Saturday May 16, 2009

I've Been Thinking:

The Palestinians have been commemorating the Nakba.
The Nakba is Arabic for the "Catastrophe."

The Nakba refers to Israel's Independence - Palestinians mourn Israel's creation.
The Nakba rallies took place in Ramallah on Thursday May 14th and in Gaza on Friday, May 15th.

I have never understood why the Palestinians do not use the Arabic calendar. I have never understood why some Palestinians commemorate the Nakba on the 14th and others on the 15th when the Gregorian date for Israel's independence was May 14, 1948.

In Gaza, Hamas forbade all Fatah organizations from participating in the Nakba events. Hamas ordered the head of Fatah in Gaza not to have any of his people there. These were Hamas events, Fatah participation was not welcome.
The participants held banners and signs that read "we will return to Jaffa & to all our lands" and "we will never recognize Israel" and "Israel is a cancer" and "the right of return is sacred."

The events of the Nakba are the centerpiece of Palestinian culture.
This entire commemoration demonstrates a basic Palestinian disconnect from reality, it illustrates Palestinian disunity and shows how fundamentally, Palestinians blame Israel for all problems.

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