Nakba Is Embedded In the Collective Palestinian Memory as an Un-healing Wound
By
Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam
31 July
2021
Nakba
and Palestinian Plight
Main
Points:
1. The culture
of impunity that state of Israel enjoys that is responsible for the failure of
all peace process initiatives.
2. The Nakba
has become a permanent condition felt by one generation after another.
3. The wars are
also employed to displace millions of Palestinians like 1967 Arab Israel war,
and even the sacred city of Jerusalem has been colonized.
----
Understanding
the Nakba: An Insight into the plight of Palestinians
By
Nasim Ahmed
London,
Palestinian Return Centre, 2012
Pp202.
ISBN: N.B
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The
Palestinian issue is a legacy of the British colonialism. In the contemporary
history it is one of the oldest running conflicts and is a testimony of the
failure of United Nations as an international body whose aim is to resolve the
political disputes and conflicts. The Palestinian conflict continues to rage
and devour on the blood of innocents while the big powers are supporting the
Israel at the expense of Palestinian natives. The initiation of this conflict
goes back to what Palestinians remember and commemorate every year as Nakba
(the Day of catastrophe) i.e. 15th May, 1948 when the state of Israel was
created after displacing and exodus of the Palestinians from their lands. The
book under review tries to revisit the Nakba tragedy and depicts how Nakba
still is a reality for Palestinians and how they relive and go through the
Nakbas all their lives. Through the lens of Nakba the young author Nasim Ahmed
tries to revisit, relook and rethink about the Nakba and the place it holds in
the lives, struggle, resistance and future of the Palestinians.
In her
Foreword to the book, Rachael M Rudolph, Managing Editor, Encompassing
Crescent, while depicting the essence of Nakba very well states that “The
Nakba, however, is not just one event that has shaped the lives of so many. It
is an ongoing event that transcends time and space and encompasses every breath
taken, every life lost, and every moment of being. The Nakba is not just about
1948, 1967 or other periods where there were campaigns of expulsion, ethnic cleansing,
murder, occupation and oppression of Palestinians. Rather, it is about the
injustice that has plagued humanity for decades. This injustice has been
preserved by an international system dominated for far too long by states who
are representative of the political and economic elites and not those-the
ordinary man, women and child-they are supposed to represent. The voice of
voiceless remains silent in the policy making apparatus of a system, of a
community that is supposed to stand for justice and defend the rights of the
oppressed from their oppressors, but instead upholds the rights of the
oppressor”.
In his
Introduction, Nasim Ahmed while deliberating about the relationship of Nakba
with Palestinians writes, “No single word can echo the suffering felt by
individual Palestinians whose life is overshadowed by the Nakba. The Nakba has
become a permanent condition felt by one generation after another. After the
first mass expulsion, Palestinians endured the most sophisticated engineering
of their destruction as a nation and a people. They have been made refugees and
forced to endure ethnic cleansing, occupation, violent expulsion and wars.
Palestinians suffer injustices at the hands of an apartheid regime which has
arrested their lives and destiny” (P-12). The book is divided in three parts
and each part deals with different aspect and impact of Nakba.
Nasim goes
to the genesis of Nakba’s history and tries to argue that understanding the
Zionist component and involvement is must in understanding the phenomena of
Nakba. He then goes on to relate the various tools that have been utilized to
manufacture truth that is one of the basic purposes of writing history. He then
relates the media bias while reporting Palestine, and depicts how Dalet Plan
was implemented as a master plan to rid Palestine of its indigenous population.
Nasim acknowledges the fact that none can stay neutral in a conflict like that
of Palestine, but the myths invented need to be answered and lies need to be
rebutted with irrevocable proofs. The myths like the Nakba was a result of the
rejection of U.N partition plan by the Palestinians, or there were no
Palestinians and those who were living in Palestine were all recent migrants,
hence it was not an exodus of an indigenous population but further migration of
a nomadic people. But Nasim is happy that new scholarship on Palestine is
challenging these myths and doctored history.
Nasim while
highlighting the differences between cultural, religious and political Zionists
writes, “Cultural Zionists wished to resolve the ‘problem of Judaism in the
modern world and not the ‘problem of the Jews’. In their view, the survival of
Judaism and the Jewish people was threatened less by anti-Semitism than by an
increasing secular civilization that rendered them anachronisms. The real
danger was not the Gentiles icy rejection but rather, their seductive embrace”
(P-43-44).
Nasim then
goes on to analyze how the population transfer and exodus of Palestinians is
used as a strategy to displace Palestinians and make way for the new migrant
Jews. The wars are also employed to displace millions of Palestinians like 1967
Arab Israel war, and even the sacred city of Jerusalem has been colonized. The
Palestinians are seen as a demographic problem that needs to be removed from
their native place. Even the Israel’s legal structure reinforces and encourages
the expulsion of Palestinians. By the way Israel has no written constitution.
Nasim writes, “Unlike Afghanistan or any other conflict, the on going
displacement of Palestinian refugees is not a by product of war” (P-49). This
statement can be agreed and both disagreed, unlike Afghanistan which was
occupied in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks Palestine is under occupation since
1948 and war and military power is still used to displace the Palestinians and
deprive them of their homeland.
The various
fundamental features of Nakba has been delineated too, that includes the
permanent plight of the Palestinian refugees, Israel’s undermining the United
Nations recommendations and resolutions is a clear depiction of its defying the
organization that Israel owes its birth to. The U.S support of Israel and its
policy of using veto against any such Security Council resolution that goes
against the interests of Israel. The culture of impunity that state of Israel
enjoys that is responsible for the failure of all peace process initiatives.
Despite the international consensus on the illegality of the Israel’s
annexations, it still doesn’t behave in a civilized and democratic manner, though
it brags and boasts about being the solitary democracy in the whole of Middle
East. It still employs high handed tactics and terrorist measures while dealing
with the Palestinians.
Overall the
book is a very nice read for anyone interested in Palestine issue and the role
of Nakba as the author very well conceptualizes the Nakba, that isn’t too
academic nor too easy but one can understand the book quite well if one has
preliminary knowledge of politics and Palestine issue. The author needs to be
congratulated for this endeavor. It is a good addition to the Palestinian
studies.
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M.H.A.
Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar, Kashmir
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/books-documents/nakba-palestine-palestinian/d/125156
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