This editorial by one of our long time original MEPJA members, Iris Keltz, was aired on KUNM, 89.9 the evening of May 15. It is posted here with her permission.

Hand in Hand Schools: KUNM radio editorial

by Iris Keltz 5/12/08

Jews around the world are celebrating the 60th year since the creation of Israel from the British ruled protectorate of Palestine while millions of others are mourning the ethnic cleansing of that same land. The foundational myth of Israel, “A land for a people for a people without a land,” is facing the Palestinian narrative, Al Nakba, the Catastrophe when over 400 villages were wiped off the map and 750,000 people became refugees. Their descendants number in the millions today. Many still carry the key to homes left in such a hurry, all they took were memories.

This essay, in commemoration of Nakba Day, was written by Vicki Johnson, a member of the local peace group Justice Now! It is posted with her permission.

Nakba Day, May 15

by Vicki Johnson

In Arabic "al-nakba" means "the catastrophe". Nakba Day is observed throughout the world on May 15 to remember the catastrophic crimes committed against Palestinian Muslims and Palestinian Christians during 1947-1949. Three-fourths of the Palestinian population was ethnically cleansed by Zionists following the founding of Israel. Over 700,000 Palestinians became refugees by 1949, leaving only 150,000 Palestinians in their indigenous land. More than 500 Palestinian villages were depopulated and completely destroyed. Massacres and rapes were committed by the Zionists.

Today, Palestinians are the world's largest refugee group. Millions of Palestinian refugees are scattered throughout the world, living in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

This Week in Palestine

Issue No. 121
May 2008

Al-Nakba of 1948: Older than sixty, for sure; but how long will it persist?

By Dr. Khalil Nakhleh
The need to re-focus our understanding of al-Nakba

I am not really certain when we started to label what happened to our people and our country, following the establishment of the state of Israel, as al-Nakba. But this is not really the important point. What is important, from my perspective as a Palestinian, is that there is a need to understand what happened to us in the late 1940s, why it happened the way it did, and what we should do to circumvent al-Nakba from persisting into our future.