<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Israel no longer denying the&nbsp;nakba!]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<div>
<p><strong>The Palestinian narrative has won |  Jews for Justice for Palestinians</strong></p>
<p>Oudeh Basharat, 24 March 2011 |  Haaretz</p>
<p>When the teacher asked us first-graders in  Kfar Yafia what we do on  Independence Day – it’s “day” in the uninspired  Jewish term, “holiday”  in the imaginative Arab language – I answered  excitedly: We go to  Ma’alul.Ma’alul is my parents’ village, whose  residents were uprooted in  1948.</p>
<p>Indeed, it was a holiday, when the  military administration, in  its generosity, loosened its grip a little  and turned a blind eye to  the crowds “celebrating” Independence Day on  the ruins of the villages  from which they had been uprooted.</p>
<p>At  the time I, the refugee, felt privileged. I told my friends how  we  visited a church and a mosque, strolled along the paths, and how we   gathered by the fountain.</p>
<p>Do you hold gatherings here as well, they  asked. No, I said with  spiritual elation. In Ma’alul the gatherings are  more beautiful. How  does Bertolt Brecht put it – in the homeland, even  the voice sounds  clearer.</p>
<p>Today, more than 40 years later, my daughter  Hala is in first grade  and feels the same sense of privilege. She, too,  has Ma’alul.</p>
<p>They didn’t use the word “nakba” then. The  popular expression was  “al hajij” (forced migration ), and was enough to  raise a storm of  emotions – a mixture of sadness, loss, anger,  helplessness, compassion  and yearning. The poet Salem Jubran said: “As  the mother loves her  disabled son…I will love you my homeland.”</p>
<p>What would we have done in their place, I  always ask myself. The  challenge they faced was so great, I answer  myself – beyond their  capability to grasp, not to speak of dealing with  it.</p>
<p>The term “Nakba” sounds like a natural  disaster and still provokes  debate. Those who object to it say what  happened was not a natural  disaster. That’s true. But what counts is  that the event is seen as a  disaster of proportions beyond anything  human beings are capable of  generating.</p>
<p>So when the Knesset approves legislation  banning the Nakba  commemoration, it seems surreal. The Nakba is an  ongoing event. No  solution has been found for the refugee problem; the  Arab population is  discriminated against; senior cabinet ministers are  threatening a  sequel to the Nakba and Prime Minister Netanyahu defined  the  demographic issue, i.e. the Arabs’ presence in their homeland, as  the  gravest problem.</p>
<p>Yet, there is also something good in this  commotion. At least,  there’s no denial of the Nakba. Nobody claims the  whole thing is a  fairy-tale. The Palestinian narrative has won. The  narrative that in  ‘48 a people was exiled, by force, from its land, has  been seared into  Israeli and global consciousness.</p>
<p>A vibrant, lively  nation lived in  Palestine, and a brutal act severed the lives of  hundreds of thousands  of people. They were brutally and mercilessly  thrown into the desert of  doom and oblivion.</p>
<p>Instead of conducting a discourse, the  Gadhafi-like types here – the  Liebermans and their kind – are  threatening a massive bombardment  “house by house, zanga-zanga” of every  good part in Israeli society.  They won’t rest until they destroy any  memory of the word “Nakba.” They  will use this opportunity to eliminate  every trace of democracy as  well.</p>
<p>What gives us room for optimism is that this  running amok has  awakened Israeli public opinion against the murky  fascistic wave.  Perhaps this absurd law will provoke a dialogue about  the events that  took place in 1948, as a way to reconcile the two  peoples. Avoiding  such a dialogue will only add to the conflagration,  for the surest way  to get stuck in an entanglement is to ignore it.</p>
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