ACTIVISTS CALL FOR NAKBA COMMEMORATION IN JERUSALEM

Jerusalem, 13 Rajab 1435/12 May 2014 (MINA) – Jerusalem activists representing all major Palestinian parties on Saturday called for Nakba Day commemorations to be held at Damascus gate in the Old City of Jerusalem on May 15.

The activists also called for all Palestinian Jerusalemites to participate in the commemorations and contribute to reviving the memory of the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” among all generations of Palestinians.

The activists highlighted that the commemorations would be national and not party-oriented, Ma’an News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Nakba is the word used in Arabic to refer to the expulsion and flight of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes by Zionist militias as part of the war to create the state of Israel in 1948.

The refugees were never allowed to return to their homes by Israel, and today around seven million Palestinians are refugees as a result of the Nakba as well as the Israeli campaigns that followed.

Nakba Day commemorations take place around the world on May 15, and commemorations held by Palestinians still inside Israel have become a highly charged political issue, where they sometimes coincide with Israeli independence day celebrations.

Israeli authorities have attempted to ban Nakba day commemorations in the past, including in 2012 in Tel Aviv where they prevented activists from reading the names of the more than 400 villages depopulated in 1948.(T/P02/E01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)