It is almost eight decades since the Nakba of 1948, and yet for millions of Palestinians, displacement and violence remain their lot. In Gaza, Israeli troops continue to occupy a large chunk of the ruined territory. Meanwhile, settler extremists are given free rein to run amok in the occupied West Bank, harassing Palestinian communities with the connivance of the Israeli security forces.
Nakba Day, which falls on Friday, is marked not only by Palestinians at home and in exile but also by the UN. It is not for nothing that, ahead of its Nakba commemoration in New York, the organisation referred to the “enduring plight” of the Palestinian people – it reflects the fact that the injustices of the Nakba are not a singular historical event but an ongoing process.
The intimidation that accompanies the theft and occupation of Palestinian land is gathering in intensity. In addition to Israel’s near-total destruction of Gaza, loutish anarchy has become the norm in the West Bank. There, the behaviour of armed and aggressive settlers reached a new low recently when it was reported this week that a Palestinian family near Jenin was forced by residents of a nearby Israeli outpost to exhume the recently buried remains of a loved one.
Such ugly scenes are reminiscent of the intolerable pressure that was brought to bear on Palestinian communities during the Nakba, 78 years ago. Then, as now, the aim was to forcibly remove the original inhabitants of the land, the Palestinians, to make way for a state in which Jewish Israelis would be dominant. It is a sign of how emboldened such forces have become that Israeli Cabinet ministers openly talk about expelling Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza and enact policies to this end.
This rolling crisis is taking place as the main support system for Palestinian refugees – UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees – continues to be criminalised by Israel. In January, the Israeli authorities tore down buildings at the agency’s headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem. A few months before, Israeli parliamentarians voted to ban UNRWA from operating in territory under Israeli control. This ended the provision of education, health care and other services in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as severely complicating aid operations in Gaza.
And while the Israeli leadership is responsible for much of the suffering, Palestinian political leadership is also greatly lacking. There is a great need for a serious approach to good governance, unity and weeding out corruption. From militancy to complacency, Palestinians have also been let down by their own leaders time and again.
This begs the question: who has the back of displaced Palestinians? Individual countries have shown strong, practical support. Last week, a UAE relief operation in support of Gaza concluded after flying in more than 600 tonnes of food, medicine and other essential supplies for 150,000 people. The Emirates has also provided billions of dirhams’ worth of aid, has set up a field hospital in Gaza and a floating hospital aboard a repurposed ship in Al Arish, as well as flying thousands of patients to the UAE for urgent medical treatment.
But the mournfulness of Nakba Day and the ongoing injustices taking place on Palestinian land demand that more countries bring pressure to bear on an Israeli government that seems determined to inflict again the tragedies of the past.
