56 Years of Palestinian Naksah Day, Continue to Fight for Independence
By Ali Farkhan Tsani, Senior Editor of MINA News Agency
June 5, 2023 marks 56 years of Naksah Day (Yaum an-Naksah / Naksa Day) which means “day of decline” for the Palestinian people. This refers to the defeat of the combined Arab army against the Israeli occupation forces.
Commemorating Naksah Day 2023, Muhammad al-Madhoun, Head of the Department of Refugees and Popular Committees, Hamas Islamic Resistance Movement, said, “The decline and appropriation of what remains of Palestine is a Western settlement project, the spearhead of which is a Zionist project, aimed at protecting the interests of West”.
“We remain convinced that the Palestinian Arab region has heritage elements in history, geography, language and religion. The rise and unity of our resistance will become a strategic threat to the occupation,” he said, as broadcast by Quds Press, Sunday, June 4, 2023.
Al-Madhoun adds an element of decline as the Palestinian people move from one disaster to another.
He displayed an ignorance of faith, intellectual literacy, and politics during this time, resulting in a weakness towards foreign powers. Instead of walking with the enemy (normalization) against your own brothers, “This is a setback that must be removed.”
Naksah Day Negligence
Naksa Day is considered more tragic after Nakba Day (Yaum An-Nakbah), May 15, 1948, the day after the unilateral declaration of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948.
During the Six Day War, from 5 to 10 June 1967, the united Arab countries wanted to defend Palestine. These countries consist of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq, with technical assistance from Lebanon, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and of course the host Palestine.
At that time Egypt was in charge of the Gaza Strip. Jordan is in charge of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The issue of Palestine represented an important element in the Arab-Israeli conflict at that time, which was manifested in this war, to protect the Palestinian territories not occupied by Israel in 1948.
The land area occupied by Israel in Palestine in 1948 amounted to about 77%, or about 20,000 km², of the total area of 27,000 km².
At the same time, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), founded in 1964, operated from refugee camps in diaspora countries, mainly in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, and led commando operations against the Israeli occupation.
As for the causes of setbacks or defeats, according to the Department of Diplomacy and Public Policy of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), as mentioned by the online media Arab48, Sunday, June 5, 2022 edition, Arab defeats in the war were caused by several reasons.
Among the most prominent are: the military superiority of the Israeli occupation forces, especially in the air force, which is supported by the United States and European countries, both military and economic support.
Another reason, international political lobbying by International Zionists. At that time Europe, through the French government, asked Israel and the Arab countries, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, not to wage war and to stop military preparations.
Before the Six Day War, the situation in Palestine and its surroundings was indeed precarious and military action had begun in several places.
Arab countries seem to comply with the call, for the sake of creating regional peace. However, the military leadership of the Israeli occupation, with the support of the United States, took advantage of the Arab countries’ negligence to carry out sudden aggression on the morning of June 5, 1967.
Israel implemented its aggression by launching massive and sudden airstrikes on military airports in Egypt, Syria and Jordan. This allowed Israeli military aviation to provide air control over the battlefield during the war.
This unilateral action threw the armies of the Arab countries off balance and caused heavy losses in the ranks of their armies.
As a result of its tragedy, between 15,000 and 25,000 Arabs died in the war, with around 45,000 injured. Meanwhile, only around 650 to 800 Israelis were killed, and 2,000 were injured. This is according to Anadolu Agency data.
Another consequence of the war, according to Palestinian statistics, was the displacement of some 300,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza to Jordanian refugees.
After the six-day war, the Israeli occupation further expanded its loot, by occupying the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula (Egypt) and the Golan Heights (Syria).
After the Israeli occupation plundered the area it had occupied since 1967, they exploited the natural resources and economic resources of the occupied territories.
In addition, the areas occupied by the Israeli occupation also provide an important strategic advantage at the defense level. This is because it can form a natural barrier to protect its security depths from Arab or Palestinian attack.
The Resistance Continues to Burn
The events of Naksah Day (June 5), as well as Nakba Day (May 15), will always be remembered and commemorated every year by generations of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, refugees and diaspora, as well as humanitarian activists in European countries, the United States to Latin America.
Actions of armed resistance are now starting to bloom in various towns and villages in the West Bank. From the Gaza Strip, the latest rockets, kept on alert, ready to fire, broke through the Iron Dome to Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The guards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, both men (Murabithun) and women (Murabithat) are always on alert at all times to confront the extremist Jewish settlers who often storm the Al-Aqsa compound under the escort of the occupying forces.
Solidarity actions continue to spread in various parts of the world, indicating the 2023 Palestine Year of Solidarity, as driven by the Aqsa Working Group (AWG) Humanitarian Institute, based in Indonesia. This is a continuation of Palestine Solidarity Month 2022, Palestine Solidarity Week 2021, and Palestine Solidarity Day 2020.
This movement will continue to spread to countries in the Southeast Asian region, Asia, to Europe and the world more broadly in the future.
The Israeli occupation is essentially getting squeezed and isolated on the world stage. This is due to the Israeli occupation itself not accepting the logic of peace, rejecting UN resolutions, opposing its charter, and violating its principles.
Within Palestine’s own domestic politics, with ever-increasing reconciliation that we must continue to foster, Palestinian factions and official institutions urge the international community to “hold the Israeli occupation accountable for its violations against the Palestinian people and work to end them.”
This is the latest statement by Wasel Abu Yousef, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), as released by Anadolu Agency, Monday, 5 June 2023.
On the 56th anniversary of Naksah Day, Abu Youssef said, “The Palestinian people have lived since the 1967 setback in constant fighting with the occupation, at a time when the matter underwent difficult changes, but still lives and struggles.”
“People are still fighting for freedom and independence, holding fast to the right of return for the refugees expelled in 1948, and the right to independently determine a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.
In this regard, Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said at the start of the weekly session of the Palestinian Council of Ministers in Ramallah, “The warning of decline has passed, and Israel is still practicing organized state terrorism, and is continuing to commit its crimes against our people.”
For that, we who are outside Palestine, especially those in Indonesia, let’s continue to carry out real actions fighting for the liberation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the independence of Palestine. Starting from speeches, long marches, reading poetry, cycling, raising Palestinian and Indonesian flags, wearing Palestinian scarves, and laying out posters of Palestinian solidarity.
Including the literacy movement for publishing books and seminars, socialization through trainings (daurah), fundraising actions sent directly to Palestine, to resistance through mass media wars, as a form of information and digital age war.
These are enough signs of progress in the struggle for the liberation of Al-Aqsa and for Palestinian independence, with the permission of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. Allah is the Greatest! Al-Aqsa Haqquna!!! (T/RE1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
