Women in Shatila Palestinian refugee camp (Credit photo: Joao Sousa)
BEIRUT — A group of 100-150 people gathered in Shatila Palestinian refugee camp Saturday to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophic loss of the Palestinian homeland to gunmen supporting the Zionist settler-colonial project. Nakba Day falls on May 15, when the state of Israel celebrates its independence day.
The Nakba was the culmination of 29 years of UK control over the territory, most of which saw Palestine and TransJordan administered by the British mandate, an internationally sanctioned colonial regime. Historians have long contested to what degree London and its local agents actively supported the work of the Jewish Agency and its affiliated organizations in Palestine or were simply duped by them — and to what extent the self-appointed representatives of the Palestinian people acted in the national interest. There is little scholarly debate concerning whether mandate policy favored Zionist interests over those of Palestinians.
Meta Yousef Mustafa, aged 75, was three months old when her family fled their home in Al-Khalisa, near the Lebanese border. The Haganah had severed access routes to the village in 1948 and it was subsequently denuded of any traces of its Palestinian heritage. Al-Khalisa’s mosque is now the Museum for the history of Kiryat Shmona, the town facing the South Lebanon border village of Kfar Kila.
Mustafa says her family first went to Nabatieh and she later settled in Shatila camp. She told L’Orient Today that on May 15 of each year the same feeling of alienation returns. “I feel the desire in my heart to go back,” she said. “I’m not able to go see my own country.”
This year’s Nakba commemoration falls as Palestinians undergo yet another convulsion of attacks from occupation forces. The morning before Saturday’s ceremonies, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that two Palestinians had been killed during an Israeli raid on Nablus’ Balata refugee camp and several others were wounded, reportedly suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
The attack came on the fifth day of fighting in Gaza, with Palestinian militants there firing rockets toward Israel on Saturday, responding to Israeli airstrikes on Islamic Jihad targets overnight. To that point, the latest spate of violence had killed at least 33 Palestinians and one Israeli. More than 140 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and other foreigners have died in clashes since January, 2023.
“This event has the same atmosphere as every year but the number of martyrs is increasing,” Nawal Salman said of the Shatila ceremony. “We wish we could be with them [the people of Gaza]. We can’t even go to Palestine to help them. It’s very hard what’s happening there.”
Asked about her hopes for in the near future, Salman told L’Orient Today, “We want to go back to Palestine and liberate Jerusalem.”
The Shatila ceremony was marked by the speeches that one would expect at such events. There was also patriotic music, dance and skits.
“We’re doing this to tell the [people in Gaza] ‘We’re with you,’” said Hanan Farhat. “‘We’re watching what’s happening.’”
Asked about the celebratory tone of some of the event’s offerings, Farhat replied, “It’s not a celebration. When we put on music it’s to say we’re with you [people under occupation].”
In the near term, she shares the same hopes as Salman.
“I hope we liberate Palestine,” before the next Nakba commemoration she said, “and go there.”
Reporting by Richard Salame.