Palestinians mark 73rd anniversary of Nakba as sirens wail in Israel

Palestinians have staged rallies across the occupied territories to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes by Zionist paramilitaries to make way for the creation of Israel.

Palestinians, whose families were uprooted in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, on Thursday visited several destroyed towns and villages that once accommodated their ancestors, reiterating their right to return as they have done for decades.

Even though the Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Displaced (ADRID), the organizer of the annual March of Return, had called upon people to participate in online demonstrations and activities due to the coronavirus pandemic, many in-person demonstrations went ahead regardless.

The ADRID called on Palestinians inside Israel to display the name of their families' destroyed villages and raise Palestinian flags on rooftops, terraces and balconies.

Israeli forces attack Palestinian demonstrators in the north of the occupied West Bank, who were marking 72 years since the regime claimed existence after a Western-backed war.

“Let everyone know that there is no substitute for the legitimate, human and legal right of return, which was guaranteed by the international legal bodies, especially the Resolution 194 issued by the United Nations, and to prove to the whole world that the Palestinian people refuse to forget and give up the right of return,” it pointed out in a statement.

They walked to the depopulated Arab village of al-Damun, located 11.5 kilometers from the city of Acre, raising Palestinian flags and giving speeches.

Similar rallies were also held in the former Arab villages of Umm az-Zinat, Saffuriya, al-Bassa, Lajjun and Malul.

alestinians inside Israel raised placards bearing the slogan “Their independence day is our Nakba day,” and performed several cultural activities.

“Hittin has been subjected to harm and vandalism since the Nakba, and the preservation of Hittin mosque was a great challenge… in addition to the long struggles to preserve the village cemetery,” Tarek Shabayteh, whose family are from the town of Hittin, near Nazareth, told the Arabic-language Arab48 news website.