Global Courant 2023-05-16 16:43:34
The Palestinians marked the 75th anniversary of the loss of their homeland.
An estimated 700,000 people in what is now Israel and the Palestinian Territories were forced from their homes after the 1948 war. Now, every year on May 15, Palestinians mourn the day of the Nakba, or catastrophe, that resulted in the dispossession of theirs.
About 5.6 million Palestinian refugees, mostly descendants of those who were forced to leave, now live in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. For those already in Gaza, the anniversary is particularly bittersweet after five days of Israeli airstrikes against the Islamic Jihad militant group in the enclave destroyed dozens of homes and left hundreds homeless.
Hundreds of rockets were fired at Israel by Palestinian militants. About half of registered refugees remain stateless, with many living in overcrowded camps. Even 7 and a half decades later, Palestinians still dream of return.
“We have lived for more than seventy-five years as refugees in the Yarmouk camp of Syria, far from our country and our homes. We want to return to Palestine and we will not allow the occupier to abuse us”, said Ismail Sedawi, representative of the Islamic Jihad movement in Syria.
The term Nakba Day was coined in 1998 by then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He designated this date as an official day to commemorate the loss of the Palestinian homeland. The international Palestinian diaspora is estimated to have grown to around 6 to 7 million people.
If this is correct, the total number of Palestinians would be close to 13 million people. However, there is no global body that keeps track of Palestinians in the diaspora and there is no accurate data.
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The catastrophe of 1948, the consequences still today/
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