how so many old Palestinian villages are now populated by Jewish communities

6) Hebron 1929 as well... a crime and a tragedy. But tensions between the Jewish and Arab communities were exacerbated by Zionist talk of creating Israel and mass immigration with the aggressive intention of denying Palestinians their state.

7) Yes he did support Hitler... unforgiveable. But I sincerely believe the majority of Palestinians were and are not anti-semitic.

NablusNights


Your history isn't correct

25.05.2006 23:48

Except that its not true that "a million people" were kicked out of out of their homes. The leaders of the Arabs ordered the Arabs to clear the battlefields so that they could anhilate the Jews. Then the Arabs lost,despite having the combined armies of 7 Arab Nations. So it has nothin gto do with" Palestinians pay the price for Nazi crimes" although they were Nazi allies.

The Jewish people accepted the partition plan in the interests of peace. Read William Ziff's "Rape of Palestine". At a certain period in history, there wer emore Moslems in all of Palestine than Jews, although Jews were the majority in Jerusalem for centuries. Many of the Moslems were immigrants themselves .

Prior to 1948, there wasno such thing as "Palestinians were having their aspirations of a nation". In fact, had the Arabs won in 1948, we would never have heard the word,"Palestinian" as the area would have been divided up among Syria, Jordan Egypt and Lebanon.

Hebron 1929 as well... a crime and a tragedy. But tensions between the Jewish and Arab communities were exacerbated by the Grand Mufit Al Husseini inciting the Arab peasants by lying to them and saying "that the Jews swere going to destroy the Dome of The Rock." Further, the Arabs resented the idea that Jews, a Dhimmi people, whowere supposed to be subservient to Moslems and second class could have even basic civil rights.

If you "sincerely believe the majority of Palestinians were and are not anti-semitic" then read what they actually say about "the Jews". Its shocking tohear in this modern era.

Actually knows the history