In 1948 and again in 1967, Israel drove hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. In 1948 more than 750,000 were forced into refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. Many of them and their descendants remain there today. Others sought refuge all over the world including in countries such as Canada. In 1967, Israel committed war crimes (under international law) when it drove thousands more Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank, which Israel illegally took over and continues to occupy to this day. One victim was Dr Ismail Zayid, a retired pathologist who lives in Halifax. His family home in Beit Nuba was destroyed when Israel bulldozed three villages including his. In its place, the Jewish National Fund (with tax deductible donations by many Canadian Jews) built a recreation area and park called Canada Park.
Nakba Day commemorates this catastrophe. On 15 May, students from Students Against Israeli Apartheid - Dalhousie, members of Canadians Arabs and Jews for a Just Peace and members of Independent Jewish Voices - Canada's Halifax chapter gathered for a rally at Victoria Park in downtown Halifax. They came with banners and signs. They leafletted passers-by and people in the park. Several important activists spoke on the meaning of the Nakba, the need to organise against Israeli Apartheid, and the Jewish National Fund -- which has been barred from the United Nations' list of NGOs because of its racist policies (ie no one but Jews can lease land in Israel-- effectively a land grab from Arab Israelis and Palestinians).
Afterwards, there was a reception and film showing about Dr Zayid's case made by the CBC's Fifth Estate. Next week, on 22 May, the Jewish National Fund is having its first "Negev Dinner" In Halifax, which is a major fundraiser for the JNF. The JNF continues to displace Palestinians from their homes near Jerusalem in Sheik Jarrah, and Bedouin in villages in the Negev desert. The JNF destroys Bedouin villages in order to make way for new residential development for Jews who wish to live or retire there. The person the JNF will honour is Jim Spatz, a local doctor and land developer who is also a staunch supporter of the JNF. What is worse is that funds raised at the JNF Negev Dinner support a one kilometre bike path in Tel Aviv -- which will be built on top of a Muslim cemetery. This is appalling.
It is one thing to commemorate the wrongs of the past, but today the Palestinian people and their supporters continue to fight for a just and lasting peace -- which can only be based on stopping Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine.