'We are the people of this land,' Palestinians mark 'Nakba'

About 300 Arab Israelis gathered Thursday in the ruins of a village that Palestinians fled during the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel, to commemorate what Palestinians call the “Nakba”, or catastrophe.

As Israel celebrated Independence Day on Thursday, the demonstrators —- men, women, and children -— marched through the ruins chanting, “Your independence is our Nakba”.

The place where the demonstrators gathered was previously the village of Al-Lajjun.

The site, once home to thousands of Palestinians, has now been partly taken over by kibbutz Megiddo, an Israeli farming community.

This year’s remembrance unfolded against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, where more than 18 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants have displaced nearly all of the territory’s 2.4 million people at least once, according to the United Nations.

Clad in traditional keffiyeh headscarves and garments, marchers sang the Palestinian anthem and shared memories of loss and resilience.

Among them was Ziyad Mahajneh, 82, who had fled the village as a child in 1948.

They “attacked our village with cannons and machine guns,” Mahajneh recalled.

He said when his family fled he was left behind, and it was a neighbour who helped him reunite with them in the nearby town of Umm al-Fahm, now also part of Israel.

“Today, we are forbidden to be here. They ask us, ‘What are you doing here’?” he told AFP, referring to Israelis.

“Al-Lajjun land has now become kibbutzim.”

Memories of displacement echoed through the gathering.

During the 1948 war, around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes.

The descendants of some 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently make about 20 percent of its population.

Many of today’s Arab Israelis remain deeply connected to their historic land.

For more than two decades, Arab Israelis have marked Israeli Independence Day with an annual “March of Return” to a depopulated Palestinian village.

This year, however, organisers said heightened restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities —- including limits on attendance and a ban on Palestinian flags —- led them to cancel the central march and hold smaller demonstrations instead.

“They want us to stop from doing even the simplest act: remembering the Nakba,” said Faisal Mahajneh, another displaced resident of Al-Lajjun.

“We are the people of this land, and we will not lose hope” of returning, said Ziyad.