46th anniversary of Naksa

Palestinians are marking 46 years since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including the al-Quds (‘East Jerusalem’), and the Gaza Strip, and which Palestinians refer to as “naksa.” Israel occupied the remaining 22% of historical Palestine in a short and surprise war against Jordan, Syria and Egypt it waged on June 5, 1967. The war ended six days later with a humiliating Arab defeat and Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank and Jerusalem from Jordan. “Forty-six years later, the Israeli occupation of twenty-two percent of historical Palestine still constitutes a humanitarian and political disaster that dominates and controls the lives of the Palestinian people in Palestine and in exile,” PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi Wednesday said in a statement. “However, it must be stressed that the Palestinian people will never accept another Nakba (catastrophe of the 1948 war); our struggle will continue until we acquire our legitimate right to self-determination and witness the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” she added. The PLO official and lawmaker said, “The time has come to end the historical injustice of the Palestinian people. The world must shoulder its political, legal and ethical responsibilities and hold Israel accountable for its violations of international and humanitarian law.” Ashrawi stressed that “granting Palestinians their right to statehood and ending the occupation are conditions for achieving peace in the region and beyond. A need for justice and historical redemption in Palestine is more urgent now than ever.”