On the 71st anniversary of the Nakba, MPPM calls for the reinforcement of solidarity with the Palestinian people

As the 71st anniversary of Nakba is marked on 15 May, the Palestinian people are facing immense dangers and are experiencing one of the most serious situations since the creation of the State of Israel. The announced “deal of the century” aims to legitimize Israel's annexationist policy with its train of arrests, deaths, destruction, dispossession. The refugees are ignored, the criminal blockade of Gaza continues, the construction of illegal settlements and the expulsion of Palestinians from East Jerusalem continue apace. The “Nation-State Law” enshrines discrimination against the Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) is the term for the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population in the months leading up to and following the founding of Israel in 1948. More than 500 villages were destroyed, more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their lands and turned into refugees. Through violence, the Zionists occupied the territory where they would constitute their state – which far exceeded the area allocated to it in the plan for the partition of Palestine approved by the UN in 1947.

Nakba and refugees remain a central issue for Palestinians, as evidenced by the courageous demonstrations of the Great March of Return, which have been taking place weekly for over a year, despite brutal repression by Israel, with hundreds dead and tens of thousands of people injured, as documented in the Report recently approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Ethnic cleansing continues to this day, both in the territory of Israel and in the Palestinian territories occupied in the 1967 war. Current examples are the case of the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank, condemned to destruction to enable the expansion of an illegal Israeli settlement; the continued measures against the Palestinian population of Jerusalem to force them to leave, including the massive destruction of housing; the expulsion of Bedouin populations from their villages in the Naqab Desert in southern Israel.

The Palestinian refugees who resulted from the ethnic cleansing carried out by Israel in 1948, and again in 1967, now constitute the oldest and largest refugee community in the world. Israel continues to refuse to comply with UN General Assembly resolution 194, of 11 December 1948, which prescribes the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

In shocking contrast, the Israeli “Law of Return”, passed in 1950, allows any Jew from anywhere in the world to immigrate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship. Indeed, discrimination on an ethno-religious basis is an essential constitutive element of the Zionist state, as illustrated by the battery of laws enacted against the Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Subject to military rule between 1948 and 1966, dispossessed of their lands and prohibited from building houses even to accommodate the natural increase in population, the 1,890,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel, constituting 21% of the population, saw their discrimination constitutionally enshrined by the infamous “Nation-State Law”, passed in 2018, which relegates them to second-class status and grants full citizenship rights only to Jews.

In 1967, Israel occupied the Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, moving on to dominate all of historical Palestine, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, and thus completing the process begun in 1948. For the Palestinians, the occupation has meant endless prisoners, deaths and humiliation.

The two million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have been suffering a criminal blockade for more than twelve years and are victims of repeated military aggressions by Israel, living in a situation of humanitarian catastrophe recognised by the UN.

In the West Bank, the Palestinians are increasingly confined, on their land torn apart by the Apartheid Wall, to small enclaves separated by military barriers and roads reserved for the use of the more than 600,000 Israeli Jews living in settlements that international law considers illegal.

The recent statements by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announcing his intention to proceed with the formal annexation of occupied territories of the West Bank are extremely serious, and would not only defy hundreds of UN resolutions but would also mean an open violation of the basic principles of international relations.

The “understanding” attitude of Donald Trump’s administration in this matter raises fears for the worst, since it follows on from a series of anti-Palestinian and Israel-supporting measures: the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the transfer of the USA embassy there; the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic representation in Washington; the cut in funding for the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, the UN agency for assistance to Palestinian refugees, whose status is called into question; the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

Moreover, all the elements which have so far come to light concerning the content of the announced “deal of the century” converge in the sense that it will recognize the annexation by Israel of the occupied Palestinian territories, while at the same time trying to impose on the Palestinians a total surrender, the renunciation of their national rights, including the right of return of refugees and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The so-called “deal of the century” is all the more serious because it forms part of the US plan to reconstruct the Middle East.

Israel has repeatedly demonstrated its violence and belligerence against other countries and peoples in the region, has the most powerful armed forces in the region and is the only nuclear power in the Middle East. It is, therefore, a fundamental part of this project, which comprises an open alliance (no longer coyly veiled as at present) between Israel and, among others, the reactionary Arab petromonarchies, against Iran and other forces in the region that are obstacles to its imperial designs and show solidarity with the Palestinian people.

MPPM reiterates that in this situation the Portuguese government has the obligation to actively intervene in defense of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, in defense of the credibility of the UN and of International Law, namely through the immediate and full recognition of the Palestinian State and demanding a clear and unambiguous position from the European Union, including the end of the Association Agreement between the latter and Israel.

Today, the Palestinian people complete seventy-one years of an unparalleled struggle that spans generations, made up of countless pains and sacrifices, as many as the remarkable examples of courage, heroism, nobility and dignity, determination and hope for the future, deserving of respect and admiration and which encourage all those anywhere in the world fighting for freedom and against all forms of oppression and exploitation. On the 71st anniversary of Nakba, MPPM reiterates its unfailing solidarity and calls on all citizens and organizations that are friends of the Palestinian cause to strengthen their support for the struggle of the Palestinian people for their legitimate and inalienable national rights.

15 May 2019

The National Directorate of MPPM