74 years since the Palestinian Nakba, firm adherence to the right of return and steadfastness in the face of displacement

In a voice filled with nostalgia, 94-year-old Palestinian Khadra Al-Hamayda in occupied Palestine  spoke to SANA reporter about details of the Nakba with her grandchildren sitting around her hearing the story of Palestinian tragedy and saying, “We do not forget, we do not die, and we will continue the struggle to restore  all our rights and defeat the Israeli occupation.”

Al-Hamayda noted  that the Zionist gangs were attacking Palestinian villages with the help of the British forces, which provided them with weapons and all means of support and enabled them to seize 774 Palestinian villages and cities, pointing out that thousands of Palestinians were martyred as a result of these attacks, including five members of her family, in addition to the displacement of hundreds of thousands.

The painful events that the elderly Al-Hamayda narrates about some of the details of the Nakba that she witnessed are still repeated in all their details. After 74 years of the tragedy, the Israeli occupation continues to commit its crimes of killing, displacement and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians, while the international community continues its silence and does not take any practical action to implement relevant international legitimacy resolutions, foremost of which is Resolution 194, which stipulates the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes from which they were expelled in 1948.

Decades have passed and the resistance of the Palestinian people continues, and the days increase their clinging to their land and determination to continue the struggle for the restoration of all their legitimate national rights, foremost of which is the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital on the line of June 4, 1967.

Under the slogan “Enough.. 74 years of injustice and double standards, the Nakba of Palestine is a crime that does not have a statute of limitations,” the Palestinian people commemorate this year the Nakba anniversary through carrying out many activities in the besieged Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, refugee camps in Palestine and the Diaspora.

The Palestine Liberation Organization said in a statement that the program of activities commemorating the Nakba begins with raising the flag of Palestine over the headquarters of public institutions and facilities, then mass, artistic and heritage activities will be launched in conjunction with the Return Festival, which will be organized tomorrow in Al-Manara Square in the center of Ramallah.

Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Wasel Abu Yousef, noted that the memory of the Nakba for this year is important in light of the heroism of the Palestinians in confronting the occupation in the occupied territories of 1948, Jerusalem, Jenin and other Palestinian cities to thwart its Judaizing colonial schemes. Despite the displacement of the Palestinian people in all parts of the world, but they still adhere to the right of return, thus dropping the occupation’s saying, “The old die and the young forget.”

A member of the Political Bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Talal Abu Zarifa, indicated that the Nakba in 1948 was the largest ethnic cleansing and demographic uprooting in the modern era, as the occupation completely destroyed 531 Palestinian villages and committed massacres that killed more than 15,000 Palestinian martyrs, in addition to the displacement of 950,000 Palestinians who still live in camps and in the countries of the Diaspora. He pointed out that their number exceeded six million refugees after 74 years of the Nakba, and they still hope to return to their homes from which they were displaced.

Member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Maryam Abu Daqqa, confirmed that the Palestinian cause is going through dangerous stages as a result of the international community continuing to deal with duplicity and ignoring the crimes of the occupation, stressing that no matter how brutal the occupation is, the Palestinian people will continue the battle of liberation and return as resistance is the option and the only way to end the occupation.

Inas Abdulkareem