Al-Nakba and Other Catastrophes

19 May 2001

As I toiled away on my Modern Standard Arabic mid-term examination, sitting in my professor's office long after the single other student in my class turned in her test, my teacher walked into the comfortable but under-furnished room and lit up – as he is wont to do at any given time, exam or not – both a cigarette and a conversation. Not sensing that I might put more emphasis on completing the exam in under two hours than engaging in a chat, he proceeded at length to discuss the events of the past twenty-four hours, and I in turn put my pencil behind my ear and swiveled my chair in his direction. With strained effort, I managed to keep pace with his Arabic, interjecting as few retorts as politely possible, until he introduced an unfamiliar word not identifiable in its context – “efsitt'osh.” My face became obviously puzzled, and he paused as if to let me attempt to derive the word's meaning. Only slightly frustrated, he finally repeated the trick word and provided the English translation – “F-Sixteen (“sitt'osh” being Arabic for sixteen).

Feeling a bit embarrassed at my lack of acumen, I endeavored to return to page three of my six-page exam; while he softly continued with the story that the newspapers had already told me. In response to a 'successful' suicide bombing in the coastal Israeli city of Netanya (killing five and wounding over one hundred), IDF fighters – recently heard breaking the sound barrier over Beirut – attacked Palestinian police targets in Nablus and Ramallah (leaving eleven dead in the former and one in the latter). Tul Karm and Gaza were also reportedly hit.

If the use of computer-guided missiles launched from hovering helicopters cannot sufficiently prove the disparity in the force being utilized on each side of this conflict, will an American-made fighter jet on a thirty-second mission to fire on small targets inside populous civilian areas drastically change the perception of the Intifada? The Palestinian Authority seems to think so, but perhaps more importantly so do the ever-splitting contingents of Ariel Sharon's political colleagues and the Israeli military. That the Sharon-ally Justice Minister informed the press that Israeli would avenge the blood of its civilians with the blood of Palestinian counterparts demonstrates that many people still view this conflict as a level playing field; that as the conflict spreads like a cancer there is commensurate suffering on both sides.

If one fails to concede to the incongruity between the Israelis and Palestinians in terms of military might or casualty lists, one might also be as brusquely obtuse as to overlook the discrepancy in refugees in the conflict arena. In truth, you won't find too many Israeli refugees from the long history of wars, while every day there is a new baby born in a refugee camp, or a fresh home demolished in the Gaza Strip. In the mother of all catastrophes in almost one hundred years of bilateral dissension in historical Palestine, more than seven hundred fifty thousand Palestinians were forced from their homes in what is now Israel in the 1948 war. Today those 750,000 have grown into 4.9 million languishing in “camps” in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip. Every May 15, the anniversary of the declaration of Israeli statehood, Palestinians and their supporters worldwide commemorate Al-Nakba (meaning “the catastrophe”) in solidarity with and remembrance of those for whom no justice will come.

This past Tuesday marked the fifty-third anniversary of Al-Nakba. The central traffic circle of Ramallah was jammed with thousands of observers and demonstrators bearing flags, faction colors, banners, posters, songs, and yes, a few with guns. From a stage at one side, several prominent Palestinians made speeches, including the famous Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darweesh. I climbed the stairs of a nearby building to get a rooftop view six stories above the fray, and I painstakingly tried to comprehend the Arabic discourse on solidarity with the refugees and continuation of the struggle to liberate Palestine. Other than the backdrop of the current Intifada, there is sadly no difference between this celebration and the ones of the past years of occupation.

Nor did the demonstration in Ar-Ram, between Ramallah and Jerusalem where I went next, differ in outcome or significance from most other “peaceful” Palestinian-International protests. While Israeli-Arabs from Jerusalem met Palestinians from the occupied territories at either side of the checkpoint, the reinforced Israeli troop garrison displayed uncharacteristic restraint with the plethora of cameras nearby. Ultimately, the persistent presence of the demonstration forced a confrontation equally provoked from both sides at a time and place when tensions were far worse than the violence which ensued. A tear gas canister fired at the Palestinian aggregate was thrown back at the IDF jeeps, prompting an escalation to shooting and stone-throwing. I watched from a safe distance before emerging to find a taxi home. Ar-Ram was a picnic compared with the hostility in other areas of Palestine.

Did the world take notice of Al-Nakba this year? Did it print stories of the refugees, run the history of their circumstances, connect their misfortunes with the long-standing dissonance in the Middle East? The three-quarter-million Palestinians who fled in 1948 represented 80% of the Arab population of what is now Israel. The Israeli Defense Force (then known as the “Haganah”) instituted a succession of tactics, including “May Plan,” “Dalet Plan,” and “Plan D” to isolate, depopulate, and in some cases destroy Arab villages. Additionally more than 13,000 Arab civilians were killed during these campaigns. In the autumn of 1948, 40,000 men, women, and children arrived in the village of Birzeit almost all at once, needing provisions and housing. The village was unable to cope with the infusion, and the refugees soon set up camps nearby with the forthcoming aid of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). In the 1967 War in which Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a further 240,000 refugees were created after the lightning-quick campaign. One after another, as if an intensifying operatic soliloquy falling on deaf ears, international outrage (from the United Nations, the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Principles of Self Determination, et al) at the Palestinian refugee crisis propagates and dissipates time and again.

While ostensibly pertinent information, the demography and status of the Palestinian refugees is hardly a footnote in today's media and pundit dialogue – passed over as an impassable and unconstructive sticking point in the plight for peaceful coexistence. That such an episode could endure in the twenty-first century is an anachronistic paradox – an ironic inhumanity caught out of its time. As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict becomes a de facto crescendo of carcinogenic enmity ensnared by the absence of rational judiciousness, the political demagogues, the here-and-gone media, and now the F-16's perpetuate such devastation and warped perspective. Al-Nakba will return next year, as poignant and steadfast and catastrophic as ever.

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