On the “Nakba” anniversary: Palestinian determine on right to return
The item of “Nakba”, in general, denotes to the catastrophes resulting from the natural circumstances such as earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes. In the Palestinian case, the “Nakba” of Palestine is manifested in the process of an ethnic cleansing, demolition, dismissing unarmed people and replacing them with other people as a result of military schemes, the collusion of colonialist states and some Arab regimes.
The incidents of Palestine’s “Nakba” and its repercussions are considered a great tragedy to the Palestinian people , in which about 800 thousand Palestinians were displaced from their villages and cities to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Arab neighboring countries.
During the year of “Nakba” in 1948, the Zionists controlled about 774 villages and cities from about 1300 Palestinian ones spread in the historical Palestine (the area stretched between Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea) and destroyed 531 Palestinian cities and villages. The Zionist gangs also perpetrated more than 70 massacre against the Palestinian people, in which more than 15 thousand Palestinians were killed.
In 1948, the number of Palestinian people was 1.4 million person , while now they are estimated at 11.5 million person in the whole world. This means that their number doubled 8 times since the “Nakba”.
In 1948, the number of Palestinian people who don’t leave their country was 154 thousand while now they are estimated at 1.5 million person. In 1967, the number of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories was 4.5 million person , 2.8 millions of them in the West Bank and about 1.7 millions in Gaza strip. Thus the number of the Palestinians currently resident in the historical Palestine is 6 millions and is scheduled to reach 7.2 million person by the end of 2020 if the growth rates became the same.
The statistics of 2012 showed that the number of the refugees registered in UNRWA reached 5.1 million Palestinian refugees by the end of the year. 59.1% of the Palestinians live in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, 23.8% in Gaza Strip and 17.1% in the West Bank. About 29% of the Palestinian refugees live in 58 camps (10 camps in Jordan, 9 in Syria, 12 in Lebanon, 19 in the West Bank, 8 in Gaza strip).
These estimates represent the minimum number of the Palestinian refugees because there is unregistered ones. The aforementioned numbers don’t include the Palestinians who were displaced after 1949 till 1967 and the ones who were evacuated in 1967 who were not originally refugees.
In this occasion, the Palestinian people in their homeland answered the invitation of the Higher Follow-up Committee of the Arab People to participate in the return march which was organized by the Society of Defending the Displaced Rights on 16 April 2013 to a destroyed village south Haifa and which became a yearly occasion occurred under the logo of ” the day of their independence is the day of our Nakba”.
The Society of Defending the Displaced rights issued a statement affirming that the right to return is an unchangeable holy right.
In all Diaspora (Shatat) areas, the Palestinian people this year organize different activities to celebrate the “Nakba” anniversary in which they will express their adherence to their homeland and their cause in addition to their determination to apply the right to return.
Written by: I.Abdulkarim